tiresome paypal postage

tulsa3000

blue_monkey wrote: »

Transfer the money and wait a few days for the money to get to your account and then go to the Post Office and buy over the counter. But email your customers and tell them that the system has been down so you have to get into town to post them and you cannot do that until Friday. That will buy you a few days but at least you have been straight with them.

Thank you so much, I just got 5 printed out before it went back down...but i am going to do that, thanks again..:-)

tulsa3000

soolin wrote: »

Is there no chance at all you can find the money from somewhere and get these items posted? Buyers may well be expecting their parcels and be rather upset if they don't arrive in a timely fashion. It could seriously damage your despatch stars if you delay.

None atall, I have 1,2 and 3 year old children and buying and selling on ebay is my only spare income these days, I rely on the service provided completely, and also taking 25 items to my local post office is so difficult too. I got 5 printed while it was up earlier. I am going to take the other guys advise and email customers and tell the truth, honesty is always the best way on ebay. P.S If I could, I would have.

RFW

QuackQuack wrote: »

My local CityLink have picked up three parcels from me that would have gone with Parcel Force. Initially they wanted more money than PM but when I promised to switch all of my larger parcels to them they price matched at £13.50 each. Can't say farer than that!

Have you had a look at the courier threads on these forums, you can shave a good few pounds off that parcel rate, I think even with City Link by some resellers.

If you're sending regularly you should be able to get a better rate too, sounds like we have a higher volume but we pay less than half that amount for next day courier post.

As for Royal Mail, it says a lot about the company and how it is being run that it has the whole online postage system restructured at the busiest time of the year. It doesn't appear to have come very far since it scrapped it's name change to Consignia almost ten years ago.

king-arthur

RFW wrote: »

Have you had a look at the courier threads on these forums, you can shave a good few pounds off that parcel rate, I think even with City Link by some resellers.

If you're sending regularly you should be able to get a better rate too, sounds like we have a higher volume but we pay less than half that amount for next day courier post.

As for Royal Mail, it says a lot about the company and how it is being run that it has the whole online postage system restructured at the busiest time of the year. It doesn't appear to have come very far since it scrapped it's name change to Consignia almost ten years ago.

I cancelled my courier accounts 2 years ago when parcel2go.com became so cheap. There's no need anymore to negotiate sending volumes. I send out heavy servers around the 20kg mark for less than £10, albeit full insurance is extra though. They're becoming more and more competitive recently, especially on sub 2-3kg parcels sent on the 3-5 day services. I think CityLink is listed on there below £10 for the next day service.

RFW

king-arthur wrote: »

I cancelled my courier accounts 2 years ago when parcel2go.com became so cheap. There's no need anymore to negotiate sending volumes. I send out heavy servers around the 20kg mark for less than £10, albeit full insurance is extra though. They're becoming more and more competitive recently, especially on sub 2-3kg parcels sent on the 3-5 day services. I think CityLink is listed on there below £10 for the next day service.

Not really relevant to this thread, but you can probably still negotiate a volume deal with 3rd party sellers, we've got a pretty good deal doing that, knocking about 30% off their list rate.

There are still a few couriers that won't use 3rd party sellers that offer pretty decent rates for volume.

JT4G

SmartStamp still down, had to take 63 orders to local PO today can't say they was to happy but they did stamp them all up for me did take a while though hope its back up again later this morning have another 50 or so to send....

QuackQuack_2

Was able to get four labels out of it at 4.30am (figured I'd beat the rush....), but it was temperamental (having to keep refreshing page when I got the familiar:

PayPal Postage is not available. We apologise for the inconvenience.

However, Parcelforce services would not work at all, and the thing finally died again at 5:10am.

Do Smartstamp customers still have to pay £5 a month for this? I'd be wanting a quarter of that refunded given that it has not worked for nearly a week now.

JT4G wrote: »

SmartStamp still down, had to take 63 orders to local PO today can't say they was to happy but they did stamp them all up for me did take a while though hope its back up again later this morning have another 50 or so to send....

That's the funny thing. The "Save your local Post Office" soap boxers, and ex-royal mail staff seem to have this romantic dream that a friendly post master waits to greet us at our local counter.

The reality is often different; Staff moaning about the quantity of mail. Other PO users in the queue moaning about the quantity of the mail. Staff saying they don't have space for certain parcels, the general slowness of the operation, the methods of payment they are able to accept. It's rarely a positive experience. It's bad enough having them prepaid and handing them over, let alone trying to do business with a Post Office counter. Sadly due to the instances of loss or theft in the mail - and to some degree the dishonesty of some customers who use this line - it's an absolute requirement that items are sent signed for or at least with a certificate of posting.

What is for sure is the system needs radical improvement and modernisation and that will never happen while Stalin and the CWU self satisfactionists seek to stop and disrupt that at every twist and turn.

EDIT
Managed to get a few more out of the system with persistence, but no Parcelforce stuff (either drop off or arrange collection). That's still very much borked. Still, who would want to send parcels at this time of year........

Funny how yesterday was the last day to send cheap surface mail to Western Europe. I'm sure it's a coincidence that it has started to work this morning now that deadline has passed......

davenport151

Looks like everything is up and running again. I managed to get ONE label done last night about 9.30,then completed the rest at 8am (fingers crossed!)

QuackQuack_2

davenport151 wrote: »

Looks like everything is up and running again. I managed to get ONE label done last night about 9.30,then completed the rest at 8am (fingers crossed!)

The main 'Royal Mail' options are mostly working, but the Parcel options with Parcel Force are still dead (PW 48 / PW 24).
This is a particular pain because the cost via Paypal is £12.99 & £13.50 respectively. Whereas if you pay online direct to Parcel Force PW48 starts at £19.99.

I doubt they'll fix the Parcel Force options anytime soon as history has show them to be slow. If you shift lots of parcels your local CityLink will usually set you up an account. Failing that TNT / Yodal may be viable alternatives.

JT4G

Still no smartstamp for me and I pay 5.99 per month to use this damn service oh well 50+ orders to send today local PO will be happy to see me later

James