Smilers to follow Business Customised Sheets into history?

Following the cessation of the Business Customised Service, this announcement is currently showing on Royal Mail's Smilers Stamps page:

Important Notice: Thank you for your interest in Smilers®. Please note that the Smilers® service is going to be put on hold for an indefinite period after 5pm (GMT) on Thursday, 26th July. Customers will not be able to order personalised Smilers® sheets after this time either via the Royal Mail website or by post. All orders received before then will be fulfilled as normal.

A reader has forwarded a separate correspondence about this which coincides with the launch of Royal Mail's new online shop:

I wanted to let you know that the personalised Smilers ® service is going to be put on hold for an indefinite period after Thursday 26th July as Royal Mail launches its new online shop. Customers will not be able to order personalised Smilers ® sheets when the new web platform goes live until further notice.

In preparation of the migration to the new website, we reviewed the range of products and services we offer on the current website and took the decision not to migrate the personalised Smilers ® service to the new shop when it goes live and to suspend it for the foreseeable future. Whether or not the service will be reintroduced at a later date is still to be decided.

I should add that we will continue to offer Generic Sheets, Exhibition Sheets and Commemorative Sheets.

Given the increasing cost and, more importantly, lack of publicity surrounding the personalisation service in recent years, I suspect the public - who don't send that many stamped social letters anyway - have forgotten about this service, and that most recent productions have come from philatelic societies and so on.  The failure to make each year's Christmas stamps available will have hastened this, because that is one area where there could have been sales. (See also this blogpost from two years ago.)

However, what demonstrates clearly that Royal Mail - at the same time as marketing special stamp-related products outside the hobby - are continuing to target stamp collectors with unnecessary sheets is the continuation of the Generic Sheet.  Remember, these were originally produced in response to collector and trade complaints that personalisation was an expensive way for collectors to buy stamps which were not available from any other source.

Given that Royal Mail have produced Generic Sheets which include stamps not available for the personalisation service, I regard these as just the same as Business Customised Sheets - posters which happen to contain stamps and a quite unnecessary addition to the programme.  The sooner these cease the better, as far as I am concerned, though I don't see that happening anytime soon.

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Dad's Army pricing error: another PO/RM foul-up

Once again, miscommunication between Royal Mail Stamps and their retail partner Post Office Ltd has left collectors either confused or overcharged.

As was the case with the New Tariff definitives, these two professional organisations have managed to mess-up the pricing of the Dad's Army Generic Sheet.

Apparently somebody has confused this with other more expensive sheets and decided to retail it at £13.90 instead of the correct price of only £7.50.

According to the person who reported this:

I was purchasing the new Dad’s Army Generic Sheet at the Post Office. What a surprise awaited instead of £7.50 I was told it was £13.90 and I could either take it of leave it. The Post Office told me that was the price set by Royal Mail and that was the price they had to sell it for.

Royal Mail confirmed the price should be £7.50, but the Post Office wouldn’t budge. The cashier was very reluctant to call the manager. When he did appear he had the same outlook, that’s what Royal Mail had priced it at.  Grudgingly he phoned someone in the Post Office, complaining about customers complaining to him about the price. Apparently there is to be a meeting about the debacle. No time frame given.

It isn't rocket science.  Royal Mail have had this £7.50 price in their publicity material and on their website for months.  How can one of the team that communicates with Post Office get this so wrong?

I hope we will get a much quicker resolution than before, and that the PO HQ team will quickly get the Horizon pricing system corrected, and allow customers to get a refund from any post office that sold the sheets.  Last time it was over 2 weeks before they relented.

UPDATED 3 July - message from Post Office Ltd.

We were incorrectly advised initially by Royal Mail which is being looked into. 

If you or anyone else has been overcharged we now have an agreed process. You can send your receipts to: Royal Mail, Stamps and Collectibles Business Enquiries, PO Box 1373, SUNDERLAND, SR5 9PG Please include a note with the receipt stating ‘Dad’s Army stamps overcharge’ and also include your name and address. 

Alternatively you can send an e-mail to business.enquiries@royalmail.com with a scan of the receipt. Please can the title of the e-mail be ‘Dad’s Army stamps overcharge’ and can include your name and address details in the text of the e-mail.

UPDATED 24 July - via reader TJ from Royal Mail:

I do apologise for the inconvenience this may have caused you, unfortunately we are not offering refunds for this. We can offer you 2 x of 12 x 1st Class stamps book free of charge, which would normally cost £8.04 each.

Well, £16.08 refund for a £12.80 overcharge (2 sheets) is quite generous, but considering the battle some people had..... maybe not that generous.  This is something that should never have happened.  And as with fines on utility companies, they will still make the customer pay eventually, in the next products.

