Validity of second class stamps

StayinAlive

I have been told by a neighbour that when they recently sent a letter using a bar-coded second class stamp that was bought before the most recent hike, the letter was held at the recipient's local post office and forced to collect it and pay the difference in price.

I find it difficult to believe this.I thought they were valid indefinitely.

Has anyone else come across this?

molerat

Fake stamp ?

Large letter ?

A genuine stamp is valid against the correct size item.

elsien

They are valid indefinitely. 

So as above, had they actually put enough postage on in the first place? 

jon81uk

Are they sure they didn't send a large letter with a standard letter stamp?

soolin

jon81uk said:

Are they sure they didn't send a large letter with a standard letter stamp?

I suspect there's quite a lot of that still going on - especially as the new barcoded stamps are bigger than the old ones and some people definitely get confused.

I was selling a set of small badges, button badge size on a backing card and showed my postage as £1.55, but a potential buyer insisted I was overcharging as the whole set was extremely light and was therefore a standard letter not a large letter. I did respond politely explaining the depth of them meant they were large letters, but they insisted they bought 'loads' and they all arrived as a letter. 

savergrant

Either the sender didn't realise the envelope was too big or too heavy for 'a letter" or possibly they used a normal first class stamp for a second class large letter (which is 10p cheaper). I've done that myself and once forgot to write 'SECOND CLASS LARGE' in the corner. In my case the post office held the envelope until I next came in 

They are rather more likely explanations than royal mail barcoding stamps as they are sold and attributing a value to each one...

GDB2222

When I exchanged my old stamps for the new bar coded ones, I received a few 1p stamps. Embarrassingly, I mistook these for 1st class stamps, and sent off a couple of letters which only had 1p on them!

kalsha

Over the last few years, I have been sent letters with 1p stamp on them and they have got through -I wasn't asked to pay extra.  I guess the senders mistook the 1 (p) for 1st class!

soolin

I have hundreds of pounds worth of the new barcoded stamps and the one thing that almost catches me is the standard 2nd and large letter 2nd being quite similar in colour. I don’t really use stamps except for family items, but have to double check I’ve grabbed the right stamp when I do.