Royal Mail and "invalid" stamp

Yorkie1

Update - I am not happy, to say the least.

Initial response from RM was to ask for the full name and address of the sender, the date the item was posted, the date the item was delivered, and a screenshot of the envelope showing the surcharge sticker and stamp. I sent these off on 21/04.

Today, I got their response. It says that "it appears that the stamp used when posting the item was either reused or counterfeit. This may be because the stamp used didn't appear to have been cancelled / franked when used previously, or a stamp was used that has been 'washed' using chemicals to remove postmarks and paper from previous usage. It's also possible that the stamp or stamps were purchased from a disreputable supplier. The use of a counterfeit stamp or reuse of a stamp is classed as fraud under the Fraud Act 2006. Where stamp fraud is identified a sticker is placed on the item to advise of the surcharge reason and we'll request payment of a 'surcharge fee' from the recipient t ocover the cost of delivering the stamp.' 

The full details of my enquiry have been logged and the information provided will help us protect our future revenue".

It's absolutely unbelievable. The stamp was bought at the most reputable place possible and was then taken from a stamp book and put directly onto ah envelope. It's not about the cost of the surcharge fee, but the inaccurate processing and now the allegations of fraud and criminal activity.

I have responded to say that my 80 year old mother bought the stamp from the Post Office, that there is absolutely no possibility of any fraudulent activity, and asked how I escalate matters.

sheramber

Presumably the rest of the stamps in the book would be invalid too.  

user1977

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that a subpostmaster might be selling counterfeit stamps. Such cases have occurred before.

km1500

They cannot tell.if the stamp.has been reused, washed etc from a screenshot!

They sent you a generic response

Manxman_in_exile

user1977 said:

It's not beyond the realms of possibility that a subpostmaster might be selling counterfeit stamps. Such cases have occurred before.

I did wonder if that might have happened.

Yorkie1

Thanks for your thoughts - we'll see whether anything further happens (I'm not particularly confident, but you never know!).

Yorkie1

sheramber said:

Presumably the rest of the stamps in the book would be invalid too.  

That's a good point. It's now only 3 months until the final deadline for the use of non-barcoded stamps, so I may just suggest that she sends the book / any remaining stamps in for replacement, rather than trying to use them now.

Manxman_in_exile

Yorkie1 said:

sheramber said:

Presumably the rest of the stamps in the book would be invalid too.  

That's a good point. It's now only 3 months until the final deadline for the use of non-barcoded stamps, so I may just suggest that she sends the book / any remaining stamps in for replacement, rather than trying to use them now.

Yes.  And if they replace them with no questions asked you could go back and ask them why. therefore, one of the stamps from exactly the same book had previously been rejected by them as invalid.

Or you might want to just send them the book and challenge them to say whether they are all invalid.  Of course, they might say they are...

binao

Ask to be reimbursed for the book cost.

If 1 is dodgy then all must be.

soolin

binao said:

Ask to be reimbursed for the book cost.

If 1 is dodgy then all must be.

The post office though don’t exchange or buy back stamps, you would need to use some sort of legal action to get reimbursed if they sold a dodgy book of stamps.

I never like the ‘go to the tabloid consumer champion pages’ type of suggestion , but I wonder with so many stories on various threads on here and other RM forums whether it is time to ask someone to investigate why so many stamps bought legitimately over the post counter are being detected as fraudulent by RM.