Royal Mail Special Delivery

HaX · 16 Dec 2007 at 18:02

About to despatch a Camera that I've sold online.

I'll be posting it via Royal Mail Delivery.

I intend sending the camera in its' original box, which will then be wrapped with bubble wrap and brown paper prior to being despatched via Royal Mail.

Will the box the camera came in be strong enough to withstand the rigours of Royal Mail parcel handling, or will I need to get a slightly bigger box and pack it with lots of bubblewrap?

Cheers

HaX

Xee · 16 Dec 2007 at 18:04

I would put in a bigger box with bubble wrap myself.

Sirrel Squirrel · 16 Dec 2007 at 18:16

Xee said:
I would put in a bigger box with bubble wrap myself.

IAmATeaf · 16 Dec 2007 at 19:10

I'll third that, have sold quite a few digi-cams on ebay and I always used to place the camera box inside another box, better to be safe then sorry especially as ebay and paypal disputes can get out of hand within minutes.

Ben M · 16 Dec 2007 at 19:11

RMSD

the last two letters aren't "special delivery"

JBuk · 16 Dec 2007 at 19:23

Xee said:
I would put in a bigger box with bubble wrap myself.

thats the way i always i do it, makes it that little bit harder for the postie to break

todd flanders · 16 Dec 2007 at 20:28

Ben M said:
RMSD

the last two letters aren't "special delivery"

Ignore this. Your camera ought to be fine if posted by Special Delivery. It'll be transported & sorted seperately from everything else and then given priority on delivery.

A2Z · 16 Dec 2007 at 20:30

it will be fine tbh

tres · 16 Dec 2007 at 20:48

having worked in the post office within our estate for 6 months, i'd say the box would be fine

having the pleasure of sorting the post for a small office building on a daily basis, and getting bags of special deliveries every single day, i can't remember when we last had ANYTHING damaged

AND - thats the usual sorting/van ride, as well as a helicopter over to the island, and then a tractor bus to the office

silversurfer · 16 Dec 2007 at 20:48

When I worked for some couriers, all the stuff with tracking used to be handled by one guy sitting down handling them seperately whereas the normal pouches and boxes we handled was daily frisbee fodder tbh

danza · 16 Dec 2007 at 21:13

I always place the original packing within a seperate box. Saves time/hassle if it does get a hammering that would've otherwise killed it.

hybrid · 16 Dec 2007 at 21:40

Yip, i'd personally put it in another box too. The corners might get smashed to bits when it's thrown around.

HaX · 16 Dec 2007 at 22:51

I assume that my local city centre post office branch will sell boxes and other packaging materials will it? Dont seem to have any suitable boxes at home as we have just given them all to a friend who was moving house.

Spamalot · 17 Dec 2007 at 00:58

HaX said:
I assume that my local city centre post office branch will sell boxes and other packaging materials will it? Dont seem to have any suitable boxes at home as we have just given them all to a friend who was moving house.

As said dont bother. SD is a different ball park. When the mail strike was on SD items still got delivered.

In answer to your question though, yes. Take some tape though.

stoofa · 17 Dec 2007 at 01:22

I'd just like to add that with Special Delivery you won't have any problems.
I send a hell of a lot of stuff Special Delivery - when selling on EBay anything I sell over £30 is always sent SD, I don't give the buyer any other choice as it is a fully traceable delivery system and also has the right level of compensation should things go wrong.

In the time I've been using SD I've only ever had one problem.
I paid the extra for a guaranteed Saturday SD delivery and they didn't send it out until the Monday.
Not the end of the world and I got a full refund on the delivery.

Many an item I've simply wrapped the original box up in brown paper (no extra packing at all) and everything always arrives as it should do.

Maximum Triceratops · 17 Dec 2007 at 08:44

Agree, I work for RM and have delivered special delivery items when i used to be on the vans.Forget about all the bad comments concerning Royal Mail as their special delivery service is about the best, most reliable way to send valuable goods in th uk.