No empty in-post lockers to send Vinted parcel- what to do?

[Summergarden]

Those in post lockers are a great idea in theory and until a couple of months ago worked fine as there were generally always empty ones when I needed them. However this weekend I drove to 4 different locations that showers as having availability online and all were full.

Hoping that they would have been emptied today I tried one location this evening that again showed as having space but nope, all full again.

At this rate the 5 days to post the Vinted parcel will elapse before I can find a locker and the sale will be cancelled 😞. I begrudge the wasting petrol money on driving around in vain trying to find one as well.

Has anyone else been finding this an issue in their area?

Our local one is emptied every other day at around 11am, now I know the collection days and times I try to get there just after they’ve been done - working so far!

Like the above poster, I know (roughly) when they collect each day so I know when to check the locker status. That said, it'd be much more annoying if I had to drive to the location, park etc to then find out there wasn't any space whereas the reality is there are 2 within a 8 mins walk of my house so I don't mind it as much. If it's an Evri package then you can also drop off at a shop in addition to using the lockers, it's just in post which can only be put into a locker.

If you can't find locker spaces then maybe just turn it off? I only have it on because it's by far the most convenient for me but I know some sellers only use Evri/Yodel etc as it's more convenient, but I would hate to think of a seller getting stressed about the time running out due to a locker issue when sending something to me.

I've turned in post off for this reason

I didn't know you could turn off certain delivery options. I would like to remove royal mail as the postage price never seems to match the parcel size compared to the other options. A royal mail small parcel on Vinted is equivalent to a large letter since parcel so I've often had to pay the difference myself 😡

You should be able to check on the InPost locker website to see if there are spaces for parcels and which size at whichever location you want to use. Not sure how accurate it is though!

Obviously it’s as inaccurate as your ability to read being as what you’ve said is literally the first few lines of the OP…

i took that option off because I could never get the locker and I’d have to ask people to cancel order refund and get them to re buy so I got more days to post. So much hassle. I only use yodel or Royal Mail and it hadn’t affected my sales at all

Ouch! No need to be so rude.

You can turn off any of them in the settings bit of your profile. At one point you couldn't turn UPS off but I don't understand why anyone would go for that given it was expensive. As long as you have one of Yodel/Evri/in post then they're fairly interchangeable and buyers aren't overly fussed, ime.

As a buyer, I've had Royal Mail refuse to deliver something because I paid for the small postage and the seller sent it in a box which then made it too big, so RM wanted me to pay a fine before they'd deliver it. Fortunately the seller footed the bill (which I would have done too) but it certainly made me wary about using RM, but I haven't had anyone want it so far.

Just in case anyone was wondering this, I contacted inpost who confirmed that, if no small lockers are available, you can put a small parcel in a medium or large locker.

I've had the same problem several times but I now know roughly when the lockers nearest to me are emptied so time my trips accordingly. I've got around ten sets of lockers within a five minute drive so can usually find a space if I time it well. I've found that the accuracy of the website information on availability has improved drastically in the last few weeks and is now usually correct.