Royal Mail barcoding stamps - existing stamps valid only until 31 Jan 2023

hermante

As my post office is 20 minutes walk away, I don't bother with proof of posting unless I'm travelling somewhere else with a convenient post office or I have a special delivery to send.

So far RM has just believed me whenever I've claimed for loss from postboxes. They lost quite a lot of my items when 6 stamps were £5.10, that's covered most of my ebay in the current tax year. Although I don't value stamps at face value, if they're really sending 8 stamps now that's great, I hope they lose more of my items!

(But not so many that they will think I'm making fake claims.)

NBLondon

NBLondon said:

The only Presentation Pack you can swap is if you have Country Definitives e.g. https://shop.royalmail.com/2021-country-definitive-stamp-set   or a set of Definitives issued when the rates changed - but I don't think Kantar would have sent those.

Update...  There will be new barcoded versions of the country definitives.  I suspect it might be too much for RM to cope with if you sent country definitives and hoped to get new ones back rather than the standard colours.  Most people won't care.

HonestJohn

Looks like the rush is over. My last 2 swap outs have been turned around in 3 days.

HonestJohn

JamesRobinson48 said:

HonestJohn said:

Looks like the rush is over. My last 2 swap outs have been turned around in 3 days.

Yes it's quite quick at the moment.  Also, on each of my last 2 swap outs, interestingly RM sent me one extra 2nd class stamp.  That's despite the fact that, each time, the total face value of the varied stamps that I sent in (19p, 26p, etc) was exactly equal to a given number of 2nd class stamps. I can't figure out why they did that.  Maybe it's just a very generous method of rounding up.

They include any 1/2ps in their total. I did not include them in my total and got a letter with a revised amount.

hermante

Finally had an INR (possibly scam) and I did get 8 first class stamps.

The buyer may have regretted bidding £12.

My intended break-even price would have been £6.47 so even with the 30p fee lost I still made a "profit".

NBLondon

NBLondon said:

NBLondon said:

The only Presentation Pack you can swap is if you have Country Definitives e.g. https://shop.royalmail.com/2021-country-definitive-stamp-set   or a set of Definitives issued when the rates changed - but I don't think Kantar would have sent those.

Update...  There will be new barcoded versions of the country definitives.  I suspect it might be too much for RM to cope with if you sent country definitives and hoped to get new ones back rather than the standard colours.  Most people won't care.

Update again - I read on a stamp collecting forum that RM helpline has said they will replace country definitives like for like if they can but it isn't guaranteed.    My best guess is that if you are collector sending in a sheet of e.g. Wales 2nd - you will get a Wales 2nd sheet in return but oddments will just be barcoded 2nd.

Plus - the rounding up is changing.  Previously, if you sent in numeric values you would get the total back in 2nd class and rounded up.  So if you were 1p over - you'd be in profit.   Now - they will send 2nds and make-up values so you'd get a barcoded 1p as the last stamp.

HonestJohn

I see that they last updated the t&cs on July 14th. Maybe too many people were making too many requests that went 1p over a whole number of 2nd class stamps.

NBLondon

HonestJohn said:

I see that they last updated the t&cs on July 14th. Maybe too many people were making too many requests that went 1p over a whole number of 2nd class stamps.

You mean they noticed that people with a lot to swap were splitting into batches to take advantage of that?  Could be...

Money_Grabber13579

NBLondon said:

HonestJohn said:

I see that they last updated the t&cs on July 14th. Maybe too many people were making too many requests that went 1p over a whole number of 2nd class stamps.

You mean they noticed that people with a lot to swap were splitting into batches to take advantage of that?  Could be...

I suspect it’s even worse than that as they have included a term where they can reject a swap if the scheme is being obviously abused (suggesting that in some cases, it has been obviously abused). If people are sending in 0.5p stamps, one at a time, just to get a 2nd class stamp back, they’ve too much time on their hands.

Money_Grabber13579

The postal workers don’t seem to be too confident in the ability of the barcodes to prevent reuse. Just received a parcel with barcoded stamps on today which have been scribbled over with a biro.