New Royal Mail Tracked 24 / 48 Service at Post Offices counters NOT YET WORKING

[the-almighty-inquisitor]

Just been to the Post Office and the new Tracked 24/48 at Post Offices as listed in the new 2nd April Price list is not on their systems yet, and looking further into this, I saw a blog in which it was mentioned that negotiations between Royal Mail and the Post Office had broken down with reference to profit share for the service.  Apparently Post Offices where alerted to this on the 28th March.

This is unbelievable !,  you would have thought that such things would have been signed and sealed BEFORE Royal Mail printed the new prices/service guides months ago.  But no, this is the shambles that is Royal Mail AND the Post Office...

Luckily I hadn't updated and listings with the new service and most of my stuff goes 2nd Large Letter 101-250g and the price as it happens dropped from £2.40 to £2.10 today, so not all bad news I suppose.

[electricjaws2429]

To use 48hr tracked or 24hr tracked, you need a label as it has the tracking code on  linked to rhe address you provided, the postie when he drops off at the buyers door needs to scan that code  , so just stamps aren't any good the Barcodes are different on the new stamps and they are not going to be linked up to the parcel address for a start !

[merv9104]

It is available ON LINE but NOT at POST OFFICE BRANCHES. Just had experience about an hour ago. Rang ROYAL MAIL who said should be sorted soon, how longs a piece of string 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔. Note also compensation for 2nd class signed for item now dropped to £20 from £50🙈🙈🙈🙈

[wellingnorth]

I'm not sure if this is a new thing, but using Click and Drop today I noticed when you choose a service it now includes Collect+ dropoff as well as post office:

"A supplementary charge will apply for Parcelshop (Collect+ or Post Office) drop off"

Is that a new thing?

This page regarding parcel shops also mentions Collect+

https://www.royalmail.com/sending/parcelshops

But when I go to linked 'services near you' page I don't see any Collect+ near me shown

[barry.110]

I've just checked on the actual Collect+ website and there are loads of Collect+ shops near me but none that offer Royal Mail. I thought it might be because I do have quite a lot of Post Offices relatively close to me but I checked other areas that do have Collect+ shops accepting Royal mail and they do have Post Offices close by. I think it might just be that the Collect+ shops near me haven't signed up for Royal Mail. When I looked up what parcel services some of the Collect+ shops near me accept I saw that they accept so many you can understand that maybe they don't have the room for more, especially as these are generally convenience stores so handling parcels is not there main purpose.

[messier44000]

Just curious.

When booking tracked 24/48 with P2G you get a VAT receipt.

Wonder if/when you can book over the counter at the PO you will 

be able to request a VAT receipt.

[kisza51]

New date set for 1st August 2024 for Royal Mail Tracked 24 / 48 Service at Post Offices counters

[4_bathrooms]

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@kisza51 wrote:

New date set for 1st August 2024 for Royal Mail Tracked 24 / 48 Service at Post Offices counters

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Where did you hear that?

[wellingnorth]

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@barry.110 wrote:

I've just checked on the actual Collect+ website and there are loads of Collect+ shops near me but none that offer Royal Mail. I thought it might be because I do have quite a lot of Post Offices relatively close to me but I checked other areas that do have Collect+ shops accepting Royal mail and they do have Post Offices close by.

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That's interesting, it hadn't occurred to me to check the Collect+ website, it seems quite complicated now with different shops accepting different combinations of couriers. I suppose you get used to what the shops near you offer, it would certainly be useful to be able to drop the occasional parcel rather than brave the Post Office queues.

[ian_w42]

There was always the option for me, I always buy labels through ebay and most often Tracked 48 service. If I select "drop off" the price was 16p more than "collection".

[tommystrezures]

Good news... Our local post office has been given dates for the roll out of Tracked 24/48 services. Its been done in two phases, and even our sub postmaster is not sure which date his branch is going to be, but the two dates being communicated are either the 14th May or the 11th June.

[jckl1957]

Thank you for the update @tommystrezures 

[irt303]

@tommystrezures - Thanks for posting with an update.

