A thread with two purposes.
One purpose is to raise awareness that the service exists,
The other purpose is to ask of user experiences.
Royal Mail has a service called Parcel Collect.
To me the web page is a bit confusing, as Collect and Send seem to be two different things.
I am not sure, but I think it might be that Collect is if the posrage is already on the item, either by stamps one has bought or a reply paid label.
Send seems to be the way to start from zero.
It seems to be built in to the Send option that one then buys two items in the one checkout basket, namely the postage fee and the collection fee.
So on this web page
send.royalmail.com/?collect
to start from zero one needs first to click on the black filled rectangle that has Send an item in white letters on it so as to get to the correct dialogue panel.
Clicking through one gets offered a choice of five types of item
Letter
Large Letter
Small Parcel
Medium Parcel
Tube
If one wants a letter, then one finds three options offered immmediately, none of which is ordinary first class post.
However, ordinary first class post is available, but initially hidden, though clicking on Show 2 more services displays it as an option.
I have not used this yet, but I have found out about it in case I need to send a letter somewhere when a telephone call or an email are not enough to do what is necessary.
Originally, the service needed one to print the label oneself from a file sent once one has booked, but that has now changed and there is an option for the postperson to bring the label at no extra cost.
I saw something somewhere implying one is handed the label and affixes it oneself, but that does not seem to be absolute as the postperson will pick up from a "safe place" if one is not at home, but only one item on each occcasion in that situation, so that would need the postperson to affix the label.
Presumably that extends to being at home yet wanting a social distance pickup.
There are various preset options for "safe place" and also an "Other" option which has a text box which seems to accept up to 50 letters and spaces.
One pays at the time of booking by a credit card or debit card and is sent an email confirming the arrangement.
