Receiving parcels from customers

[Brummy]

Good morning all, this is my first post and I’m sure this has already been covered before but I searched and couldn’t find anything.

I do electronic repairs from home and have decided it’s time for me to start taking on customers.
I don’t want to give out my home address so I was looking for other alternatives, I know of Po boxes but I’ve been told they are predominantly for mail letters.

What other options do I have ?

Thanks in advance

 

[fisicx]

I don’t want to give out my home address...

Why not?

In any case, most couriers and delivery companies have a drop off and collection service. But you are far better off getting deliveries to your home. It adds a big layer of trust to the service. I'm not sure I'd trust a repair company that only had a PO box or whatever.

 

[FreddyG]

I do electronic repairs from home and have decided it’s time for me to start taking on customers.
I don’t want to give out my home address so I was looking for other alternatives, I know of Po boxes but I’ve been told they are predominantly for mail letters.

What other options do I have ?

Short of the expense of renting a workshop, none that I can think of.

Everybody must realise that repairing guitar amps and radios, music electronics and guff like that hardly requires huge amounts of space, other than storage of objects waiting to get fixed. A rack full of test gear - an oscar, sig-gens, solder and desolder station, multimeters and basic tools and a rack of parts and you are rocking. 20 sq m tops!

I am looking at two sig-gens, a watt-meter, a distortion meter, an old oscar and a soldering station and all that is crowded into one side of my office - and is just for my own stuff. Just as the local mechanic (Stig with a Spanner!) works from home (nobody expects a reception room) Stig with a Soldering Iron is going to project more trust than some more corporate operation.

BTW - here's a tip. Leave a leaflet or similar description of what you can and cannot do with the local music shops - especially if you are good with valve stuff! There's a real shortage of people that can fix guitar amps nowadays!

 

[DontAsk]

I don’t want to give out my home address

If you are going to sell on the web then you are required by law to give a full geographic address, i.e., not a P.O Box or other sort of dead letter drop.

 

[oliviabanks]

If you are going to sell on the web then you are required by law to give a full geographic address, i.e., not a P.O Box or other sort of dead letter drop.

+++ I just wanted to write this

 

[Brummy]

If you are going to sell on the web then you are required by law to give a full geographic address, i.e., not a P.O Box or other sort of dead letter drop.

I’ve never heard of that before,

 

[Brummy]

The reason I don’t want to use my family address is because I don’t want to deal with customers face to face, I’m trying to provide a service that’s all

 

[Mark T Jones]

I’ve never heard of that before,

Disturbing- its pretty basic stuff

 

[Brummy]

Disturbing- its pretty basic stuff

What’s disturbing about that

 

[Mark T Jones]

What’s disturbing about that

What’s disturbing about that

The fact that you're allegedly running a business without knowing the legal basics

 

[Brummy]

The fact that you're allegedly running a business without knowing the legal basics

I didn’t say I was running a business, I said I was looking into taking on customers. I also said it’s my first post, just a over the comment box it states “This thread was created by someone new to UKBF. Please bear this in mind when replying.” you didn’t bring any resolve to the post, you could have kept your negativity to yourself frankly.

 

[fisicx]

The reason I don’t want to use my family address is because I don’t want to deal with customers face to face, I’m trying to provide a service that’s all

But your customers will want to deal face to face. They will want to explain what’s wrong with their ancient radio or whatever.

What they won’t want to do is package up a delicate device and drop it off for the courier to chuck it in the back of the van.

 

[Brummy]

But your customers will want to deal face to face. They will want to explain what’s wrong with their ancient radio or whatever.

What they won’t want to do is package up a delicate device and drop it off for the courier to chuck it in the back of the van.

Mate ive seen motherboards covered in weed, fizzy drinks, cat wee the lot. I don’t have time to have a half hour chat with James about his ps2 not reading discs lol. Delicate is a thing of the past lol

 

[fisicx]

Mate ive seen motherboards covered in weed, fizzy drinks, cat wee the lot. I don’t have time to have a half hour chat with James about his ps2 not reading discs lol. Delicate is a thing of the past lol

That may be so but customers will still prefer to drop off with you rather than Evri.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

I have several ltd companies and am SE.

Some of the companies use a virtual office address, one uses my home, as does the SE.

I have never had a customer knock at my door, however, to be fair, I am not running a repair business from home.

As mentioned, being personal is not a bad thing. If you have no other options, do something like:
Brummy Repairs
Brummy House
14 Acacia Avenue.......

Also, make sure you either let your home insurers know what you are doing or you take out specific business insurance.

 

[Brummy]

I have several ltd companies and am SE.

Some of the companies use a virtual office address, one uses my home, as does the SE.

I have never had a customer knock at my door, however, to be fair, I am not running a repair business from home.

As mentioned, being personal is not a bad thing. If you have no other options, do something like:
Brummy Repairs
Brummy House
14 Acacia Avenue.......

Also, make sure you either let your home insurers know what you are doing or you take out specific business insurance.

Thanks for the reply Paul, I will have a look into virtual offices

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

The issue with a virtual office is they will charge extra to handle packages and you will have to extra to get them to you (or pick them up).

I suppoe you could get a virtual office and then do a Post Office diversion, however, if a courier is used, it will not work.

 

[Brummy]

The issue with a virtual office is they will charge extra to handle packages and you will have to extra to get them to you (or pick them up).

I suppoe you could get a virtual office and then do a Post Office diversion, however, if a courier is used, it will not work.

Yes I understand it’s another outlay but it should only be for a while until I decide to rent a space somewhere

 

[FreddyG]

Mate ive seen motherboards covered in weed, fizzy drinks, cat wee the lot. I don’t have time to have a half hour chat with James about his ps2 not reading discs lol. Delicate is a thing of the past lol

When I was doing that job, dead mice were very popular!

I didn’t say I was running a business, I said I was looking into taking on customers.

Taking on customers is to run a business. The very moment you take on a customer and accept payment, or just hope to be remunerated, you are running a sole-trader business.

And as I stated earlier, approach retail outlets such as hifi shops, music shops, etc., and offer a repair service. It works! Trust me! They do not have the know-how or the expertise to repair a jack-plug, but having a repair guy on hand is a godsend and good for trade!

They become your marketing front office.

 

[Gecko001]

You have to ask yourself how many potential customers would send electronics to a PO box address? Some no-doubt will, but will it be enough to keep your business going?