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Hampton Court stamps 31 July 2018

As you know, we can't provide details of these stamps yet.  Cover producers can show them on their covers etc from 19 June - and hence you can see them on other blogs - but we can't show them or provide details until 12 July.   In the meantime we have received this note from a reader.

I have received a note from Tallents House saying that the cost of the Hampton Court Palace issue will be £19.39. My first response was this may include some NVCs, but I now suspect the amount for my particular order is made up as follows: Stamps 3 @ 67p, 3 & £1.55 = £6.66; Mini sheet 2 @ 67p, 2 @ £1.45 = £4.24; Retail Books 2 @ £4.02 = £8.04 Post & Packing 45p Total £19.39. So no Prestige Stamp Book. We wait to see what happens.

Hampton Court Palace is one of the best-known buildings in Britain and one of the grandest. Ranked among the top British historic attractions for almost two centuries, the palace is inextricably linked to the Tudor king Henry VIII, one of England’s most famous monarchs.

In 1838, the young Queen Victoria opened it to visitors and remains open to visitors to this day.

The issue forms part of the Royal Palaces series following Buckingham Palace in 2014 & Windsor Castle in 2017, and we can confirm that, unlike those earlier sets, there will be no PSB for Hamtpon Court.  The other details above are correct, and as before the set of 6 show external views and the miniature sheet shows internal views, as does the retail booklet. This wasn't mentioned to us in the original programme but has now been added.  We won't carry many of these because nobody will want the Machin's contained therein. See the designs here.

UPDATE 4 July. As we are producing maximum cards for this issue, I am now able to show them here, although without the postmarks as yet (click on the images for larger versons):

1st class: South Front, West Front and East Front.

£1.55 - Pond Garden, Maze, Great Fountain Garden

Miniature Sheet: 1st class - Great Hall and King's Great Bedchamber

Miniature sheet: £1.45 - Chapel Royal and King's Staircase

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Web-shop notice for customers

Thank you for all the recent orders.  Most orders to 4328 have now been despatched.

We are waiting for more supplies of many of the recent books which we will offer as whole books and as singles.  With this, and our visit to Philanglia (St Ives, Cambridgeshire) at the weekend, there will be a delay in processing most new orders until next week.

Apologies for the delay.  We hope all 2018 codes issued will be back in stock, at least temporarily.  As far as we know there will be no more new stamps, except perhaps the 2nd Large business sheet, and premium rate stamps, until mid-September.

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Two more new stamps added to the shop - but with a twist

I am pleased to say that the 2p counter sheet and 1st Large business sheet 2018 printings have now been added to our shop - see 'recent additions'.

The twist is that the 2p is a 'non-visible change (NVC)' stamp printed by Walsall on 09/02/18, the same date as the 10p, 20p and £1 stamps - which were distributed by Royal Mail Tallents House to customers with NVCs as standing orders.

Obviously having discovered it after the previous distribution, they cannot economically distribute the 2p alone, so they have indicated that it will be delayed until September when the 1p, 5p and 2nd class Large counter sheet stamps will also be available.

Meanwhile the 2p can be found in Post Office branches across the country - and can be bought from Royal Mail's business website!  But dealers cannot buy from Royal Mail through normal trade channels.  What a farce.

SO.... if you regularly get NVCs from Royal Mail you don't need to buy this stamp from us - nor to pay 99p on eBay!   On the other hand if you want (and don't get) positional blocks then we have them.

 

An updated version of our Checklist will be available shortly.  Thank you to those people who have read it so thoroughly as to find the errors: doubtless some still exist, for which we apologise.  Please let us know if you find any.

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New stamps added to our shop

I am pleased to say that we now have stocks of several of the new stamps and booklets, which can be found on our webshop as 'Recent Additions' and in the 2018 Definitives and Booklets categories.

The additions are:

2931.8   2nd class from retail booklet of 12
2933.8   2nd Large from retail booklet of 4

2914aB.8  1st class from business sheet
2936a.8  1st class from retail booklet of 12

ME 7a.8  12 x 2nd booklet
MF 9a.8  12 x 1st booklet
RA4.8      4 x 2nd Large booklet

Latest news on the Walsall printing of counter sheets - and this is by no means final news - is that Royal Mail intend, as they did on 23 May, to distribute all the new printings to standing order customers for non-visible changes in September.  Rather than issue single stamps as they become available, which is uneconomic for them even if they charge 45p to send customers a 2p stamp, the 1p, 2p, 5p and 2nd class Large counter sheets will be distributed coinciding with the Autumn Stampex issues (World War I and Post and Go).

As readers have reported the 2p is widely available in Post Office branches up and down the country, and may have been available briefly from Tallents House in error.  We will list the 2p as soon as we can find a local post office that has stock, and the other values as they become available. Indications are that current Post Office and Royal Mail stocks of some values are sufficient for a reprint to be delayed until at least August.  Time will tell.

