tiresome paypal postage

yorkshirecath

Still not working for me. Pull your finger out Royal Mail!!

QuackQuack_2

If you find that normal postage won't work - be persistent and keep trying. Typically it takes 3-5 goes.
[I suspect that where it has been down for so long, the amount of traffic now trying to use the back end servers is causing a denial of service! type problem]

Parcels (PW24/PW48) are still not working - but you can get a better deal anyway - with collection - from Citylink via:

http://www.parcel2go.com/

They accept Paypal but I can't speak to how reliable this is. I read mixed reviews - but then I read mixed reviews about Parcel Force and at least Parcel2go's system is up and working.

supersaver09

I'm not being funny here.....but why exactly has this happened?
Have R. Mail given any kind of "explanation"?

QuackQuack_2

supersaver09 wrote: »

I'm not being funny here.....but why exactly has this happened?
Have R. Mail given any kind of "explanation"?

They appear to be staying as tight lipped about this as possible, a few vague tweets is about it. It's not surprising, it's hugely embarrassing and further trashes their public image - a national embarrassment.

I suspect one of the main issues in resolving this will come down to who provides their systems support and software. My guess is they are probably on the west coast of the USA and come in to work at about the same time Royal Mail IT staff are off to the pub for the day. That may just be pure speculation and has no basis in fact!

Personally, I doubt they care that much - thusfar it has been like 'am i bovvvered' from RM.

katchambers

Paypal postage appears to be working for the most part, only 1 refresh needed so far, so fingers crossed I can get all my orders out today!

JT4G

Does anyone else here use SmartStamp?

reason I ak is I have just spoken to them again and they say it should be working however I cannot get it to work just pops up with the message

There has been a communication error with the server.

Please try again later.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr so annoyed

QuackQuack_2

JT4G wrote: »

Does anyone else here use SmartStamp?

reason I ak is I have just spoken to them again and they say it should be working however I cannot get it to work just pops up with the message

There has been a communication error with the server.

Please try again later.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr so annoyed

They (@RoyalMail) tweeted this a couple of hours ago:

RoyalMail Royal Mail
Royal Mail Smartstamp still isn't available, but we are looking to get this back online as soon as possible.
2 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

supersaver09

QuackQuack wrote: »

I suspect one of the main issues in resolving this will come down to who provides their systems support and software. My guess is they are probably on the west coast of the USA and come in to work at about the same time Royal Mail IT staff are off to the pub for the day. That may just be pure speculation and has no basis in fact!

LOL! :rotfl:

custardy

QuackQuack wrote: »

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:

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.



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......

think your tinfoil hat is slipping.
You seem to have bought into the modernisation pipe dream
RMs version of modernisation doesnt work towards any improvement in service
as for getting a proof of posting. oh you poor thing.
what other system would you envisage?

JT4G

Oh well SmartStamp thank you for making my life easier and making my local post office love me so much when I go and take a total of 69 medium size jiffy bags all different weights and mainly for uk & europe with a few for the usa to them in about 30 minutes time.

And thank you for the break I will get whilst standing there for best part of 40 minutes (just like yesterday) while each one is scanned and stamps applied to them....

:T