Royal Mail offer of pick up and postage from your door?

[One 48]

I had this red leaflet drop through the door the other day, am a bit , well  .... very disabled now to be honest and cant always get out so often now ... Rammstein show shortly I know, but every chance it might be called off at last minute ... I really hope not

Not feeling sorry for myself or anything, honest, but what restricts me most these days in buying and selling here is making it out and committing to exact postage times on a regular basis, have always managed though thus far myself to posting too, but as my skeletal problem worsens, that may not always be the case, on the face of it, the wording on this Royal Mail red promotion seems to good to be true.

Cheaper too it says?

Have a lot to sell and trade still and quite honestly, its all been good here on BM that way, its worked really well thus far.

Has anyone used this service and would you recommend?

This is an honest question.



May need to zoom in for small print, but pic should be up for it



 

[bentwaters81tfw]

Not used it myself, but been doing this for at least 2 years here. Seems to work.

[Black Knight]

I've not used it but a friend has

You pay 60p for the pick-up

If you buy the postage on-line you often save some money as well

And. . . .there's more, the PO can also print out the postage label for you and stick it on your parcel when they collect it

Depends on your locality; sometimes its your local postie does the pick-up as he/she delivers or sometimes its dedicated pick-up van

Have a word with your own postie

Def-in-a-tutely worth it

 

My PO is close by so I buy the postage on-line at night, then walk to the PO the next day and drop off the parcel.

 

[Heather Kay]

I have used it quite a bit. It works really well. Highly recommended, especially if it’s hard to get out of the house for whatever reason.

 

This week I requested a collection on Tuesday morning, but it didn’t happen. I got an automated apology email, and was informed I could rebook at no extra charge. Everything was collected next day. The emails include tracking information, too. The paid postage is still valid at a normal post office, and there’s usually a "must be posted by" date on the label you can print. If you’ve opted not to choose collection, then you have a few days to get to a drop-off location.

 

 

[One 48]

Thanks folks, but about larger parcels. surely they must have some sort of weighing mechanism otherwise I could say it weighs much less than it is ... not that I would do that of course.

I have bathroom scales, but probably not accurate for this kind of thing

My regular Postie, she's awesome and quite petite, please don't get me wrong, but hard to imagine her picking up ... for example my Trumpeter 1/200 Titanic kit and tucking it under her arm ( That yes I'm seriously considering selling now ) while she does rest of her street rounds, there must be limits to what this service can provide surely on a door stop pick up ... Postie basis, surely?

Thanks though, great answers already and much appreciated 👍

[Black Knight]

With inland parcels you only have 3 weight groups

1. up to 2kg

2. up to 20kg

3. up to 30kg

and a choice of 1st class, 2nd class or Parcel Force

So you don't have to be super accurate

[One 48]

6 hours ago, Black Knight said:

With inland parcels you only have 3 weight groups

1. up to 2kg

2. up to 20kg

3. up to 30kg

and a choice of 1st class, 2nd class or Parcel Force

So you don't have to be super accurate

 

Good info, thanks but what sort of scales should I be using? Only scales I have here are Bathroom ones and out of curiosity just  put a popular Tamiya 1/48 kit on it and it never even registered, on the opposite end of home scale of things ... no pun intended, my Kitchen ones are calibrated for small weights small food and suchlike.

Please bear with me, so want this system to work, would oh so work with me for stash thinning and  am not being obtuse or any thing, perhaps I'm a bit slow in my old age too, even with these answers there are some fundamental questions to the process I still cant grasp and have no answers yet?

Heather, you have given best answer so far and have experience of this, please help me here.

Hypothetical scenario, I decide I want to sell a kit here or Ebay, anywhere really.

Lets break this down into chunks, please help me here folks, really want to use this service, honestly.

 

1: I package my kit very well as usual, I still don't know how much it weighs, bathroom scales wont work, kitchen small scales are far to sensitive to be accurate.

2: I give Royal Mail a call, might they ask me how much it weighs, answer would of course be ... I honestly don't know?

3: Possibly at this stage they send a van around anyway ... not my local Postie at all as their promo leaflet suggests who faithfully delivers my letters each morning bless her So if they send a van around to pick up, they must have some sort of weigh mechanism like scales on board such vehicle, and if they don't, then surely they would take parcel back to the depot and calculate from there? and then send out a bill and if agreed I pay and if i don't, then presumably they return and there would be a charge, right? , it does not sound quick or convenient to me at all.

