Trying to buy prepaid postage labels from An Post

davidom2513 · 30-11-2016 05:39PM #1

I have been trying to contact An Post about buying prepaid postage labels to make shipping cheaper and easier for my online shop.

According to the An Post website at this link: http://www.anpost.ie/anpost/maincontent/business%20customers/sending%20parcels/less%20than%2030%20parcels%20dublin.htm

How to order pre paid products:
1. Call our Business Desk team on 1850 26 23 62 or you can also order directly from your designated An Post driver.
2. Have your cheque ready to pay the driver when he delivers your labels.

However, i tried ringing the supplied number and was put on hold for 30 mins with no answer. Furthermore the drivers and people in the office don't know anything about it when I ask.

How can I obtain the prepaid labels? Any ideas?

Does anyone else use these prepaid labels or what shipping method do you use for your business?

jimmii · 30-11-2016 05:44PM

I assume you're in Dublin? Strange the drivers wouldn't know about them as the driver we had got commission for selling them so always asked us to get them from him instead of phoning in. To order them I rang the driver he told me the total and I had a cheque or postal order for him to collect in the afternoon and he'd drop the labels in the next day.

davidom2513 · 30-11-2016 05:48PM

jimmii wrote: »

I assume you're in Dublin? Strange the drivers wouldn't know about them as the driver we had got commission for selling them so always asked us to get them from him instead of phoning in. To order them I rang the driver he told me the total and I had a cheque or postal order for him to collect in the afternoon and he'd drop the labels in the next day.

No I'm based in Galway.

Did you manage to connect when you rang in?

jimmii · 30-11-2016 05:52PM

davidom2513 wrote: »

No I'm based in Galway.

Did you manage to connect when you rang in?

That product is only available to businesses in Dublin. Dont think there is similar for outside.

I seem to remember ringing amd getting through the first time then when the driver dropped them off thats when he said to order from him.

davidom2513 · 30-11-2016 05:56PM

jimmii wrote: »

That product is only available to businesses in Dublin. Dont think there is similar for outside.

I seem to remember ringing amd getting through the first time then when the driver dropped them off thats when he said to order from him.

That's a bit of a let down.

So is there any way I can obtain them?

When you order, is there an option to pay over the phone. Or is payment exclusively cheque/postal order?

Maybe I can get them delivered to my Parcel Motel Dublin address, or delivered to a relative..

hairyslug · 30-11-2016 06:03PM

I mailed them and got an account managers no. for my area, this was some time ago so can't remember the address but nearly sure I got it of the business sectio on the anpost site

Edit: found the mail customer.services@anpost.ie.

davidom2513 · 30-11-2016 06:16PM

hairyslug wrote: »

I mailed them and got an account managers no. for my area, this was some time ago so can't remember the address but nearly sure I got it of the business sectio on the anpost site

Edit: found the mail customer.services@anpost.ie.

Thanks, I'll mail them

Any ideas on if it's possible at all to get them her in Galway?

Delivered to my Parcel Motel Dublin address for instance?

hairyslug · 30-11-2016 06:32PM

davidom2513 wrote: »

Thanks, I'll mail them

Any ideas on if it's possible at all to get them her in Galway?

Delivered to my Parcel Motel Dublin address for instance?

I'm in Wexford, was given the no. of a local rep so I presume they have regional reps.
I never went ahead with it but I'm not sure of what t&cs you would need to sign up to

jimmii · 30-11-2016 07:07PM

davidom2513 wrote: »

That's a bit of a let down.

So is there any way I can obtain them?

When you order, is there an option to pay over the phone. Or is payment exclusively cheque/postal order?

Maybe I can get them delivered to my Parcel Motel Dublin address, or delivered to a relative..

Payment was purely cheque or postal typical pain in the hole stuff! They used to take cash but stopped. If you did get some I would imagine the post office wouldn't accept them given they are exclusively for use in Dublin. There is surely a product available for those outside Dublin probably similar pricing but bigger volume. Hopefully you hear back on that email maybe try ring first thing in the morning and hope the lines haven't got blocked up by then.

davidom2513 · 30-11-2016 09:26PM

Thanks for the help guys.

