Last year we were prompted by the Post Office Stamp Swapout Initiative to send in unused non-barcoded postage stamps so that they would be replaced like-for-like by the new issue barcoded equivalents .
I submitted 25 second class stamps (total value £18.75) , legitimately purchased , still on their adhesive sheet and with the required Swapout request form . In return on 21st March 2023 I received a book of six barcoded second class stamps (value £4.08) and a letter informing me that 'we were not able to swap out all of the stamps sent in- as 24 were either stamps which have already been used or were not Genuine Royal Mail stamps '.
I wrote to complain and was informed that the stamps had gone through two rigorous checks but they were not able to give me further details ' for security reasons' . I was also told that it is an offence to knowingly use counterfeit stamps . I was given an incident number .
I wrote to protest but am still awaiting a response from the Swapout Customer Support Team .
Anybody else feeling defrauded ? I know this issue pales into insignificance compared with the horrendous treatment meted out to Subpostmasters by the Post Office across the UK ...but I am still feeling grumpy about it .