The Inconvenience of picking parcels up from the Post Office

Did you know that if a delivery fails because nobody is in, they could end up paying for the inconvenience of picking it up at the Post Office?

Consignia has introduced a 50p charge to people picking up failed deliveries from their local Post Office. However, one customer ordered some books, and got a postcard from Parcelforce, saying it had been unable to deliver them. It couldn’t guarantee redelivery when he’d be in, and he couldn’t get them sent to his work because it was in a different postal area. The collection point was miles away.

He gratefully seized on the remaining option – picking his books up from a nearby Post Office. When he turned up, he had to pay a 50p “handling charge”.

Consignia’s Caroline Pearson says: “It’s a new service which costs us money to provide, so as a business we have to charge.”