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You could buy the new A- and B-Post stamps in the old year, but woe to whoever used them.
The new A and B Post stamps were sold in Swiss post offices from December 20, but they could only be canceled from January 1, 2022.
This regulation caused a shake of the head at the post office counter. A postal customer from the canton of St. Gallen experienced it. For the last two of his New Year’s letters, the Eastern Swiss ran out of the “old” one-franc postage stamps on December 30th, which had previously been used primarily for A Mail letters. So he simply stuck new 1.10 franc postage stamps on the envelopes, giving the post office 20 cents as a present.
Nobody told him when he bought the stamps that the stamps were only valid from the New Year.
«Gift» is not accepted
His “gift” was not appreciated: the woman at the post office did not want to stamp the two letters with the 1.10 franking. The customer was two days too early, they were only valid from the new year, it said. “The employee made big, thick circles around the stamps and put the two letters in a separate compartment,” the stunned St. Gallen tells the SRF consumer magazine “Espresso”. You don’t know what’s going to happen with these letters now, said the woman at the post office counter.
The St. Gallen resident was so amazed that he left the post office without further comment. He didn’t know when his two New Year’s letters would be sent.
Post: “Employee did the right thing”
Was the postal worker just having a bad day or was she misinformed? No, says Post spokeswoman Léa Wertheimer, she did the right thing: “A postage stamp is a so-called stamp like a banknote.” And a stamp is valid from a certain point in time. In the case of the new postage stamps, that is January 1st, 2022. “That’s why you couldn’t get a service from the Post with this stamp.”
The question arises: isn’t the Post opening an office unnecessarily? Léa Wertheimer says: “It is a great effort for customers and employees that we can manage this change.” After all, a new speed control also applies from a certain day, says the Post spokeswoman: “It takes a little getting used to for everyone involved.”
Sometimes accommodating – sometimes less
It should be mentioned that if customers frank a letter too low in the New Year, Swiss Post will turn a blind eye for another four weeks. On the other hand, customers who overpaid a letter with the new stamp in the old year received a ruffle.
The two “incorrectly” franked New Year’s letters from St. Gallen’s still reached the recipients by A Mail.