Post Office Stamps Expiring!!! Read if you have any

[Le4nne]

I just found out today that the Post Office are expiring stamps that do not have barcodes. Was supposed to be end of this month but has been extended to July. If you have any you intend to use after this time make sure you exchange them. I think it’s an absolute scam, especially since I don’t feel they’ve made it well know to people, hence this post

No leaflet here either.
You can exchange any stamps with a form, or now have until July for standard but special picture ones like Christmas are exempt

I didn’t get one either

I didn't know about this either so thanks OP. No leaflet here either and I don't listen to commercial radio or watch tv with adverts so presumably that's how I missed it.

I had not heard of this at all and have not received a flyer. Thank you for the info OP.

I’m honestly surprised at how many people have voted I’m being unreasonable hilarious 😂. Especially as it also seems that none of my friends have received a flyer and had no clue about it. I doubt they buy papers but they don’t live under a rock and do watch tv, listen to podcasts and sometimes the radio.
I just don’t think it’s great that they’re making it difficult to swap them too, I feel they should arranged for it to be allowed at the Post Office.
Also, how much would it have hurt to just accept the old ones in the post for a bit longer…. There will be some people who still do not know about this and will try to use them after July and Royal Mail will then not deliver and charge the recipient to have their post

I'd heard about the initial plan probably on the radio but didn't receive a leaflet. Didn't know they had extended the date to July. That has not been well publicised. Thanks, OP, for letting us know.

Nope, not to me.

There was one article on bbc news about if and that’s the only place I saw it. I forwarded the article to family but some of them didn’t understand it and said stamps already bought don’t expire.

I think it’s very poor how little publicity they gave it.

I just bought new barcoded stamps and Queenie's head is still all over them.

Charlie has not yet hit my stamps.

This has been widely publicised on social media and the press etc, and they sent fliers to households although clearly judging by this thread a lot of people still haven't seen it . The date did get extended though so there is still plenty of time to swap the stamps out.

The new stamps are used in exactly the same way as the old ones, there is nothing complicated about it, you stick it on your letter, but apparantly it will help Royal Mail to go more digital. Presumably all mail will be trackable in the future.

It's nothing to do with the Post Office it's Royal Mail a completely separate company. It's been well publicised. It's been in all the major newspapers and discussed on television. We have had two leaflets through the door as well.

I didn’t get one, neither did my DM.

@Le4nne - a scam? Royal Mail made a business decision to issue barcoded stamps to counter the amount of fraudulent re-usage of postage stamps and gave a long notice period (I've known about this since March last year) and then extended the notice time until July as a goodwill gesture.

I suggest you look up the word scam and while you're googling, look at Post Office and Royal Mail to see that they are two different companies.

"Royal Mail and the Post Office are separate companies with independent Boards. Royal Mail is the company that delivers parcels and letters – the provider of the universal postal service. The Post Office is the nationwide network of branches offering a range of postal, Government and financial services"

HTH.

Royal Mail should have swapped stamps through the Post Office.

We have had fliers. It's been in the newspapers and on the news. There is a sign up in our post office.
I'm not sure how else they can advertise it.

As far as I can see the new stamps are the same as the old ones just with a barcode alongside the image.

What's irrated me is that we should have been able to swap them over at the post office. You have to send them away and have no way of proving this, so if you have a load to exchange it could possibly result in losing a lot of money.

@Badfootkk I agree. You can send stamps worth up to £200. It is a lot of money.

Got a leaflet through the post well before Christmas.
Sent off 3 full books and a few loose stamps.
Received a large sheet of the new bar coded one's back.
Was well publicised in our area.

Who the hell has £200 worth of stamps just knocking about?

Plenty of older people.

Haven’t received a flier, haven’t heard a radio advert, haven’t seen a tv advert.

Had no idea this was happening. I very rarely send anything by post so I’ve got a few books of stamps that I’ve accumulated. Must be at least £20-30 of stamps.

Thank you for the heads up, OP. YANBU and I’m glad you’ve flagged it.

@babsanderson that is a hell of a lot of birthday cards 😆

This reminds me that I sent my stamps off to be exchanged about 6 weeks ago and my new ones haven’t appeared yet.

I sent off my old stamps ( book of 12 ) a few weeks ago and had nothing back yet. I think it was supposed to be returned in 7 working days.

Probably my mother. All 2nd class and all ones she's steamed off envelopes over the last god knows how many years 😂

‘Plenty of older people’ have hundreds of pounds of stamps lying about?!