Apparently the usual suspects, royal mail, Hermes etc wont accept lithium batteries unless they are in the device they are meant to be used in.

Yet I can go on line and buy the exact same batteries and have them delivered from retailers no problem.. in fact I bought the very batteries in question online and they were sent to me in post

Obviously I could not tell them what’s in there, but I’d rather not have to do that. Any ideas?

We have this issue from time to time.

I shipped a drone battery recently with collect plus.

Easy answer is you can’t.

Welcome to the world of carriage of dangerous goods. You can try and lie about it and send them anyway but they are well within their rights to destroy them if found.

See also air shocks, air rifles* and dive bottles. The ones you bought online will have been packaged by someone with the correct training and sent with an approved courier using a trade account.

*pre-charged pneumatic ones at any rate

Fly the drone over to them and ask them to send that back. HTH

I don’t think you can’t. Amazon recently told me to keep a £100 lithium ion battery booster I wanted to return because of the difficulty of sending it back.

You can send them. There are a few nuances that’s all.

Lots of mainstream couriers exclude them on their public websites due to airline restrictions. But couriers such as FedEx have ways around shipping all this stuff. You just won’t find them on the price comparison sites where most people venture. Open up an account with FedEx or UPS etc and you can ship them.

Collect plus as far as I know has no aviation element so doesn’t list lithium batteries as excluded items.

I don’t think you can’t. Amazon recently told me to keep a £100 lithium ion battery booster I wanted to return because of the difficulty of sending it back.

Well there you go – Amazon requested I ship batteries back with collect+ recently. And they were correct.

See also air shocks, air rifles* and dive bottles

IME you can send all those, albeit you need to make sure they are empty and declare them so

Collect plus policy states no flammables.. https://www.collectplus.co.uk/help-advice/what-can-i-send-using-collectplus

I have had the batteries in a cupboard for 6 months so I assume they aren’t particularly flamable though..

 The ones you bought online will have been packaged by someone with the correct training

The training mustn’t have been that extensive as they came in a jiffy bag via DPD, who ironically state they didn’t send batteries.

The training mustn’t have been that extensive as they came in a jiffy bag via DPD, who ironically state they didn’t send batteries.

DPD via a trade account.

You’ll be fine with collect plus.

I can get on a plane and take as many lithium batteries as I can fit in my carry on. The issue is putting them in the hold.

This is why the blanket ban exists. It’s an airline thing.

So collect plus definitely doesn’t fly freight then? All via road transport which is why it’s allowed?

I can get on a plane and take as many lithium batteries as I can fit in my carry on

Going off topic, but all the flights I’ve taken in the last few years have a limit of two spare batteries in carry on. See Easyjet for example.

IME you can send all those, albeit you need to make sure they are empty and declare them so

Not as a member of the public you can’t. Every courier going has exclusions on pressure vessels. Believe me, if PCP’s and dive bottles were easily posted people would be doing it already. You need a trade account for that which doesn’t have the same restrictions as a regular account. Comparison site or not.

I’ve sent and received (privately) a number of PCP’s through Parcelforce48 in the last 6 months.

Dropped off at post office and told them what they were. Wasn’t asked if they were PCP though , so may have been just lucky. They were boxed and padded sufficiently though as you only get a small amount of compo when you send them.

Sent an empty carbon dive bottle, empty with the valve removed. Told her what it was, and she put container on the description. Sometimes common sense can prevail 😉

Hmm, yeah valve removed does work but PCP’s are a definite no unless you care to strip them right down which, honestly, I wouldn’t trust most people to do without wrecking something.

As you say though insurance is a joke (unless RM Special Delivery), maybe better biting the bullet and getting RFD transfer if it mattered that much. FWIW I did once post a PCP but wouldn’t in future, people get far too pissy about seller responsibility even when they have the whole limited insurance thing explained to them.

Going off topic, but all the flights I’ve taken in the last few years have a limit of two spare batteries in carry on. See Easyjet for example.

It varies by airline but that usually means batteries above 100Wh.

In Easyjet’s  case … yeah well.

Flew Tap Portugal a few weeks ago. No issues, took a full filming kit.

Etihad – 2 weeks ago up to 10 which is more than I can carry.

But I do accept it’s fast changing and rules are constantly being updated.

So collect plus definitely doesn’t fly freight then? All via road transport which is why it’s allowed?

To the best of my knowledge.

Collect plus policy states no flammables.

Like birthday cards?

OP, where are you and is anyone on here from there heading to wherever they need to get to?