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

ei9go

The link to Addresspal: It shows how it works from US and UK. https://addresspal.anpost.ie/how-it-works

The AddressPal Fee is added to the Value to give an amount for VAT/Duty. The 3.50 clearance fee is added after for both UK and US services

Please see this link before asking how much the Vat is, how to work it out etc. Import VAT/Duty thread

They will send a text giving a link to pay the charges online

The email address to query VAT/Duty payments is: ecommchargequery@anpost.ie

MOD WARNING: Aircraft operators, and the couriers and Mail services that use those aircraft have prohibited article lists for items such as batteries, liquids, aerosols and gels, as well as other dangerous goods. They have every right to impose these to ensure the safety of passengers, crew and of the aircraft itself. There is no discussion on this forum about how to get around them, the chances of being stopped or of getting it through. Check the An Post and Address Pal websites for their T&Cs on the articles that they don't allow on their service. Any post contravening this will be deleted from here on, if a poster persists they will be taking a short holiday from the forum.See both Addresspal and An Post websites for lists of prohibited articles.


10. Materials Not Accepted

An Post does not carry:

Dangerous, poisonous or infectious items, explosives, munitions of war, firearms, corrosives, acids, paint removers, oxidising substances, organic peroxides, compressed, liquidised or dissolved gases (including butane gas lighters or aerosols), flammable solids or liquids or materials liable to spontaneous combustion, paints, varnishes, dyes, radioactive materials), pornography or anything that would cause embarrassment in transit, living creatures, prescribed or dangerous drugs , mercury, materials deemed illegal or prohibited by any Government Authority, Perishable Goods, organic or biological materials likely to perish under normal transit conditions, IATA restricted articles - such as liquids, Items likely to cause injury to any other Item or person, unless An Post has agreed in writing to carry such Items subject to such conditions as determined by An Post.

TheBody

ei9go wrote: »

Launching 1st Jan.2015

Called addresspal.

Will have a UK address in England so better for buying from eBay etc.

Delivery to your local Post Office which you will specify when registering.

You get a text as soon as it's in your local Post Office.

Simple as that.

I presume you mean Jan 2016?

sassyj

Only able to collect during office hours I presume, major drawback

cormie

I wonder will it be post office, or sorting office locations and will they have parcel motel like lockers accessible 24/7 or do you need to go in, queue up in line etc?

Captain Chaos

ei9go wrote: »

Launching 1st Jan.2015

Called addresspal.

Will have a UK address in England so better for buying from eBay etc.

Delivery to your local Post Office which you will specify when registering.

You get a text as soon as it's in your local Post Office.

Simple as that.

Still not as good as PM by a long shot. I can collect form PM at any time of the day or night or weekends, which I do.

My local post office does not stay open late enough and never on weekends. An Post missing the point yet again.

ei9go

cormie wrote: »

I wonder will it be post office, or sorting office locations and will they have parcel motel like lockers accessible 24/7 or do you need to go in, queue up in line etc?

Delivery to your specified Post Office.

newacc2015

ei9go wrote: »

Delivery to your specified Post Office.

Even worse than a warehouse. I cant go my local post office without having to queue for about 20 mins minimum. The workers seem to think its totally acceptable to have long conversations with customers while everyone is waiting. The opening hours arent suitable for anyone who works full time

intheclouds

Got any links for the official blurb on this?

Unless they make the collection point accessible 24/7 its a waste of time.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

delahuntv

a company comes out witha servcie and the whingers search for negatives.

Here's a positive - the last 2 items I got sent to parcel motel were too big for the lockers and I had to go to finglas to collect (from Kildare).

And another - some sites won't send to Northern Ireland, so PM no good for that.

and finally , you can have BOTH a PM account and an addresspal account. Imagine that!! - YOU get to choose what way to send your parcel.

Great to see more choice in the market - and that can only be a good thing. (but sure, that won't appease the whiners)

intheclouds

delahuntv wrote: »

Great to see more choice in the market - and that can only be a good thing. (but sure, that won't appease the whiners)

Yes, but while I agree with the above, one of the main selling points for PM is the 24/7 access. I often send things to it that cost the same to send to Ireland just because I am not home during the day.

