Ways to avoid post office queues after all of this

[Deleted User]

What are the alternatives to standing in a queue where sending out small and medium parcels is concerned? These would need to be tracked, I can't take a risk sending standard post. let's say if I sold anything from 5 to 15 a week to start with. Are there any deals that can be done with couriers or block bookings were you can get all parcels collected 1 day a week or something along those lines whereby I can book via an agent online for a discounted price? When I was originally franking items I was often called by Royal Mail so as to set up an account whereby they would collect but wanted to charge me a large fee each month if I could not meet the monthly targets so I don't want to be caught in a trap where I have to have x amount of parcels going out the door. 

If anyone could give some advice as I'm trying to prepare for when I reopen. Thanks in advance 

martindow

Are you sending Special Delivery or are you talking about signed for when you mention a tracked service?  You really need to consider what extra cost you are paying for enhanced services compared to standard post.  Many people here find that lost parcels or buyers claiming not to have received them are quite rare (although there are a lot of delays at the moment) and the extra postage cost is not justified.
I am sending RM items using one of the large post boxes that have been set up recently to avoid going into the PO.  It possibly would not work for you as they only take up to small parcel size.  Details here
https://www.royalmail.com/d8/parcel-post-boxes

[Deleted User]

martindow said:

Are you sending Special Delivery or are you talking about signed for when you mention a tracked service?  You really need to consider what extra cost you are paying for enhanced services compared to standard post.  Many people here find that lost parcels or buyers claiming not to have received them are quite rare (although there are a lot of delays at the moment) and the extra postage cost is not justified.
I am sending RM items using one of the large post boxes that have been set up recently to avoid going into the PO.  It possibly would not work for you as they only take up to small parcel size.  Details here
https://www.royalmail.com/d8/parcel-post-boxes

Thanks for your reply. I always though that if a case was opened on eBay for a parcel not received you had to have a valid tracking number. If you're sending out standard post then you only have proof of postage receipt with customers door number and post code so you wouldn't win a case with this proof.

Because I make custom items which can take many hours, I need something better than proof of delivery if an item was lost or damaged simply because these are not ready made items that I can just send out straight away should anything happen to the parcel. I've got to take into consideration the time spent making items as part of the cost. 

soolin

Daveym79 said:

martindow said:

Are you sending Special Delivery or are you talking about signed for when you mention a tracked service?  You really need to consider what extra cost you are paying for enhanced services compared to standard post.  Many people here find that lost parcels or buyers claiming not to have received them are quite rare (although there are a lot of delays at the moment) and the extra postage cost is not justified.
I am sending RM items using one of the large post boxes that have been set up recently to avoid going into the PO.  It possibly would not work for you as they only take up to small parcel size.  Details here
https://www.royalmail.com/d8/parcel-post-boxes

Thanks for your reply. I always though that if a case was opened on eBay for a parcel not received you had to have a valid tracking number. If you sending out standard post then you only have proof of postage with customers door number and post code so you wouldn't win a case with this proof.

Because I make custom items which can take many hours, I need something better than proof of delivery if an item was lost or damaged simply because these are not ready made items that I can just send out straight away should anything happen to the parcel. I've got to take into consideration the time spent making items as part of the cost. 

Standard parcels now have barcodes that scan on delivery, it isn’t tracked and the compensation remains at £20. For PayPal and eBay protection you just need proof of delivery, not fully tracked. For a PayPal claim for fraudulent use of a card you need proof of posting .

As your items are delicate you might be very limited with couriers at a reasonable cost , many won’t cover fragile items, so factor that in when doing your research. 

Bespoke items can be difficult on eBay, so make sure you factor in a long dispatch time to cover your slow posting but remember for full paypal seller protection you must post within 7 days of payment. I know someone who has had to give up due to defects caused by buyers not confirming the personalisation required, her items merely needed a name adding but at least a quarter of her buyers never told her what name nor responded to messages for days and she was getting a lot of late defects. She also took losses as after a week she refunded the money if buyer hadn’t made contact, and that now will cost you your full PayPal fee.

RFW

There are lots of options with couriers. Guess your top end of parcels and ask them for quotes based on that. I've not done it for a while but UKMail are possibly one of your better options, Hermes and Yodel are the cheaper end. UPS used to offer some good deals with their own packaging (they have some specific sized boxes they use, you may be lucky and find one that fits your parcels. They will all collect from you. You'll need to know your weights and sizes. My courier contracts have been for higher weight parcels so you'll probably have different options available on smaller sizes. If that doesn't help check the third party sellers, you may end up with a cheaper deal from them than the couriers offer.
It may also be worth looking at Royal Mail again as they have changed some of their options. I stick with a franking machine rather than an account as I try not to post anything myself but occasionally have to take the strain off outside fulfilment, so it gets used sporadically rather than constantly.

[Deleted User]

Thanks. This was one of the reasons I ceased selling a lot of lines early on due to customers on ebay not sending details through although rarely did it affect my seller rating. I would send texts and emails if no response on ebay and on occasions did refund but normally got a reply sometimes 1-2 weeks after payment with customers forgetting or not realising they had to include details even though the item was clearly personalised. Due to it being a low value item that I sold a lot of much of my time was chasing customers so stopped selling these personalised items.

I'm slightly concerned when you say an item must be sent in 7 days for PayPal protection as if I were to choose 10 days dispatch on eBay which is my preferred method then what happens, as I don't think 7 days is reasonable for much of the bespoke items I sell. 

I would have thought by now ebay would have had something far better in place for sellers of custom and personalised items whereby the customer cannot reach the checkout page unless they fill in the personalised section for example. It's not difficult to put into place. 

soolin

Also look into click and drop as a business, there are a few options available and RM can assist in setting you up. Most mean you print your labels on the day of postage , bag them up and print a manifest , seal bag with a PPI label and drop off at mail centre or post office . The daily charges for postage are charged by direct debit a month in arrears .

The scheme I use gives me bar coded large letters as well as parcels, I do pay an extra 5p per LL but it is useful. I have to commit to a thousand LLs a year though to use the scheme. I use standard post for my parcels , again bar coded, and save about 5p per parcel and have no number requirement.

[Deleted User]

Let's say most of my items range from £30-70. I guess sending standard post isn't an option and therefore assume it doesn't make click and drop viable? If I were to use the likes of Interparcel to collect multiple parcels esch day then all this can be done from home and printed off, but if I were to use recorded or special delivery via royal mail then I would still need to go into the post office for them to scan any tracked mail defeating the object of avoiding a queue. 

RFW

Daveym79 said:

Let's say most of my items range from £30-70.

For what you need you should be using a courier.
Call/email them and see which ones work best for you. Unless they're weird shapes (assuming they're under 5kg) then you should be able to get a courier rate of £5-£6 or less.

[Deleted User]

If sending standard post, which to be honest never realised covered loss or damage against claims made on eBay is it best to print off stamps via eBay aswell then? I've never used ebay for printing stamps. Would I completely avoid the post office or are there any stamps that still require me to use the post office counter? Say I printed off a recorded delivery postage stamp I assume I would still need the person at counter to scan the recorded delivery barcode. 

soolin

Daveym79 said:

If sending standard post, which to be honest never realised covered loss or damage against claims made on eBay is it best to print off stamps via eBay aswell then? I've never used ebay for printing stamps. Would I completely avoid the post office or are there any stamps that still require me to use the post office counter? Say I printed off a recorded delivery postage stamp I assume I would still need the person at counter to scan the recorded delivery barcode. 

For proof of postage you will need to go to the PO, that's for both standard and signed for items. You would probably need to do that anyway if items are too large for a post box slot.