When is a tube not a tube - packaging

Rantband

This all depends on the length of the item as far as RM pricing is concerned.

prettyandfluffy

TheGardener said:

Other than take a triangular one to the post/sorting office  - and even than I suspect it will subject to the opinion/interpretation of whichever member of staff on duty - I'm not sure where else I can go. @prettyandfluffy - Nice idea  but I suspect my recipient might be subject to additional charges or the PO will refuse to accept it? Is this something you have tried?  

Yes, I've done this - for a different reason, because I wanted to make sure the contents were protected from getting damp.  I took it to the post office and paid at the counter and got a receipt so there could be no argument later on.  It was fine.

Jerry_Cornelius

I've sent a coupler of items in longish triangular shaped boxes and always identified them as small parcels, never had any issues at the PO when I posted em.

TheGardener

@Jerry_CorneliusThis is very encouraging to hear - thanks. 

MissPiggy85

If a tube is under the dimensions of a small parcel, it can be sent as a small parcel. That 'from £4-odd' is misleading. Its assuming the tube is longer than the small and medium parcel max length. 

martindow

MissPiggy85 said:

If a tube is under the dimensions of a small parcel, it can be sent as a small parcel. That 'from £4-odd' is misleading. Its assuming the tube is longer than the small and medium parcel max length. 

In the past I've put long narrow items diagonally in a small parcel size box.  The diagonal length is longer than the length of of the box.  I didn't fancy arguing in the PO that a 48cm tube would be OK as a small parcel where the maximum length is 45cm.

gazfocus

Just thought it was worth pointing out, those triangular ‘tubes’ from kite packaging don’t have anywhere near the strength of a cylindrical tube. We sell a lot of posters and have used those triangular ‘tubes’ in the past and some do unfortunately get squashed in the post. 

Regarding the classification, we’ve always sent tubes and the triangular tubes as small parcels. Mainly because we sell mostly on Amazon and our Royal Mail integration with Amazon doesn’t give the option for ‘tubes’.