Using Irish address but with UK postcode!

lindtee

OK, I know I shouldn't have done it but I ordered books from a company in the UK, and put my address eg-Lindtee, ********,*******,cork,IRELAND, united kingdom w11 eee(or something!). I thought to myself well the prices of the books are unbeatable so I'll chance it-thinking it would have canceled before dispatch if anyone copped on.....Well the order has been shipped from the company and this is the info that came on the tracking-

25/02/2009 10:54:02 Wembley Depot Unable to Deliver Prime Sort error
25/02/2009 11:01:03 Wembley Depot Despatched from
25/02/2009 13:32:23 Wembley Depot Held in container


So I ask, what are the chances of me actually getting said books? Will they just go back to the company in question?

Anyone put in uk postcode with an Irish address before? Did you get your items? Obviously if contacted I cannot plead that I didn't know that delivery wasn't to Ireland as I put in a valid uk postcode!

JJ

I know it's frustrating when you want to order something from a UK seller or website and they don't ship to Ireland but adding a UK post code to your address isn't the answer.

If you do that, they'll either send the item to that post code and not your address or realise what you've done and cancel the order or get in contact with you to say, "WTF?"

Capt'n Midnight

Bit late now

try None / Eire

not sure if there is an official royal mail post code for ROI but Belfast code is BT1 ... so it would get a a wee bit closer

A Dub in Glasgo

I doubt you are going to get the books

There is no Royal Mail code for the RoI as Royal Mail do not sort and deliver mail in the RoI

lindtee

Thanks for the replies. Didn't think to put in a Northern Irish Postcode:o. Ah well, I just hope that I get my money back if they do go back to the company(which was www.schoollink.co.uk, a sister company of thebookpeople!). Live and learn. Was worth a try anyways. It was the only place that I could order a certain series of books for my son's birthday.

jor el

A Northern Ireland postcode wouldn't make any difference, it'll still end up in the wrong place. If they don't ship to Ireland, then they don't ship to Ireland, there's no way around this fact.

You could email them and ask if it's possible to post them here, often this will work. Just tell them you're willing to pay whatever the extra postage is.

rameire

Bt1 1aa will and does work, received some books from play.com yesterday, with free uk postage.
have used it before and works everytime.
previous examples are hmv.co.uk
amazon.co.uk
figleaves.co.uk

its the postcode for the sorting office in belfast, they just process them through their office and pass tehm onto an post.
just put in Eire into the address.

lindtee

Its been despatched from the wembley sorting office probably on the way back to schoollink. Its not Royal Mail who deliver either, its a courier company so I'd say I have no chance at all of getting the books.

I'll chance contacting them, saying will pay extra postage to deliver to here, if it does go back to them and they contact me about it!

I'm hoping that there is an off-chance they will just forward it to me, with bookpeople.ie consignment!

darc

UK postal code system is particularly good. Each code represents about 50 - 100 homes / businesses. The system is used by every delivery company int he uk & sat nav.

you could simply put an address as follows

9 pig lane, cm22 7pa,

Post from anywhere in the uk and it will arrive at the destination the next day.

so if you have w11 1aa it will go to the w11 district and if 1aa doesn't match the first line of the address written on the box, it is returned to sender.

A Dub in Glasgo

9, CM22 7PA will get delivered

Capt'n Midnight

A Dub in Glasgo wrote:

9, CM22 7PA will get delivered

9 Twyford Mews, Pig Lane, BISHOP'S STORTFORD, CM22 7PA

9 Twyford Mill, Pig Lane, BISHOP'S STORTFORD, CM22 7PA

There is no flat 9 but there could be
Flat 8, Twyford Mill, Pig Lane, BISHOP'S STORTFORD, CM22 7PA

http://postcode.royalmail.com/portal/rm/addressfinder

back here stuff like
"the green house opposite Molloy's pub" gets delivered

lindtee

At least I'm getting a free lesson about postcodes out of the thing!
No news yet from schoollink about item being sent back and this is the latest from the tracking number-
26/02/2009 11:35:46 Sort Centre - Droitwich Spa Sorted

HarryD

I use a postcode in Newry (when the systems needs a valid postcode), and it works for me.
Sometimes the packagaes arrive with the postcode scribbled out and NOT NEWRY written on the it

shrapnel222

rameire wrote: »

Bt1 1aa will and does work, received some books from play.com yesterday, with free uk postage.
have used it before and works everytime.
previous examples are hmv.co.uk
amazon.co.uk
figleaves.co.uk

its the postcode for the sorting office in belfast, they just process them through their office and pass tehm onto an post.
just put in Eire into the address.

