Your Gift is in the Post!
Yes, your gift is in the post. Really. I posted it this morning! And - I'll know when it's arrived. Phew. I can relax now.
Using Royal Mail and tracking a parcel turned out to be harder than I anticipated. The Royal Mail offer a service where my parcel can be tracked - and I can look online to see where it is! That's great as I've been trying to send off a simple parcel to my mother for her birthday tomorrow and it's already taken me several hours to faff about getting a box, deciding that box was too large, so having to re-use an old box, getting it wrapped up, having to buy brown paper to cover over the old/re-used address panel, then I got to the Post Office and it was 8 grams too heavy, so I returned home to repackage it yesterday, so it weighs under the 2Kg limit. What a palaver
So, this morning, I had it sussed. I had a small parcel, well within their size limits and definitely weighing under 2Kg (I'd taken something out already and I'd weighed it to check). I'd looked at the website to try to find a tracking service and wasn't sure what they called it. I seem to be shoved towards international tracking and business services. I am an individual who just wants to know the parcel arrived - I don't even need a signature. I'm happy to know it's arrived by the tracking system..... so I can phone up and say "Happy Birthday" once it's got there.
So, I was off to the Post Office again this morning, I knew how much it'd cost me. I was sending a small parcel, weighing under 2Kg, by first class mail (hoping it will arrive tomorrow, but not guaranteed) - and with the extra tracking part of the service. That extra bit cost me £1.10.
Total cost of sending a small parcel was £5.45 + £1.10 for tracking = £6.55
Job done - it's on its way. And, the nice man at the counter pointed out that I've a tracking number and can look online! Great, I didn't know I'd be able to do that. I hadn't thought it through. So now I'll take a peek ... and it looks like it's still at that Post Office. I dropped it off at 11:30, so I'll see how it goes.
UPDATE: Posted at 11.30am on a Thursday, the parcel arrived, signed for, at 2.39pm the next day, Friday.
_
RoyalMail SmallParcel Tracking PersonaPaper 022015 ___
C/1335/1384/208
Image Credit » CC0 Public Domain http://pixabay.com/en/ticket-label-parcel-packaging-150090/ Free for commercial use / No attribution required
Comments
phoenixmaid wrote on February 12, 2015, 9:38 AM
£1.10 that a lot better than some companies charge for the same service. I hope she loves the present.
grandma20121 wrote on February 12, 2015, 9:44 AM
i used to mail alot of packages when i did auctions and i find the tracking online to be very helpful too.
snerfu wrote on February 12, 2015, 10:13 AM
Moms are worth any amount of trouble. I guess she will love your present.
UK_Writer wrote on February 12, 2015, 10:26 AM
It wasn't a present as such - a collection of sweets she likes and some pens. Nothing major, just bits and bobs as that'll give her more joy than me trying to find some middle class, shiny object, that she won't enjoy or have any use for.
1UK_Writer wrote on February 12, 2015, 10:27 AM
Yes, for those used to selling online, ebay traders etc, they've already been through this pain barrier :)
UK_Writer wrote on February 12, 2015, 10:27 AM
10 minutes after it's opened she'll most likely have forgotten to be honest. But I sent it
So I did my bit
Koalemos wrote on February 12, 2015, 10:49 AM
The price does not seem too bad for a 2 kg parcel which can be monitored.
maxeen wrote on February 12, 2015, 12:06 PM
We should all make the most of the Royal Mail as we don't know what is around the corner--hope Mum loves the sweets and other prezzies
MegL wrote on February 12, 2015, 12:17 PM
It's not necessarily at your post office, it just hasn't been logged in at the depot!
UK_Writer wrote on February 12, 2015, 12:28 PM
Not too bad, the parcel weight can be sent cheaper, by 2nd class, but that's likely to be delayed until Monday, so I couldn't go cheaper.
UK_Writer wrote on February 12, 2015, 12:29 PM
Well, there are other/better/cheaper options than RM these days. Couriers where you drop the parcel off at a local shop to be collected - but that looked long-winded as I don't have a printer and the cheaper ones required a printer. The cheapest courier was about the same price as RM though.
1UK_Writer wrote on February 12, 2015, 12:32 PM
Ah. I checked a bit later and it didn't say anything. Maybe you're right and it went into a sack and not individually swiped.
So, I just checked again.... keen for them to save my lazy 4rse (couldshould've done this earlier in the week) .... it still says "Last update: 12 February 2015, 11:30am", so no movement at all :(
maxeen wrote on February 12, 2015, 12:34 PM
Well that may be so ! Price is nothing though if we lose Royal Mail ,almost as bad as losing the NHS
UK_Writer wrote on February 12, 2015, 12:36 PM
Well, hardly a comparison. RM are forced to deliver mail to everybody/everywhere though - no other company has that restriction, so it's easy for them to cherry pick the good routes.
LadyTrouble wrote on February 12, 2015, 6:51 PM
With the US postal mail, we can just affix our new label atop the old label without the added expense of the brown paper. We also have flat rate shipping containers we can purchase. I believe you basically pay for the box and that's it, no additional charges for weight.
On a side note, I had a problem with the royal mail. I had ordered a subscription box from the UK, and it never arrived. I contacted the company I ordered it from, and they let me know there was a lot of frustration over international shipments. I did finally get the box, but unsubscribed from the company because of the frustration of it taking forever to get to me.
cheri wrote on February 12, 2015, 8:50 PM
I have never tried this before because I am not comfortable using the post or mail in giving gifts.
UK_Writer wrote on February 12, 2015, 9:32 PM
Here in the UK our rules changed a couple of years ago and now it goes on size AND weight. So a box might be OK for size, but overweight. It can be a nightmare for occasional users to not end up with a huge potential bill, just because they didn't realise that the same items in a box 1/2" smaller would have cost 1/4
UK_Writer wrote on February 12, 2015, 9:32 PM
It was either post it, or take 8 hours to drive 400 miles on a round trip to drop it off :)
maxeen wrote on February 15, 2015, 10:58 AM
Wow! £80 at least! Unless it's a Roller !A few hundred maybe!