AddressPal & Lockers - An Post's Parcel Service SEE MOD WARNING FIRST POST

Zaptap

Had two packages arrive in St Albans last tuesday, one a computer mouse which arrived yesterday, the other a laptop has gone missing. Getting the run around from Address pal saying it's on the prohibited list and wouldn't have been accepted. DPD who delivered it to St Albans said it was signed for an accepted.

Dan Jaman

Zaptap wrote: »

Had two packages arrive in St Albans last tuesday, one a computer mouse which arrived yesterday, the other a laptop has gone missing. Getting the run around from Address pal saying it's on the prohibited list and wouldn't have been accepted. DPD who delivered it to St Albans said it was signed for an accepted.

Didn't take long for the thieves to cop on. There is a major security hole in the delivery paperwork of carriers dropping to St Albans, in that most of them know the meaningless squiggle is all they need and their system is happy. AP's own system for receipt of parcels doesn't exist for this service, of course.
It's a hard job, making parcel shifting rat-proof, but it's a chance you take when you use a cheap service like this. I tend to not use it for anything worth more than €25 or something I can afford to lose, just in case.

CeilingFly

ei9go wrote: »

Just an update and I am not going to make the mistake of giving a start date because An Post rarely meet these dates.

Supposed to be starting sometime in May but we'll wait and see.

Called "ReturnPal" and basically it will allow you to return online orders but will include collection from your house.

We'll see how that works out.

There will also be an update to the Addresspal service which will allow you to select home delivery.

Also coming is delivery to something called "Safeplace".

This is your garden shed or green bin or wherever you can tell the postman if he phones you when you are not at home.

Also, the intention, I am told is to redeliver Amazon items between 5pm and 8pm in the evening for people who were out in the morning and to deliver Amazon items on Saturdays.

Starting in June.
Applies to all parcels, not just Amazon.

If not in at first delivery attempt, they will automatically try and deliver again in the afternoon. Card will be left to state that. If not in then, they will automatically try again the following day.

If your phone number is provided the post person will contact you and give option for leaving in a safe place or to a post office or to a post point. You have to agree this - not the sender.

harr

Dan Jaman wrote: »

Didn't take long for the thieves to cop on. There is a major security hole in the delivery paperwork of carriers dropping to St Albans, in that most of them know the meaningless squiggle is all they need and their system is happy. AP's own system for receipt of parcels doesn't exist for this service, of course.
It's a hard job, making parcel shifting rat-proof, but it's a chance you take when you use a cheap service like this. I tend to not use it for anything worth more than ?25 or something I can afford to lose, just in case.

This is why I limit it to ?50 , so easy for stuff to go missing between St Albans and your post office with no accountability or procedure in place to track it..
A lot of the time it's not even signed for at St Albans....I mentioned earlier in threads friend got laptop stolen even after I told him not to risk it..
Courier got a crappy signature or so he claims...so eather courier company swiped it or someone in the chain between St Albans and post office..
An post didn't want to know said it was prohibited and wasn't expected at depot,courier adamant they delivered.. laptop never recovered.

my3cents

CeilingFly wrote: »

Starting in June.
Applies to all parcels, not just Amazon.

If not in at first delivery attempt, they will automatically try and deliver again in the afternoon. Card will be left to state that. If not in then, they will automatically try again the following day.

If your phone number is provided the post person will contact you and give option for leaving in a safe place or to a post office or to a post point. You have to agree this - not the sender.

ONLY FOR RESIDENTIAL TOWN DELIVERIES

If you live in the country where your postman normally delivers in a van then you won't get the second chance evening delivery service.

Zaptap

I'm starting to think it was the DPD courier who may have swiped the laptop, on their delivery information they got my email wrong by omitting letters, phone number wrong by leaving out digits and didn't include the entire address pal ID. Letters and digits were missing from the middle rather than the ends so basically Every bit of contact info was wrong and surely they'd be copying and pasting those. Still if DPD swiped it I may be covered as they were the courier hired by HP.

Discodog

Zaptap wrote: »

I'm starting to think it was the DPD courier who may have swiped the laptop, on their delivery information they got my email wrong by omitting letters, phone number wrong by leaving out digits and didn't include the entire address pal ID. Letters and digits were missing from the middle rather than the ends so basically Every bit of contact info was wrong and surely they'd be copying and pasting those. Still if DPD swiped it I may be covered as they were the courier hired by HP.

I would immediately contact your card company & request a charge back. Then it's up to the seller to prove delivery.

whiterebel

Discodog wrote: »

I would immediately contact your card company & request a charge back. Then it's up to the seller to prove delivery.

If it has been signed for at AddressPal DPD are in the clear.

my3cents

whiterebel wrote: »

If it has been signed for at AddressPal DPD are in the clear.

