Using the Royal Mail Smart Stamp Online Postage
Smart Stamp Setup
The royal mail smart stamp online postage is a service to help speed up your postage system, by using pre printed stamps and instead of standing at the post office counter for a long time you can just hand the post in, and it just quickly gets scanned through the system, and you get your receipt stamped, and your finished.
My daily postage orders where taking me more than an hour everyday at the post office, and after much procrastination, i decided to shift over to the online system.
Its fast efficient, and easy to integrate into your existing postage system.
You have to buy labels that will work in your printer, and be compatible with the smart stamp system, there are number of choices, but I have found the best printer labels to be the 2 column 7 row set which gives you 14 labels. they fit well.
You can choose a single row option which gives you the possibbility of including your return address on the label to.
You top up your account by multiple amounts whenever you need, or you can setup regular payments to pay for your stamps. Debit and visa card are both accepted.
Once you have downloaded the royal mail smart stamp software, and installed it, it will ask you for your login information, and check how much is in your balance.
You selct from a menu in the software your weight, and type of service you need.
This includes recorded. special delivery, large letter. Its a good idea to buy a set of postage scales to help you get your weight correct.
The system work by printing out a bar code on your label, and the type of service you have chosen, and also when you need to post the item by. This is an important date, as you have to take your item to the post office before the end of the day on that date, or your stamp is invalid.
Its recommended to print you labels last so you are only printing the ones you will actively use.
Although it does at an extra step to your own procedures, if your posting more than 10 items a day, you will be able to save lots of time.
Your printer if your using the 14 labels then you can print them all out, and stick them on your package in less than 5 minutes, if you go to the post office, they will take a least a minute for each item. You have to make sure that your address labels are printed to a sheet also if you are using the recorded or special delivery postage options.
You can pickup the extra recorded delivery and special delivery labels in large rolls from your post office. Once you attach these to your parcels, and packets, you have to take one of the barcodes from the label, and attach it to your separate customer address records sheet.
This way, you hand across the sheet once your parcels are scanned in, and the sheet will get officially stamped.
One more thing to remember is make sure you have printer ink in your printer. If you have a problem and your stamps don't come out properly you will still be charged for them, however you just need to send a letter to royal mail within 7 days, with a covering letter and you will be credited your money back to your account.
Overall this is an excellent system, and the only drawback is you pay £5 monthly fee. But considering your saving hours a week, this is a price you will be happy to pay.