Id like to see the details of the An Post alternative, but for me it wont be a viable solution if the parcels are only accessible 9-5 when I am in work. No more than my home address is.

Captain Chaos

Just don't see the point in it. It offers nothing PM does not offer and even less. If you know something is too big on PM now you can get it redirected to anywhere in the country.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Fair play to An Post. The PM lockers are closer to me than my post office but I'll definitely give it a try. Pricing is key here.

galwayjohn89

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Just don't see the point in it. It offers nothing PM does not offer and even less. If you know something is too big on PM now you can get it redirected to anywhere in the country.

English address. Which is big plus for me.

the groutch

only potential selling points that make it worth doing over Parcel Motel/GLS Parcelshop/Parcel Connect if you live clsoer to your post office than those, or a lower price point.

as usual, AnPost are far too late to the game, and will likely fail and lose more money.

delahuntv

The other thing is there is no official information on this yet - as someone who uses An post to send thousands of parcels a year, they may have come late to the game, but they have caught up and now passing out other options we have with extra servcies.

e.g. email noticfication, text alerts (extra charge for sender), change of address with no charge, parcel box, 99% (in our case) delivered next day even in the remotest of areas and most impotant of all, the postman know which mary murphy in ballydehob the parcel is for and where to put the parcel if she's out.

My guess is there will be more to this than what people are guessing (and otehr now takign as fact!!!) - and I reckon I may get info next week as I am meeting with an account manager.

My own guess (and it a guess) is that there will be options with a chain of convenience stores or something to allow for evening and weekend collections. The market for late night and over night collection is miniscule, so I doubt if a 24/7 service is part of it.

In Germany there are "parcel shops" that take parcels in for numerous carriers.

cormie

My post office is closer than my closest parcel motel and the mainland UK address will be a big plus where some companies charge a premium for shipping to NI or don't ship to NI at all.

If anyone can sort out the VAT issue for these deliveries it would be great too where you'd be able to get items for business delivered EX VAT to the an post address.

Sineadbcoyle

Vuzuggu wrote: »

English address. Which is big plus for me.

Yeah I think that's the only problem I have with PM, so I'll definitely be using it for Amazon items that can only be sent to mainland UK addresses.

For people complaining about working hours, can you get it delivered to a Post office near work and go at lunch? I know queues are horrendous around lunch but better than not being able to get a speciality item delivered at all.

OU812

Be handy if they introduced a US address also. I'd use it all the time if they could get that together.

blade1

intheclouds wrote: »

Yes, but while I agree with the above, one of the main selling points for PM is the 24/7 access. I often send things to it that cost the same to send to Ireland just because I am not home during the day.

Id like to see the details of the An Post alternative, but for me it wont be a viable solution if the parcels are only accessible 9-5 when I am in work. No more than my home address is.

Post offices close at 5.30 so u are ok.

newacc2015

OU812 wrote: »

Be handy if they introduced a US address also. I'd use it all the time if they could get that together.

I imagine they will keep it to UK. AFAIK they have a post office in Wales for Amazon and other big companies in the UK

gerard2210

Post offices open Saturday morning for those working mon-fri. My nearest P.M is about 30km away so this new service gets a thumbs up from me.

dolallyoh

https://www.dpdparcelwizard.ie/HomePage#/

Seems to be DPD to the door for similar fee and first 3 free ?

brianomc

There's still plenty of areas with no Parcel Motel around whereas most towns will have a post office so it will appeal to a lot of people.
Best of both worlds for me. A Post Office a few doors from where I work and a parcel motel within 3km from home.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Dozen Wicked Words

If it's all post offices, I have a tiny post office 15 minutes walk away, nearest parcel motel is half hour drive.

Imagine it would give little village post offices a big boost too.

kleefarr

Still use this for free UK delivery..

Is there a UK address I can use to avail of free UK delivery?

Yes. Simply give the Parcel Motel UK Address (below) as your delivery address and your parcel will arrive at your local Parcel Motel in Ireland. All you will need to pay is the Parcel Motel transaction charge.

