Why Mail Forwarding (And Not Collection?)

Some clients, when they first contact us, ask to be allowed to collect their mail in person. They think this will save them money. In theory, yes, it could.

In practice you would have to take half a day off work just to collect your letters. And then do it again a month later. And then a month later. After a year, this adds up. It's a chore to come into central London. You would find you get your letters late. This could have bad consequences e.g. for your company's statutory returns.

Ok, well, suppose you're self-employed, on the ball and fancy a day out in the most interesting city in the world?

Well, there're other reasons we don't allow collection in person.

The major one is fraud.

A mail forwarding address can be a cushion between the authorities and small-time crooks. At least, that's what the crooks think. They try to have X delivered to an address they can pick it up from. The innocent address provider hands X over, not realising that his client has moved house and probably gave him a fake ID in the first place.

Cue calls from the police and trading standards.

Neither we, trading standards nor the police want to have to deal with this sort of low-level jiggery-pokery. So we post all items to the address on record. Saves you time and us, bother.

Another reason is administration.

If we were to allow collection in person we would have a steam of visitors daily. While this would be sociable and fun, it would take up a lot of our staff time. This would have to be passed on to you, our customer, as a fee increase.

So your cost saving, by collecting letters, would be eaten up by your own time being wasted and your fees increasing.

A third reason is storage, and what we might have to store.

You would be surprised what deliverymen turn up with for our clients. A large aquarium, three MAC PCs, boxes of fashion watches and vintage clothing were amongst the most memorable. Given that 'out of sight is out of mind', it could the months before these would be collected, if at all.

Meanwhile, they're taking up valuable real-estate.

So it's best all round if we let Royal Mail take the strain and forward your letters to you the day, or the day after, they arrive here. You get your mail fast and we don't have to play host to mysterious packages!