MSE News: Amazon to deliver to Post Office branches

Former_MSE_Helen

Customers who order from Amazon will now be able to collect their parcels from one of 10,500 local Post Office branches...

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Amazon to deliver to Post Office branches




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Cisco001

Deliver to office branch is not free.
There already an option deliver to collecplus previously. Nothing special...

Pincher

Several years ago, I ordered something online (not Amazon), and they gave me the option of nominating a Post Office to send to.


I got an e-mail from the retailer that it was despatched, so I went the next day to collect, but it had not arrived. A week later, nothing happened, so I went to the Post Office to check. The clerk looked at me with a hated expression, because it was about to be returned, and it was taking up space in his small back office. I said I didn't know, but he insists that they sent me a card through the letterbox. In retrospect, I think the card probably got delivered to the wrong house, but it was a fiasco.


Otherwise, it's exactly what I want as a service, from ALL the online retailers, not just Amazon.

bongoali

If you're paying a 1st class delivery charge, why not get it delivered to your home address ? What am I missing?

Cisco001

bongoali wrote: »

If you're paying a 1st class delivery charge, why not get it delivered to your home address ? What am I missing?

If you are not at home when goods delivered, royal mail leave a card and ask you to collect to local depot. It is not the nearest post office.

lemontart

pity do not do as ebay do with some items and deliver to argos

zerog

This bizarre experience happened to me several years ago (before I grew to "love" the intricacies of RM and PO).

I was out when an Amazon delivery came. Now usually they leave it outside the door (where any passer by can steal it, but I live in a part of London where thefts are less common).

However this particular parcel was sent by Parcelforce which is part of RM and required a signature. If it had been regular RM, I expect they would have asked me to go to the RM depot, which is easy enough for me (though not for others).

For some reason, the courier decided to leave it at a "local" post office, 20 minutes walk away, rather than the closest one 5 minutes away.

This post office wanted me to pay them before they would hand over my parcel, as they said they charge a fee when customers choose to collect from a PO.

I challenged this fee by saying that I had not requested the courier to leave it at the post office. I would have been happy to rearrange a delivery or pick up from the Parcelforce depot (further away than the RM depot), but these options which were not offered to me.

They refused to listen but I told them I would not be paying and they would have to send the parcel back.

I also contacted Amazon with this story, but it is not possible to explain this sort of thing to an Indian who has not lived in the UK. Anyway, she got the gist of my message which was that I had not received my parcel and said she would follow this up.

3 days later, the normal RM postman delivered the parcel and didn't ask for a signature; I also received a full refund.

I sent an email to Amazon and 1 month later they deducted the cost of the product from my gift card balance - but they also sent the product again - as I received another Parcelforce card saying that another parcel was at the same post office!

This time, they were willing to give it to me without a fee! But as it was rather bulky and I already had the product, I told them to send it back again. Fortunately, it did not arrive by regular RM 3 days later.

custardy

Cisco001 wrote: »

Deliver to office branch is not free.
There already an option deliver to collecplus previously. Nothing special...

It is free for the Amazon customer.
On a side note,this isn't new.Amazon have used/had access to this service for years.

custardy

zerog wrote: »

This bizarre experience happened to me several years ago (before I grew to "love" the intricacies of RM and PO).

I was out when an Amazon delivery came. Now usually they leave it outside the door (where any passer by can steal it, but I live in a part of London where thefts are less common).

However this particular parcel was sent by Parcelforce which is part of RM and required a signature. If it had been regular RM, I expect they would have asked me to go to the RM depot, which is easy enough for me (though not for others).

For some reason, the courier decided to leave it at a "local" post office, 20 minutes walk away, rather than the closest one 5 minutes away.

This post office wanted me to pay them before they would hand over my parcel, as they said they charge a fee when customers choose to collect from a PO.

I challenged this fee by saying that I had not requested the courier to leave it at the post office. I would have been happy to rearrange a delivery or pick up from the Parcelforce depot (further away than the RM depot), but these options which were not offered to me.

They refused to listen but I told them I would not be paying and they would have to send the parcel back.

I also contacted Amazon with this story, but it is not possible to explain this sort of thing to an Indian who has not lived in the UK. Anyway, she got the gist of my message which was that I had not received my parcel and said she would follow this up.

3 days later, the normal RM postman delivered the parcel and didn't ask for a signature; I also received a full refund.

I sent an email to Amazon and 1 month later they deducted the cost of the product from my gift card balance - but they also sent the product again - as I received another Parcelforce card saying that another parcel was at the same post office!

This time, they were willing to give it to me without a fee! But as it was rather bulky and I already had the product, I told them to send it back again. Fortunately, it did not arrive by regular RM 3 days later.

Pretty simple.
Your PO confused RM local collect (fee payable) with their agreement with Parcelforce to offer collection facilities.
Your closest PO may not have been part of this service,hence it went to a PO further aay.

custardy

bongoali wrote: »

If you're paying a 1st class delivery charge, why not get it delivered to your home address ? What am I missing?

You are. If you know you wont be home. Would it not make sense to get it sent to a PO where you can (for example) collect from work,on your way somewhere,at a time the RM delivery office is closed etc.

custardy

Pincher wrote: »

Several years ago, I ordered something online (not Amazon), and they gave me the option of nominating a Post Office to send to.


I got an e-mail from the retailer that it was despatched, so I went the next day to collect, but it had not arrived. A week later, nothing happened, so I went to the Post Office to check. The clerk looked at me with a hated expression, because it was about to be returned, and it was taking up space in his small back office. I said I didn't know, but he insists that they sent me a card through the letterbox. In retrospect, I think the card probably got delivered to the wrong house, but it was a fiasco.


Otherwise, it's exactly what I want as a service, from ALL the online retailers, not just Amazon.

All retailers can have access to this. Its not an Amazon specific service.

http://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/Local-Collect-Customer-presentation.pdf