Because of attendance at Stafford Stamp Fair and Philanglia there will be some delay in despatching orders of these new stamps.

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June Slogan Postmarks

June's slogans has got off to a flying start with a new one in use on the first day!


Coronation 65th Anniversary
Thanks to MB & RW for the two different versions of this slogan both used on 1 June 2018.  One from Mount Pleasant and the other from North West Midlands.  I wonder what they used at Tyneside?

Commemorating the

65th anniversary of the

Queen's Coronation

2 June 2018

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Chippendale 300
Thanks to MB for sending the second slogan for June.  This appears to be a one-day campaign on 2nd June and we only have one version so far from Edinburgh.
Update: Thanks too for an example of the other format from Gatwick on 4 June, so apparently running in parallel with the Scott one below.

Chippendale

300 years

1718-2018

A celebration of Britain's

greatest furniture maker 

  

 

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Scott 150
Thanks also to JG for the third slogan, in use apparently on 4th June, period unknown. Again the only example so far is from Peterborough Mail Centre.  (See also Chippendale above, used on 4th June.)

150 years since the birth

of polar explorer

Captain Robert Falcon Scott

6 June 2018

 

Update: Thanks to GF we now have the alternative which is a 6-line format, from Belfast's Northern Ireland Mail Centre used on 7 June.

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Update 11 June.  Thanks to BM we can now show the fourth new slogan in June, this one marking the 250th Anniversary of the Royal Academy, used at Peterborough on 8 June.  Would have been useful on 5 June for first day covers of the related stamps, but not used in time.  Another sales opportunity lost by Royal Mail.

RA250

1768-2018         

12 June: Thanks to MB we can now show the alternate layout from North West Midlands Mail Centre, dated 11 June, so clearly this slogan is running for a few days.  Unfortunate that Chippendale and Scott were celebrated on their birth anniversaries which coincided with the issue of the Royal Academy stamps.  The Royal Academy was founded on 10 December 1768, but as this is the 250th anniversary year most of their celebrations are taking place in the summer.

UPDATE 6 August:  Thanks to 'McSet' who sent yet another example of out-of-period use, with this RA250 slogan from Tyneside used on 31 July.

 

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18 June:  Thanks to MB and RW for the two different examples of the Father's Day slogan from North West Midlands and a poor example from Norwich both dated 15 June.

After that one-day slogan the default seems to be back to 'youth mental health Action For Children'.  This has been seen on 2nd class from SE Anglia on 15th and Manchester on 16th.

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19 June:   Thanks again to MB and to CH for the two versions of the latest slogan which makrs the award of the Walter Scott Prize to Benjamin Myers, one from Exeter and the other from North West Midlands both on 18.06.18

Congratulations

Benjamin Myers

Winner of the 2018

Walter Scott Prize

for historical fiction

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25 June:  MB has opened his post again and sent an example of this year's Dog Awareness Week slogan. The Dog Awareness campaign runs every year and today's media has many reports due to the hard work of the Royal Mail media team. It's a pity they can't send the same info to philatelic journalists so that the information is available in advance: it wouldn't harm their media activity. BBC link.  Belatedly we have the alternative layout from MB, from Dorset and SW Hants dated 25-06-2018.  See also July's listing which shows this in use at North West Midlands on 7 July.

Dog Awareness

Week 2018

Get advice & tips at 

royalmail.com/

dogawareness

 
 

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27 June: The Art Fund - the operating name of the National Art Collections Fund - has a contest to find The Museum of the Year.  There are five finalists including the Postal Museum. MB has sent a copy of the latest slogan postmark which notes Brooklands Museum as one of the finalists - which suggests that there will be a slogan for each of the finalists.  But this series is likely to be interrupted by one tomorrow for Armed Forces Day which is this Saturday, 30 June.

The Brooklands slogan is from Edinburgh, and dated 27 June 2016. Thanks to MG we can at last show the other layout, from Lancashire & South Lakes (Preston) 27/06/18

             Art Fund_ 

             Museum of

                 the Year 2018

       Finalist

Brooklands Museum

 
 

* the underscore after 'Art Fund_' is deliberate and part of their operating name.

28 June:  the second museum of the year candidate to get a slogan is Ferens Art Gallery, this example from North West Midlands 28 June 2018.  And we also now have the Edinburgh version.

2 July:  the third candidate is the Glasgow Women's Library, used here in Edinbugh on 30 June 2018

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30 June:  As predicted a slogan was used yesterday, 29 June, for today's Armed Forces Day - and one arrived at Norvic Towers, from Chester & N Wales:

Armed

Forces Day

30 June 2018

 

Thanks to JG for sending an example of the other version from Swindon also on 29 June:

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As usual, we will be pleased to show more new ones that you find and will add them here or on the appropriate month's post, as soon as possible.

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