I Wish The Post Office Would Stop Using Pens On Stamps !

Everyone needs to complain to the post offices in London & Yorkshire, I am getting to many like this every week. The pen really destroys the stamps. No good at all.



*** Edited by Staff to clarify topic title. Titles are important! ***

The 'fault' is with the sender not the Post Office. The postal authority have two responsibilities:
a)to deliver the mail
b)to ensure that the stamps are not reused for postal services.
These responsibilities they are fulfilling.

Whilst both the outgoing and receiving sorting offices should be able to pick up on an uncancelled packet and handstamp or machine-cancel it, the fact is that these places are extremely busy and highly automated. If an uncancelled item gets through to the delivering postman he does NOT carry a handstamp and inkpad; his instructions are to render the stamps unreusable with a pen. If he is found not doing so he could be disciplined and, at least potentially, lose his job.

If whoever is sending you these packages wants you to have the stamps nicely cancelled they need to take them into the office and ask nicely, rather than sticking a handfull of stamps all over the packet, in places where automatic machines will miss most of them anyway, and shoving it into a pillar box.

If the person sending them has no interest in the bits of paper stuck to the packet (and in the real world such people do exist)- then you are unlucky: he has paid for transport and delivery of the goods inside the packet, and the postal authority has safely delivered the same. What grounds have you to complain?

Perhaps we could ask the Post Office to insist on an attractive, Victorian copperplate for pen cancellations.

Just to make you feel better, it happens on this side of the pond as well. Usually not on letters, as they go thru auto cancelling machines, but on parcels and large flats it happens quite often.

What you are not taking into account is that the post office is not there for stamp collectors. As mentioned they are there to deliver the mail and prevent usage of stamps for a second time. Depending on the size of the receiving post office one really shouldn't expect the postmaster or clerk to go out of their job to make the envelope look pretty for the collector.

The problem is at the sending end. If you take a package or flat to the post office ask them to cancel it at the window. That will take care of the problem. All collectors should be doing that anyway as most businesses do not care one way or the other and rarely use stamps on mailings.

It is a problem that we collectors are just going to have to live with. Just feel lucky they were not using large felt markers! My PO does....

duncanvr
The way I see it..a standard cancel OR a pen cancel is performed by a legitimate employee of the Post Office, it is legal and maybe frowned on by collectors but it is what it is..
Robert

Here are 2 examples from the 1800's

Duncan:

We post most of these in the long-running MARKER MONKEY thread

https://goscf.com/t/3853

Kirk

I sympathize with you duncanvr. However, you can rest assured that you are not alone. I have been complaining to Canada Post about the same problem. We even had on tqo occasions, forms given to us to sign stating this problem, but, to no avail. To be blunt, they don't give a *(&$@@!@.

The post office entities are too big to care.

What also gets me is that they continue to pump out all their new issues and expect us to buy them. I have quit buying their new stamps about 3 years ago.

You might be interested in this link as well (?)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/869248826424145/

My opinion of course.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Folks enjoying this thread might also enjoy the 17 pages at:

https://goscf.com/t/3853 Marker Monkeys and other Stamp Crimes.

It has been less than 24 hours ...

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

I find it HARD TO BELIEVE that people here are defending postal employees who deface stamps. There is a SOLID business reason for a date stamp: to indicate the DATE & DISPATCHING POST OFFICE! If uncancelled appropriately the FAULT is with the post office. If defaced with a pen the FAULT is with the post office. It is nothing more than slipshod behaviour.

For goodness sake people.

(Upper case to indicate significant annoyance)

Well, I can't speak for Canada but in Britain THEY who issue the stamps and may have a vested interest in not annoying stamp collectors are Post Office Ltd. Beside producing the stamps they also own the Post Office counters. Which is why, as I and several others have said, your best chance of having your post treated as a philatelist would like it treated is to take it into an office.

The instant you shove anything into a pillar box, it becomes the property of Royal Mail PLC until it lands on your mat. THEY have nothing to do with the Government-owned Post Office Ltd; they are a privatised company. If you buy 10000 of Post Office Ltd's appalling stamps, you do not contribute a single penny to the wages of the poor postie who walks round in all weathers delivering them, and whom some on this site apparently refer to as a marker-monkey because he has not come to the conclusion that your hobby is more important than his/her job.

I hate defaced stamps also; nevertheless, and despite your annoyance, US postal carriers are instructed to put a last-minute scribble on stamps that have gone uncanceled. It's a shame, but it's a fact.

Am I really missing something here..I thought the reason for cancellation was two fold.

1 - Make sure the appropriate money was spent to deliver goods.
2 - Cancel to make sure some one does not use the stamp again.

Now, if it is a regular cancel...A pen cancel..or even a "hello Kitty"" cancel..The job assigned to the Post Office employee has been done.

Now lots of people complain about pen cancels but they would be the first to get excited if the letter had no cancel at all...

but like kirks says..It's a shame, but it's a fact.

If you were right wert there would be no point to having a date on the cancellation device. Furthermore cancellation is not a verification of appropriate postage having been paid.

why is there one...?

I explained that already. It is proof of dispatch by a post office.

Quote The instant you shove anything into a pillar box, it becomes the property of Royal Mail PLC until it lands on your mat

It is here too with Canada Post. My feeling is, as a collector, and the post office sure likes the revenue from us, you would think out of courtesy (since we spend good money on stamps), they would cancel the stamps properly. They have the equipment, so, use it. Mail is also considered to be a 'timed document', or, at least it used to be.

I still stand behind what I said and refuse to buy their new issues. I can't see the point if they are going to use magic markers or pens. This makes any stamp totally useless.

My opinion of course.

Chimo

Bujutsu