Looking at the leaflet again and I have posted back and front pic in this thread, would love this to be a viable option, especially in my unfortunate disabled condition ... I just want to know how it  really works? ... prepared to buy home suitable scales ETC to measure my kit sales if necessary.

Very tired now, sorry

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by One 48
edited out original draft, oops

[Black Knight]

7 hours ago, One 48 said:

 

Good info, thanks but what sort of scales should I be using? Only scales I have here are Bathroom ones and out of curiosity just  put a popular Tamiya 1/48 kit on it and it never even registered, on the opposite end of home scale of things ... no pun intended, my Kitchen ones are calibrated for small weights small food and suchlike.
. . . 

1: I package my kit very well as usual, I still don't know how much it weighs, bathroom scales wont work, kitchen small scales are far to sensitive to be accurate.
. . . 

I use my standard digital kitchen scales. They only go to 3kg in 1g increments. They are accurate enough. 

I've sold some model kits through BM and all the packages except one were weighed on these

The other day I sent a package to Ukraine. For going to there the weight has to be accurate. My scales said 1870g, The post office scales fluttered between 1870 and 1871g

[Duncan B]

15 hours ago, One 48 said:

Thanks folks, but about larger parcels. surely they must have some sort of weighing mechanism otherwise I could say it weighs much less than it is ... not that I would do that of course.

I have bathroom scales, but probably not accurate for this kind of thing

My regular Postie, she's awesome and quite petite, please don't get me wrong, but hard to imagine her picking up ... for example my Trumpeter 1/200 Titanic kit and tucking it under her arm ( That yes I'm seriously considering selling now ) while she does rest of her street rounds, there must be limits to what this service can provide surely on a door stop pick up ... Postie basis, surely?

Thanks though, great answers already and much appreciated 👍

 

When you make the order (I am assuming that you will be using the RM's Click and Drop website as that's the easiest way to do this) you will be asked which size and weight your parcel is (Black Knight has explained the options in his post, copied below). The weights are "up to x Kg" so you don't have to be accurate down to the last gram.

Do be aware that once you get over 2Kg you go into a much higher price tariff and will probably be better looking for an alternative service from another carrier which will be cheaper. Take a look at the likes of www.parcel2go.com for your oversized parcels. You can chose from a range of different services from different companies that will mostly all give you the option to have them collect your item or to drop off at a local shop etc if your able.

 

 

14 hours ago, Black Knight said:

With inland parcels you only have 3 weight groups

1. up to 2kg

2. up to 20kg

3. up to 30kg

and a choice of 1st class, 2nd class or Parcel Force

So you don't have to be super accurate

 

As I've said above, be aware that over 2kg the price jumps quite steeply so shop around for the best price from other service providers (you will soon get an idea who's the best for a particular size range of parcel).

 

Duncan B

[One 48]

Thanks Duncan, all makes a lot more sense now, really was quite tired when I wrote original post but being stubborn was keen for an answer.

I'll buy new scales and watch for that 2kg limit and alternatives if above, thanks.

Must admit for some of the larger box size kits I've been posting last year or two at local Post Office I had to do a double take at the price quoted, but honoured the sale with my (low) estimate of PnP anyway !!

Gotta tighten the financial belt these days though and watch my pennys, for Energy, increasing food prices and last but not least, my future Scale Modelling budget

[Black Knight]

2 hours ago, One 48 said:

I'll buy new scales and watch for that 2kg limit and alternatives if above, thanks.

Just earlier today I picked up a 'luggage scales' for all of £1 at Poundland. They weigh only to 22kg but I reckon that's more than sufficient

Only bought them so I don't know how accurate they are but I just want to know the weight to the nearest kg

[One 48]

1 hour ago, Black Knight said:

Just earlier today I picked up a 'luggage scales' for all of £1 at Poundland. They weigh only to 22kg but I reckon that's more than sufficient

Only bought them so I don't know how accurate they are but I just want to know the weight to the nearest kg

 

 

Sounds good pal, will go look on ebay now.  PS: I was definitely over thinking this

 

Edited June 21, 2022 by One 48

[One 48]

Somebody should make this a stickie here on BM please, not this thread, but its findings, pretty sure I'm not the only one unaware of current potential kit posting pricing here or elsewhere.
 

Perhaps someone write it up good (Black Mike ?) and ask Mike to publish it here?

Just a thought.