The postman didn’t ring twice, letters not delivered

DESPITE weighing my mail at a Pos Malaysia branch and putting the correct amount of postage for non-commercial mail, many letters that I had recently posted to local residential addresses had not reached their destinations after months.When I enquired about the delay, I was told that my mail could have ended up as “surat mati” (dead letter mail or undeliverable mail) because when many letters from the same person are posted at the same time, Pos Malaysia’s system could classify them as business mail. Since there are different costs for non-commercial and commercial mail, the system would have deemed that my letters didn’t have enough postage and they would have automatically ended up as surat mati without any recourse of getting them back.

As I remember growing up, if a letter did not have the correct postage, it would still be delivered to the addressee, who would then have to pay to make up the insufficient postage if he/she wanted to accept the letter. If it could not be delivered, the letter went back to the return address provided.