-
Postage charges increase what other options?
Is it me or have the PO just nearly doubled their prices 👿
-
43 Replies
-
Denise,
I was struggling with this the other day,
If it’s first class there are now classing packets small and medium
The small (45cm x 35cm x 8cm) packet is £3.00 and medium (61cm x 46cm x 46cm) is £5.65
Oh and you can class a tube as a small parcel if it’s under 45cm x 8 cm
I Reckon they are trying to rip off the small businesses that send parcels first class i’m not quite sure if i’m going to use royal mail or look elsewhere and see if there are any better options.
-
what I was sending (free shipping on ebay) 2nd class recorded for about £3.50, cost me £5.80 last week, the new "small parcels" cost me £4.15 2nd recorded today instead of £2.80 before the increases. gonna seriously consider either franking or ‘my hermes’, its a 2-3day service but at least it’s tracked and half decent. my post office postal costs for 2012/13 – mainly stamps & small packets was over £1500, just this week – thanks to them not releasting the new costs until ‘on the day’, I’ve almost doubled my small parcel costs (just a teeshirt is now a small parcel), at that rate my costs will rise by about 40%… not acceptable for a service that loses around 1 in 60 envelopes I send. each costing around £5-12.00… and what’s the compensation if I can be bothered to fill in an individual form for each missing piece? bloody stamps.
-
Check out Parcel2Go as they compare the courier prices. If using the postoffice, you can also factor in the time spent getting there and back as these are collect from site….
-
The only fear i have of using someone else like parce2togo etc is that all my small items envelopes or tubes will be lost in amongst all the big boxes etc.
Anyone tried tnt mail or uk mail?
-
We use UK mail for our larger items, but they are too deer for the smaller stuff, but might be better now.
If you send out lots then you can get a good deal, our small boxes are now £6.50 each, they only weight 600 grammes… we send about 15 items out per day..
We lost at least £50 yesterday!! on the postage.
-
What used to cost us approx £3.40 to post cost me over £7 the other day and all it was was a rolled up wall sticker in a tube. We can’t make these any smaller without creasing the design, but customers won’t want o pay almost the same for postage as they do for the item! Font know what to do! K x
-
that’s the trouble Karen, them who buys on ebay have no clue as to the real cost of postage!!! for a normal A5 envelop I charge 80p, I make maybe 10p which is swallowed by paypal fees on my postage cost. on a large stamp for fatter items I charge £1, I lose money thanks to paypal fees.
I recently lost a gold top seller type status because people were giving me low marks on postage costs – that were actually cost or less. so now I add the postage in the higher priced goods costs and put free post.. if they buy more than one they lose out… thier loss.
Greame,
Interparecel.. same prices but cheaper on the insurance. I compared them with parcel to go today. the downside of interparcel… tnt had a crap driver on for the week, didn’t collect for two days despite me complaining after day one and waiting late for them, refused to refund or compensate in any way. tossers! -
Think i need to do some investigating and see if i can see a better way!!
I’ll let you know if i come up with anything 😀
-
Pretty lucky round here, Ive got a good bunch of regular drivers….
-
Hi all,
There are 2 exceptions to the small/medium parcels – (fine print right at the bottom of the new flyers/price lists).If the parcel is under 16cm x 16cm x 16cm its classed as a small parcel, not medium and the weight is up to 1KG.
So, if sending printed mugs out, using the right box, you can send two out for £3.00, 1st class or £2.60, 2nd class. Which is actually a saving if sending 2 mugs together.
The other exception is a roll.cylinder under 45cm long x 8cm diam. – this too is classed as small parcel.
Hope this helps
Cheers John
-
Hi,
for what it’s worth…. We have a Franking Machine spending about £12-13,000 a year on Royal Mail. We’ve had the Franking Machine for 12 months and compare like for like with before it’s saved us around 26% on Postage which has more than paid for the franking machine at £900 (no rental, just annual maintainance)
On our eBay side of the business we effectively charge the "Stamp Price" which gives us a little to cover the running costs and fees.
With the New postage rates we’ve only really seen big increases on A2+ Size printed items in tubes and canvases that we now have to send Parcel Force or another Carrier.
There are some pluses the small parcel with range is now up to 1kg was 750g before plus teh Airmail ranges (about 30% of our eBay sales go abroad) have wider ranges which makes selling multiple items cheaper but makes it less hassle managing teh different weights and catagories.
