You can use stamps for posting Special Delivery and other premium mail.

You knew that, of course?  We all do - we've been using the postal service for up to 60 years and we know what's what, more or less - until the rules change.

So why raise the point?  Well the problem lies mainly with Business users, but I can see that the misinformation currently being spread by Royal Mail could also start coming from Post Office especially as more and more new people are employed in customer-facing positions.

Just as an aside on this last point, after the stamp alongside was withdrawn from sale in mid-2021, I took some mail to a sub-PO counter in a local Co-op corner shop.  

It weighed more than 100g, so I used one of these stamps and others. The person who served me didn't recognise it, didn't know how much it was worth, so didn't know whether the item was fully paid, and declined to accept it.  I had to take it to the local Crown Office where no such problems exist.

Anyway, I digress.  This (below in red) is what a business user was told by Royal Mail Business Customer Service when he tried to claim on a delayed Special Delivery packet:

that Postage Stamps would not be valid for paying the fee and that the use of barcodes (which we have on rolls of 250/500) could not be used.

That this was being phased out and that customers were advised last January. People using these barcodes and postage stamps as payment would have the item Surcharged.

She said that you have 3 ways to get a Barcode and have it paid for.

1) Online and Pay by credit card

2) Take it to the Post Office and get a computer generated Barcode.

3) Use a Franking Machine

 

Like I said above, misinformation - in the extreme.  So I also phoned Royal Mail Business Customer Service and had a very interesting discussion. 

Being an ex-civil servant and knowing the way bureaucracies work, I declined to accept what I was told (which was much the same).  I pointed out that until recently Royal Mail actually issued stamps which had a Special Delivery inscription for two weights.

I politely suggested that the Customer Service Assistant went and asked someone who had worked in Royal Mail for a long time, as I had - just the previous week - sent some invalidated stamps to the Swapout scheme, using stamps to pay for Special Delivery, and another by International Tracked to Canada.

(It would be nice if Royal Mail changed their 'hold' music from a short loop.  (When I called my car insurance company this week I was treated to a long play list of Beatles hits!)  It doesn't take long for it to become tedious.)

Eventually the point was conceded, but I was reminded that the items must be posted at a Post Office counter, not in a street box.  I should have held back, but replied that, "yes, that is the way that it has been since registration was introduced in the 19th century".   

I have now got written (email) confirmation of the point - although this really only addresses people posting at Post Office, but not businesses who have their mail collected.  I hope to get clarification on that soon.

UPDATE 31 July:  As this question was originally raised on behalf of business account users who often have their mail collected - who had been told that they would not be able to use stamps - I pushed the question again for business collections, and received this answer.

So provided businesses can get the silver or orange (or international) labels - which they cannot order from Royal Mail - they can carry on as normal.

 

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