OT - the generator saga continues

[David]

Having bid for a small Honda generator on eBay, I'm now trying to arrange a time to meet the seller as we are a long way apart but proposed routes over the next couple of weeks come very close to each other.

However we don't seem to be in the same place at roughly the same time.

Does anyone know of a service where you can drop off a package (like you used to be able to do at some railway stations IIRC) to be collected later?

Seems like an obvious thing to be able to do (when you want to do it) but I'm struggling to find anything.

I am assuming that transporting a generator by standard carrier would involve first draining it of oil and fuel - I've sent a query to Parcel Force but I have also noted that generators seem to be "collection only" on eBay.

There was some mention of "white van man" a while back who aggregated packages for journeys s/he was going to do anyway. Does anyone have a description of this service I could use to search on?

Thanks

Dave R

[Kevin]

anyvan.com

shiply.com

[Fredxxx]

Draining fuel would be expected by anyone contemplating moving this.

I'm sure a palletising service would be happy to ship this for you. I don't see any need to drain oil either BICBW.

[David]

Ta muchly

[Adrian]

Well, if you give a hint as to location, there may be a volunteer on here...

[Muddymike]

Only last week I was party to just such an exchange involving a member of another internet group I frequent.

Mike

[Dave Liquorice]

20/30 years ago maybe. Do stations still have left luggage lockers? I suspect that in this day and age, with the terror threat, they have all been removed. Wasn't a left luggage locker used for a bomb decades ago?

Also a resonably annoymous way to transfer "goods" (stolen, drugs, WHY) from one person to another. Sender drops package into locker, sends lock key/code, to recipient, who collects at some random time later. Any payment in cash and false name/address, simples.

Try "delivery service" on eBay there used to be quite a number with listings there.

[Adrian]

They are still out there.

baggage-left-luggage

Whether they'd be big enough for a generator - or whether the operators would run a mile at the thought of one - is another question...

[spuorgelgoog]

Some bus stations have lockers.

Some railway stations have Excess Baggage counters.

Rent a small self-storage unit for a week and post the key from the donor to the recipient.

Rent a MBE mailbox for a week, ditto.

Hand it in to the police as lost property, then go and reclaim it.

Owain

[Huge]

Have you seen how much those things *cost*???

[Chris French]

Quite reasonable I think.

At our nearest Big Yellow, you can rent 16 sq ft locker for £6.60 week, £3.30 for an intro offer

[damduck-egg]

We used the one at Waterloo a few months back as we didn't fancy lugging our overnight bags up the tower to see Big Ben. Though some luggage is quite large I think from what I saw a generator would be awkward unless it was actually a small "suitcase " Generator. Items are put through a scanner. No keys or codes issued as they work more like a theatre cloakroom , attendant takes luggage ,asks a few questions puts it through scanner and takes items to storage racks. So the facility isn't actually Lockers like the oversized office storage cabinets that used to be around.

To collect you need your receipt. You could post it to a third party I suppose.

G.Harman

[News]

In message , Dave Liquorice writes

Aberdeen does - used it a couple of weeks ago. Two sizes of locker, the smaller would take one average suitcase, with the larger, two good sized suitcases, so probably a generator. Chap behind the counter looked in the cases, was happy, put cases in locker and issued a receipt which was required for collection. Four pounds per day for the larger locker.

[David]

Moving a package from Montgomery to Felixstowe with mid point somewhere around the M1/M6/A14 junction.

I did check van services - the cheapest was slightly more than going to a location near Heathrow and back via train (but sensible in that context unless I had a need to be in London anyway).

However we have managed to sort out a mutually acceptable time slot when we can both be in the same place at the same time.

The main issue was that I was trying to avoid any time slot which involved Bank Holiday traffic but this seems the least of many evils.

Thanks to all for the good information though - very instructive!

Van transfer costs are between about £50 and £75 for future reference. Parcel Force still haven't got back to me.

Cheers

Dave R

[News]

In message , David writes

ROFL! Sorry, not funny. Being an ex sub postmaster, I'm not in the least surprised. PF can be very good, with 'standard' parcels, but anything that does not immediately tick all the right boxes is a complete nightmare.

[David]

Just got a canned response saying "look at the web site."

No doubt they count that as a successfully resolved query.