Local post office refusing to scan my packets
My local post office has recently informed me that they cannot scan my large letters or parcels at busy times. All my Royal Mail labels are printed directly from Amazon on thermal labels. Most are large letters and exempt from VTR when printed out from Amazon.
Now I know post offices are meant to scan parcels and letters but I have been through that with them and they flatly refuse at busy periods.
My question is… where is an alternative to drop them off? There is a mailbox for “metered mail” at my Mail Centre. Does anyone know if I can post them there? or is that reserved for franking machine mail.
I have noticed a few of the Royal Mail parcel boxes about. Can I use them? And can I put my large letters in there too? All have RM 4x6 thermal labels printed out on Amazon.
I have also read about Royal Mail Customer Service Points where you can drop your mail off directly into the Royal Mail system bypassing post office. Would this be a good idea? Has anyone experience of this?
I presume each individual large letter does not need a scan on drop off. I am thinking as long as the label is printed on Amazon it is automatically exempt from VTR.
Any suggestions for the best course of action would be appreciated. It is frustrating that post offices are refusing to scan when they are busy.
Local post office refusing to scan my packets
My local post office has recently informed me that they cannot scan my large letters or parcels at busy times. All my Royal Mail labels are printed directly from Amazon on thermal labels. Most are large letters and exempt from VTR when printed out from Amazon.
Now I know post offices are meant to scan parcels and letters but I have been through that with them and they flatly refuse at busy periods.
My question is… where is an alternative to drop them off? There is a mailbox for “metered mail” at my Mail Centre. Does anyone know if I can post them there? or is that reserved for franking machine mail.
I have noticed a few of the Royal Mail parcel boxes about. Can I use them? And can I put my large letters in there too? All have RM 4x6 thermal labels printed out on Amazon.
I have also read about Royal Mail Customer Service Points where you can drop your mail off directly into the Royal Mail system bypassing post office. Would this be a good idea? Has anyone experience of this?
I presume each individual large letter does not need a scan on drop off. I am thinking as long as the label is printed on Amazon it is automatically exempt from VTR.
Any suggestions for the best course of action would be appreciated. It is frustrating that post offices are refusing to scan when they are busy.
Seller_qxZGxVkxyyPQF
There are several big letter boxes installed mostly outside post office or on roads where you can simply throw parcels inside that big red box.
You can also go to main Royal mail depot before you got put all of your parcels in royal mail sacs/bags, tie the bag, put it on trolly outside office then go inside tell them you put parcels/prepaid labels on trolly, they will ask you to put your company name and number of bags you drop.
Thats all!!
56 replies
Seller_BS5lg2keRs2QO
What kind of daily volume are you talking about?
Seller_KjHQOlTKYaPEw
my local PO invite me to pass over all my items in a RM mail sack and they scan in their own time, so I needn’t wait
your PO sounds as if it is cutting off it’s own nose to spite it’s face, as they get a good commission for every item they scan, I bet they’ll be sorry if you go elsewhere
Seller_ZjZ4slOF0jHpk
Like @Carolyns_Cosmetics you could do click and drop (or if they’re not doing C&D, ask to be able to leave things to be scanned). You create a manifest and drop everything off in a sack(s) and they do the actual purchasing & labelling according to your manifest. I didn’t go down that route as I don’t trust my PO to do it right 100% of the time. They’re always trying to put parcels through at the wrong size.
Anyway what about a sorting office? Can you drop mail off there? Not sure they will scan at the counter though. Someone more experienced should hopefully know.
Seller_qxZGxVkxyyPQF
There are several big letter boxes installed mostly outside post office or on roads where you can simply throw parcels inside that big red box.
You can also go to main Royal mail depot before you got put all of your parcels in royal mail sacs/bags, tie the bag, put it on trolly outside office then go inside tell them you put parcels/prepaid labels on trolly, they will ask you to put your company name and number of bags you drop.
Thats all!!
Seller_So4cfa2TwpZTV
We just pass all our items over the counter at the two post offices we use. They scan them in their own time when it’s more convenient for them. They just hand us the confirmation receipts the next day when we drop off that day’s post. Maybe you could ask your local post office if they could arrange something similar for yourselves. We also post the large letter packages in a normal post box that has a late collection at 8pm. We purchase these labels directly via Amazon and ebay and never had a problem when we just put them in a post box.
Seller_LKjg1QRrO36Yq
My local PO started making a fuss about Amazon Buy Shipping labels last week. They insisted that the price on the SP labels was wrong.
I tried to explain that while online prices for SP have gone down, counter prices have gone up. They refused to believe me (
)though they did scan them in.
There seems to be a distinct lack of communication between RM and some local POs.
The gap between online and OTC is now quite high - £2.85 against £3.35, a whole 50p extra.
Seller_2Zn4LKv3YOnlV
I drop my parcels off either at local PO where they process/scan when convenient - I collect the receipts the next day. Sometimes they are very busy when I drop off, so I let them know if there is anything urgent or Special Delivery and they make sure those are done first. I send small parcels - all on a signed for service, which means they not only scan the barcode but also have to input the address details manually into their system which is quite time consuming for them when I turn up with 40 parcels. They were not very helpful to start with, but once we had a chat and understood each others business needs we found a way forward that seems to work well for us all.
Occasionally I drop off at the main sorting office which is a 30 mile round trip in a city centre (and is also a Royal Mail Customer Service Point) - they don’t give me a receipt but they do scan them all, and Royal Mail have accepted a screen shot of the scan at that sorting office a s a proof of postage when the occasional parcel has gone astray and I’ve made a claim. The sorting office accept parcels later than the PO.
My PO cannot accept Royal Mail 48 or Royal Mail 24 ( tracked or otherwise) so those HAVE to go to a sorting office.
Seller_3di7P6gi1JyqG
Amazon makes commission off buy shipping, the post office therfore makes nothing as Amazon has snapped it all up. If Amazon snaps up all the commission from buy shipping resulting in the post office making nothing from posting eventually the post office becomes a failed business.
Seller_hnJy2He6uzeGX
Yes, I had this problem last month when the Royal Mail system was down and the local franchise post office told me that they couldn’t scan. The staff attitude was appalling so I decided to change what I do. We are in a rural location and so cannot be driving to a “local” delivery office so the simplest thing for us is to put all the letters and large letters in the post box (which can mean it is crammed full) leaving only the small parcels to hand in to the franchise PO. On days when we have sacks we have to take to the delivery office who are much more friendly that the local crowd. By cutting out the middle man as much as possible our theory is that Royal Mail will invest further in the Click and Drop system (oh please get the payments to work on a Sunday night!). Having recently pulled out of Amazon Small and Light we have started saving significant sums of cash and the amount of stress we have shed as a result has been fantastic (no amazon stock losses, delays, outages, and the fees we were paying for multiple units purchases have made a huge saving). Now we do two shippings a day (where Amazon might be compared to a week in the jail) and the customer response has been superb. Another massive saving for us has been the sudden lack of non delivery claims or wrong order claims where we were getting a large percentage using Amazon FBA. Of course EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT and I am sure there are businesses in cities that are better served by their local PO, or businesses that sell single units and can handle all the delays, returns, outages, and stress etc, but for us, the old click and drop, post box system is by far the cheapest, most efficient, customer pleasing and simplest.
Seller_rv8HvOWVigeUM
perhaps tewll them you are familiar with the royal mail charter and will take it further - or even say shall I stand at the counter and buy stamps for each parcel one at a time ?