Signed for by who? I'd certainly waste a lot of peoples time at An Post checking who is an authorised signatory and if it was signed for by An Post or the DPD driver.

whiterebel

my3cents wrote: »

Signed for by who? I'd certainly waste a lot of peoples time at An Post checking who is an authorised signatory and if it was signed for by An Post or the DPD driver.

Always preferable to have a proper legible signature, but difficult to enforce with AddressPal, PM, etc. Makes it a very grey area for sorting out who is responsible at various stages. I think the banks would be hesitant to do a chargeback in situations like this. I would absolutely be hassling both companies for their signatories and procedures.

bk

CeilingFly wrote: »

Starting in June.
Applies to all parcels, not just Amazon.

If not in at first delivery attempt, they will automatically try and deliver again in the afternoon. Card will be left to state that. If not in then, they will automatically try again the following day.

If your phone number is provided the post person will contact you and give option for leaving in a safe place or to a post office or to a post point. You have to agree this - not the sender.

I hope you can continue to opt to have it delivered to your local post depot. They have vastly better opening times then post office.

It sounds like an improvement, but still not as good as going for a Deutsche Post style lockers. Lockers have better availability and also allow you to easily send packages 24/7

keyboard_cat

How long does it take for items to show up in your address pal account?
I had 2 portable chargers delivered one on Monday and one yesterday but have got no update from address pal that they have them, or will they only notify me when the packages are ready to be collected

nava

You don't see anything, you get a notification when is ready for collection.

harr

keyboard_cat wrote: »

How long does it take for items to show up in your address pal account?
I had 2 portable chargers delivered one on Monday and one yesterday but have got no update from address pal that they have them, or will they only notify me when the packages are ready to be collected

You might not get them as they are prohibited items ...chances are they will get to you but if you don't that's the reason unfortunately.

9or10

Had a package arrive today which didn't have my full AP number. So the lady in the post office couldn't send the text/e-mail or log it in.

She waited for my wife to go in, to find out the number and then took a note of the number in case it happens again.

Lovely lady

FanadMan

9or10 wrote: »

Had a package arrive today which didn't have my full AP number. So the lady in the post office couldn't send the text/e-mail or log it in.

She waited for my wife to go in, to find out the number and then took a note of the number in case it happens again.

Lovely lady

Real benefit of local Post Offices. Is great when they know you.

bk

FanadMan wrote: »

Real benefit of local Post Offices. Is great when they know you.

Not very useful though for the vast majority of people who have never or rarely step into a PO!

A better designed (much shorter ID, proper tracking, etc.) less error prone system would be better for all.

degsie

9or10 wrote: »

Had a package arrive today which didn't have my full AP number. So the lady in the post office couldn't send the text/e-mail or log it in.

She waited for my wife to go in, to find out the number and then took a note of the number in case it happens again.

Lovely lady

How did An Post figure out which po to send it to if it didn't have a full AP number?

blade1

degsie wrote: »

How did An Post figure out which po to send it to if it didn't have a full AP number?

The first three digits of the code is the post office.
In my case it's 17C which is Youghal.
Even if that is missing they can check your name on their database it it still should get to you.

Spocker

degsie wrote: »

How did An Post figure out which po to send it to if it didn't have a full AP number?

A package of mine that didn't have the full AP number on it was opened, and they got my name from the invoice inside. It was in my local PO the next day, resealed with An Post tape. I'm actually glad they did it that way, saves fuss all round

Spocker

blade1 wrote: »

The first three digits of the code is the post office.
In my case it's 17C which is Youghal.
Even if that is missing they can check your name on their database it it still should get to you.

Ah, but theres been a few cases of emails being sent to multiple people of the same name: "Hello Spocker, are you waiting on a parcel from XXXX, please respond if its yours, detailing the contents"

This happened to me, and when I replied with the contents of something I was expecting, it was in my local PO the next day

harr

So was getting a camera part delivered through address pal as company don't deliver to ireland...the supplier I use is in fact very near the St Albans Depot so he dropped down personally....he rang to say it was dropped into the an post mail room...he said he is surprised half the stuff gets delivered....ring a bell at a hatch in mail room and just hand it in....no scan no records of delivery nothing just put into a huge mail cage ready to be rolled on a lorry or van.. four couriers waiting for someone to sign for deliveries and two just fecked off they were waiting so long....he thinks only one person manning the office...

Dan Jaman

harr wrote: »

So was getting a camera part delivered through address pal as company don't deliver to ireland...the supplier I use is in fact very near the St Albans Depot so he dropped down personally....he rang to say it was dropped into the an post mail room...he said he is surprised half the stuff gets delivered....ring a bell at a hatch in mail room and just hand it in....no scan no records of delivery nothing just put into a huge mail cage ready to be rolled on a lorry or van.. four couriers waiting for someone to sign for deliveries and two just fecked off they were waiting so long....he thinks only one person manning the office...

