Tuesday 7 February 2017

Labels to Go makes it easier to post parcels: one more reason not ot use stamps

Press Release 1 February 2017

Royal Mail has announced new plans to make it easier for consumers to post and return parcels at Customer Service Points in Delivery Offices nationwide.

From April 2017, customers will be able to print off delivery and return labels at all of Royal Mail’s 1,200 Customer Service Points.


With the new self-service solution, Labels to Go, customers returning items online or buying postage online will receive an email containing a unique QR code.  When this is scanned at a Customer Service Point, the QR code produces a postage label which can be applied to the parcel.

Currently, customers returning items using the Royal Mail returns portal or buying postage online using Click and Drop are required to print the postage labels at home.  But increasingly consumers are ordering, paying for, sending and returning items online.

With over 50 per cent of UK shoppers using a mobile phone for their online purchases, customers will benefit from the convenience of being able to print postage labels and post their parcels at the same time. It will also save time and money as they do not need to have a printer at home.

For businesses, this means even more convenient returns for their customers, high print quality of returns labels, and the visibility of Tracked Returns through the Royal Mail network.

My thanks to John Enfield for pointing out my error in suggesting that this might impact - either way - on Post Offices.  These are, of course, Royal Mail customer service points at Delivery Offices (DO).  Most of us are not familiar with these - unless we have to collect undelivered or underpaid items.  My local DO is very small, with the CSP about 8 feet square, so it doesn't immediately spring to mind as a place for posting anything, especially with the regular opening hours excluding the period from 10 am - 12 noon, the most likely time for a visit for many of us. 

The press release also includes a reminder that "The company also announced [last year] that customers will be able to send pre-paid parcels from Delivery Offices across the UK."   Not being a regular visitor I have never seen this happen.  Perhaps readers who visit larger offices can tell us what happens and the procedure.  I can see how it would work for on-line prepaid parcels with a home-printed certificate of posting, but if stamps are used what do they use to cancel the stamps?  For those few offices with Post and Go machines, what happens if you use P&G to send a parcel at a Delivery Office. 

All contributions welcome, especially with evidence of cancellation and/or receipts.  Thanks!

3 comments:

  1. The 'Royal Mail Customer Service Points' are the enquiry offices at Delivery Offices, so this development is more likely to reduce visits to Post Offices!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you John, I should have tumbled to that, so it is as well that my readers are on the ball.

      Delete
  2. Aren't the pre-paid parcels where the company already supply a return label i.e. Next and the like.

    ReplyDelete

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