Genuine Alternatives To The Post Office

southerndave

Having had yet another parcel disappear into the depths of a sorting office despite paying for 48hr service (currently it's up to five days and still no sign), I have had enough of the RM/Parcelfarce and wondered if there are any reliable and hopefully cheaper services for small and medium sized packets and parcels for items sold on eBay.

We have in the surrounding towns and villages two main post office with staff as miserable as sin who detest helping/advising and even taking your money, and four sub post offices which open odd hours and all seem to charge different rates for the same sized packets and again provide 'service with a sneer'. Aside from the fact it must be a terrible pain to have customers wanting to give you money for services and keep you in employment, you'd think they'd be a bit more helpful.

But they are not, so I want to try an alternative - any ideas?

RFW

Up to 1kg standard post not really.
Between 1 and 2kg there are a few.
2kg and up, there are lots of options.
If you're sending a decent quantity you can quite easily get a selection of couriers for between £5 and £6 plus VAT. There's a courier thread on here with plenty of options/suggestions.

All couriers have their problems though, some are far worse than Parcelforce.

You could also look at getting a Royal Mail account where your post would be treated marginally better and you wouldn't have to deal with the Post Office staff.

It's amazing how some rural post offices sneer at customers, unfortunately it's more a problem with how the system works, often they are doing transactions that don't earn their business anything. That said, it is never the customer's fault.

The post office I use is a busy main one and the staff there are often poorly informed and give out the wrong advice.

westy22

Collect + is an option to consider - I have always found them to be fast when returning parcels to suppliers so I have no doubt that they should be equally fast when delivering items to customers. http://www.collectplus.co.uk

soolin

westy22 wrote: »

Collect + is an option to consider - I have always found them to be fast when returning parcels to suppliers so I have no doubt that they should be equally fast when delivering items to customers. http://www.collectplus.co.uk

That is 'fast' as in two of my items sat in the original shop for several days when I used them the first time. They make Parcelforce look like speedy Gonzales