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Royal Mail Collection Issue
 

Hey guys,

newbie here so please bare with me and apologise if this has already been answered elsewhere but i had a quick skim on the forum and couldn't find the answer for this. This question pertains to the the UK postal service Royal Mail.

So basically I bought something from china on eBay and when it arrived I got a grey card through saying I have to pay custom charges. Fine, so I head to my local sorting/delivery office to pay the charge and collect my parcel. They asked for me ID so I showed them my drivers license and the woman just looked at me and asked who am I picking the parcel up for. I told her it's for me then she asked whys the name different - never had a problem collecting parcels until today as the RM staff usually just looks at the address - think I was unlucky I was served by a grumpy old woman. Long story short but I got banned from eBay years ago (After being scammed with a laptop) so I had to use a different name when I made a new account, and i'm paranoid about identity fraud hence I never use my legal name when buying things online. Anyway, I tried to explain that to her but she said she can't release the parcels to me due to the name discrepancy and told me to pay online instead and have it delivered (even though it would not make any difference apart from a delay on my end as the postie doesn't chap my door and ask for my ID before handing my parcel over) but when I went on the Royal Mail site it was buggy as hell and wouldn't accept the tracking reference so I couldn't pay the charge.

So a few questions:
In future, when ordering stuff online, should I always use my legal name to avoid this kind of problem?

How would I go about getting my parcel? They aren't letting me pick up the parcel due to the name discrepancy but also unable to have it delivered as i'm unable to pay the charge online. I hope I don't have to let them return it to the sender and the sender has to resend it back out with the correct name as it's another 4 week wait for me.


Thinking of going back to the sorting office on Monday and try again and hopefully it's another staff serving but definitely going to phone them. Is it best to phone the Royal Mail customer service number or my local sorting office?

Re: Royal Mail Collection Issue
 

Thanks, I'll give them a ring tomorrow. And hopefully be able to pay over the phone and have the parcel delivered. IMO, Bit of a flaw in their system that they check names upon collection from their sorting offices but don't check names when they deliver.

Going to change the name on eBay too to prevent this kind of issue of happening again. Hopefully this won't raise any suspicions with eBay that it's linked to my banned account but I think I'm pretty safe now as I've accumulated over 1000 feedback and had it for about 4 years.

Re: Royal Mail Collection Issue
 

You'd think we'd have that in the UK by now. Not really rocket-science to implement.

Re: Royal Mail Collection Issue
 

DHL, etc used to collect payment at the door via POS but these days, they just send you an e-invoice by sms if they have your mobile or by post if they do not - but they're usually happy to deliver first and collect payment later.


Royal Mail on the other hand requires you to pay in advance.


You can pay Royal Mail here


They'd offer to redeliver your parcel so you don't have to go collect it.

Re: Royal Mail Collection Issue
 

Welcome to the forum OP - all the best as you master stealth :thumb:


OP unless you're buying illegal items or problematic material, I wouldn't necessarily use a stealth account to buy moving forward - keep buying and selling activity separate

Re: Royal Mail Collection Issue
 

thank you kind sir for the advice.

I've been a lurker for the past few years but didn't sign up for an account till of late as I never really had anything to ask. But I will try participate and help others too now that I am here.

The only reason I have a stealth account is for the reason I stated above (not my fault but ebay's non existent seller protection) but that happened around 7 or 8 years ago now so I think I'm pretty safe. I do import from china quite a lot - mostly accessories and replacement cases/shells for games consoles as I refurbish them to sell on. The only thing 'dodgy' - if you can even call it that - is i sometimes require batteries for things i'm refurbishing, I know the post office's dont like them but I don't know where else to get them other than online. :noidea: