Stamp substitutions

SIR – I sent 77 postage stamps, to the value of £57.98, to the Royal Mail Swap Out service.

Royal Mail sent me 77 first-class stamps, to the value of £73.15. The accompanying letter said this was because Royal Mail was “not always able to replace non-barcoded stamps with their like-for-like barcoded equivalent”. Is it any wonder that the company is losing money?

Jennifer Hurt

Chichester, West Sussex

SIR – Finding I had some first-class stamps without the barcode, I returned them to Royal Mail to be replaced.

Four weeks later I received an envelope containing a mixture of large first-class and second-class stamps – types I do not use. The letter said that Royal Mail might not have had the stock to offer like-for-like replacements, but the stamps provided were the same value as those I sent in – even though they are useless to me. Alan Brooker

Windsor, Berkshire