Franking machines for postage

[bms]

That clarifies things a bit, so its the rental that would kill the price if you didn't send a min of around £100.00 per month - around 40 mugs, or 35 mugs and plenty of letters.

Yes, I guess they don't want everyone saving money!

[John G]

Yes, I guess they don't want everyone saving money!

How inconsiderate.

[MugMan]

We don't have to take our franked mail to the post office. It gets put in the post box at the end of our road on the industrial estate. We are allowed 10 free top ups a year but are allowed to top up large amounts at a time so in a year we don't top up more than 10 times. Franking labels worked out about 0.5p each last time I bought them (from Ebay) and the ink cartridge lasts for at least 3000 impressions (then it is pricey for a new one, especially if you can't source red ink and top up yourself as the one we have is just a HP NO 45 cartridge with red ink in it) - ink cartridge costs £5 with black ink or £150 with red ink (and it has to be red ink for franking).

Sorry for bringing an old thread back to life.

Some of the information given on line from Royal Mail is a little miss leading with regards to franking and where you can drop the mail off. I started using franking a month ago to save money on postage and have ever since had problems with trying to drop the packets off either with Royal Mail or at the local post office. The post office will take small amounts from me usually no more than ten mugs at a time so I have been doing the rounds of the local post offices. It is impossible to drop it off at a Royal Mail depot, they point blank refuse it. I am only based 2 miles away so isnt a big issue to drive there and leave it, but they point blank refuse it. They say you have to have it collected at an additional cost.

I am aware of the business boxes but havent used one yet. How do you post the mug packets just drop them in? What about large letters do they need to go in pouches or can you just drop them in again like a normal post box?

You seen to have some experience of this Martin, could you help out with your experiences?

[mugstar]

I generally use the franking post boxes, they are on trading estates for the local businesses obviously and they are no problem.
Big hatch so you can put a few in there at a time and just let them go! I pack in polystyrene mailers and they are safe as houses in there. Also they collect from these last, mine isn't emptied until 18.30 which is handy sometimes.

If you do a lot of letter/large letter post then just request the bags from RM online, but if not then just check them in there loose.

[WorthDoingRight]

I use a Pitney Bowes machine but buy my ink cartridges off eBay now. To give an example 5 cartridges from Pitney Bowes costs almost £300, 6 cartridges off eBay cost £36. So well worth finding out if there are cartridges for the machine you have or are thinking of having available cheaper.

[MugMan]

Thank you for your speedy reply. I have ordered the bags from RM a few days ago, but haven't received them yet. Will have ago tonight and see how I go. I think the one closest to me is about 1830 which is brilliant as you get a bit longer to produce them.

[bms]

Sorry for bringing an old thread back to life.

Some of the information given on line from Royal Mail is a little miss leading with regards to franking and where you can drop the mail off. I started using franking a month ago to save money on postage and have ever since had problems with trying to drop the packets off either with Royal Mail or at the local post office. The post office will take small amounts from me usually no more than ten mugs at a time so I have been doing the rounds of the local post offices. It is impossible to drop it off at a Royal Mail depot, they point blank refuse it. I am only based 2 miles away so isnt a big issue to drive there and leave it, but they point blank refuse it. They say you have to have it collected at an additional cost.

I am aware of the business boxes but havent used one yet. How do you post the mug packets just drop them in? What about large letters do they need to go in pouches or can you just drop them in again like a normal post box?

You seen to have some experience of this Martin, could you help out with your experiences?

Why would a Post Office refuse to take your post. This sounds strange. Admittedly they aren't getting any revenue from you, but I don't see how they can refuse. I know of business customers that used to take the Royal Mail sack full of pre-franked post and this was fine at our local post office. I'd be inclined to test their resolve.

We use the franked mail post box at the end of our road on the Ind Est - they get put in the hopper and collected around 6pm each evening.

[MugMan]

I spent a full morning a few weeks ago on the phone to royal mail about this. Apparently it is more to do with the collection driver than the post office. It seems RM and the PO are classed as two seperate companies and as a franking customer our contract is with RM and not the PO. It even states on the downloadable PDF on the RM website that you can drop off your franked mail in a business box, post office or RM collection depot. It seems they make it difficult so that you have to pay for a RM collection at your business premises. I would consider a collection at certain times of the year, but I am unable to pay the annual fee for a daily collection. Even paying for it as required on a daily basis is bloody expensive. Again the mentality of RM is that you can pay for a daily collection or annual. There is no weekly or monthly charge, which would be great for us small businesses who only require the service at certain times of the year.

I made a visit to my nearest business box this afternoon without any issue and this is the route I will go down in future, although I know i am going to fill it up very quickly at certain times of the year.

[purpledragon]

My local postoffice treid whinging to me about leaving large amounts of franked mail i just pointed out that as a post office he must accept them and what would he do if i didnt frank them but que up and put them through his till he said id rather this as he gets the revenue after a bit of a heated debate i said fair enough ill do just that so i waited for 2 days worth of post and went to the post office he nearly crapped himself said he couldnt deal with me as his customers would be waiting to long (easily over an hour i had 78 parcels to post) and if thats what i was going to do he would need to put extra staff on , not my problem i am your customer you must serve me he then took me to one side and said ok bring them back franked ..... strange how common sense prevails in the end innit . As far as the sorting depo is concerned again ive never had a problem dropping franked mail to them either