Royal mail pushing parcel collect

[Barnacle]

‘Nobody is staying in all day waiting for a postie, just to save a few pennies.’

Businesses operating from homes are doing exactly that.

I don’t know of any businesses using the customer collection option when other payment plans are less expensive.

Obviously never happens if you don’t know about it.

And you do? Why would any business choose to pay the more expensive option when it comes to postage?

Probably because it is not ‘the most expensive option’ for the stage their business is at. They’re too small for the cost of a business collection, they don’t use franking, they want to continue operating from home for as long as possible before moving into premises when all of their costs will rocket etc., etc. There are numerous reasons why small home businesses use postie parcel collect.

[LouBarlow]

‘Nobody is staying in all day waiting for a postie, just to save a few pennies.’

Businesses operating from homes are doing exactly that.

I don’t know of any businesses using the customer collection option when other payment plans are less expensive.

Obviously never happens if you don’t know about it.

And you do? Why would any business choose to pay the more expensive option when it comes to postage?

Probably because it is not ‘the most expensive option’ for the stage their business is at. They’re too small for the cost of a business collection, they don’t use franking, they want to continue operating from home for as long as possible before moving into premises when all of their costs will rocket etc., etc. There are numerous reasons why small home businesses use postie parcel collect.

That is fair. We have a customer on our duty who is a daily parcel collect who leaves them in a safe place. Perhaps that is what RM should be pushing to really make the service convenient.

[Beanyjazz]

They're doing drop off points in shops now too, 'drop off +' or something, had loads put on our collection routes recently. Won't be any POs left soon.

POs have started doing collections for rival firms over the last few months, think DPD might be one.

Aren’t the PO launching a new 24 tracked no signature label in April? - it’s on the pda confirmation tile

Yeah they are, they're doing 24/48 hr tracked from POs.

[gil]

What a wonderful waste of time had to pick up a card today to go abroad had a 2 labels one for address other customs declaration it gets worse and worse

[norris9]

Now and again I go to do a collection and take the parcel from the customer and they can't understand why I just take it and go....

That's what a collection is.... I pick up your parcel....

They say: 'is that it?'.....'don't I get a receipt'....

Me: Yes - that's it....bye....

Them: But wait, I am worried.

Me: You have booked this online - surely you have been given a tracking number when you setup the collection. Plus I have just scanned the label, so that possibly sends you a text or email to confirm collection.

Them: Can I just take a photo of the parcel with the label, I need to go get my phone...

Me: Fine...I haven't got time for this....but fine....


Is the system flawed, or are customers genuinely right to be worried?....should Royal Mail setup a thing where we give the customer some sort of receipt to confirm we have it. I assume that if someone collects the parcel but doesn't scan the item and then the item is lost, never to be scanned again and doesn't arrive at the destination, then I'd assume the sender would be screwed. Also, the customer doesn't know if we have scanned the item or if that starts the tracking process....and for them to check the sacn has appeared on the tracking we'd have to wait for them to faff about doing so....

[SMS1969]

When I have had parcels collected by my Postie, I always get an email receipt straight away.Never had a problem.

[TopperGas]

When I have had parcels collected by my Postie, I always get an email receipt straight away.Never had a problem.

If you do have a problem how do you ever prove the postie collected your parcel if they did convinently fail to scan it, or delete the scan as they walk down your drive/path?

[Barnacle]

When I have had parcels collected by my Postie, I always get an email receipt straight away.Never had a problem.

If you do have a problem how do you ever prove the postie collected your parcel if they did convinently fail to scan it, or delete the scan as they walk down your drive/path?

Supposing a customer did claim that a parcel was collected but has now disappeared, I imagine the first step of a manager would be to check the GPS location of the PDA at the time the customer has said the parcel was collected. This assumes that they know which postie was going to collect the item.

[LouBarlow]

When I have had parcels collected by my Postie, I always get an email receipt straight away.Never had a problem.

If you do have a problem how do you ever prove the postie collected your parcel if they did convinently fail to scan it, or delete the scan as they walk down your drive/path?

Supposing a customer did claim that a parcel was collected but has now disappeared, I imagine the first step of a manager would be to check the GPS location of the PDA at the time the customer has said the parcel was collected. This assumes that they know which postie was going to collect the item.

They will know. They also can see where the parcel was scanned as collected.

[Rael, the IAK]

We have a few small/home businesses in our DO area taking advantage of the free collections and sending maybe five or six packages a time, albeit with the sender’s name rather than a business name, so you do get smaller businesses using it. You can even have a second class signed-for small parcel collected for free — I had thought it was just tracked. However, the big earner for RM with the customer collect will surely be the Amazon returns — I’ve collected quite a few this week. Perhaps the “customer collect” thingy is really to entice the big names to use RM for returns.

Quite a few. Try 7 or 8 sacks. That’s great to get in a combo