On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 16:09:50 +0000, Bob Eager wrote:

On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 16:05:14 UTC, Jules
wrote:

On Tue, 19 Sep 2006 17:10:41 +0000, Bob Eager wrote:
The bar code can be printed as many times as you wish. Use it more than
once and only the first letter to be franked will get through without
postage due charges being raised. Seems a solid solution.

That's an interesting one, though - the idea of "item has been delivered"
must presumably be done at some sort of final sorting office - it says
nothing about whether an item gets lost between final sorting office and
final destination. In other words, it's still not without flaws.

I don't think delivery comes into it. It's the 'logical franking' that's
the point.

With conventional stamps, they are cancelled by a 'rubber stamp' and at
that point become non-reusable. This doesn't happen on delivery, but at
the initial sorting office. I would guess that barcode scans (and thus
'logical franking') happen at the same time. Whether the item is
delivered or lost is irrelevant in BOTH cases.

Oh, absolutely. I just mean to say that, as a consumer, there's no real
improvement over the physical stamp process - items still need to be
weighed in order to know correct postage, things can still get lost in the
system etc.

On top of that, from what I've read here, you can't even buy one of these
things as you would a physical stamp and then use it as and when you see
fit, because both the date and the recipient are encoded in the new
version.

I'm sure it's a beneficial system to some people - I just have a feeling
that to many more it'll be less convenient than stamps (so I hope RM
aren't going to remove the ability to use the latter any time soon, or use
it to justify closure of more post offices!)

cheers

J.