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Royal Mail customers have reacted with fury to recent allegations that the postal service is telling people their physical stamps are invalid.
The service has launched digital equivalents and an accompanying “swap out” scheme for its stamps, but some Britons have encountered difficulties.
Several people have told how Royal Mail refused to exchange some stamps bought from Post Office branches as they were “not genuine”.
Express.co.uk readers have relayed their experiences, with one person claiming an invalid stamp scuppered a delivery.
Others have said that “all stamps” issued by the Post Office “should be legal” while criticising “rip off Britain”.
One customer said their post was impacted by “fake” stamps earlier this year.
They commented: “Had this happen to me a couple of months ago.
“I bought something quite legit from an internet selling site, had to collect from local sorting office because it said the stamp was a fake.
“We let the original seller know so he didn’t use any more. He was at a loss as he’d bought them from local Post Office.”
They added that the mistake “made his business look a bit dodgy”, which was “not fair on the people trying to run a small business”.
Royal Mail came under fire earlier this week when the Daily Telegraph found customers had claimed that even some newer stamps were failing to pass verification tests.
The publication said it had seen 40 examples of customers claiming stamps bought from Post Offices or Royal Mail’s own website were found to be “invalid”.
Another furious Briton said that people should be allowed to “continue to use the old stamps until they’re all gone”, adding they were “bought in good faith to pay in advance for a service”.
They used the example of special edition stamps like those used on Christmas, stating that if they are still usable, then “all stamps should be legal”.
The commenter went on to criticise “rip off Britain”.
No suggestion has been made that postmasters are selling faked stamps in Post Offices.
A Post Office spokesman explained to the Daily Mail that it receives stamps “direct from Royal Mail’s secure printers” and that they take “any allegation of fake stamps at our branches seriously”.
The spokesman said they would “always require a receipt as proof of purchase before we can investigate”, with the Royal Mail needing to double check any allegedly fake stamp to “verify the status”.
A Royal Mail spokesman encouraged customers who believe they were incorrectly surcharged to send in their remaining stamps, adding it is vital to investigate and “determine whether the stamps are genuine, as well as understand exactly where they were purchased.”
They added that stamps have been uniquely barcoded since February 2022, allowing machines to check validity and identify stamps that the system has previously processed.
The spokesman added: “If one of these stamps is showing as previously used it may suggest that the stamp has been reproduced by a counterfeiter.
“If a stamp is identified by our machines as counterfeit, it will also be individually checked by a member of our team before the recipient is asked to pay a surcharge.”
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