Just in time for Christmas, a new system for collecting your parcels has arrived in Abingdon . It is for people who are never at home when the postman calls and find getting to to the sorting office on Ock Street on Saturday Morning inconvenient.
For a fee you can have your parcels delivered to the nearest ByBox. You will then be texted or emailed a code, and be able pick up the parcel. Then there is nothing to stop you offline shopping in the town centre shops.
For more information see My.ByBox. Bybox are based in Wantage and launched the first My ByBox in 2009.
Mmm That has to be the darkest end of town!
I’m not sure that anyone who is out at work during the day will find it easy to get into town to the ByBox thingie after work. If it were me I’d be at the thing at 7 or 8pm when all the traffic has calmed down and by then, the shops will be shut.
(Puts tin hat on carefully) If on the other hand this was parked outside Tesco you could kill two birds with one stone and collect and shop 24 hours a day.
Also did you know that you can get parcels delivered to ER Goff and Abingdon News Plus with Collect + ? Or you can do as my neighbours do and make a note on your order to knock on my door if you aren’t going to be in. I don’t charge for this service!
Thanks for mentioning this Rachel, with the Bybox scheme you ( the buyer ) have to pay a fee for using the service, with collect + most retailers offer it as a FREE service. You also have piece of mind that your parcel is delivered to a place that needs a singinture to confirm delivery & is stored in warm & dry building. As it arrives you recieve a text or email telling you & you just pop in & collect. We can also recieve large items which would not be able to fit in these lockers. The Bybox also does not yet offer a returns service, with collect + you can just drop off your unwanted item we give you a tracking number & you can trace it all the way back to the company at no cost to you.
You can also use the collect + as a postal service, you pay online & print off a lable bring it into us & have it sent anywhere in the country. For Large light items it is cheaper than the post office.
I think it is a great idea -especially for people who cannot stay in all day to wait for a delivery. We don’t need to resort to Tesco!!! I hope this will encourage people to go into town and use the shops, as well as collecting their parcels. I have lived in Abingdon for two years now and have never visited Tesco.
Surely we all order our stuff from John Lewis and collect from Abingdon Waitrose now ? 😉
There’s a a bit more to it than that guys. It’s a first for a market town: ByBox have been working with the Choose Abingdon Partnership to create a consumer proposition that offers the internet shopper a chance to re-engage with their High Street. When you collect a parcel you will get an offer to your phone to have a free coffee somewhere in the town. At night this can be an offer for a half price meal in one of the town’s restaurants. The aim is to provide tempations to stay in the town and use its businesses. A chance for the internet shopper to re-assess their local town centre and realise that its a lot better than it used to be..more info on http://www.chooseabingdon.co.uk http://www.chooseabingdon.co.uk/project/31
Is it me or does it look slightly menacing with it’s UFO-lighting juxtaposed with the maternal sculpture? Does it talk at you at all? Good idea really (Bybox not UFO allusions) although I’d have to agree that arrangements with neighbours (also called ‘community’) with Goff’s (also aka ‘community’) as a close second would be my choice.
Rachel – I don’t think you need to worry. Once the new supermarket is built round the Bybox it will actually be plum central to the new town centre.
See, they’re one step ahead of you and me….that’s why they’re in charge and we just pay for them.
I’m sure ByBox have done some serious demographic mapping and picked Abingdon as another one of their conquests based on information gleaned from all the third party cookies downloaded on peoples computers.
They aren’t doing Abingdon a favour: it’s a business, not a charity.
“The new banks are part of our expansion programme that is set to see lockers installed at 100 locations within the M25. A further 150 will be added across the UK, taking our total network to 500 banks aimed at consumers.”
http://www.bybox.com/blog/2012/05/15/first-new-locker-banks-open-in-2m-expansion/
Change in Abingdon is a good thing and I’m happy for all the people who will use ByBox because they don’t talk to their neighbours or can’t find ER Goff.
Maybe they dont talk to their neighbours because they are out at work all day too…
or they have one like this…
http://www.heraldseries.co.uk/news/hsabingdonnews/10094466.Nuisance_neighbour_spared_jail/
What a stupid idea. Its the perfect size for an organised crime gang to turn up in a high powered truck and rip the thing out of the ground with chains. It happens regulary with stand alone cash points. Also, where its situated isn’t a great place, its quite dark around there at night!! Perfect place to wait and rob someone!!!
I have on several occasions used the service offered by the Post Office when they can’t deliver a parcel because I wasn’t at home – to have it delivered to another address in the same postcode area specified by me. Happily, I work in the same area, but you could get it delivered to a friend nearby. It worked very well for me.
say no to shop rates the development is killing trade why should independent shops owners suffer . The rates kill every shop in the town . lets protest
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