How to claim an order as a sender: 6 steps

You have signed up, your profile is live and a shop’s stock is sitting in your cupboard. Then the first order comes in. What exactly do you see, which button do you press, and when is the money yours?

This article walks one order from start to finish, with the button labels and statuses as they appear in your account. No account yet? Earn from home shows what you earn per parcel and how to start.

How it works with AirPost #

1. 1

   1. You get an offer

   As soon as a shop sets up an order for you, you get a notification. On your To ship page it sits under To do, in the block "Waiting for you". You see the order number, the town, the contents, the size, the carrier and your fee ("+ € … for you"). The recipient’s name and address are not shown yet.

2. 2

   2. You accept or decline

   The offer has two buttons: Accept and Decline. The same two appear on the order line in your conversation with the shop. The offer expires 24 hours after it was set up; the card tells you how long you have left ("Expires in …").

3. 3

   3. The label is bought

   After Accept the order shows "Processing": AirPost buys the label from the carrier, paid from the shop’s balance. Then it moves to "Label ready" and the address appears. The label shows your address as the sender, with the shop’s name on it.

4. 4

   4. You print the label

   The "Print the label" button opens a PDF. Any printer will do, black and white is fine. Cut out the box with the barcode and tape it flat on the biggest side of the box.

5. 5

   5. You pack

   Take the product from the shop’s stock that you hold and fill the box until nothing moves. The order says what goes in; boxes and padding are agreed with the shop in advance.

6. 6

   6. You drop the parcel off

   Hand the parcel in at a point of the carrier on the label. Once they scan it, the order moves to "Dropped off" and then "On its way". At "Delivered" the order shows "You earned …".

What you see before you accept #

An offer shows exactly enough to decide whether to take it, and no more. The recipient’s details only come along once the order is yours; until you accept, they are not even loaded from the database.

You set your fee yourself, per parcel size. The recommended rate for a small parcel is €2.25; how that rate adds up is explained in how much can you earn packing parcels from home.

One sender or everyone at once #

When a shop sets up an order, it chooses who ships it: one sender, or everyone who can handle the order. Being able to handle it means: you have the product in stock, you are not full for the day, and you work with a carrier that delivers to the address.

In the second case the same offer goes to several senders. That is why your offers are headed "Whoever responds first does it." If someone beat you to it, the card shows that. Each offer has its own status:

When you cannot take an order #

Accepting only works once your account is complete. That is not a formality: a shop sends stock to your home, and these steps are what make that possible. If something is missing, the button tells you what.

• ✓Your identity is verified ("Verify your identity first" if it is not)
• ✓Your payouts are set up: without an account we cannot transfer what you earn
• ✓You have confirmed you can print labels ("Confirm that you have a printer first")
• ✓You have picked your carriers: you only get orders from carriers you tick
• ✓You are not full: at "You are full today" shops skip you for that day
• ✕Stock from a shop you do not work with: you get no orders from them

What you need at home for those steps, from printer to storage space, is covered in what you need to pack parcels from home. How the identity check works is in how sender verification works.

The statuses after you accept #

From the moment you accept, the order sits in your work list on To ship. The list has three parts: To do, On the way and Complete. Each order has one status at a time:

Printing the label and packing #

Each order has a "How to ship this" link. Behind it are five short steps, the same ones you saw when you signed up:

1. Print the label. Any printer will do, black and white is fine. The barcode has to stay big enough to scan, so do not print it too small.
2. Cut the label out of the sheet. The label is the box with the barcode on it; the rest of the page can go.
3. Tape the label on the biggest side of the box. Press it down flat, not over a seam or a flap. Never tape over the barcode, and cover old labels.
4. Fill the box until nothing moves. Shake the box: if you hear anything shift, add more.
5. Drop it off the same day if you can. The label is already paid for and tracking is already running.

Dropping off: the scan is what counts #

You choose where to drop off, as long as it is a point of the carrier on the label. The order only leaves your list when the carrier scans the parcel. Until then the order says: "The order only leaves your list once the carrier scans it."

If a label sits for a day without a scan, you get a reminder: "Your label has been waiting for a day." Drop the parcel off, or tell the shop in the conversation when it will go. After two days without a scan the shop is notified and can take the order back and set it up with another sender. The unused label is then cancelled.

When do you get paid? #

Your fee is credited to your balance the moment the label is bought, and the card says so: "Credited to your balance as soon as the label is bought; payable three days after the first scan." From €10.00 of payable balance you pay yourself out with a button. A 3% commission is deducted from that payout.

What if something goes wrong? #

• The label does not come through. Sometimes the shop has to fix something first, such as topping up its balance. The order then says: "The shop needs to fix this. You do not need to do anything; the order comes back by itself once it is sorted."
• The shop cancels. That is possible until the carrier scans. The order disappears from your list and nothing is shipped.
• The carrier reports a problem. The order moves to Needs attention and stays there until it is resolved.
• The parcel is lost or damaged in transit. In transit the carrier is liable; AirPost files the claim. Your fee depends on the scan at drop-off, not on delivery.
• You have a question about an order. Every order also appears in the conversation with the shop; "See it in the conversation" takes you straight there.