play is free shipping to ireland so why not just put your real address and postcode?:rolleyes:

to be fair the guys in the sorting office in belfast must really hate us with a passion. i'd say they get litterally thousands of letters/packages coming through them every day for the republic.

moonboy52

rameire wrote: »

Bt1 1aa will and does work, received some books from play.com yesterday, with free uk postage.
have used it before and works everytime.
previous examples are hmv.co.uk
amazon.co.uk
figleaves.co.uk

its the postcode for the sorting office in belfast, they just process them through their office and pass tehm onto an post.
just put in Eire into the address.

Nice tip! I must try it on a small item and see if it works:P

rubadub

rameire wrote: »

its the postcode for the sorting office in belfast, they just process them through their office and pass tehm onto an post.
just put in Eire into the address.

I love it!

The way posting is supposed to work is that they look at the last lines first and just toss it in whatever bag is appropriate. So they should just see the code and/or belfast and not bother reading the rest at that stage. This is why I have a pet-hate of UK companies listing Eire down, it will be an english person reading it in the post office, so it should be the english version of the country. I doubt these UK companies who write Eire use the Chinese spelling of China etc.

By the time it gets to belfast it is probably cheaper and easier to get it down south than across the sea again.

shrapnel222 wrote: »

play is free shipping to ireland so why not just put your real address and postcode?:rolleyes:

There is no such thing as free shipping, there are no free ships, planes, or volunteer postmen that I know of. The postage is included in the price, then for Irish orders they force you to pay in euros, so the additional postage and/or markup is hidden in the poor exchange rate. So if you get to pay sterling on play, by using the uk address, you can make big savings compared to the UK address. Also stuff like gadgets will not be shipped outside the UK.

boogyboogy

Would this be a useful method of getting around the whole non delivery of electronic goods to ireland because the likes of amazon won't pay the wee charge on the good???

lindtee

Well my order of books is going around in circles in Wembley! I just contacted school-link saying that I was a bit on the "slightly dense" side, that I did not realise that they didn't deliver to Ireland, and that I put in a uk postcode in error on my order.

On their site they have a section on Delivery costs and Ireland IS included on that list (7.99euro postage), https://www.schoollink.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/HelpView?langId=100&storeId=10201&catalogId=21902&helpPage=DeliveryI quoted that and said that my children were oh-so-upset that they didn't get the books,(that are not available here(they are really, but at about 7 times the price)) I said I would pay the 7.99 on the order to put a smile on my oh-so sad children's faces.

Don't know will it get me anywhere but heres hoping! Won't chance ever ordering anything thats uk only delivery again. Even with a belfast or newry postcode!

luckat

shrapnel222 wrote: »

why not just put your real address and postcode?:rolleyes:

We don't have postcodes in Ireland.

I usually use 11AA if n/a doesn't work.

jahalpin

boogyboogy wrote: »

Would this be a useful method of getting around the whole non delivery of electronic goods to ireland because the likes of amazon won't pay the wee charge on the good???

If it was only the fee, there probably wouldn't be a problem. Under the WEEE regulations, the vendor must accept and process waste items from he customer eg if you bought a tv, they must accept an old tv back from you and dispose of it.

JJ

I've just tried the Belfast post code to see if that works with a small item. It just so happens I need a certain item that I couldn't find in Ireland or on any Irish website and the only place that I could find it was a UK website that would only ship to the UK.

eugened

hi there, i ordered things from uk and it asked me for postcode i just put xxxxxxxxxx and they got to me ok.:)

lindtee

After weeks of hoping and waiting. School-link contacted me today to say they were refunding my money
(:)>money being refunded:(:(>no cheap books)

Squidgie

try recessionbustours.ie

people send stuff to their depot in Northern Ireland and they courier them around Ireland for €20

tommyjin83

JJ wrote: »

I've just tried the Belfast post code to see if that works with a small item. It just so happens I need a certain item that I couldn't find in Ireland or on any Irish website and the only place that I could find it was a UK website that would only ship to the UK.

