Royal Mail will collect parcels directly from a customer's front door or a designated safe place for a charge of 30p per item, allowing sellers on platforms such as Vinted, eBay and Depop to skip Post Office queues altogether.
The service, highlighted by consumer specialists at MoneySavingExpert, is aimed at anyone dispatching goods, handling returns, or struggling to carry bulky packages to a local branch. Instead of making a separate journey, customers can arrange for a postal worker to pick up items during their usual rounds.
How the doorstep collection works
Postage for the chosen item is paid online or via the Royal Mail app, with a 30p collection fee added per parcel. Customers select a preferred date and time, typically within a four-hour window, and can add parcels to an existing collection if one is already booked for that day.
Those who will not be at home can nominate a safe place for the parcel to be collected from. A free pre-printed postage label is available, although only one such label can be issued when the collection is from a safe location. Once the parcel has been collected, a confirmation email is sent as proof of postage.
Seller experiences and limits
Some sellers on Reddit claim that booking a collection for a single parcel occasionally results in postal workers taking extra parcels without scanning or charging for them, while others report being billed 30p per item. One Reddit user claimed: "There is a hack to this."
The user suggested booking a collection for one parcel at 30p and asking the postie if there is room for a few additional parcels, since up to 25 parcels can be booked for collection in a single go. The drawback is that all parcels need a postage label attached, and customers may still be charged 30p per item regardless.
