SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE!!!!!!!!!

The grand call of the public and the press to spur our glorious leaders into fixing a problem.

This often results in them doing something. This something might be a bit stupid and completely ineffective but it’s something which is what they were asked todo.

Rant over

.

.

.

And breath

.

.

Sharpening for groomers and hair dressers is done in two ways normally in the UK. The first is a mobile sharpener turns up at a hair dressers or a groomers salon and sharpens stuff onsite. The 2nd is the customer sends their scissors way to a sharpener to get them sharpened. Both have their up and downsides both for the sharpener and the customer. As a sharpener I prefer stuff mailed to me as I can deal with it in the comfort of my own place and make my own tea and raid the fridge while being abley assisted by the inspection team. Some of the big names in the sharpening industry have built their entire business model around mail in sharpening.

In April 2022 “something” was done to throw a possible spanner in the works.

This something was stopping knives being sent in the mail to anyone under the age of 18. However the legislation doesn’t say knives it sayes bladed implements. And the post office has decided that scissors are bladed implements.

This has meant quite a few groomers getting turned away from the post office with their scissors. Which is a bit of an @£%$ for both the groomer and the sharpener
This has basically killed off a very popular option for customers and sharpeners alike

What can Barras Blades do about this?

Dave Simpson of Simply Sharp thinks the post office is being overly cautious and I tend to agree with him

Being less of an optimus I can’t see the post office changing their guidance quickly or easily. Which means I have to work around it or with it.

With it

The post office advice sayes that you can send bladed item using their tracked with age verification which is avialable via their reasonably good click and drop online service

And there are the two options sitting down at the bottom of the click and drop screen.

It should be nice and easy.

Print out the label and drop it off at your nearest post office

WRONG

If you login to you click and drop account and select age verification you are shown a small warning

See it in blue?

You can’t drop off tracked 24 or 48 packages at the post office you can only drop it off at a customer service point. There is a nice link which takes you to the royal mails map. Which doesn’t have an option for selecting a customer service point.

BUGGER

From experience customer service points are found at Royal mail delivery offices which there is a well hidden filter option for.

If a web developer from the post office is reading this I hope your next bowel movement is a hedgehog

What I have discovered is that the collection service is very nice and effiecent for myself but we do bride our postman with free eggs and I couldn’t complain about him. He has been our posty for a decade now and I still don’t know his name.

This is the way I would go but you do need to be able to print your own label.

Being a dinosaur I still use a desktop computer which has a printer attached

If I was more modern I would just use a smart phone which has the advantage of fitting in your pocket while being massively inferior at …… well everything else

Around it

To date it appears it is only the Royal mail who have brought in these restrictions

Other couriers such as Evri and DPD etc haven’t brought this in and they have a wide range of shops offering drop off services

As to Evri I have found their previous incantation of Hermes to be posibly one of the worst couriers I have ever had the miss-pleasure to be involved with so lets ignore them. Use them at your peril

DPD have what appears to be a nice offering and they have been pretty consistent in delivery to us.

They have various options in sending stuff.

There is two options which attract my interest

Firstly there is the drop off at shop which has the advantage that you don’t have to own a printer you can just drop off your item at one of the 2400 shops in the UK.

Be careful as not all drop shops actually offer label printing inhouse and the DPD search isn’t overly clear on which ones do.

The next is the door to door service which would be alot easier for someone who is busy running a business but has the downside of needing a printer.

Which one is better for you is entirely your choice.

What I can offer is the barras blades sharpening box which should make your life a wee bit easier

https://www.barras-blades.com/shop-front/p/barras-blades-sharpening-box

How it works

Place this into your sharpening order and remember to choose your desired return postage

After ordering the sharpening box Barras blades will send to you a box measuring 25cm x 25cm x 4cm using royal mail tracked 24

This box will contain

• 2 pieces of card that fit inside the box

• 1 document wallet

• 1 label for DPD to return the box to Barras Blades

You then need to package up your blades and scissors providing your own packing tape

Put your details in along with your order number

Stick on the document label to the outside with the label clearly showing

Take to your local DPD shop and drop it off

It is then shipped via DPD to Barras Blades where we will sharpen your gear and put them back in the box and return them via royal mail tracked 24 or DPD

Things to know

• The label is only valid for 7 days after issue to barras blades. It might take 2 days to get to you so don’t hang around

• The standard insurance for DPD is £50

• You are responsible for packaging your stuff up correctly

• You are responsible for getting to a DPD drop shop

• Postage from barras blades back to you is NOT included

Costing for this to barras blades is

£1 for the box and card, £5.45 for the royal mail tracked 24 to you, £6.47 for the DPD courier

I am charging £13 for this so by the time paypal have had their cut i’m actually doing this at a slight loss.