Royal Mail's Online Postage
We have literally dozens of thankyou cards to send out for all the things that have been bought for Junior. So the launch of Royal Mail's online postage seemed to be a blessing, to save that walk to the Post Office, have the curlish "Andrea"* behind the counter give her usual scowl, and avoid doing battle with the people who insist on paying their £50 phone bill in bags of 2 pence pieces.
How wrong I could be.
It all looks glossy on the website (which is clunky, poorly put together and a nightmare to navigate bewteen related items - try going from your profile where you "top up" your online account to where you buy your postage in less than 3 clicks - go on, I challenge you), then when you try and actually use it, it's a different story.
So, the reality:
No stamp of approval for online postageYou have to enter the address for where the item is going. That's right, item. Singular. Not plural. So basically what I have to do is go through the whole process for each and every single "stamp" I want. That's enter the recipient name and address (mandatory), enter a return address (optional), select what format to print from a very small selection, pay then print. Then start again for stamp number 2.
But we've got envelopes that have already got addresses handwritten on. All I want is the stamp, not the address too. Sorry, no can do. "What's that, a place near Katmandu?" Each label is printed fully, you must enter the recipient name and address and you must print it onto your envelope, label or paper. Your label options are limited, basically the smallest that it can do is 4 to a sheet of A4 (that's A6). So of no use to me for my current requirement whatsoever.
If this is suitable for you, you only have until the next working day to send your item, after that your barcode expires and your postage is invalid.
All in all, not very convenient, not very handy for bulk purchases, and not very intuitive. Will I recommend it? Not in the current state, no. If you could, say, specify I want 24 first class stamps and be able to print them off on standard Avery address labels at 24 per page, then just whack them randomly on your items, then yes I possibly would. They already have a product, "Smart Stamp", which fills this need, but at £5/month aimed at business customers.
* Andrea. Not her real name.
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