Nick.
-
We’ve just recently got an account with City-Link.
No problems yet, and a flat rate for deliveries. £7.99 up to to 10KG, which covers most of our stuff.
Following some recent business changes we should be sending out a whole lot more.
When we’re busy we simply send it via City-link as they collect from us, and even delivering local it saves us an hour making deliveries to do more productive things.
-
MyHermes
seems very cheap.
but dont want to wait until 8pm for a collection, though i can drop off at my local spar!!
-
Hmmmmm! They do look rather affordable! May have to try them!! I’ll keep you informed as to how we get on! K x 😕
-
There’s lots of small courier services if your prepared to drop it off at a collection point. I now can’t send 610×810 safety signs via standard parcel as standard parcel doesn’t exist anymore.had to go parcel force which was £22 … Screw that. 2 day delivery with Hermes cost me £3.99
Other sites to try
Interparcel parcelmonkey and parcel2go they are all just booking agents, you choose what courier co you want to use when you get your quote and the courier co picks up direct.
I can get same day collection if I book before 12
-
I think the post office will regret putting up prices that much.
-
I flagged this up recently.
The increase in price was huge, compared to what we were paying. i.e. Postal Tube 700mm long (less than 1KG) about £2.38 on Franking as a Packet. Which is now counted as a Medium Parcel and costs: £4.80.
Large increase over night, considering the amount I dispatch.
So I have now signed up for a OBA (Royal Mail 24) As they are keeping the Packet systems.
You can join as long as you send a min 1000 Large Letters / Packets per year.
-
quote Craig Ross:I flagged this up recently.
The increase in price was huge, compared to what we were paying. i.e. Postal Tube 700mm long (less than 1KG) about £2.38 on Franking as a Packet. Which is now counted as a Medium Parcel and costs: £4.80.
Large increase over night, considering the amount I dispatch.
So I have now signed up for a OBA (Royal Mail 24) As they are keeping the Packet systems.
You can join as long as you send a min 1000 Large Letters / Packets per year.
Thanks Criag, that’s useful… We send more than that quarterly.. I will jump on that bandwagon.. Cheers
-
No worries Mo.
PLUS! All you have to do is print the PPI on the label, less work rather than franking every item. Plus no franking rental or maintenance fees. All you do is log on to the Online account and tell them what you are sending that day.
Also a bonus is, you can take it to any post office or sorting office, whereas with Franking you have to take it to your local ones i.e. The Area printed on the frank.
PPI Example:
So I believe Parcels upto 1Kg are £2.38 – Postal Tubes included upto 950 excluding 50mm ends. (Total: 1050mm)
Large Letters & Letters are priced simular to Franking.
Hope it helps!
Oh and by the way, there is a backlog meaning a 3-4week waiting list apparently, but they hope to process applications quicker.
-
Post office are pricing themselves out of the market now, I use Interparcel – web based comparrison type site, very easy to use and not expensive. I don’t send alot out so it is on an as and when basis.
Alan D -
Do a simple trick that works 99% of the time with the post office,
Send it second class but not with the printed gold label on it, use stamps to make the amount up, they are too lazy in the exchange to check if it’s stamped for 1st or 2nd, even if they do it will still arrive. BTW I have a great post lady in my local po 🙂 -
We’ve just changed to myhermes, if we drop off at a local pick up shop it’s only costing us £3.00 saving us £3.50 for each thing we send out. When your sending a good 30 to 40 parcels a day it’s saving us over £100 a day, now work that out over the year!!!! If we can keep our postal costs down it gives us a head start over the ever increasing front room operations with no overheads which seem to be popping up at a silly rate. There’s a guy near us whose offering to fully write a van for £25??? Thats front, back and both sides. 😮
-
quote Ian Johnston:Do a simple trick that works 99% of the time with the post office,
Send it second class but not with the printed gold label on it, use stamps to make the amount up, they are too lazy in the exchange to check if it’s stamped for 1st or 2nd, even if they do it will still arrive. BTW I have a great post lady in my local po 🙂Thought they sent all you scoundrels to Australia.
-
Naaww,
the smart ones are all still in South Armagh 😀 -
Good man Ian for spotting that one!
