Trade in or use older Machins?

 To be perfectly honest it is easier and less stressful to trade in older stamps rather than use them for postage. Since January I have had several complaints from buyer that they have had delivery of mail held back unless they pay a fee of £2.50 for under paid or invalid stamps that I have used for postage.

Royal mail urge us to use all older stamps for postage whilst it is still possible to do so but refuse in lots of cases to accept them as genuine. My latest case (just last week) was one of a second class letter sent to Scotland. It had 2 x 33p ACP Machins and 2 x 1p PCP Machins attached which are still legal and the correct amount ie:68p. This was held back from delivery and the recipient was asked to pay a £2.50 fine. Refusing and armed with a UV lamp and stamp catalogue she marched up to the sorting office and argued her case. 

First this grouchy counter clerk implied the stamps were forgeries, this was disproved, they then argued that the stamps were used previously. This was also disproved. Eventually after bringing in the management they released the envelope without collecting the unpaid fee. In her words "Philatelists 1 -  Royal Mail 0"

A second case very similar to the above with several low value Machins attached. The recipient refused to pay. After 7-8 weeks the letter was returned to sender (me) via my letter box by my postman. The sticker with £2.50 underpaid still in place and return to sender written on the packet in biro, the stamps were also cancelled in biro. The best part of this story is there was no actual charge to return it. I could have argued this case that they owed me compensation but decided that for 85p it was not worth 2 to 3 hours of my time.

How can they get something so simple so wrong? 

Send a message Victor Meldew style to Royal in four words or less. 

I DONT BELEIVE IT!

TRAIN YOUR STAFF! 

GET IT TOGETHER!

Rant over.