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

MOH

Masala wrote: »

Would Hong Kong to UK be free as part of the Commonwealth etc setup???

Hong Kong was never part of the Commonwealth:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_the_Commonwealth_of_Nations#Former_members

firestarter51

Masala wrote: »

Would Hong Kong to UK be free as part of the Commonwealth etc setup??? I am just shooting from hip here....a presumption I would have in my mind!!! I could be wrong....just wondering if UK treats stuff coming in from the Commonwealth as 'domestic'....

Just have a seller who wont sell to Ireland but will to UK. D'ont want any hassle if gonna get caught to be sent back. At least Irish Customs will drop me a note saying there is money owing before it is released

If it's going to incur a charge from customs an post won't accept it in the uk and it will be returned to the sender
Anything outside the eu over a certain value I think it's €30 can get hit for customs

cormie

cormie wrote: »

Thanks, I think going parcel motel > collect in finglas might be the best option actually, have done it before and it was no problem, just wasn't sure if there were better options now with parcel wizard and address pal, but it's probably my best bet if it's £27 to NI and then €11.95 fee PM fee.

Aghh, it looks like the sender sent 3 separate packages (maybe all part of the one consignment) but one I just collected at the parcel motel and I think the other 2 need to be collected from Finglas, so I'm paying parcel motel €3.95 x 3 and €7 x 2 I think

editorsean

For speed, it looks like Parcel Motel is still the quickest, at least for an item I was able to track:

23rd May 6:50pm - Item dispatched by ParcelForce UK
24th May 3:15pm - ParcelForce delivered in Belfast
24th May 7:24pm - Parcel Motel check-in notification - Parcel in Dublin depot
25th May 9:26am - Parcel Motel pin notification - Ready to collect

Basically I had the parcel in my hands within 48 hours of it being shipped from the seller.

Then again, as I was not working today, I had to drive 40 minutes to the ParcelMotel locker to pick up the package, compared to a 5 minute trip to the local post office. Normally I pass the Parcel Motel locker along my hour drive to/from work.

editorsean

editorsean wrote: »

For speed, it looks like Parcel Motel is still the quickest, at least for an item I was able to track:

23rd May 6:50pm - Item dispatched by ParcelForce UK
24th May 3:15pm - ParcelForce delivered in Belfast
24th May 7:24pm - Parcel Motel check-in notification - Parcel in Dublin depot
25th May 9:26am - Parcel Motel pin notification - Ready to collect

Basically I had the parcel in my hands within 48 hours of it being shipped from the seller.

Then again, as I was not working today, I had to drive 40 minutes to the ParcelMotel locker to pick up the package, compared to a 5 minute trip to the local post office. Normally I pass the Parcel Motel locker along my hour drive to/from work.

with An Post they wait to fill up the truck/van or whatever in London and go over by ferry. so if your item arrives when the container is empty you could be waiting a while.

The_Conductor

cormie wrote: »

Hey folks, who would be the best to order a heavy shipment through?

I'm ordering from the UK, cost for mainland UK delivery is £18, to an NI address is £27 and to ROI address is £69.

I'm ordering 3x van batteries with a total weight of about 55kg and package size, probably 400x550x400 or something like that.

Any advice appreciated

Most of the services- including An Post- have a 20kg limit.
If you split this into 3 separate deliveries of 17/18kg each- you're fine- other than that there is no courier service that'll work for you.

The_Conductor

glasso wrote: »

with An Post they wait to fill up the truck/van or whatever in London and go over by ferry. so if your item arrives when the container is empty you could be waiting a while.

In general (and I've now used it 14 times) I'd allow at least a week for delivery. Anything under a week- is an unexpected bonus. You're not going to get it in a day or two though- its just not going to happen........

stronglikebull

The_Conductor wrote: »

In general (and I've now used it 14 times) I'd allow at least a week for delivery. Anything under a week- is an unexpected bonus. You're not going to get it in a day or two though- its just not going to happen........

I must be lucky so. I've used it twice now, and after arriving in the UK depot on Monday both times, they arrived here on Thursday and Wednesday of the same weeks. 2-3 days is pretty good then.

readyletsgo

stronglikebull wrote: »

I must be lucky so. I've used it twice now, and after arriving in the UK depot on Monday both times, they arrived here on Thursday and Wednesday of the same weeks. 2-3 days is pretty good then.

