Aaagh run out of signed for labels

celestius

I wonder whether the local P.O. will give me some?!
Have ordered some but not arrived!
One of these little things that is going to ruin my day!

celestius

They gave me some :-) - definitely going to buy them some flowers to say thank you for their help this year!

charlies_mum

At Christmas, I always take a big box of biscuits into my local sorting to say thank you as they are brilliant

ailey

Oh gosh, I've never thought on handing in choccies or biscuits to our Post Office where hubby takes the parcels. Not like me at all! I must do that this year as they have also been excellent. I have given our postman a gift at Christmas for the 3 years that he's been our postie as he also was excellent and could not be faulted. Now we are back to having a posting who drop my mail in the vestibule and pulls over the outside door. I hate that so much. I get to the door quickly so they are just too impatient if something won't fit through the letterbox. I class my mail as just being abandoned when it is dumped on the floor. I must have a nice word in his ear and ask him to ring the bell or knock the glass on our inside door and let him know that I'll get there quickly. It kind of loses the personal touch when they just dump your mail. I always thought it was an offence not to put people's mail through their letterbox as anyone can pick it up otherwise.

About the Signed for labels, hubby got a good sized bundle today so you'll not have a problem.

kalsha

What signed for labels are these? Are these the blue and white ones with barcode on them? Don't you have to pay for them? Are they for a special service ie signed for or special delivery?

Asking because I am baffled by what happened to me last week. Postman left a postcard for me to collect an item from the sorting office with payment of £6 something for underpayment. I was expecting a large parcel, instead it was just an ordinary letter with 1st class stamp and this blue/white sticker with a barcode on it. Asked the man at the office to explain the charge and he had to ask two other collegues for explanation. I know £1 of it was admin charge. There was a long queue behind me (Saturday 8am!!) so I just left it. I can't understand what happened. If the sender had done a special delivery, he must have purchased those labels and paid for them - so why do I have to pay? Did he just stick the label without paying for the service?

celestius

The ones I wanted were just the regular orange signed for, not SD.
Last week the P.O. kept me supplied with grey mailing sacks as I kept running out, they are great!

olgadapolga

kalsha wrote: »

What signed for labels are these? Are these the blue and white ones with barcode on them? Don't you have to pay for them? Are they for a special service ie signed for or special delivery?

Asking because I am baffled by what happened to me last week. Postman left a postcard for me to collect an item from the sorting office with payment of £6 something for underpayment. I was expecting a large parcel, instead it was just an ordinary letter with 1st class stamp and this blue/white sticker with a barcode on it. Asked the man at the office to explain the charge and he had to ask two other collegues for explanation. I know £1 of it was admin charge. There was a long queue behind me (Saturday 8am!!) so I just left it. I can't understand what happened. If the sender had done a special delivery, he must have purchased those labels and paid for them - so why do I have to pay? Did he just stick the label without paying for the service?

The labels are free of charge, so in theory, yes, you can put them on the envelope without paying the extra for the service. You'd have to put them in a post box though, and the recipient would end up paying the extra fees plus an admin charge.

Special delivery and signed for items are usually processed at the Post Office (for non-business customers) as the post office scan the barcode upon accepting the item and charge the full amount due.

Signed for labels are orange, special delivery are blue and silver. The cheapest special delivery is £6.40, so if your sender had just put a first class stamp on along with the special delivery sticker and then just put it in a post box, then you would indeed end up paying £6+ for the service including the £1 admin fee.

kalsha

olgadapolga wrote: »

Signed for labels are orange, special delivery are blue and silver. The cheapest special delivery is £6.40, so if your sender had just put a first class stamp on along with the special delivery sticker and then just put it in a post box, then you would indeed end up paying £6+ for the service including the £1 admin fee.

It was the blue and silver one. So the sender just stuck that sticker without paying? I still don't understand - it has a barcode on it so shouldn't the post office, scan that and make the buyer pay before posting? Otherwise what is the point of the barcode??

KxMx

The sender may have put it into a letter box instead of posting through a Post Office.

As has been demonstrated by this thread, people often have labels at home so that wouldn't necessarily require a visit to the PO to send.

More than likely that's what has happened.

olgadapolga

kalsha wrote: »

It was the blue and silver one. So the sender just stuck that sticker without paying? I still don't understand - it has a barcode on it so shouldn't the post office, scan that and make the buyer pay before posting? Otherwise what is the point of the barcode??

That's what SHOULD happen, but as KxMx has said, the sender clearly did not go to the Post Office but used a label s/he had at home.

I send huge quantities of post and have a supply of Special Delivery and Signed For labels at home. However, I wouldn't dream of putting these items in a postbox; mine always go through the Post Office and I pay at that point.

The barcode is to allow Royal Mail to track the item as it's a tracked service - if you have the barcode number (13 characters I think) you can see where it is using Royal Mail's website.

theonlywayisup

olgadapolga wrote: »

That's what SHOULD happen, but as KxMx has said, the sender clearly did not go to the Post Office but used a label s/he had at home.

I send huge quantities of post and have a supply of Special Delivery and Signed For labels at home. However, I wouldn't dream of putting these items in a postbox; mine always go through the Post Office and I pay at that point.

The barcode is to allow Royal Mail to track the item as it's a tracked service - if you have the barcode number (13 characters I think) you can see where it is using Royal Mail's website.

With due respect, most sellers who send 'huge' quantities of Mail via RM do so via PPI and as such stick the labels on and the Mail goes nowhere near a Post Office.

PPI SF and SD are bought by 'huge' users on account and don't need any input from a PO at all.

SF is not tracked it's a signature on receipt. SD is tracked. RMT is the business tracked service.