Does PayPal postage threaten Post Offices?

custardy

macfly wrote: »

It is hugely complicated. Post Offices were split in to two, or was it three, categories about five years ago. Business and Community I think. At above a certain income level, your bulk payments for unpaid services were removed, but you got a higher cut of sales. Low income got a boost in "wage" but less percentage. Madness. As a one man band, I was expected to be in the Community bracket, but confounded them by having a business level too high for that. Year one, my income shot up by 25%. These percentages were then "adjusted". However, when the closures came they had to offer 28 twelfths times your best salary over the previous five years, an extra 13k for me.
I was both delighted and sad to close. I enjoyed skating around the rules and gave a better service. The downside for my punters was I ran it like Basil Fawlty.
So get your head round that one - I never really did.

how the heck did you manage the goosestep behind the counter?

macfly

Impossible. I remember when Archer complained his prison cell was 12ft by 12, so he couldn't exercise, and he was in it for hours during the day. I glanced around my 6ft by 4 cubicle and concluded I'd be better off in the nick.

custardy

macfly wrote: »

Impossible. I remember when Archer complained his prison cell was 12ft by 12, so he couldn't exercise, and he was in it for hours during the day. I glanced around my 6ft by 4 cubicle and concluded I'd be better off in the nick.

there is one in my old offices delivery area where its probably the same
teeny little booth tucked in the corner of a teeny corner shop
i never used to go there to pouch off, as going in with bag was a tight squeeze lol

toffe

they do still get paid if they are prepared to individually scan/log each item.

If they just chuck them in the post bag they get nothing.

Trouble is most sub postmasters don't understand this and just see the whole new fangled interweb net thingy as a big threat to their traditional business.

If they would just pull their head out of the sand and realise that this is 2010 not 1910 and tried to work with ebayers and other online sellers they would actually make more money not less.

where i live there are two post offices about equal distance from me, one flat refuses to take my pre-paid parcels and throws them back over the counter at me so now i take them all to the other post office where the postmaster is happy to take my prepaid parcels and laugh at the stupidity of the other post master for refusing to take them.

I know that this post master has a number of ebay sellers using his post office and i wonder who makes the most the post master who accepts ebay parcels in their hundreds each week or the one who refuses hundreds of parcels each week to sell dear old ladies a second class stamp once a fortnight on average and cash a few pnsions.

macfly

They are not all stupid toffe. These are self employed people, and have bought those businesses. Postmaster number two is making less money than if he sold the postage, for the same amount of work. There are always people who will work "on the cheap".
I found that if you engage people in the ins and outs, you get a better response. Hardly any of my ebayers self stamped. Think about it. The Royal Mail get you to use your own paper and ink, with no discount, and then pay the sub office less for dealing with it. You wouldn't stand for that anywhere else.

hermum

The one I asked at was in a CO-OP supermarket, I only use that one if someone pays for something late in the day as I can walk there if just something relatively light.
I like to use the little sub post office a couple of miles away & I do that when I'm on the way to the woods with the dog.
I buy the postage from them as I want to see them stay open, not that my little bit will make a huge difference. It makes me feel that I'm doing something to help.

toffe

macfly wrote: »

They are not all stupid toffe. These are self employed people, and have bought those businesses. Postmaster number two is making less money than if he sold the postage, for the same amount of work. There are always people who will work "on the cheap".
I found that if you engage people in the ins and outs, you get a better response. Hardly any of my ebayers self stamped. Think about it. The Royal Mail get you to use your own paper and ink, with no discount, and then pay the sub office less for dealing with it. You wouldn't stand for that anywhere else.

the fact is when a subpostmaster buys into the royal mail franchise they agree to a set of rules laid out by the post ofice as they are effectively, as franchisees, operating a business under license.

part of running a post office is that you are not just a retailer of postal products and services but a drop off point for prepaid and franked mail and parcels for all royal mail group customers, this includes parcelforce.

therfore as a customer i don't expect to have my items thrown back at me when i go to drop them off at a royal mail post office just because i paid online for my postage.

The postmaster has the choice to get paid if they wish to log the items individually. if they can't be bothered that is not my problem.

toffe

i might add also that the postmaster who now accepts my ebay items used to be just as bad as the other, alright he used to take them but my god did he moan about it.

so, i offered him my business direct, i said if it's me not buying the postage from you that bothers you i'll bring them in adressed up and you can do the postage on them, at the time we were talking 50 or so recorded parcels a day (i sell alot less now) i said i'll leave em with you and come back at the end of each day and settle up and what do you know he didn't want to, said it was too much work.

there is just no pleasing some people.

finallycruising

Many thanks for all the comments. I've never seen him scan the items so maybe he doesn't know? (I guess you mean the two dimensional bar code that gets printed on the label?) As a private seller I only post a couple of items a week but I've had a lot of Australian buyers recently with postage in the region of £12 per package.

The main reason I use it is to save time at the counter and to ensure I get the most cost effective service. He's been very bad at either following my instructions or giving me the most cost effective service. As a result I weigh and cost all the items anyway.

On the subject of proof of posting, surely a suitably 2010 approach would be to have postboxes that automatically scan the package to confirm posting?

P

custardy

finallycruising wrote: »

Many thanks for all the comments. I've never seen him scan the items so maybe he doesn't know? (I guess you mean the two dimensional bar code that gets printed on the label?) As a private seller I only post a couple of items a week but I've had a lot of Australian buyers recently with postage in the region of £12 per package.

The main reason I use it is to save time at the counter and to ensure I get the most cost effective service. He's been very bad at either following my instructions or giving me the most cost effective service. As a result I weigh and cost all the items anyway.

On the subject of proof of posting, surely a suitably 2010 approach would be to have postboxes that automatically scan the package to confirm posting?

P

the costs to buy/install would be massive and in real terms only cover a small amount of items that fit
also if the scanner was in the slot,what happens if it doesnt scan?
RM are busy cutting and slashing,embracing new technology is not in their game plan im afraid