Yeah same for me, once a package arrives in the depo in the UK it's here in 2 days max. It's been pretty fast so far.

cormie

The_Conductor wrote: »

Most of the services- including An Post- have a 20kg limit.
If you split this into 3 separate deliveries of 17/18kg each- you're fine- other than that there is no courier service that'll work for you.

Yeah, my order was 3 separate batteries, 2 @ 19kg each and one at about 9kg, the 2@19 didn't get sent to a PM locker (they would have easily fit), but the 9kg did. It was delivered to PM from the courier/supplier as one consignment but as 3 separate packages (the tracking number for all 3 packages was the same), so I was charged €3.95 for the 9kg one, then €3.95 + €7 collected from PM in Finglas for each of the 2 @19kg. The guy said even if they had duct tape around all 3 packages, then they would have just been charged as one stay, so €10.95 instead of €25.85

The_Conductor

Its still less than half what it would have cost you to buy them locally here- I've done the same with a set of XL tyres this week....... The post office in Lucan think I'm nuts.........

kneemos

How do you get the address to fit in the Amazon box?

Charlie L

kneemos wrote: »

How do you get the address to fit in the Amazon box?

If you were an early Addresspal customer you would have the long address. About a month after the service was introduced they shortened the customer address/code - they sent out a letter to the early signer uppers illustrating how to modify the original long address to the new shortened one......eg. the words "AddressPal" were changed to "AP" (so if you're still using the words "AddressPal" in your shipping address you need to update it). This is what my Amazon address looks like........

Name. Name Surname (AP 12B XXXX XXXXXXX )
Address line 1 Air Business, Unit 5 The Merlin Centre
Address line 2 Acrewood Way
Town/City St Albans
County Hertfordshire
Postcode AL4 0JY
Country United Kingdom
Phone +35387XXXXXXX

kneemos

Charlie L wrote: »

If you were an early Addresspal customer you would have the long address. About a month after the service was introduced they shortened the customer address/code - they sent out a letter to the early signer uppers illustrating how to modify the original long address to the new shortened one......eg. the words "AddressPal" were changed to "AP" (so if you're still using the words "AddressPal" in your shipping address you need to update it). This is what my Amazon address looks like........

Name. Name Surname (AP 12B XXXX XXXXXXX )
Address line 1 Air Business, Unit 5 The Merlin Centre
Address line 2 Acrewood Way
Town/City St Albans
County Hertfordshire
Postcode AL4 0JY
Country United Kingdom
Phone +35387XXXXXXX

Ah that's grand.I had the code on a seperate line.
I'll try it that way.
Thanks.

The_Conductor

Letter in the post from An Post this afternoon- pleading with me to ensure Amazon in particular, use the full user code...........

Spocker

The_Conductor wrote: »

Letter in the post from An Post this afternoon- pleading with me to ensure Amazon in particular, use the full user code...........

I got the same letter today too. I also got a phone call this morning along the lines of :

"Hello, this is AddressPal - we have a lot of parcels from Amazon here, addressed to Spocker. As we have a lot of Spockers signed up, we're calling each of them in turn, to see who the parcels actually belong to ..." :rolleyes:

They weren't for me....

princess3901

I have parcel motel and find it really good, I will probably register for address pal also.
Is there anything like parcel motel or address pal that will deliver items from the U.S. Seen a few things I'd like to order but delivery within U.S only

Yeah there's been USA ones for years. Problem is their charges are extremely high.

Depp

Just a quick question for anyone with experience, have something due into the post office over the next few days, know it could be different depending on location but what time do they usually send the notification that its ready for collection, cheers!

The_Conductor

Depp wrote: »

Just a quick question for anyone with experience, have something due into the post office over the next few days, know it could be different depending on location but what time do they usually send the notification that its ready for collection, cheers!

The post office itself updates the system when they receive the package.
Its normally delivered when the first collection occurs.
A reasonable rule of thumb- is lookup when the first collection in a given post office is- and the item will probably be updated and ready for collection within the hour.

Depp

The_Conductor wrote: »

The post office itself updates the system when they receive the package.
Its normally delivered when the first collection occurs.
A reasonable rule of thumb- is lookup when the first collection in a given post office is- and the item will probably be updated and ready for collection within the hour.

you mean the first collection of posted mail from the post office, or when the post to be delivered that day arrives?

The_Conductor

Depp wrote: »

you mean the first collection of posted mail from the post office, or when the post to be delivered that day arrives?

