Advice about Franking Machines

Micky_d

Hi all, I am soon to launch a web shop to help with sales in my small business. I have comissioned a stand alone web shop and am also selling via a basic shop on ebay.

I have a courier in place for products over 1KG but have many items that will need to be sent via royal mail. I have had quotes from several companies for the hire of a Franking machine but they vary wildly. Each company have taken great pleasure in slating the others and questionning their print quality and prices.

Could anyone out there offer any advice as to a good (but cheap) company who will provide a good service for a Franking machine.

Maybe you could suggest something totally different. Any suggestions would be grateful.:(

McKneff

Cant comment on the Franking machine but be careful when buying the labels, places like Pitney Bowes cost a fortune, then there are the others who will sell you boxes 4 times the price that yo can buy them elsewhere. You can get them on ebay for a tenner for 1000 so dont be taken in.

jexygirl

I had a free trial of a PB one last year via vistaprint, purely because I do a once a year mailshot with our xmas party leaflet and figured we were doing it anyway and could save on it!. They were fast, efficient and helpful, I got £25 of free credit and designed my logo online for free which was on the machine within an hour. They advised the full costs of creditting it etc. and how best to go about it, and it saved me about £45 overall. Called them to collect after i used it and there was no quibble, collected as promised fast and no follow up harassment /emails etc.
I think to make it viable /make a saving after the free trial, we would have to send at least 15 letters /items per week to break even, so anything over that is a saving, anything under that is not worth doing. I would also not worry too much about print quality of a franking machine.
If you google free trial pitney bowes (to answer the above post, it came with a roll of stickers, but i would definitely agree had we kept it to source them elsewhere!) give it a months trial when you start up and see what you think, at least then you will know what you are looking for, as well as how well the buisness takes off so if it is needed to begin with.

Ambit_miffed

And buy the ink from elsewhere too!

McKneff

If you have a small business I'm not sure whether it warrants a franking machine

Have you had a look at the hire/lease prices lately..........

martindow

And look out for extra costs too - charges for putting credit onto the machine and updating postage prices for instance. I had a month's trial with PB asnd decided it wasn't worth it as I still needed to go to the PO to get certificates of posting stamped.

I think if you have a large volume of packets going that make it worth paying for RM to collect it could make sense. I would wait to see how your new shop goes and hold of franking until you know how much you are sending out.

paulwf

It might be worth looking at http://www.royalmail.com/discounts-payment to see the range of options available. Are you looking for the convenience of printing your own stamps or are you looking at getting a discount for bulk sending of mail? That might determine what option is best for you.

I agree with Martin, avoid getting tied into specific contracts or equipment until you know what volume you are sending.

ukbill69

If spending over £5000 per year with RM, then PPIU is very good and offers same rates as franking.

Micky_d

Hi, thanks to everyone who replied. Great advice. I think I will wait 3 months to see how much mail I have and then try a free 30 day trial if I can justify it.:T

terra_ferma

ukbill69 wrote: »

If spending over £5000 per year with RM, then PPIU is very good and offers same rates as franking.

do you mean PPI (Printed Postage Impression) or is there a U as well now?

Would definitely recommend a proper business account as you don't have to buy/hire a machine, and can get better rates

Laurencek

We use Pitney bows, it's worth it if spending more than £300 a month on post Just buy your labels and ink elsewhere as they charge a fortune If you want a direct email drop me a message and I'll give you the sales rep email address