Canada Post admits error after Ottawa family’s Valentine’s cards to veterans returned over 13 cents postage

A family says Valentine’s Day cards they sent to veterans were returned due to a supposed 13-cent postage error. CTV’s Peter Szperling reports.

Canada Post admits it made a mistake after an Ottawa family’s Valentine’s Day gesture for veterans was returned to them for supposedly being short 13 cents on postage.

Ellen and Steven Edwards and their three young children created homemade Valentine’s Day cards, intended to be distributed through a program called Valentines for Vets.

The couple says they mailed a package of cards in early February from their post office in Navan, only to have it come back about a week later marked “returned to sender,” because of insufficient postage.

“We went into our local post office. The postage was approved. It was stamped on February the 2nd. And then we checked the mail on February 11th and, unfortunately, it had been sent back,” said Ellen.

“It’s very disheartening,” Steven said. “You put in some time in with your children to send a nice gesture and then it just gets sent back over 13 cents. And it was clearly labeled that it was Valentines for Veterans. It stings.”

In a statement to CTV News Ottawa, Canada Post apologized and said the package was shipped back by mistake.

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“After reviewing this mailing with the Navan Post Office staff, they recall measuring, accepting and placing it in the outgoing mail. As per our processes, once a mail piece with two “P” stamps is in our system for delivery, and meeting minimal specifications, it should not have been returned to the customer,” the Crown corporation said.

“This was an unfortunate human error at a sorting and processing facility. This does provide us with an opportunity to refresh and coach our teams to follow closely our procedures in instances as these.”

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Canada Post speculated the item might have been flagged at another facility as having insufficient funds and weighing more than permitted.

“We sincerely regret and apologize to this customer for this very unfortunate experience,” Canada Post said.

The Edwards say they are planning to hand deliver the Valentine’s Day cards to veterans at Perley Health instead.