I am currently in the process of emailing them.

One or two more questions:

The parcel post labels for €4.95 - are they registered and trackable?
Or would I need to get the express post labels?

Also, is there a similar service for posting to Europe? Or what would be the cheapest Signed-for shipping to Europe?

A few small items got lost on my customers in the post when I shipped to Italy.

jimmii · 30-11-2016 09:35PM

Think that's how much I was paying for green parcel labels they were tracked and delivery times were consistently good. If you do the numbers they will give you preferential rates to anywhere it all depends on that volume.

davidom2513 · 30-11-2016 09:38PM

jimmii wrote: »

Think that's how much I was paying for green parcel labels they were tracked and delivery times were consistently good. If you do the numbers they will give you preferential rates to anywhere it all depends on that volume.

I don't mind buying in volume as long as there is no expiry date on them.

So I could potentially get them cheaper than €4.95 if I buy higher volume?

Edit: Sorry, you were referring to preferential rates to Europe

jimmii · 30-11-2016 09:49PM

davidom2513 wrote: »

I don't mind buying in volume as long as there is no expiry date on them.

So I could potentially get them cheaper than €4.95 if I buy higher volume?

Edit: Sorry, you were referring to preferential rates to Europe

They would probably want a monthly commitment I would have thought. Unless you're doing 100 a month to a destination I would imagine you'll be hard pushed to get much off the standard price really. It's worth checking the couriers to just make sure whatever An Post quote you is reasonable.

davidom2513 · 30-11-2016 10:45PM

Will do.

The Parcel Post prices for Ireland are very good compared to couriers.

I'll ask about labels to Europe and compare also

jimmii · 30-11-2016 11:00PM

Yeh I always found they were good alright. I'm in the UK now the courier prices here are just ridiculously cheap!

davindub · 02-12-2016 12:09AM

did you try fastway etc?

davidom2513 · 02-12-2016 12:19PM

jimmii wrote: »

Yeh I always found they were good alright. I'm in the UK now the courier prices here are just ridiculously cheap!

Yeah, I noticed the likes of myHermes are insanely cheap. Great for busineses

davidom2513 · 02-12-2016 12:30PM

davindub wrote: »

did you try fastway etc?

yes, I checked their prices, but nothing compares to €4.95 per parcel

Fastway are about €8 per parcel within Ireland I believe

However I asked them for a quote for frequent parcels, so I'm waiting to hear back

jimmii · 02-12-2016 07:03PM

davidom2513 wrote: »

Yeah, I noticed the likes of myHermes are insanely cheap. Great for busineses

I've used them a few times and they've been pretty reliable so far. The service you get here from all the couriers is a real step up with most couriers the days of having to plan to wait in all day for collections and deliveries is over.

davidom2513 · 06-12-2016 09:51AM

I emailed An Post Wednesday and got no response yet

Their communication is absolutely atrocious

Won't answer phone calls, won't answer emails

It's no wonder people are using other services and their costs are going up

davidom2513 · 12-01-2017 05:21PM

I eventually got a response back from the An Post accounts manager for my area on Monday, one month after my initial enquiry.

She said she'd email me a form to fill out to order the labels, but I haven't received it yet. Such great service :rolleyes:

On another note, I have a question.

Does anyone know of a simple method to to get the tracking number for each label onto my computer? So it can be emailed to the customer?

Other than entering each tracking number manually to send to customer?

Can it be scanned etc?

antoinolachtnai · 12-01-2017 06:09PM

You can get a scanner, which will connect to your USB. When you scan something, it will appear on the screen as though you typed it on the keyboard. This is called a 'keyboard wedge' I think.

davidom2513 · 12-01-2017 06:43PM

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

You can get a scanner, which will connect to your USB. When you scan something, it will appear on the screen as though you typed it on the keyboard. This is called a 'keyboard wedge' I think.

Yes, I've used one of those before

But does the An Post labels have a bar code which contains the tracking number?

Trying to buy prepaid postage labels from An Post

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