Royal Mail or Post office

[Whitebunny]

Hi, everyone.
I am new to this forum and I need your advice.
I went to my local post office to post a letter to Japan. I paid for 1st class worldwide and the stuff at the counter put a “By Air Mail” sticker on the envelope.
I also underlined “Japan” in red and wrote address both in English and Japanese.
I think it’s very clear and obvious the letter is for abroad.
Surprisingly the letter was delivered to me with other mail next day.
I emailed to Royal Mail customer Centre as I wasn’t happy to pay the postage again to repost the letter for their mistake.
They replied it’s Post office Ltd. ‘s responsibility and I should contact them.
I emailed to Post Office customer Centre and I had a reply saying it’s Royal Mail’s responsibility.
I looked up the difference between them.
Post office accepts mails and parcels and Royal Mail delivers and collects them.
So I think Royal mail is responsible for this error but I paid the postage to Post Office so are they responsible to refund me?
I am tired of sending emails to both of them without any progress.
Any advice appreciated. Thank you.

[Snaggletooth]

Just to confirm, there is no “first class worldwide” service. Airmail is the basic service for items leaving the UK. If you asked for first class for an item going abroad then the fault is yours.

[yellowbelly]

.......
I went to my local post office to post a letter to Japan. I paid for 1st class worldwide and the stuff at the counter put a “By Air Mail” sticker on the envelope.
I also underlined “Japan” in red and wrote address both in English and Japanese.
I think it’s very clear and obvious the letter is for abroad.
Surprisingly the letter was delivered to me with other mail next day.
........

If it got delivered back to you did you put your address on the FRONT of the envelope too? Often we get letters delivered back to the sender's local
delivery office as (I'm assuming) the automatic machine readers read any address on the envelope and get sent back.

If we get these in our delivery office we lightly rub a blue crayon over the senders address and then put it back into the system.

I wouldn't pay for the postage again, just put it back into a post box and if your (the sender's) address is visible on the front cross through it
with pen so it should be clear that it shouldn't be delivered back to you (and if there are any of the vertical orange fluorescent lines on the envelope
line through them too or the machine readers will just return it to you again).

[Whitebunny]

Hi, Snuggletooth,
Thank you for your reply.
I said “first class worldwide” because the stamp on the envelope says so.
The official name for it might be “ international standard”.
I don’t think it’s my fault as I asked the stuff at the counter what I want (Airmail to Japan, no need to be trucked) and that’s what I got.
They would know better than I, I think.

Hi, yellowbelly,
Thank you for the reply.
No, I didn’t write my address on the front of the envelope.
It’s on the back of the envelope on the right hand corner.
Can I still repost it even it’s been postmarked?

[Snaggletooth]

It would be very helpful to know what it says on the stamp: 1st, A, a monetary value etc. And how much it cost.

[yellowbelly]

Can I still repost it even it’s been postmarked?

I don't see why not - in fact if we accidentally mis-deliver a letter to an incorrect address we post a little
card that requests the receiver to pop the letter in the nearest letterbox at their convenience, so it goes
back into the system to be sorted and re-delivered correctly (and doesn't need paying for again).

Don't see anything different in this case - again I would make sure that your return address on the back is crossed
through (but still readable to a human eye) and if there are any of the orange fluorescent lines on the envelope
(back or front) again mark through them. The letter may have managed to get into the sorting machines
with the back visible to the address reading machines and that's how it got back to you (but obviously I don't know for certain).