I use the APC almost exclusively to send packages, and I noticed last week that it dispensed a slightly different stamp when I selected my own value of postage. No big deal to me; in fact, I thought it was great because the stamps printed faster than the old kind! I stamped my two packages and went on my way.

Well, one of them got returned to me yesterday (EDIT: oops, two days ago) because there was no stamp on it! I wondered if I had just forgotten to put a stamp on it or something. I'm prone to lapses like that, even though I had never done that with a package before. Or maybe, I thought, the glue on the new stamps wasn't as good.

I brought the returned package with me on today's trip to the APC, and when I picked up my stamps, I noticed that the adhesive is not only weaker than it used to be, but it's only applied to the sticker in two long stripes. So it's not even on the entire stamp! Same deal with the larger ones that get printed with DC on them, although they have more than two ahesive stripes on them. In addition, although the small stamps can be printed two to a strip, today the machine told me it was having "technical difficulties" and could only print one stamp to a strip. Maybe the post office knows that a smaller stamp is more likely to fall off with such a small bit of adhesive on it.

Anyway, has anyone else noticed these newer stamps with the adhesive stripes? Make sure you REALLY stick them on there -- they don't seem to be as sticky as the old ones!

Hmmm...maybe want to bring additional glue in the future?

And consider using the USPS comment/complaint line to mention this.  That you had a package returned b/c of lost UPC postage, due to the new adhesive.  Paying multiple times to mail the same package isn't kosher, much less the additional mail time and mail delay & extra handling.  They will probably want to correct that pronto, so make sure they know it's being  customer problem.

I have thought about bringing tape or glue with me. What a pain, though, you know?

And I've definitely considered calling the USPS about this, but I am a little lazy right now. :) My main priority was to warn other PBS members about this in case they run into the same new stamps!

I haven't noticed that yet with the APC. I'll be watching because I use the APC almost exclusively (when it's not broken, of course).

But when I get counter postage, one of the window clerks sticks it on the package with one fingertip ... not even pressing it down at all. You can see air between the postage and the package at the edges.

I've actually had to reach across the counter to stick the postage down better on my packages. I'm positive that the clerk thinks this is rude .. but when you can clearly see that the postage is not stuck firmly at all ... what else is there to do?

I'm not really that OCD about sticking stamps to packages ... but when you can clearly see that they are likely to fall off ... could you just ignore it? (I can't)

Thanks for the heads up! 

I went to the APC again this morning and the stickers have already been replaced with the old full-adhesive-backed ones! Yay!