When you next go to the PO, would you be kind enough to ask whether stamps can be used for RM 24 / 48 Tracked, and report their answer back here? There's a lot of confusion about this, although the general consensus seems to be 'no'. Stamps are a legitimate form of payment for RM services (not Parcelforce), so these services would be an exception.

I hope you don't think I'm being lazy by asking you to enquire. I've made enquiries at my own PO, but all that could be established after a phone call from the manager to someone else was what we already know, i.e. that POs were originally supposed to offer the services from 2nd April. Other than that, they were clueless, and certainly couldn't answer the stamps question, which I guess we won't know until the services are live on PO systems (even though POs should have received guidance on processing the services).

Today I've also (prior to reading your update) sent an enquiry to Royal Mail, asking about a roll-out date and whether stamps can be used to pay for those services. I also mentioned that the lack of official updates is making both the PO and RM (but mainly RM) look bad when they both already have enough reputational damage to deal with.

So I have tried to find out for myself. If I get a reply, I'll report back, unless subsequent posts here, or announcements from PO and / or RM, render doing so redundant.

Like many others, I'm sure, I'd like to use these services, but have stamps that I want to use up.

[tommystrezures]

I asked this question over a month ago when the news first came out that the services would be offered. Our postmaster wasn't sure but asked one of the Nfsp regional managers at the time. Their view was, that yes they should be acceptable as it forms part of the cost. IF this still remains the case this will be a game changer for us, and I am sure many others, allowing us to mix our postage up with stamps and a label. 

However there is no further information yet, so i can't say yes or no, and it may well be one of those things that we won't find out until the day it goes in to service. To date the PO's have been issued no guidance well not as of this morning only the dates were received. This is quite normal for those like @jckl1957  and others including myself, who have worked at post offices, where guidance etc is not given until a day or three before a service goes live. I actually did some holiday cover earlier today, this service cannot come sooner for customers, as customers have so little choice at present - eg Signed for service which covers you for £20 (the same as standard mail) or Special delivery at £750, with nothing in between, which tracked 24/48 will offer.

Any further news I receive, will update here.

[4_bathrooms]

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@irt303 wrote:

@tommystrezures - Thanks for posting with an update.

When you next go to the PO, would you be kind enough to ask whether stamps can be used for RM 24 / 48 Tracked, and report their answer back here? There's a lot of confusion about this, although the general consensus seems to be 'no'. Stamps are a legitimate form of payment for RM services (not Parcelforce), so these services would be an exception.

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I highly doubt stamps will be accepted. As far as I am aware stamps can only be used to pay for Royal Mail's VAT exempt retail services (stamps themselves are exempt). However, Tracked (including "non-account") is subject to VAT. 

[irt303]

@tommystrezures - Thanks for the extra info! Fingers crossed, stamps will be okay. As you say, it would be a game-changer, a positive one for a change.

[irt303]

@4_bathrooms - You may be right; at the moment it looks like a case of 'time will tell'. Hopefully, you're wrong, but I mean that in the nicest possible sense!

[tom-sales-london]

Post Office reciepts already break down VAT for each service and include a VAT number. Stamps where used break down as a deduction outside of the VAT breakdown section on the reciept. So I can't see why Tracked would be any different.

Notice the Royal Mail website now mentions Tracked at Post Offices on the info page, but to check with the local branch for avaliability. Hadn't clocked that so didn't ask today but I will the next time I'm in.

Regarding stamps and VAT I assume that stamps can be used for Special Delivery Saturday or 9am services, both of which are subject to VAT? So by that logic I would say VAT is accounted for on posting instead of on purchase of the stamp itself, and I would therefore hope they may accept them for Tracked?

[tommystrezures]

More news on this service at post offices. Our local + goes live on the 11th June. I can only think/imagine etc that crowns and mains will be part of the first launch in may. 

now the bad news.... stamps cannot be used as part payment. 

there will be no 1d barcode to scan the transaction as now will generate the 16 digit prn number along with qr code for scanning. The 16 digit code printed on the cop is used for tracking.