Well did it work? I am wondering can we use that Bt1 11a thing to order gadgets or electronics from play.com? Em.. sounds good.:rolleyes:

Judgement Day

tommyjin83 wrote: »

Well did it work? I am wondering can we use that Bt1 11a thing to order gadgets or electronics from play.com? Em.. sounds good.:rolleyes:

Don't see what all the problem with postcodes is! I buy from play.com and just put NA in for postcode. NA = Not applicable. Trying to use some code from NI or elsewhere is asking for trouble.

shrapnel222

shrapnel222 wrote: »

play is free shipping to ireland so why not just put your real address and postcode?:rolleyes:

Judgement Day wrote: »

Don't see what all the problem with postcodes is! I buy from play.com and just put NA in for postcode. NA = Not applicable. Trying to use some code from NI or elsewhere is asking for trouble.

For crying out loud don't you realise that play don't ship electronics or computing stuff to Ireland? That's why we're trying to use a postcode to work around it. Do a bit of research before you post crap. :rolleyes:

Judgement Day

Deleted User wrote: »

For crying out loud don't you realise that play don't ship electronics or computing stuff to Ireland? That's why we're trying to use a postcode to work around it. Do a bit of research before you post crap. :rolleyes:

No I didn't know that play.com don't ship electronic goods or computing stuff to Ireland as I only buy DVDs from them! I was offering my help based on other postings and didn't realise the nature of the problem. I could suggest that you get the goods posted to a friend in the UK who could then forward them to you, but with your offensive attitude you probably don't have many friends. :rolleyes:

Judgement Day

Judgement Day wrote: »

but with your offensive attitude you probably don't have many friends. :rolleyes:

None at all

JJ

tommyjin83 wrote: »

Well did it work? I am wondering can we use that Bt1 11a thing to order gadgets or electronics from play.com? Em.. sounds good.:rolleyes:

It worked like a charm. I'd be happy to try it again if needed.

ADTR

Has anybody tried it with ebay and had success?

Red Sleeping Beauty

I know this thread's a few weeks old so in the small chance there's some of these posters reading :

rameire wrote: »

Bt1 1aa will and does work, received some books from play.com yesterday, with free uk postage.
have used it before and works everytime.
previous examples are hmv.co.uk
amazon.co.uk
figleaves.co.uk

its the postcode for the sorting office in belfast, they just process them through their office and pass tehm onto an post.
just put in Eire into the address.

Does this actually work though? Are you saying that with Play , you can pay in sterling , input your Republic of Ireland address and a Northern Irish postcode and they send it to NI , the sorting office in NI see the ROI address and just send it on down to an ROI sorting office and then you get it posted to your door at no extra cost ?

rubadub wrote: »

I love it!

The way posting is supposed to work is that they look at the last lines first and just toss it in whatever bag is appropriate. So they should just see the code and/or belfast and not bother reading the rest at that stage. This is why I have a pet-hate of UK companies listing Eire down, it will be an english person reading it in the post office, so it should be the english version of the country. I doubt these UK companies who write Eire use the Chinese spelling of China etc.

I've noticed a few UK sites that have Eire listed in their countries. I'd imagine the reason for it is that "Eire" is synonymous with the "Republic of Ireland".

I've met a lot of people in Britian that can't tell the difference between ROI and Northern Ireland. They all just call it "Ireland". "Here's my pal, he's Irish, he's from Ireland" with no distinction on which "part" of Ireland.

Anyway, they should probably just have ROI.

By the time it gets to belfast it is probably cheaper and easier to get it down south than across the sea again.


There is no such thing as free shipping, there are no free ships, planes, or volunteer postmen that I know of. The postage is included in the price, then for Irish orders they force you to pay in euros, so the additional postage and/or markup is hidden in the poor exchange rate. So if you get to pay sterling on play, by using the uk address, you can make big savings compared to the UK address. Also stuff like gadgets will not be shipped outside the UK.

This is it, I'd imagine by the time it gets to your door there'll be a charge on it!

Oh and this nonsense about "free delivery" is a pet hate of mine too

JJ wrote: »

It worked like a charm. I'd be happy to try it again if needed.

What site was it ? Did you put your ROI address in with NI postcode and it was then just forwarded to you? How could this work ? Is the postal service in NI not Royal Mail and the postal service in ROI An Post ? Two different companies. I'd imagine that Royal Mail would charge An Post (or some other courrier maybe) and then An Post would send you a letter or note saying there's a package in the sorting office with a charge on it for you.

No ?

