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

custardy

soolin said:

I was at my local mail centre today chatting to some friendly counter staff I know and they had no idea at all about this change to bar coded stamps. They said although they sell stamps and accept parcels (but are not post office counters) no one has said anything to them and they have the usual orders of stamps arriving as normal. One went as far as to suggest I must have misunderstood as it would seem odd that staff selling stamps over the counter were not aware of the imminent change. 

If you know RM its not a surprise.
Comms are really not their strong point. laughably to tragic depending on the context.

Mogmother

Beware of trying to make up the value of a parcel with oddments of different (previously unused) older stamps; mine were inherited with my aunt's writing-case. I asked for a 10p stamp to make up one parcel, was told to put it on the scales then hand it over. I did, expecting the counter staff to stick on the 10p stamp or equivalent. A label was printed and stuck over all my stamps and I was charged the full price for the parcel. When I protested I was accused of fraud. I did not use that post office for at least a year in annoyance. (They also told me 'they didn't sell stamps' once, when I asked for commemoratives to put on a parcel... It might depend which staff member you get. )

NBLondon

Mogmother said:

 When I protested I was accused of fraud. 

I hope you complained!  https://www.postoffice.co.uk/contact-us-complaint  

If you have those low-value stamps left - they are being barcoded from April so presumably they will also be Swapped Out 

JWM

It will be very interesting to find out the swap plan on 31st March. I have a stock of large letter second class stamps bought about 3 years ago before a price rise - used for ebay.
I reckon  I will need to swap about 500. If it's free post (so uninsured) then it'll have to just do lots of small lots. Hopefully they will give a free option for larger amounts.
It'll be the older non-Internet savvy folk who will probably be most affected by this.
Will have to wait and see.....

cx6

Have had to 'educate'  many a PO counter staff what to do when you put stamps on a parcel value less than eg £3.20 rate.

There is a button on the screen marked 'pre-pay' that they have to press, and then enter the value of the stamps you have stuck on the parcel. A surprising number of staff don't know that.

[Deleted User]

I started buying in quantity some years back not just to save money but more importantly to save the hassle of continually finding stamps. I have perhaps £150 worth at present. But as years have gone by I have continued to buy them because of the statement that they will always be valid. Surely that's contractural? The post office have stated they will always be valid and on that basis I paid the money and they took it. That deal is surely fixed?

My postman tells me that the quantity of mail has greatly reduced since the excessive price rises some years back especially at Christmas. Certainly since Christmas I have had perhaps half a dozen letters with everything else coming by email.

As for the large and small stamps and 1st and 2nd class, there are in effect 4 postage rates for an "average" envelope together with all the sorting this takes. I fail to understand the need for the complexity.

This latest move will just cost them more in lost revenue.

jon81uk

Deleted_User said:

I started buying in quantity some years back not just to save money but more importantly to save the hassle of continually finding stamps. I have perhaps £150 worth at present. But as years have gone by I have continued to buy them because of the statement that they will always be valid. Surely that's contractural? The post office have stated they will always be valid and on that basis I paid the money and they took it. That deal is surely fixed?

My postman tells me that the quantity of mail has greatly reduced since the excessive price rises some years back especially at Christmas. Certainly since Christmas I have had perhaps half a dozen letters with everything else coming by email.

As for the large and small stamps and 1st and 2nd class, there are in effect 4 postage rates for an "average" envelope together with all the sorting this takes. I fail to understand the need for the complexity.

This latest move will just cost them more in lost revenue.

Well an "average" envelope would probably be a standard letter, but an above average envelope, A4 sized and/or especially thick is a large letter. The sorting is done by machine and that is one reason for the changes, at the time the larger stuff couldn't be sorted by machine, but the standard letters have been machine sorted for 30-40 years or more. The pricing by size came in over 10 years ago so the "complexity" has been around for a while!

As for stamps being valid forever, I don't think it has been explicitly stated by Royal Mail, just that they are valid until withdrawn which they have givne a years notice of.

mjm3346

Deleted_User said:

I started buying in quantity some years back not just to save money but more importantly to save the hassle of continually finding stamps. I have perhaps £150 worth at present. But as years have gone by I have continued to buy them because of the statement that they will always be valid. Surely that's contractural? The post office have stated they will always be valid and on that basis I paid the money and they took it. That deal is surely fixed?

My postman tells me that the quantity of mail has greatly reduced since the excessive price rises some years back especially at Christmas. Certainly since Christmas I have had perhaps half a dozen letters with everything else coming by email.

As for the large and small stamps and 1st and 2nd class, there are in effect 4 postage rates for an "average" envelope together with all the sorting this takes. I fail to understand the need for the complexity.

This latest move will just cost them more in lost revenue.

They are still valid and you have lots of time to exchange for the new design so you have no loss.

Not sure how this will cost them in lost revenue - it isn't a price change, makes no difference to "franked" mail/other prepaids or the majority of customers but may cut the number of fakes/reused stamps which do not provide revenue. 


.

custardy

Deleted_User said:

I started buying in quantity some years back not just to save money but more importantly to save the hassle of continually finding stamps. I have perhaps £150 worth at present. But as years have gone by I have continued to buy them because of the statement that they will always be valid. Surely that's contractural? The post office have stated they will always be valid and on that basis I paid the money and they took it. That deal is surely fixed?

My postman tells me that the quantity of mail has greatly reduced since the excessive price rises some years back especially at Christmas. Certainly since Christmas I have had perhaps half a dozen letters with everything else coming by email.

As for the large and small stamps and 1st and 2nd class, there are in effect 4 postage rates for an "average" envelope together with all the sorting this takes. I fail to understand the need for the complexity.

This latest move will just cost them more in lost revenue.

Well lets break it down.
You state Post Office. You have terms from POC that support that?
Or do you mean Royal Mail? Then do you mean state owned Royal Mail or private company Royal Mail?
Always amused people seem surprised when something changes with RM like privatisation would change nothing.
They are offering what is essentially a voucher swap out scheme. Did people never think this day would come? RM would (essentially) honour services for money that is long since gone before we get into the constant issue of reused/fake stamps.

Now we get onto price and proportion charging.
An 'average' envelope has one price. Its a letter rate which means the letter will mech sort and be handled relatively cheaply.
Going beyond that spec increases handing costs/reduces mech sorting and is priced accordingly.
I dont know what your postie is smoking or if you have misunderstood. Letter volumes have dropped/ parcel volumes are through the roof. So if you feel RM are too expensive for those 'average' envelopes then Im sure you will find cheaper options.

[Deleted User]

The Royal Mail used to state "

Stamps without a specified monetary value are described as Non Value Indicator (NVI) and are typically first and second class stamps. These do not have an expiry date, therefore can be used regardless of the length of time you’ve had them.

But as I can see the nit pickers here will not be happy with this.

Finally when I say the Post Office.....that's the building in my town which incised in stone above the front door says "Post Office"......

I now know why I don't bother visiting this forum....