The shop wasn't particularly explicit regarding when you can and can't use gold pass postage. I suspect that info is buried in the T&Cs instead of maybe a prompt on check out suggesting you change the postage if more than a gold pass is detected in the basket. When I bought a gold pass and photo shoot tickets a few years ago, I didn't have this issue. I guess things have moved on and there's less willingness to help the customer. I can see that the cost of processing an extra £1.50 p&p (1st class stamp = 62p, an envelope can be around 20p so there's margin for profit), is well worth the time and effort of the staff.
I have my own email server at home so there is absolutely no reason for some emails to arrive and not others. It makes no sense that all the attempts at contacting me were not received yet the accusation of wilful criminality arrived. The tone was terse and borderline rude and that's what's got my heckles up. You're saying you know you've had trouble with emails and yet you still blame the customer for not responding to demands for extra postage payments? What's the point of providing a phone number for queries if you're going to rely on an email system you say doesn't work properly?
So, my question remains: Do I now have to queue at EC2 B for my gold pass and then queue again at the sales desk for my photo shoot tickets? Or will everything be in one place?