JJ

I used it on Argos' UK site. It was for an item that wasn't in any of the Irish Argos shops and wasn't available on the Irish Argos site. BT1 1AA is for the main Royal Mail sorting office in Belfast. I would presume An Post stop by there on a daily basis (at the very least). All RM have to do is hand over all post that needs to head south and off it goes.

snubbleste

JJ wrote: »

I used it on Argos' UK site. It was for an item that wasn't in any of the Irish Argos shops and wasn't available on the Irish Argos site. BT1 1AA is for the main Royal Mail sorting office in Belfast. I would presume An Post stop by there on a daily basis (at the very least). All RM have to do is hand over all post that needs to head south and off it goes.

Yeah but how long will the Royal Mail or An Post put up with this, they will be losing revenue

Red Sleeping Beauty

JJ wrote: »

I used it on Argos' UK site. It was for an item that wasn't in any of the Irish Argos shops and wasn't available on the Irish Argos site. BT1 1AA is for the main Royal Mail sorting office in Belfast. I would presume An Post stop by there on a daily basis (at the very least). All RM have to do is hand over all post that needs to head south and off it goes.

So you're telling me that someone from An Post reguarly visits a Royal Mail sorting office to collect post for ROI (rather than Royal Mail delivering it to An Post at a charge) and then An Post are just passing that on to you in the Republic scot-free ?

Wow. If this is true then that's a cosey little deal there. Looks like not being a part of the UK has as many benefits :pac:

rameire

Alan Rouge wrote: »

I know this thread's a few weeks old so in the small chance there's some of these posters reading :



Does this actually work though? Are you saying that with Play , you can pay in sterling , input your Republic of Ireland address and a Northern Irish postcode and they send it to NI , the sorting office in NI see the ROI address and just send it on down to an ROI sorting office and then you get it posted to your door at no extra cost ?

yes

Red Sleeping Beauty

And it's not just for the border counties ?

Edit: I see you're in Athy, that'd be a no ?

rameire

Alan Rouge wrote: »

And it's not just for the border counties ?

Edit: I see you're in Athy, that'd be a no ?

correct,
i have also got deliveries to dublin and cork, using bt1 1aa.

JJ

Alan Rouge wrote: »

So you're telling me that someone from An Post reguarly visits a Royal Mail sorting office to collect post for ROI (rather than Royal Mail delivering it to An Post at a charge) and then An Post are just passing that on to you in the Republic scot-free ?

Wow. If this is true then that's a cosey little deal there. Looks like not being a part of the UK has as many benefits :pac:

I'm only presuming that AP stop by this sorting office every day or maybe it's the case that at least one RM van from this sorting office goes south each day and delivers all mail intended for the Republic. I don't pretend to know the inner workings of RM and AP. What I do know is that this post code worked for me.

StormWarrior

Squidgie wrote: »

try recessionbustours.ie

people send stuff to their depot in Northern Ireland and they courier them around Ireland for €20

I live in the UK, I could make money this way!:D

If anyone wants to pay me to redirect something to Ireland, PM me!

_Whimsical_

How exactly do you write your address when you use this?
Do you include the words Republic of Ireland or Ireland in it it or do you just let them figure that part out from the county you are in and write

1 Around the Corner Park,
Galway,
United Kingdom
Bt1 11A

Usually United Kingdom is automatically added to the address.Will it still work if you do have to include UK in the address?
Would someone mind writing a sample address to indicate what format they use?

Red Sleeping Beauty

I can see someone from either An Post or NI Royal Mail seeing this thread and catching on :pac:

Alan Rouge

Alan Rouge wrote: »

I can see someone from either An Post or NI Royal Mail seeing this thread and catching on :pac:

Yes this thread and the 1000 percent increase in stuff being addressed to BT1 1AA will fcuk things up

ElNino

I have a Sterling gift voucher from Play that I wasn't able to use. Thanks, I will give this a try.

Does this definitely work? I want to order a cdrom of ComputerActive back issues (can't find a torrent ;))...they only deliver to the UK though. Will this BT1 1AA work or am I throwing €20 away?

JJ

I've used it twice and both times it's worked.

Red Sleeping Beauty

Nah, it's not working for me. I applied for a free sample about 2weeks ago and no sign of it since.

okee

Worked here, ordered 2 large sized items from play that i couldn't get anywhere in Ireland, both of them were dispatched on the 13th got one on the 22nd and the other one today the 26th.

Red Crow

On the Freebie forum it works most of the time.

jcsmum

I've seen a sofa bed I'd like to purchase on the Irish argos website - its €339.99, out of curiosity I checked the UK site and it's £224.99 (which converts to €262.63)
As it's not available for store pick up and only through home delivery, is there anyway to get around this. I'm in Dublin.
The price difference is really shocking.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.