JAMES BOND: TWO DIFFERENT PRESENTATION PACKS EXIST
My thanks a customer who emailed, and to 'Anonymous' who commented:
These sound like Retail packs (R for retail) such as those A4 packs retailed apparently exclusively by WHSmith. But nobody knows anything about them!
The error in sending the APRs to ordinary customers was noticed, but too late to know who had been sent the wrong pack, so they could not be recalled. If you have not examined your packs yet check them, and if they are wrong, phone or email the usual contacts to arrange for a returns number and a replacement. It is not necessary, as anonymous unwittingly did, to forgo the normal pack and buy the loose stamps and MS instead.
I hope RM will include something about this mistake in their Bulletin to alert their customers who are not readers of this blog.
Since adding this to the James Bond Stamps post, another Royal Mail customer has emailed to say that:
"I have spoken to 4 other collectors this afternoon who were unaware of the error, and when they looked at their Presentation Packs found they had been sent the Retail pack instead of the usual pack."
My thanks a customer who emailed, and to 'Anonymous' who commented:
Has anyone else been caught out by the different Presentation Pack (code AP472) arrangement for this issue? On my copy at least, rather than plastic pockets to hold the stamps and MiniSheet, the items are stuck directly onto the cardboard of the pack (thus making them no longer Unmounted Mint).
I rang RM, and was told that it was standard policy for this issue (the nice woman at RM didn't know whether it would hapen for subsequent issues). I've arranged to return the PP for a refund and have bought the set and MiniSheet separately.When the second such report arrived I check with my contacts at Royal Mail. Apparently there were two versions of the Presentation Pack AP472 and APR 472. The latter had the stamps stuck to the card (but not cancelled) and are not, therefore, what most collectors want. No information about this APR pack was supplied to dealers, nor indeed to the people who handle our orders!
These sound like Retail packs (R for retail) such as those A4 packs retailed apparently exclusively by WHSmith. But nobody knows anything about them!
The error in sending the APRs to ordinary customers was noticed, but too late to know who had been sent the wrong pack, so they could not be recalled. If you have not examined your packs yet check them, and if they are wrong, phone or email the usual contacts to arrange for a returns number and a replacement. It is not necessary, as anonymous unwittingly did, to forgo the normal pack and buy the loose stamps and MS instead.
I hope RM will include something about this mistake in their Bulletin to alert their customers who are not readers of this blog.
Since adding this to the James Bond Stamps post, another Royal Mail customer has emailed to say that:
"I have spoken to 4 other collectors this afternoon who were unaware of the error, and when they looked at their Presentation Packs found they had been sent the Retail pack instead of the usual pack."
As the person who posted as Anonymous, I'd like to say thanks to Ian for investigating this so quickly and thoroughly. Clearly the RM helpdesk people were not aware of the mistake when I talked to them on Tuesday - it's good to know that they should be now.
ReplyDeleteJohn
When I tried to get a presentation pack from my local Post Office, a WHSmiths one, I was told they had only been sent the display version, and none of the proper ones. They are usually accurate, but not always 100%.
ReplyDeleteAre we going back to the days when Post Offices had a display of available stamps in Crown Offices?
Ah the good old days.
Do these packs have a ‘collectable’ value like the sample books, have these packs been produced before and no one has noticed/found them? Are Royal Mail producing more to get money from people.
By producing these for sale, are Royal Mail producing something, which someone looking for a souvenir, which no collector would consider being the presentation pack, going to find in years to come that their purchase was not what they assumed it to be?
As usual more questions than answers with Royal Mail these days
Hmmm yes I have been sent the "stuck down" version. Thanks for highlighting this! I would probably never have inspected the pack that closely if you hadn't mentioned it!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, that explains the lengthy delay in receipt of the PP AND the half sheet of £1.60 values from RM Shop....For the record I gave up on WHS in the Galleries Bristol as stock was not guaranteed to be available on FDI......despite Jackie (ex RM Galleries) having been employed post-retirement)!
DeleteThe other question is who was the "Noddy" who decided to include 007 in the MS perforations.....when you tear them (for FDI purposes) it makes a hell of a mess!!!
Too many of these are being issued, if you are young , I am not, affording these new issues must be prohibitive.
ReplyDeleteRegards Peter