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."
