Royal Mail tracked

[jma3691]

I purchase labels for my Royal Mail tracked post from Ebay for my orders.  My local Post Office is telling me that from the 2nd April i can only purchase labels in branch and not on line.  I can not find any information about  this anywhere, is this correct?  I find it easier purchasing labels through ebay  and dropping off at post office, i am hoping she has got this wrong, does anyone else know about this?

[simplyessential_uk]

That is rubbish, Royal mail have a whole click and drop website for ppl to buy postage then drop off.  You can arrange a collection via ebay or use another post office and you can report them

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/contact-us/in-branch-customer-experience

[jma3691]

 I do hope so, i have used collection before but that's not always convenient.  I have noticed recently on labels a very small statement saying a supplemental charge for Post Office drop-off will apply, but not been charged when dropping off.  Using another post office would also be inconvenient as this one is in walking distance from my home.

 

 

[simplyessential_uk]

yes its 16p if you buy it via royal mails click and drop but via ebay the price for collection and drop off is the same so you wont be charged.  Often i will arrange collection and leave them in a designated safe place that you can put on the booking. 

Also via click and drop you can add in extra on the day (just enter the same email as you use for ebay) and it will recognise your booking to add extra then you manually type in the tracking code on ebay.

[douglaspuglas]

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@jma3691 wrote:

 I do hope so, i have used collection before but that's not always convenient.  I have noticed recently on labels a very small statement saying a supplemental charge for Post Office drop-off will apply, but not been charged when dropping off.  Using another post office would also be inconvenient as this one is in walking distance from my home.

 

 The supplemental charge message is on some 48 hour tracked labels bought from eBay.

I say some because when I bought 48 hour tracked small parcel labels recently one had the message but two didn't.

[bazinga-games]

Yes, Post Office branches will be selling Tracked from that date - I have been told the same thing.  You can still buy them elsewhere, too, of course, but if you want to support your local PO you can buy them there.

Im not sure if ALL PO counters will be doing it (ie: smaller ones in Spar shops or whatever), but it definitely applies to actual PO branches.

[tommystrezures]

THats correct as of next week PO's will offer Tracked 24 and 48 services, although I think its still a little more than buying direct from RM on click and drop.

2nd upto 2Kg Tracked 48 will be £3.89 and Tracked 24 £4.79

Also note that the signed for service insurance changes from £50 down to £20. Although this service is pretty much becoming redundant, as its only cost viable on a standard letter. If you have a large letter of 100gms or more go tracked 24/48 again as its cheaper at £3.50/£2.70 respectively.

So yes perhaps your local post office was encouraging you to support them as a local business. Although from what you say they haven't worded it well!!

[jma3691]

That would make more sense, she definitely said I would have to buy from them and wouldn't be able to drop off my prepaid ebay labels (it's a counter in a small local shop).  I will go to a bigger branch this week and ask them for clarification.

I mainly have large letter post which she said will be £2.70 for 48 tracked - so the same I pay now, but would mean me writing out labels / return address and having to manually putting tracking numbers on ebay.

I am assuming that if I can still drop off my prepaid orders I will get charged the 16p extra that was mentioned by the other reply.

[tommystrezures]

Yes they should accept them, however they only get paid an acceptance fee of a couple of pence for scanning them in to the mail bags, however the fee to the post office will be more if you actually purchase over the counter or have a drop and go account for example.

Purchases from RM incur the 16p fee and I think some of the ebay ones do, but not entirely sure as we don't use their services. We prefer to support our local post office and keep it open.

[technthread]

The 16p PO charge doesn't apply to tracked large letters, only small parcels and above. 

Royal Mail tracked large letters are now available to buy on Parcel2Go so just putting this out there, if you use a cashback site and Parcel2Go are on there you can now get some cashback on these Royal Mail labels. 

[eastern-lights]

My village post office has told me they will at some time stop accepting pre labeled mail. Possibly this is a sub post office thing. Possibly optional. Depending on space available?

But some official notification would be nice.

[tommystrezures]

I can't promise anything, but will follow up on that point and a couple of other issues mentioned here with our sub postmaster this week as he is part of a wider group here in the north west and can obviously find more out through his contacts with regional and national managers.

[4_bathrooms]

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@eastern-lights wrote:

My village post office has told me they will at some time stop accepting pre labeled mail. Possibly this is a sub post office thing.

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A lot of sub Post Offices are funny about taking pre-paid items, especially if someone is dropping them off regularly. This is because now Royal Mail and the Post Office are separate companies the PO counter has to process any pre-paid (to Royal Mail) items effectively for free.

Until fairly recently Tracked services were only available to Royal Mail account customers and could not be dropped off at a PO counter. Royal Mail recently introduced Non Account Tracked services - this is what you are purchasing on eBay or Royal Mail's website -  that can be dropped off at a PO counter as they are treated as a retail service. As I understand it a surcharge has now been added to (Non Account) Tracked parcel services bought online if you choose the option to drop off at a PO counter during purchase; if the surcharge hasn't been applied the item needs to be collected (for free) by the postie, dropped off at a Royal Mail delivery Office or at a postbox/parcel box.

The 10 year Second Mails Distribution Agreement means the Post Office still accepts Royal Mail retail services and some account services until 2030. When it was signed the new agreement also meant Royal Mail's exclusive arrangement with the Post Office for accepting and distributing retail parcels was over; now DPD and Evri parcels can be dropped off as well after the Post Office signed new contracts with them.

So either your local sub PO has misunderstood or is looking for an excuse not to accept pre-paid Royal Mail items which they don't get compensated for. The SMDA was signed in 2020 and is effective until 2030 so nothing - apart from the Tracked surcharge - about which RM services PO counters accept will change until then.  

[rjwilmsi]

If you look at the Royal Mail prices PDFs ("online-price-guide-april-2024-v1-ta.pdf", "our-prices-april-2024-v1-ta.pdf"), Tracked is going to be available to buy in post offices from April. You will see that there is an online discount, and the gap is wider than before. Examples: Tracked 48 / 2kg will be £3.39 online, £3.89 at PO. Tracked 48 / 10kg £6.59 and £7.79.

So what I expect the post office are saying is that they won't be accepting the "online" price labels. Currently RM Click & Drop has two prices (16p apart) for Tracked parcels, so presumably in April if you buy a label there and choose PO drop off then the higher price will apply, then the PO should accept those labels. Hopefully that will be available and clearly indicated via eBay's label system too.

I expect there will be some initial confusion when sellers who don't know all the details buy the "online" label then don't understand why PO refuse them (or want £1.20 to accept parcel).