Royal Mail clients making an attempt to swap their previous stamps for the brand new digital variations are reportedly being informed they're fakes.

Customers who purchased the previous stamps are being inspired to swap them for the brand new digital model with a barcode. Anyone who makes use of the previous one faces touchdown their recipient with a £1.10 charge, reports the Telegraph.

Under Royal Mail’s Swap Out scheme, the previous stamps will be exhanged totally free. However, scores of shoppers are reportedly being informed their stamps, which have been purchased at Post Office branches are “not genuine” or are fraudulent.

Customers have additionally reportedly raised complaints over the brand new stamps with barcodes. They declare they're being branded as fraudulent, even when they've been purchased from a Post Office.

The difficulty has sparked requires Royal Mail to research as a way to guarantee clients are usually not disregarded of pocket by the brand new system. It comes as Royal Mail prepares for the subsequent listening to within the Horizon inquiry, which is wanting into why subpostmasters have been wrongly accused of taking cash, when it was defective IT gear that was responsibly for lacking funds.

One individual in Hartlepool says she despatched Royal Mail eight previous stamps she had purchased from a Post Office counter in WH Smith to be exchanged. A number of weeks later, she acquired a letter saying they might not be swapped as they'd “already been used or are not genuine”.

Susan Harrison, 60, informed the Telegraph: “I’m gobsmacked. If you can’t buy stamps in a post office without them being counterfeit then where can you buy them?”

Another clients informed the paper he despatched in £190 value of old-style stamps, purchased from his native Post Office, however was informed nearly all of them have been invalid. If a stamp is deemed fraudulent, the recipient will obtain a discover saying they should pay a surcharge of £2.50 as a way to obtain their publish.

And it is not simply clients exchanging previous stamps being informed they're counterfeit. Some who've bought the brand new stamps with barcodes have been informed that also they are invalid.

Organisers of the Dodson and Horrell Equine Championships reportedly posted greater than 200 competitor packs out to their riders with new stamps with barcodes they declare have been bought from a Post Office in Grantham, Lincolnshire, final month. They have been reportedly left red-faced after they had calls from rivals asking why they'd allegedly re-used stamps, a follow that's unlawful within the UK.

Teresa Stratford, the competitors’s normal supervisor, mentioned: “We started getting phone calls from people saying, ‘We’ve had to pay £2.50’. People were phoning up asking if it was a scam, it was a mess.”

Royal Mail made the swap to barcoded stamps as a part of its modernisation drive and to spice up safety. Consumer specialists Which? has now known as on the corporate to research “as a priority” any points with its new stamp barcode system.

Lisa Webb, Which? Consumer Law Expert, mentioned: “It’s unacceptable for recipients to be wrongly charged for stamps that have been bought legitimately from reputable retailers. It’s in Royal Mail’s interests to investigate as a priority any issues reported with its new stamp barcode system.

“Anyone who believes they have been wrongly charged for stamps marked as counterfeit should raise it with Royal Mail and the company must ensure that any customers who encounter problems with the new system are not left out of pocket.”

A Post Office spokesman mentioned: “Post Office Ltd receives its stamps direct from Royal Mail’s secure printers and are shared with our experienced Postmasters and operators to sell in their Post Offices.

“We take any allegation of fake stamps at our branches seriously and will always require a receipt as proof of purchase before we can investigate.

“As part of this, any alleged fake stamp needs to be double-checked by Royal Mail to verify the status of the stamp.”

A Royal Mail spokesman added: “We encourage any customer who believes they have been incorrectly surcharged to send the stamps they have remaining to us. It is important that we can investigate and determine whether the stamps are genuine, as well as understand exactly where they were purchased.

“Barcoded stamps have been in use since February 2022 and each barcode is unique. This uniqueness enables our machines to check the validity of stamps and to identify barcodes that have been through the network before.

“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.”