The whole thing is an odd mixture of 21st Century and 19th Century Ballydehob PO.

The_Conductor

Dan Jaman wrote: »

The whole thing is an odd mixture of 21st Century and 19th Century Ballydehob PO.

Seems to work mostly- and its cheap.
Personally- I'd be happier to pay an extra quid or two- and get a better service.

The_Conductor

Deliveries can take anything from 3-5 working days after delivery to St. Albans- and there is no tracking. Also- a 40 Euro limit to claims- so if you get something expensive and it goes missing (one of the guys here is missing a laptop) you have no come back.

I've used Addresspal 50+ times- and not lost anything (touch wood).
Its not ideal- no tracking once it hits St. Albans, and no clear idea of how long its going to take.

They have rather strict rules on allowable goods- but they don't seem to police it particularly rigorously which suits most of us.

I had a few laptop batteries sent over this week- no probs- despite them being 100% definitely Lit-ion and declared as such on the package.

Its not an ideal service- particularly with no tracking and an improbably low insurance for packages- however, it has more upsides than downsides for me........

bluestrattos

sugarman wrote: »

Whats the general consensus of AP for those that would use it regularly?

Id a flick through the thread and seen positive and negative experiences.

Ive mainly used PM without any hassle, and have recently switch to PW due to the convenience being at home.

I reckon I used PM 50+ times and only ever had 1 issue when the seller forgot my PM number. All it took was a quick call to sort out.

PW have used several times in the last several weeks. Completely hassle free so far, driver shows up same time every day and is bang on.

But AP would be dead handy to use for free UK mainland del, wasnt aware they were in St.Albans.

So far, my experience with AddressPal is very good. PM used to be my default address for all online shopping, but now AP takes the prize. At the moment, I only use PM if I want something delivered asap, and I don't have the time to go to the post office. Another reason where I may use PM is if it's something valuable since you can buy insurance for your items.

I should also add, the price was a factor, although one more increment and things may change again.

harr

sugarman wrote: »

Whats the general consensus of AP for those that would use it regularly?

Id a flick through the thread and seen positive and negative experiences.

Ive mainly used PM without any hassle, and have recently switch to PW due to the convenience being at home.

I reckon I used PM 50+ times and only ever had 1 issue when the seller forgot my PM number. All it took was a quick call to sort out.

PW have used several times in the last several weeks. Completely hassle free so far, driver shows up same time every day and is bang on.

But AP would be dead handy to use for free UK mainland del, wasnt aware they were in St.Albans.

All good for me anyway....all smaller items apart from a mixer which was ?100. I have had 36 deliveries,all reaching me eventually only one problem when the courier could not make a delivery at St Albans ...still unsure who's fault that was. Friend unfortunately used it to get a laptop delivered and that has gone Walkies with still no sign of it...An post blaming courier and courier blaming An post..he currently has a refund request in with credit card.
Keep the items small and inexpensive and keep an eye on what is prohibited.

my3cents

harr wrote: »

All good for me anyway....all smaller items apart from a mixer which was ?100. I have had 36 deliveries,all reaching me eventually only one problem when the courier could not make a delivery at St Albans ...still unsure who's fault that was. Friend unfortunately used it to get a laptop delivered and that has gone Walkies with still no sign of it...An post blaming courier and courier blaming An post..he currently has a refund request in with credit card.
Keep the items small and inexpensive and keep an eye on what is prohibited.

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MOD: Prohibited Articles are prohibited for a reason. No discussion or suggesting circumventing their rules please.

Fiskar

The_Conductor wrote: »

Deliveries can take anything from 3-5 working days after delivery to St. Albans- and there is no tracking. Also- a 40 Euro limit to claims- so if you get something expensive and it goes missing

They have rather strict rules on allowable goods- but they don't seem to police it particularly rigorously which suits most of us.

I had a few laptop batteries sent over this week- no probs- despite them being 100% definitely Lit-ion and declared as such on the package.

Its not an ideal service- particularly with no tracking and an improbably low insurance for packages- however, it has more upsides than downsides for me........

Same here, I have some nice Angel Wax waiting for me to collect tomorrow. Took a chance with 50€ but based on that post today I may hold off on any further deliveries until they respond to say they have improved the service. Yes I have flagged the post to Addresspal to improve their service. If packages go missing it will only serve to close down the service.

harr

my3cents wrote: »

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MOD: Prohibited Articles are prohibited for a reason. No discussion or suggesting circumventing their rules please.