For those UK members about to enjoy sending letters for InCoWriMo 2022

[Chrissy]

We heard from our relatives in Australia that our Christmas card to them finally arrived last week!!
It was sent from here on 29th November and was stamped with an "E" (Europe) stamp currently valued at £1.70 plus an Air Mail label. It fitted through our standard Letter rate slot and weighed less than the current 20grams rate that costs £1.70 worldwide. Since it took 7 weeks to arrive I could only assume that someone made an error somewhere and sorted it into the Surface Mail bin rather than putting it on a plane.

Following a 23 minute wait on the phone to talk to someone at Customer Services about this I instead sent an email to someone with whom I had had a previous dealing at the CEO's office.

Today I received a phone call from that person and am quite surprised at the information I received so I feel I should pass it on so that other UK members will be aware of it.

There are currently many staff changes at Royal Mail so obviously more inexperienced people are handling mail items. As the "E" stamp is now at least a 10 year old stamp and is no longer available from Royal Mail or at Post Offices it's possible that some Royal Mail staff have never seen one and know nothing about them or their value. They have no instant way to check an "E" stamp value when they are sorting mail, therefore they may believe they are handling under stamped mail items and could quite easily sort them as Surface Mail rather than Air Mail.

I have been advised to not purchase any more "E" stamps, even from authentic online stamp sources, for use anywhere outside of Europe as they might be delayed.

Make of this what you will, but it looks like only Worldwide stamps or those marked with the current Air Mail price will always work for countries outside of Europe.

[Morgaine]

Well, someone in the US accidentally sent me two Christmas cards last year, so I thought he deserved two in reply. I sent one out surface mail (marking it as international economy) and one out airmail, both arrived same day in normal time.

I know there have been postal issues. US suspended mail to Australia for a while last year.

A Christmas card I sent to Australia took 4 weeks to arrive, a little slower than usual.

Several Royal Mail depots have had staffing issues and this may have also affected mail collection as well as delivery. I went almost a fortnight without post (I think my postie might have been off work then, and there was no cover).

From other postal/stamp people, there have been incidents where genuine but older stamps have been flagged as fakes.

[TSherbs]

My last airmail envelope letter from UK to the US took 21 days from date of postmark to reach my house. Usual is seven.

[Chrissy]

My last airmail envelope letter from UK to the US took 21 days from date of postmark to reach my house. Usual is seven.
According to Royal Mail the time length allowed for an Air Mail letter is 20 days. Your usual 7 day letters are good service. :)

[FredRydr]

...According to Royal Mail the time length allowed for an Air Mail letter is 20 days....
Keep in mind that allowance depends on the quality of service provided beyond the borders of the UK. For example, my Postcrossing cards from the USA to Russia typically take well over a month to arrive, while China must have the biggest dead letter office in the world.

[Morgaine]

Ordinary stamp changes are afoot.... If you have 1st and 2nd class Queen's head stamps without the technological datamatrix barcodey thing..., these won't be valid to use for postage this time next year....... More info to follow in due course....

[Chrissy]

Ordinary stamp changes are afoot.... If you have 1st and 2nd class Queen's head stamps without the technological datamatrix barcodey thing..., these won't be valid to use for postage this time next year....... More info to follow in due course....
Really! Wow! I have loads to use up then books and books of new stamps.

[FredRydr]

Ordinary stamp changes are afoot.... If you have 1st and 2nd class Queen's head stamps without the technological datamatrix barcodey thing..., these won't be valid to use for postage this time next year....... More info to follow in due course....
Ouch! I hope the citizenry will be able to exchange all their unused decimal stamps for the new techno-postage. It would be a windfall for the post office otherwise.

[kelly41]

You can swap them but you have to send them to a free post address rather than taking them to the post office

[Chrissy]

Ordinary stamp changes are afoot.... If you have 1st and 2nd class Queen's head stamps without the technological datamatrix barcodey thing..., these won't be valid to use for postage this time next year....... More info to follow in due course....
Ouch! I hope the citizenry will be able to exchange all their unused decimal stamps for the new techno-postage. It would be a windfall for the post office otherwise.
As kelly says Royal Mail are going to allow stamps to be swapped from March but they will need to be sent to a Freepost address and can't be swapped at Post Offices. Hope they have a large team standing by ready for the huge influx of stamps for swapping.

[Morgaine]

Elsewhere, there's discussion on this. Probably a handling charge, and what would you get back? In cash/money, or in stamps?

[kelly41]

Elsewhere, there's discussion on this. Probably a handling charge, and what would you get back? In cash/money, or in stamps?

Looks like it will be a straight swap
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/money/martin-lewis-royal-mail-stamps-26205065

[Morgaine]

https://www.royalmail.com/prices2022

Postage rate increase in April.

1st = 95p
2nd = 68p
Surface mail = £1.60
Airmail = £1.85

[Chrissy]

https://www.royalmail.com/prices2022

Postage rate increase in April.

1st = 95p
2nd = 68p
Surface mail = £1.60
Airmail = £1.85
That's sad. :( Anyone might think it isn't expensive enough already!

[Sandy]

https://www.royalmail.com/prices2022

Postage rate increase in April.

1st = 95p
2nd = 68p
Surface mail = £1.60
Airmail = £1.85
That's sad. :( Anyone might think it isn't expensive enough already!


The tragedy is that they say that they are putting the prices up, because not enough people are sending letters. It means that even fewer people use the service, so they put the prices up even more.

[Chrissy]

I've sent off my stamps for swapping. Print out and fill in their form, enclose stamps then send to their Freepost address. Simple. :) I'm waiting to see how long it takes.

One interesting detail is that self adhesive stamps have to be on their original backing yet over the years when I've bought loose stamps then taken stamps from books I've occasionally stuck my loose ones into a book if it had spaces. I expect they might not be happy to see slightly different stamps inside one book. Stamps that are not self adhesive needed to be stuck on the back of the form where it specifically says no self adhesive stamps are allowed.

[Chrissy]

Received back my brand new stamps today. It took less than a week and everything was perfect. I received back the exact same number and denomination of stamps that I sent. Simple. Great job! :-)