The increases took effect on April 1, with most basic postal services increasing by between 30c and 70c.
Sapo did not publish any press release and its rate card is not easily visible on its website, while there are allegedly no brochures in Post Offices around South Africa.
Small ordinary mail increased from R3 to R3.30, medium mail from R5.95 to R6.55 and large mail from R7.30 to R8.
In one of the major changes to its rates card, Sapo cancelled its popular econoparcel option, increasing that size of mail’s price from R22.80 to R40.90.
Fin24 user Paul Knight alleged that Sapo had not even informed its staff. But Sapo told Fin24 that Post Office staff did receive a message on the point-of-sale system before the service was suspended.
Fin24 user Nick Collins said he was frustrated that Sapo had not communicated the price increases with the public.
“A week after the postal rates increase, we have yet to find out what the new prices are,” he said. “No post office has the pamphlets, or knows the prices.
“We inquired at a Post Office for the new brochure, but were told to go to the government printing works website, which doesn’t have it.”
Collins said the rates were not on the Sapo website, but the rates card is actually buried under Frequently Asked Questions and is not easy to find when landing on the home page.
A Sapo official told Fin24 that he will alert the Post Office tellers to the location of the online rate card to ensure they give customers the right information.
Meanwhile, at the time of publishing no comments were obtained from the media department.
