Royal Mail’s SmartStamp online service has been hit by a new wave of “technology issues” as the April 30th deadline looms for buying stamps at their current rate.
With post offices running out and some limiting the number of stamps both consumer and business customers can purchase, some critics have claimed Royal Mail is in no hurry to sort out the issue, which has been ongoing for nearly five months.
One observer said: “People are rushing to buy stamps before the price hike. Can it be a coincidence that the website is down or is Royal Mail simply protecting its future revenues by limiting availability?”
Royal Mail first acknowledged the problems in its Twitter feed yesterday, tweeting: “We’re aware there have been some issues with the site over the weekend & this morning, so sorry for that.”
The company has admitted it is rationing the number of stamps it supplies to discourage customers from bulk-buying. It is also preventing store owners from stockpiling stamps at the cheaper rate and then selling them on at the higher price.
Royal Mail has capped supplies prior to the rise to 20% of each retailer’s annual allocation, leading to some shops selling out. Superdrug, for one, will only be able to buy and sell stamps again once the higher price kicks in.
But undeterred, customer panic has set in ahead of the sharp rise, which will see first class post rise from 47p to 60p and second go from 36p to 50p.
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