Your Name
Your PM ID
1A McKinney Rd
Newtownabbey
BT36 4PE

fro9etb8j5qsl2

I can't see why they don't just do the big lockers like parcel motel, even if only for their bigger delivery offices and collection depots. The infrastructure is already there and these offices already run the PO box service which is similar except the boxes have manual locks. They could still keep the option open for collection during office hours at the smaller post offices but this would also offer a 24/7 collection option too. I think they had the monopoly on the postal service for so long that they became complacent and only realised when it was too late that they had fallen behind. The were never frontrunners when it came to updating services to keep with the times.

caviardreams

A big advantage of using parcel motel is collection outside office hours. That said, the an post option could work well, if they take larger packages (the limit on size can be frustrating with PM) and it's a cheaper price point. Given the overheads would be much lower for them too - no lockers, infrastructure, IT etc. I imagine the pricing will be significantly cheaper. After all it's not that much different to their existing service cost-wise I imagine (with the exception of the UK address option).

At €1 or so for national parcels it could prove popular.

delahuntv

caviardreams wrote: »

A big advantage of using parcel motel is collection outside office hours. That said, the an post option could work well, if they take larger packages (the limit on size can be frustrating with PM) and it's a cheaper price point. Given the overheads would be much lower for them too - no lockers, infrastructure, IT etc. I imagine the pricing will be significantly cheaper. After all it's not that much different to their existing service cost-wise I imagine (with the exception of the UK address option).

At €1 or so for national parcels it could prove popular.

At €1 it would be massively loss making. Unlikely to be much cheaper than pm.

The work involves taking it in at uk collection point, transferring to Ireland, sorting to regional areas, sorting to local post office, and then ensuring its viable for the post office to handle the parcel.

Every element has a cost and an post are not a charity.

the groutch

hardest part is storage at the post office, especially if they set no limits
imagine a small post office in a busy location holding 50+ boxes at a time.

simdan

It sounds like a viable option. I do say option as parcel motel has really done things well. Fast deliveries to the pm location once the parcel arrives in NI. I can collect without I.d. which will be required at an post. It's inexpensive. The text system is smart and hasn't ever let me down. I would use an post if the company only shipped to an English address, dependant on it being cost effective too of course. Going to a post office/sorting office is not my favourite place to visit, but wouldn't mind if the service was good.

DivingDuck

Until pricing is revealed, it seems like the two advantages are the mainland address and the fact for that rural homes, post offices tend to be closer than motels. The main drawback is the access hours.

I think for most customers, the negatives are going to outweigh the positives. I have multiple PMs I could easily access, and I personally have never encountered a seller that wouldn't deliver to the North. I suspect this will do quite well in the country, but I would be very surprised if they ate into PM's market share at all in the city. They'd have to price it ridiculously low to attract city customers away from an existing, good-value service with round-the-clock deliveries and access.

If they wanted to make this a killer service, the way to go about it would be to deal with deliveries that have incurred customs charges. For me, that is PM's sole (but glaring) failing. I don't know how well it would operate, though.

Thargor

Parcel Motel practically dies every Christmas under the strain, looking forward to seeing An Post do an even sh1ttier job.

dolallyoh

As I said earlier - DPD will deliver to door for same sort of price as a PM locker fee. Which afai can see if superior to both offerings.

A2LUE42

This could get interesting, as some stuff can't deliver to NI. I'm thinking about a table tennis table I want from sportsdirect :-)

cormie

A2LUE42 wrote: »

This could get interesting, as some stuff can't deliver to NI. I'm thinking about a table tennis table I want from sportsdirect :-)

I'm not sure an post would deliver something that size within Ireland, let alone as part of this service

2 stroke

dolallyoh wrote: »

As I said earlier - DPD will deliver to door for same sort of price as a PM locker fee. Which afai can see if superior to both offerings.

I've never had an item damaged via Royalmail/Parcel motel. I can't say the same about An Post and I certainly can't say it about DPD.
Still, I welcome the competition and choice.

dolallyoh

Yes there is definitely that to consider. My DPD stuff tends to get thrown over the side door. I still use them frequently though.

caviardreams

delahuntv wrote: »

At €1 it would be massively loss making. Unlikely to be much cheaper than pm.

