Royal Mail SmartStamp - anyone else use it?

[coxadmin]

I've just signed up for Royal Mail SmartStamp and used it for the first time this morning.

It's great that I can choose what to put on my envelopes apart from postage - my logo or a message and/or my address. I just set it up and printed the postage straight on to the envelopes, stuffed the envelopes and they were ready to go.

I could have chosen to put the addresses on, too, using the mail merge feature.

You just have to top up your account online when your account gets low and you don't have to worry about having stamps on the premises.

[Asteeleleith]

Hi there
yes this is something i have considered doing.

The catch for me is gettng a jiffy bag through a printer!

Otherwise marvelous idea, i might use it whan i mail shot people in future :-)

Al

[clairemackaness]

Sticky Labels? They go onto Jiffy bags you know LOL

[Asteeleleith]

But that is what i use, sticky stamps, you don;t lick them anymore now do you ? lol
I was saying the jiffy bags would not got through the printer for print on stamps :-)

Smarty pants :-)

[creative-keyrings]

I used smartstamp for a couple of months,
I dont see why people are using this service (no offence) they make a big deal about getting your companys logo on your parcels but you can do that anyway!

Further more if you dont own decent scales and i mean really expensive ones then your not going to get an accurate weight and will end up paying more for a parcel (as i found out)

After all you still got to take it down the post office unless you get them to collect for a yearly fee!

Just another one of royal mails gimmicks to make money!

Dont waste your time with this one!

[coxadmin]

I must admit I'm using it for letters rather than packages and parcels.

[creative-keyrings]

Again ive got my own printed letter i do myself they have my logo on and url on etc and i have a novelty keyring where the stamp goes!!

You can unsubscribe from them i know it says 3months but i managed to before that. Also if you print the postage wrong and it comes out incorrect on the labels it takes months for you to claim the money back!

[Asteeleleith]

i do not understand y royal mail doesn't just collect letters as the post anyway for free. Do this for both domestic and Business

If would cut the need for post boxes, or as many of them, or is that easy.

Thanks for advise on scales, i was putting together my pricelist usng a set of kitchen scales (needed weight) though i was beng quite smart.
I think Royal mail does their won scales now don;t they?

Al

[Top Hat]

Try Packet Post (PPI) save about 10% - 15% on normal post, 30 Day account so helps cashflow.

[annethedonn]

I've got Smartstamp as i don't send many letters so it's great for me!

[APRogers]

I don't quite understand the SmartStamp model. It costs £4.99 a month doesn't it?

What do you get for this - just the privilege of printing your own stamps on your own paper with your own ink in your own time?

That sounds more cynical than I intended but I can only see how Royal Mail benefit - £5 more a month. What's in it for us?

[annethedonn]

It's cheaper than a franking machine! Saves you trips to the post office to buy stamps. That's about it really.

[coxadmin]

I am in the process of sending out a mailshot and didn't want the hassle of sticking stamps (I know they're self-adhesive these days) on to envelopes. It is very handy to put the envelopes in the printer and then stuff them after the postage has been printed. I didn't have to worry about the stamps being straight and looking neat, which is important to me

I think this is really useful for small businesses sending out a lot of mail.

[APRogers]

Okay, question answered, for which thanks.

I'm not sending a lot of mail (yet) so I guess I'll stick to more traditional methods.

Thanks again

Alan

[Amber]

I used to use SmartStamp a lot last year when I went through a phase of selling off all my old clothes (there were a lot of them!) on ebay. The benefit for me was not having to stand in a post office queue for 30 minutes or longer every day (Asteeleleith, for jiffy bags you print the stamps onto sticky labels then stick the labels onto the parcels) so I thought it was brilliant.

These days I hardly ever send things through the mail, so this thread has reminded me to cancel the SmartStamp subscription :)

I think Asteeleleith is right, though: why don't Royal Mail just have the posties pick up your mail when they deliver? Isn't that what they do in the States?

[stagetec]

I looked at using this, but I can't understand why Royal Mail charge you to use it, surely it is saving them money as they don't have to print the stamps and costing you money as you have to print them, plus the time to print and it also costs you £4.99 a month, seemed a bit crazy to me, so I stick with the stamps, but print address labels with our logo and details on.

Andy

[Asteeleleith]

Thanks Amber, now theres an idea if i need to send out mass jiffy bags, print stamps them on labels!

If i end up needing to send out masses of disks this is a possibilty.

Its the simplest of ideas that are the best!, why did i not think of it :oops:

Al

[coxadmin]

I looked at using this, but I can't understand why Royal Mail charge you to use it, surely it is saving them money as they don't have to print the stamps and costing you money as you have to print them, plus the time to print and it also costs you £4.99 a month, seemed a bit crazy to me, so I stick with the stamps, but print address labels with our logo and details on.

Andy

You do also have the option to pay £49.99 a year, which does some some money on the £4.99 a year.

[weddingcrafter]

We use Smartstamp as we send out lots of various weight parcels every day but are below the level for packetpost - we will switch as soon as we can.

