Poste Restante

Poste Restante


If you want to use Poste Restante in the UK but don't know how to set it up, here's how I did it.

Poste restante is a free service where you can forward mail including parcels to a post office in the UK which you will then collect at a later date. 

I'd heard about other LEJOGers using this service to forward supplies and clothing ahead to save them having to carry or buy everything en route.


Essential supplies


PR is mentioned in several LEJOG blogs and books yet frustratingly the authors offered no explanation as to how they actually went about setting this up; at best they would refer readers to the Post Office website's frustratingly vague/impossible to comply with instructions http://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/poste-restante

"Please refer to the website"
I then telephoned the Royal Mail customer service line on 0345 774 0740, hung up, researched how to use their automated menu system and tried again:



They were more helpful with their explanation. The Royal Mail customer services adviser pointed out that this was a Post Office matter (Royal Mail Plc and Post Office Ltd are separate companies) however she was still able to advise that poste restante is used by travellers who wish to have mail delivered to a post office with "To be called for by..." or "Poste Restante" in the address, to make sure I included a return address, and most importantly recommended that I speak to the chosen post offices directly, particularity if I had larger parcels to send because some of the smaller post offices apparently do not have the physical capacity to store larger parcels. 

I was then told that I should try contacting my chosen post offices by phone to make sure they accept PR and given the following phone number with the warning that there was no longer a central switchboard: 0800 086 133 (which indeed proved useless - an automated menu simply referred me back to the Post Office website's dead-end poste restante page).

I then attempted to look up the telephone number of each of my chosen post offices and started calling them; either the numbers were obsolete, generic (referring me back to the Post Office website) or didn't answer. Of course, being the Post Office, there were no email addresses. 

I then sent Post Office customer services a web form message about contacting specific post offices via: http://www.postoffice.co.uk/general-enquiry 

Their reply: 

"Thank you for your email. You normally would be required to visit the Post Office branches to set up the Poste Restante service. Please use the larger Post Office branches if possible, as they will be more familiar with the service.


Please select the link below to find out more about the Poste Restante service. Good luck with your venture.
http://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/poste-restante"

Personally visiting each of my chosen post offices was impossible with one exception; in early May my girlfriend and I were in Inverness for a tattoo and to scope out the final section of LEJOG between Inverness and JOG. Whilst there we visited Inverness post office and asked if I could set up post restante with them. I was referred to the website.   


The solution



I knew that I had to make contact with all of my chosen post offices to ask them if they would accept poste restante in the form of a large parcel and the only means of contacting them directly that I could see would be via post. Seems obvious doesn't it. 

So I wrote them each a letter:

From: Sam Walker
----- ---- ----
--------
Basingstoke
---------
To:  The Manager, Inverness Post Office, Queensgate.

Dear Sir/Madam,
                This is a poste restante enquiry. I will be passing through Inverness between 4th– 15th September 2017 in my bid to walk from Land’s End to John o’Groats and your post office is directly on my route.
It would be extremely useful if I could pick up a poste restante parcel containing maps and essential supplies from your post office. I will mark the parcel as POSTE RESTANTE and leave a return address with my name on it (as above). I will also bring with me Passport ID and a payslip with my residential address.
However before I do that I need to know if you will accept poste restante in the form of a parcel. I have enclosed an SAE for this purpose; please let me know.
Many thanks,
Sam Walker.

Tel: --------
Email: lejog2017@outlook.com
Web: https://2017lejog.blogspot.co.uk


I posted that on a Saturday and on the Tuesday my letter was returned in its self addressed envelope with a message handwritten by the Manager saying yes they will accept poste restante and hold the parcel for me. It worked!

To date I have six replies from six post offices up country. So many thanks indeed to the Post Office staff at Inverness (Queensgate), South Queensferry, Carlisle (Scotch Street), Warrington (18 The Mall), Chepstow (22B Welsh Street) and Tiverton (Market Walk).

Note: I marked the name of the city in small block capitals on the back of the SAE just in case I had no other way of identifying which post office had responded. 

All I have to do now is collect them...

Blurb

As an independent author I have to use completely unrelated blog posts like this one to promote my books; historical fiction and call centre fantasy. I'm also writing a book about my LEJOG experience. You are welcome to ask me for a free copy of any of the above which I can send to you. Please email me: lejog2017@outlook.com

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