Depends on the post office- however, if the post is being delivered from the postoffice (which very often is not the case)- they would be one and the same.

Dan Jaman

I always get the notification at 9.30am-ish, when the parcel gets scanned into my local P.O.

Shelflife

Depp wrote: »

Just a quick question for anyone with experience, have something due into the post office over the next few days, know it could be different depending on location but what time do they usually send the notification that its ready for collection, cheers!

When the Post is delivered to the Post Office they scan it in as soon as its delivered. This triggers the email/text to the address pal customer.

In our case thats usually before 9.30am

ei9go

princess3901 wrote: »

I have parcel motel and find it really good, I will probably register for address pal also.
Is there anything like parcel motel or address pal that will deliver items from the U.S. Seen a few things I'd like to order but delivery within U.S only

An Post have been looking at a USA address for address pal but the sort of figures they are thinking of charging would I believe be too much unless you wanted something badly and could not get it elsewhere.

Depp

The_Conductor wrote: »

Depends on the post office- however, if the post is being delivered from the postoffice (which very often is not the case)- they would be one and the same.

Dan Jaman wrote: »

I always get the notification at 9.30am-ish, when the parcel gets scanned into my local P.O.

Shelflife wrote: »

When the Post is delivered to the Post Office they scan it in as soon as its delivered. This triggers the email/text to the address pal customer.

In our case thats usually before 9.30am

cheers lads!

telling you theyve recieved the parcel would be a big improvement but for 3.50 im not gunna complain!

The_Conductor

ei9go wrote: »

An Post have been looking at a USA address for address pal but the sort of figures they are thinking of charging would I believe be too much unless you wanted something badly and could not get it elsewhere.

Depends really.
If you were buying something on ebay- they are pushing sellers to use the ebay global shipping programme- which for an item valued at $100 could be shipping of another 30-40 and customs and duty of the same again........
Its actually well within the realms of possibility for An Post to offer a cheaper alternate- and the Global shipping programme is so random with its delivery times- whereas presumably An Post might be able to offer some sort of clarity on shipping times.

I've had ebay global shipping items arrive in 3 days by DHL and in 3 weeks by An Post unrecorded delivery- with absolutely no indication at any stage as to how an item was being shipped- or how long it was going to take.

Depp

The_Conductor wrote: »

Depends really.
If you were buying something on ebay- they are pushing sellers to use the ebay global shipping programme- which for an item valued at $100 could be shipping of another 30-40 and customs and duty of the same again........
Its actually well within the realms of possibility for An Post to offer a cheaper alternate- and the Global shipping programme is so random with its delivery times- whereas presumably An Post might be able to offer some sort of clarity on shipping times.

I've had ebay global shipping items arrive in 3 days by DHL and in 3 weeks by An Post unrecorded delivery- with absolutely no indication at any stage as to how an item was being shipped- or how long it was going to take.

i try avoid the gsp like the plague ive only had bad experience with it!

The_Conductor

Depp wrote: »

i try avoid the gsp like the plague ive only had bad experience with it!

I'd have to concur- its bloody expensive, completely random- and for international shipments, a shocking manner of doing business- and that's not even mentioning packages being opened, completely irrational charging of customs and excise when its not due, no customer service to talk of- and no manner of refuting customs and other charges that they insist on lobbing onto things that should be exempt.

Dan Jaman

The_Conductor wrote: »

I'd have to concur- its bloody expensive, completely random- and for international shipments, a shocking manner of doing business- and that's not even mentioning packages being opened, completely irrational charging of customs and excise when its not due, no customer service to talk of- and no manner of refuting customs and other charges that they insist on lobbing onto things that should be exempt.

Yep; all that, and it's a nice little/big earner for Pitney Bowes and eBay.
I object to being held down over a barrel and I try to avoid it, too. Refreshingly, some sellers still have a clue and can offer normal US->Ireland rates, usually at half or third the price of GSP.
F'rinstance; did you know that there's an option, should the seller know about it, to lob a large heavy item on the slow plane for cheap?
I had a Suzuki rear wheel, complete with drive hub, brake disc and tyre, shipped to me from Seattle to here for $25. It took a month, and the tracking showed it going all over the States, as it wended its way ever gradually to me, via the next available free space on whatever donkey cart was heading east, but it got here eventually.
It was some crowd unknown to me who picked it up, some other companies who handled it en-route, but it was UPS who delivered it to my door.