The BIG downside of Smartstamp - as we all found out yesterday - is that if the Royal Mail server is down it doesn't work. This happens about once every other month and is an absolute pain!

When it works, it is very convenient.

[annethedonn]

That would be a fantastic idea!!!

[stagetec]

I have to apologise, after slagging SmartStamp off earlier in this post, I signed up for it today and it's great!!

I had a load of post to go and couldn't be bothered to go to the Post Office and then sat down and worked out over a coffee that after I took into account all the letters I sent with too much postage because I didn't have the right stamps and sent everything 1st class as I only had 1st class stamps, I decided that £50 a year would probably save me quite a bit of money.

Andy

[coxadmin]

I have to apologise, after slagging SmartStamp off earlier in this post, I signed up for it today and it's great!!

Andy

Great - a convert! :D

[autolycus]

The thing I like best about SmartStamp at the moment is that, for some reason, the last three 2nd class letters I have sent to a colleague about 20 miles up the road have all arrived next day.

[stagetec]

Yes, but then the one you send 1st class that you desperately want to get there the next day will take 3 days!

Andy

[creative-keyrings]

can someone tell me, can you send out recorded items and special delivery items from your house using smartstamp if you get the special delivery stickers from the post office?

[Robert]

No. Recorded items/SD cannot be done this way, and it's the only reason I don't use it,

[ink4-u]

it is a great tool, but as people say why charge us they should give us discount after all we are paying. that is the reason i wont have it because of the £4.99 PCM i think they charge because its new and need to pay for all the development of the software when that has been paid for they may cool charges a little i hope! Can keep hoping LOL! I dont pay for ink either i have a dymo printer thermal its great everything is bold and easy to see best thing i have ever brought i just write the address in MS WORD highlight it and then press the dymo button 3 seconds flat its there, labels are cheap i get compatible from eBay so all hunky dory for me.

[Robert]

Oooh! Compatible Dymo labels, I didn't know such a thing existed! Excellent!

Further to my previous post, RecDel/SD can be done, but you still need to queue up at a post office, so it defeats the purpose.

[ink4-u]

na i just go to the sorting office and dro them off they are fine with it

[Top Hat]

People sending lots of parcels should look at PPI = Packet Post, it will save you money!!!

[bitsnstuff]

I am with you there Top Hat - I happen to have a sorting office 10 mins away too so can easily drop off my sacks and save myself the collection charge - saves lots of money and time.

Can do international, first, second and special delivery so makes life alot easier if you need lots of options.

[Christiane]

PLEASE! This thread is 4 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AAAAAAAAARRG GGGHH

[DaveSUK]

Smart Stamp is ideal of low to medium quantity I use a Franking Machine which can do loads of envelopes very quickly which includes printing the logo Mines provided by Pitney Bowes (http://www.machinebroker.co.uk/skip.html)

[Tabbie]

I have used it for about a year and give royal mail their due, when i mis printed £15 worth of labels on normal paper instead of labels they asked no questions and just did a refund - i would recommend

[Printing&Postage]

I'm sure I've said it before, but PPI for parcels, and Hybrid Mail for letters.
Best all round:
> Hybrid Mail = cheap letters at any volume,
> PPI good price on packages from the Royal Mail

[Abbeypost]

We have used SmartStamp for some time and have found it to be very good. We had previous experience of franking machines and found them to be very expensive for low volumes. The monthly rental, additional fee to top up postage and the fact that the ink cartridges time expired before the ink was used up (they don't tell you about that) meant that it wasn't our best option.

Having started by saying that we are happy with SmartStamp, what I can't understand is why the Post Office gives franked mail a discount?

Franked mail is paid for in advance - so is SmartStamp.
Franked mail is weighed and correctly stamped - so is SmartStamp if you have decent scales.
Franked mail is cheaper to send - Why?

This seems like an unjustifiable subsidy to the franking machine industry, or am I missing something?

[DaveSUK]

I totally agree that franking will be more expensive unless you are sending quite a bit of mail.

Iv only just heard about the ink cartridge times and this does explain a lot the machine says the ink is empty and wont work even when you can see ink in the cartridge.

There has been a number of changes at Pitney Bowes and now I would say stay well clear.

Now you must attach your machine to the phoneline on the 1st of each month to be updated, it wont work until it has been updated but getting it to update takes around 2 or 3 days of constantly connecting to an 0845 number.

I have told Pitney that once my credit has gone its going back I would rather use the old fashioned stamp than mess around trying to get the stupid machine to work.

[Abbeypost]

I've just heard from SmartStamp that the reason that franked mail attracts a discount is because it doesn't have to be collected from the 100,000 mail boxes.

I pointed out that their own guide says that mail can be put into a special envelope and posted in a 'designated' post box or handed in, in free issue pouches at a Post Office.

There is no problem in having envelopes printed to contain our post, so I would urge everyone to put SmartStamp under pressure to give us all the same pricing structure that they make available to the Franked Mail community.