Postmasters furious over invoices for free ATMs

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Postmasters furious over invoices for ‘free’ automatic teller machines
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Articl ... 4?UserKey=" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MP CALLS FOR BUSINESS SECRETARY TO INTERVENE IN DISPUTE
BY DAVID PERRY

Published: 02/05/2009

Post Office chiefs were under fire last night for ordering postmasters to pay for keeping “free” bank machines in their offices supplied with cash.

Bills have been sent out demanding payment of charges totalling several hundred pounds for supplying money at the rate of 20p per £100, plus VAT.

The move has infuriated postmasters, who had agreed to have the machines installed as part of the campaign to provide free automatic teller machines (ATMs) in communities where other machines carried charges.

Argyll and Bute Liberal Democrat MP Alan Reid said he had been approached by a sub-postmaster who was threatening to throw the machine out if he was forced to pay an estimated £800.

Postmasters, self-employed owners who have a contract to supply Post Office services, were told when the machines were installed that neither they nor their customers would have to pay.

The “free” ATMs are branded Royal Bank of Scotland or NatWest.

Mr Reid said: “It is scandalous that post offices are being threatened with back payments on what seems to have been offered as a free service.

“After the recent savage closure programme the last thing local post offices need is to be hit with unexpected fees.”

He has demanded Business and Enterprise Secretary Lord Mandelson intervenes.

Marilyn Stoddart, of the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters, said talks were under way to resolve the dispute.

A Post Office spokesman said: “Post Office Ltd is apologising to sub-postmasters for having to reclaim fees for providing cash for their ATMs for a period of time, for which we mistakenly did not charge, and we will of course not be asking for these payments in a lump sum.

“This is absolutely not about POL charging customers to access their cash.”

An RBS spokeswoman blamed “a misunderstanding between the Post Office and sub-postmasters” and made it clear it supplied and funded ATMs free to customers.