Virtual Office London – PRIME Secretarial Services

Prospective clients often compare our services to the traditional Royal Mail P O Box service. We are very often asked what are the differences between a Royal Mail P O Box and an Accommodation Address and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each. By Accommodation Address, we mean our Street Address / Virtual Office address for business or private use. A Royal Mail PO Box and an Accommodation Address are very different services and to enable prospective clients to have a clear understanding on how the services differ, we have compiled a summary of the differences in the key areas you should be looking at when considering taking out an Address service.

1. LOCATION

Royal Mail : A Royal Mail P O Box can only be rented in the same area where you live or work. For example, if you live or have your office in London NW1, then your Royal Mail P O Box would also have a London NW1 postcode. If you moved out of the area, then you would have to change your box number and postcode.

Accommodation Address: With both our Accommodation/Street Address and PO Box services, you can be located anywhere in the world and still use one of our addresses. For example, perhaps you have a business in Manchester , but you want a London address to target a different market. You may want to retain a UK address because you are emigrating. This is all possible with our Accommodation Address service.

2. CONFIDENTIALITY

Royal Mail: Going back to the days of the General Post Office (GPO), the ownership of a Royal Mail P O Box is still made available to the public. Anyone can make enquiries to ascertain who owns a Box Number and where their ‘real’ address is.

Accommodation Address: This is a totaly anonymous service. Whether you use our service for private or business, there is no public register of our client list. We are not obliged to release any ownership or contact information to any third party unless we are required to by law.

3. COURIER ITEMS

Royal Mail: Only items that are sent through the Royal Mail system will be accepted at your Royal Mail PO Box. They do not accept Courier items such as UPS, DHL or TNT. Couriers cannot find a PO Box as there is no ‘physical’ location.

Accommodation Address: Any letter, packet or parcel can be delivered to an Accommodation Address regardless wherter it is sent 1st class, Special Delivery, by Motorbike, DHL, TNT or in person. 4. SETUP Royal Mail: Generally take around 10 working days to set-up, which is OK if you you are not in urgent need. Accommodation Address: Usally set-up completed the same-day, and certainly within 24 hours.

5. SUMMARY AND COSTS

Royal Mail: A Royal Mail Box is ideal if you are looking at a very basic and low cost alternative to your home address. The extreme low cost reflect certain restrictions and limitations we mentioned above.

Accommodation Address: Although an Accomodation Address would cost you approximately 50% more over the course of a year in comparison to a Royal Mail PO Box but it does have greater flexibility and a far more genuine and superior appearnce to the address and comes with total confidentiality. You can read more about our Accomodation Address service here

PRIME Secretarial clients often ask us questions relating to ‘junk’ mail.   Our Mail Room Operators are only too used to hearing questions such as  “Can you stop sending me junk mail?” or   “Am I being charged postage on these heavy catalogues?”

I am sure we have all been there….amongst our letters, bills and general correspondence are flyers, adverts, special offers, brochures, magazines and catalogues.   The latter often referred to as ‘junk’ mail.

Firstly, one does not attract any more junk mail by using a Mailing Address than you would by using your own address, as there is no public record of our addresses and client list.    If you are receiving ‘junk’ mail, it is as a result of you either being mailing lists from past or present services or products you have bought, or perhaps your name is being sourced from lists bought-in by marketing companies.

It is very hard for the Mail Room team at Prime Secretarial to filter out your ‘junk’ mail, as the definition of  ’junk’ mail varies from one person to another.

In simple terms, if our Post Room Operators are able to determine from first sight that something is clearly an item of ’junk’ mail, we will not forward this to you as standard.  However, if we have to look at something twice or unsure, then it is more than likely going to be sent to you.    We’d rather send something on to you for you to decide whether you want it or not, rather than for us to dispose of it, only to find out a few days later, it was the latest copy of a periodical you had paid £4.99 for!.

So why do we get ‘junk’ mail?

Perhaps you have made a purchase from shop or a purchase from a website and have overlooked to tick the very important box indicating that you do not wish to receive special offers or communications or that you do not wish to be contacted by other companies who offer services they think may interest you.

In addition, sometimes your information can be passed onto or sold to third parties if you have not indicated your preference when using a service or making a purchase.   Many companies source and buy lists of consumers who have shown an ‘interest’ in a particular service or product, and then bombard you with flyers and marketing material.

It is very often easy to get on to a mailing list, but at least twice as hard to remove yourself.

One way to alleviate this problem is to register yourself FREE with the Mailing Preference Service (MPS).   This can be done online at http://www.mps.org.uk .  The MPS can remove your name from up to 95% of Direct Mail lists.  It can take up to 4 months for the Service to have full effect although you should notice a reduction of the mail during this period. 

At Prime Secretarial, we do all we can to keep your postage costs as low as possible when forwarding mail, however, no guarantees can be made that some ‘junk’ mail may still filter through to you.