Click and Drop - not allowed to drop at post office??

[jaynehyman]

I have been using Click & Drop for the last couple of months for my business. I'm typically dropping off no more than 4 or 5 parcels a week at the moment, taking them to my local post office which is close to my house.

They've been accepting them and scanning them, but today I was told by the person at the counter that the Post Office is a separate company to Royal Mail and that Click & Drop parcels should be taken to Royal Mail depots instead. I was confused as this was the same person who had dealt with most of my previous parcels.

I took them to the depot which involved a drive into the city centre through busy traffic (so not exactly ideal!). I asked the man at the depot counter about what I had been told and he said this was the first he had heard of that rule! Can anyone shed light on this matter? I can understand that it might not be ideal for a small Post Office to deal with a large drop off of parcels (which may happen as my business grows), but I'm confused as to why it's suddenly now an issue? The Click & Drop website doesn't indicate there is any issue with taking parcels to a Post Office.

[Molto1]

I had a problem similar to this yesterday.

Whenever I send anything I always use Click and Drop (2nd class or 2nd class signed for) and up to now I have not encountered any problems.
Yesterday I was sending something worth over £50 so tracked 48 was the best option - I selected that and headed to the post office.

The parcel wouldn't scan.

I did notice when I was clicking (prior to dropping) that on the options to post the Post Office option was greyed out, but I didn't think anything of it at the time.

I mentioned this to guy at the counter as he trying again to scan the parcel and he said I may have to take it somewhere else.
"Where?" I asked.
"I'm not sure," he replied.

It's only after researching online I understand I have to take tracked items to a Post Office Collection Window rather than the actual Post Office.

This is obviously an inconvenience as there aren't as many collection windows as there are actual post offices - also, I believe the collection window closest to me is shut some days and only open 2 hours a day early in the morning on the days it is open.

However, my main issue is that, having posted stuff at the collection window in the past, I know for a fact that they don't issue receipts there.
Sometimes they will stamp the paper I print off with the labels, if I ask. Often the stamp is barely visible.
Other times they will tell me they don't know where the stamp is so just take a picture of it at the window.

It seems odd that this would be the procedure for the more expensive postage option and, more than likely, more expensive items.

Is a stamped bit of paper or a photo of my parcel at the collection window good enough for a claim should the parcel go missing?

[clashcityrocker]

You can have them collected.

[Snaggletooth]

If I recall correctly, the Post Office can only process click & drop if the product you are using is one of those it is allowed to sell. So not Tracked48, amongst others. This has come up before on here.

[jaynehyman]

If I recall correctly, the Post Office can only process click & drop if the product you are using is one of those it is allowed to sell. So not Tracked48, amongst others. This has come up before on here.

Ah ok, this may have been the issue as I think a couple of the parcels were Tracked 48 but they didn't make it clear this was the issue at the Post Office. Bit of a bizarre system, but I'll ask them to clarify which services they can't process next time I go in.