postage help

[kab]

can someone please help , i need to post out snails for the first time , ive placed them seperately in their own boxes with moss , then inside another box with holes in , my son took them to the p/o and they refused them and said its against the rules , i need them to go out today,,, ive always recieved them with no probs whatsoever , ive called the main department and they also say snails cannot be posted
karen

[teresa]

you must not tell the post office whats in the box

[LisaLQ]

I've never had any problems, either sending or receiving, even when the PO knows what's in the box.

In fact we've had the sorting office going through their parcels to find snails I've had sent out, even putting them somewhere warm til we've been able to pick them up!

I agree with Teresa, try a different PO (or sending someone else into your original PO with the parcel) and dont tell them what's in there. I had no idea that it was against the rules, you'd think if it were that my PO and sorting office would have said something!

[teresa]

i didnt know either my postman knows whats in my parcels he asks which type i have bought this time lol

[kab]

thanks for the quick responses am repacking in another box and going to another p/o ,

karen

[kab]

they are gone , phew , there were a lot of air holes in the top of the first box i tried to send but it came that way to me , and my postman was also interested in what was in it , he never said anything about it not being ok ,
less holes in this box i just sent off and they never asked this time

[teresa]

just noticed something you done you didnt need to dont put airholes in the outer box there not needed then they will not suspect anything alive in it

[felix93]

Why are we not allowed the post office to know what they are? Sending livestocks should not be a problem as long as the distination's allowed to receive livestocks too.

[Val]

As long as there are plenty of holes in the inner plastic box there is no need to put holes in the outer box as there would be more than enough air in the cavity between the two, that way the post office has no way of knowing what it is. I always put 'fragile' tape around mine as well and if anyone ever asks what is inside it I shall say plants!! ;D

Val

[teresa]

i tell them its a ornament anything like that works

[gabi]

it would be forbidden here in Austria to ship live animals via post (invertebrates are too not allowed). My postman and my postwoman do know, what´s in my boxes. ;D The woman already asks now each time I receive snails, if she can be with me, while I am opening the box, because she is fascinated by them, and I had to tell the parcelman, what´s in a box, because the locusts in there have made loads of noise. Since that he always stays with a large grinning in his face infront of my door and asks what´s in this time. The animals here wouldn´t get destroyed, when found, would just be expensive for me, if they get in hands of a non-snail-lover-custom-man or post-man. ;D

[kab]

will definitely remember no holes in outer box next time ;D i did think it was perfectly ok to post snails , i guess i assumed wrong ,
i will be posting lots of pottery instead
karen

[snailatic]

If your in the uk, the royal mail guidelines say that they can not send many species but snails are not currently one of them. Generally the people in the post office do not ask what is in the parcel anyway but Ive had plenty of chats with curious postoffice counter staff asking me all about them and happily taking them to send.

I think you must have just been unlucky and met an officious member of staff. Good luck.