cotterpot wrote:You can now use a postbox for parcels. There is a list of locations on the link.
https://www.royalmail.com/d8/parcel-post-boxes
Herein lies the Royal Mails problem. the implementation of this idea is far from user friendly, the idea itself may not be so bad, but they make it so difficult to use.
If you follow the link sure there is a list of parcel post box locations, but it is not presented in a searchable format, it is simply a list arranged in alphabetical order by postal towm. To enlist anymore help you have to download the 'app', (with which you have to register to use) within the app you are supposed to be able to type in your postcode and get a list of nearby parcel post boxes. But in fact, you have to spend some time figuring out how the app works before you stand a chance of getting a useful result. Amongst other things the app tells me there is a post office in my village, well there was until it closed 14 years ago
.
Then there is print your own postage via the website, another great idea, you'd have thought that this facility would provide an easy route to printing your own self-adhesive labels, perhaps with a convenient link to 'Avery' templates. No, the document it provides at the end of the process is an A4 sized 'pdf file', that has to be printed onto an A4 page, where you can cut out the actual mailing label which is 1/4 of an A4 page (... is that A7?) and then you use either a sellotape or prit-stick type glue to fix the label onto the envelope/package. Print your own postage at home is a good idea but the implementation is very poor, it's like they never test what they produce with real people.
We enjoy good service from our local Royal Mail delivery folks, they're great people but I worry about the system they work in.