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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Reusing Unfranked stamps

82 replies

LittleMissRayofHope · 07/04/2015 09:24

If I get a letter and the stamp hasn't been franked by RM I peel it off and keep it. I then use it the next time I post a letter.

AIBU? Friend thinks I am. She said I'm basically stealing from RM. I guess I can see her POV.

Thought I would ask here!

OP posts:
Patapouf · 07/04/2015 11:37

I didn't know this was a thing

UncertainSmile · 07/04/2015 11:56

I'd do it.
This is going to turn into one of those threads though, isn't it. Like the sneaking kids into theme parks/eating in supermarkets ones.

Salmotrutta · 07/04/2015 11:56

I wouldn't do it because it's just not right and I'd worry that the person receiving it might get charged if it was noticed or something.

Where do you draw the line? - "just a stamp or "just one child sneaked into the zoo" or "just shoplifting a chicken" or whatever.

DisappointedOne · 07/04/2015 12:01

Whole new focus to my day today. I'm going to:

Sneak into the cinema with DD rather than paying. Might try and film the film in my phone too. Sure that's perfectly fine.

Walk out of the restaurant without paying.

Buy fuel with a stolen credit card.

Drive at 90mph everywhere.

Keep an eye out for a new bike for DD. Someone is bound to leave one unattended somewhere.

UncertainSmile · 07/04/2015 12:28

yourlogicalfallacyis.com/slippery-slope

UnsolvedMystery · 07/04/2015 13:22

I suspect that people doing this are people for whom 65p matters
Most people can't be bothered
So, no, I really don't care, even if it is technically 'fraud'

CloserToFiftyThanTwenty · 07/04/2015 13:25

I've done it before, I'll probably do it again

LynetteScavo · 07/04/2015 17:57

Do stamps peel off?

If RM haven't franked a stamp then they haven't done their job properly so it's their own fault if a stamp is reused.

anitacrawley1 · 31/03/2017 15:28

about the unfranked stamps i did check with the post office and they said that if the stamp was not franked it was yours! i have some if anyone wants some
anita

Chloe84 · 31/03/2017 15:39

I don't think the stamps peel off anymore, you would have to cut around the stamp.

LurkingHusband · 31/03/2017 15:46

I thought the were cancelled using ink with shows up under blacklight ?

caroldecker · 31/03/2017 15:55

So its the value that matters - shoplifting a mars bar once a week is also fine?

ShowMePotatoSalad · 31/03/2017 15:56

Well yeah to be fair, it's unreasonable. Because you know you've not paid for it. Would you take a 60p Mars Bar out of Asda because you know they make loads of money? Of course not.

(Didn't realise pointing that out now meant you were saintly. It's just a fact isn't it?)

ShowMePotatoSalad · 31/03/2017 15:56

carol I promise I didn't steal your analogy lol!

DontTouchTheMoustache · 31/03/2017 15:57

I do this alot. I bought a pritt stick especially.

BathshebaKnickerStickers · 31/03/2017 16:01

When I was at Uni in 1993, the president of the Christian Union was HAULLED up in front of the university court for reusing a stamp which appeared to have not been franked - there was indeed an invisible mark on it to show it had been through the franking machine.

This was a Christian Union letter, which counted as University correspondence rather than personal (I think the Student Union paid or subsidised the postage of student societies)....

TondelayaDellaVentamiglia · 31/03/2017 16:01

if I post anything to my mother I tend to set the stamp lower than usual....it makes her week if she can reuse a stamp!

Never mind she steams them off and uses god knows how much electric

But I'd certainly reuse one if I had one. I might try and pick it off, or I might reuse the envelope with a label on.

Kiroro · 31/03/2017 16:04

*As I see it, it's the Royal Mail's responsibility to have systems that prevent people reusing stamps if they don't want them to.

Right.

Like shops have security guards to deter people shop lifting.... but I bet you still think it is wrong to steal a £100 dress.

SquatBetty · 31/03/2017 16:04

Done it for years - could not give less of a shit about it.

goodpiemissedthechips · 31/03/2017 16:07

There are also stories of reused stamps being spotted by RM staff and the recipient being billed for postage and a handling fee.

Hmm I sometimes put a stamp on an addressed envelope and then don't send it, then later cut it off and stick it onto another envelope which I DO send.

They'd hate me.

ShatnersBassoon · 31/03/2017 16:21

It's so mean-spirited, real tight-arse behaviour. Just stick a fresh stamp on whatever you'd like to send. 65p to have someone deliver by hand something to an address that could be hundreds of miles from its starting point is good value. Why would you try to get one over people by stealing a few pence?

I seriously want to set up an Amateur Petty Crime Squad to deal with people who don't think the relatively unimportant rules apply to them.

ShowMePotatoSalad · 31/03/2017 16:29

Depending on how many people do this, it could cost a fortune and mean people losing their jobs or having wage cuts. People don't think about it.

Exactly, 65p for all the work it takes to deliver is astonishingly good value. If you can afford it you're definitely being tight.

Porpoiselife · 31/03/2017 16:49

I've done it and get weirdly excited if I get a letter and the stamp hasn't been franked. I think of it more as 'recycling' Grin

Meekonsandwich · 31/03/2017 17:03

But when you steal (which is what this is)
It costs more! You're making a rod for your own back!
"Its only 60p" that letter still has to be sorted and transported and posted, which costs money, fuel, post sorter, postmen/women?
Would you steal a drink or a packet of crisps for 60p?
No?
Why? Because it costs people's jobs and raises the prices of everything.
If it's ONLY 60p, pay for it!!!!

harderandharder2breathe · 31/03/2017 17:04

Yanbu

The franking of stamps is supposed to stop you doing this, if they're not following their own processes, more fool them