The work involves taking it in at uk collection point, transferring to Ireland, sorting to regional areas, sorting to local post office, and then ensuring its viable for the post office to handle the parcel.

Every element has a cost and an post are not a charity.

I did say €1 for national (i.e. Ireland) parcels. I don't see how there is much more of a cost involved than with the traditional postage service? Seller pays postage as normal, it's sorted as normal etc., and instead of delivering to my house they deliver to the local post office - perhaps even easier than normal postage deliveries as they may be delivering a batch to one location. Sure, storage is potentially an issue but for small items not so much.

nava

Looks like they something that they might be thinking for a while, they have domain addresspal.ie with registration: 19-August-2014, I wonder if they will also have addresspal.com as only register couple of months ago.

intheclouds

delahuntv wrote: »

At €1 it would be massively loss making. Unlikely to be much cheaper than pm.

The work involves taking it in at uk collection point, transferring to Ireland, sorting to regional areas, sorting to local post office, and then ensuring its viable for the post office to handle the parcel.

Every element has a cost and an post are not a charity.

Why would it be loss making?

All of the above already happens except the taking it in at a UK collection point and transferring it to Ireland - but they save on the fact they dont send it to your house but you collect it at the post office.

The infrastructure is all already in place. They already take in, sort, sort, and then deliver regular post. And dont get paid per item for it.

cormie

They'd probably be able to charge far more than €1 and still be competitive so I assume they will

caviardreams

cormie wrote: »

They'd probably be able to charge far more than €1 and still be competitive so I assume they will

They could definitely charge more for the UK service, but for Irish parcels there isn't much of a benefit imho as you are tied into PO hours and possibly queues!

average_runner

delahuntv wrote: »

a company comes out witha servcie and the whingers search for negatives.

Here's a positive - the last 2 items I got sent to parcel motel were too big for the lockers and I had to go to finglas to collect (from Kildare).

And another - some sites won't send to Northern Ireland, so PM no good for that.

and finally , you can have BOTH a PM account and an addresspal account. Imagine that!! - YOU get to choose what way to send your parcel.

Great to see more choice in the market - and that can only be a good thing. (but sure, that won't appease the whiners)

Parcel motel will deliver to your house, so do that for big items

GerardKeating

Captain Chaos wrote: »

Just don't see the point in it. It offers nothing PM does not offer and even less. If you know something is too big on PM now you can get it redirected to anywhere in the country.

Not exactly true. It has English address rather than northern Ireland. Some sellers online specific mainland uk only.

delahuntv

intheclouds wrote: »

Why would it be loss making?

All of the above already happens except the taking it in at a UK collection point and transferring it to Ireland - but they save on the fact they dont send it to your house but you collect it at the post office.

The infrastructure is all already in place. They already take in, sort, sort, and then deliver regular post. And dont get paid per item for it.

most post offices are "agents" that get a fee and commission from An post.

So you have cost of taking it in, transferring it, sorting it, locally delivering it and the cost of keeping it til customer comes in for it and vat on all that.

No way will it be €1 and I don't think the taxpayer should subsidise a commercial service. PM charge 3.95 for effectively the same service and I woudl guess that this is about the price people will pay.

I guess An Post failed to "deliver" this on time!!!

rubadub

GerardKeating wrote: »

Not exactly true. It has English address rather than northern Ireland. Some sellers online specific mainland uk only.

+1, people have to remember/realize that parcelmotel and parcelwizard are really taking advantage of the fact that royal mail are in effect subsidising parcels going to NI.

Couriers would have no real reason to do this and so charge accordingly, so a package going to an address next door to them in london will be cheaper than one going to NI. Many sellers are using couriers and not royal mail and so will say mainland uk only.

As an post will apparently not be taking advantage of Royal Mail I would not expect it to be particularly cheap.

Checking online all the post offices near me are open saturday from 9am-1pm. If they have daily charges like PM I would not use them though.

Wyrme

Did this fall through? I cannot find any mention of it on their site today

Yggr of Asgard

It seams this is long time in the making, the webaddress addresspal.ie was registered by AnPost on 19-August-2014.

So what's another couple of month giving that this was never officially announced anyhow.