Post Office - Incorrect Stamp

Hornetathome

Hi,
I've recently had to pay £2.50 to obtain a birthday card from the sorting office because the Post Office say that the sender used an incorrect stamp.  I've been engaging with them to obtain a refund as the birthday card clearly states on the reverse that it only requires a letter stamp, but they say the QR digital stamp is not valid, however it matches the other QR coded stamps that I have which came in a book from the Post Office.
I've googled this situation and quickly note that the Labour and Conservative parties are also finding the same problem with flyers they are sending out prior to the forthcoming local elections.
Can anyone help, not solely to get the £2.50 refund but to ensure that when I use my book of stamps in the future I am not inadvertently obligating the recipients to have to pay £2.50 if my stamps are also not valid.
Personally I suspect that the Post Office has a systemic digital QR stamp code problem.........which could be very costly to them.
Many thanks.
 

km1500

How do you know the stamp wasn't invalid ?

It could be a forgery or have been used before (soaked off), for example.

Supposedly, one of the reasons RM brought out the new barcoded stamps was to aid in detecting both situations.

sheramber

It is suggested the problem is false barcodes on stamps bought online.  No doubt it would be difficult to distinguish a false barcode.

If you bought your stamps from the Post Office then there should not be a problem.

Where did the sender of your card get   their stamp?

NBLondon

Hornetathome said:

, but they say the QR digital stamp is not valid, however it matches the other QR coded stamps that I have which came in a book from the Post Office.
 

The QR codes are unique because they include a serial number for the sheet/booklet it came from.  So if it exactly matches - it's a forged copy.

As above - ask the sender where they got the stamp.

Hornetathome said:

I've googled this situation and quickly note that the Labour and Conservative parties are also finding the same problem with flyers they are sending out prior to the forthcoming local elections.
 

Parties?  Or local branches?  I can quite see that they might have bought stamps cheaply online and not realised they might be buying fakes.  As in this case: https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/23421725.brighton-labour-party-hit-stamp-fault-election-campaign/    or this case: https://www.hampshirelive.news/news/hampshire-news/furious-voters-forced-pay-election-7028719

Or this one where the stamps were genuine but insufficient https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/23435722.conservatives-election-leaflet-blunder-leaves-residents-pocket/

Money_Grabber13579

Seems to be happening quite a bit.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64965683.amp

The new barcodes stamps seem to have been forged in great numbers already and people buying them online from dubious sources are going to get caught out.