I was a Postman/Driver at Royal Mail for a number of years and can confirm that the vast majority of parcel sorting in the large offices (i was at Paddington and London W1) is done by casual labour and agency workers who are under pressure to shift vast quantities of parcels every day – especially at Christmas! So if your parcel has three or more stamps of varying denominations and the words "First" handwritten plainly in the corner; chances are it’ll go in the first class bags – not that I’m condoning any of this behaviour, of course!.unfortunately for such a old institution Royal Mail seem to be intent on pricing themselves out of the market.
PS. plenty of us rogues in South Down too Ian!
-
Up date on my Hermes.
We’ve been using them for approx 3/4 weeks.
2 lost and 4 eBay customers starting claims for late delivery.
I contacted them the other day, it took 15 mins to get connected, I was promised a call back, which never came.
-
quote Denise Goodfellow:Up date on my Hermes.
We’ve been using them for approx 3/4 weeks.
2 lost and 4 eBay customers starting claims for late delivery.
I contacted them the other day, it took 15 mins to get connected, I was promised a call back, which never came.
We’ve been using collect plus for ours, under 2k is £3.99 and up to 10k £4.99 downside is you have to drop your items off and it’s a 3 day service, but as long as you make sure your customers are aware of delivery times then no problems.
So far 128 parcels sent in last 30 days and no losses or damages…. All tracked and signatures taken.
Highly recommend this one
BigMo
-
So glad its not just us then Denise, we’ve had 5 negatives in the last month from slow postage and lost parcels through hermes. Mo, been looking at collect plus so might give them a try. Joe public don’t seem to realise how much postage is now, we get marked down for high postage charges even when we send stuff out at less than what it costs us.
-
quote Mo Gillis-Coates:quote Denise Goodfellow:Up date on my Hermes.
We’ve been using them for approx 3/4 weeks.
2 lost and 4 eBay customers starting claims for late delivery.
I contacted them the other day, it took 15 mins to get connected, I was promised a call back, which never came.
We’ve been using collect plus for ours, under 2k is £3.99 and up to 10k £4.99 downside is you have to drop your items off and it’s a 3 day service, but as long as you make sure your customers are aware of delivery times then no problems.
So far 128 parcels sent in last 30 days and no losses or damages…. All tracked and signatures taken.
Highly recommend this one
BigMo
Looks like they only except 50cm long parcels 🙁
-
quote David.Smith:So glad its not just us then Denise, we’ve had 5 negatives in the last month from slow postage and lost parcels through hermes. Mo, been looking at collect plus so might give them a try. Joe public don’t seem to realise how much postage is now, we get marked down for high postage charges even when we send stuff out at less than what it costs us.
The best way to get around this is offer free postage but nclude it in the price, pck the cheapest service you can find, but give them he option to upgrade to a courier for a higher free.
They can’t leave neg feedback if you offer free postage…
Bigmo
-
quote Mo Gillis-Coates:quote David.Smith:So glad its not just us then Denise, we’ve had 5 negatives in the last month from slow postage and lost parcels through hermes. Mo, been looking at collect plus so might give them a try. Joe public don’t seem to realise how much postage is now, we get marked down for high postage charges even when we send stuff out at less than what it costs us.
The best way to get around this is offer free postage but nclude it in the price, pck the cheapest service you can find, but give them he option to upgrade to a courier for a higher free.
They can’t leave neg feedback if you offer free postage…
Bigmo
surely they can if it takes ages to arrive or doesn`t get there?
-
I`ve looked at other sellers that sell the same product, so they must have the same problems. ( The postal box is 500mm x 90 x 90)
They offer free postage or just £1.99 via royal mail. It must eat into their profit by £2-£3.50… (:)
-
quote Denise Goodfellow:quote Mo Gillis-Coates:quote David.Smith:So glad its not just us then Denise, we’ve had 5 negatives in the last month from slow postage and lost parcels through hermes. Mo, been looking at collect plus so might give them a try. Joe public don’t seem to realise how much postage is now, we get marked down for high postage charges even when we send stuff out at less than what it costs us.
The best way to get around this is offer free postage but nclude it in the price, pck the cheapest service you can find, but give them he option to upgrade to a courier for a higher free.
They can’t leave neg feedback if you offer free postage…
Bigmo
surely they can if it takes ages to arrive or doesn`t get there?
They can leave neg feedback but not low DSRs against postage costs…..
we are moving all ours to "free" postage and then pay for upgrades, plus interesting conversation with RM about a business account (we have spent £13412 on our franking account saving us just over £4000 of what it would of cost using RM On-line/Smart Stamp, a net saving of around £3k when take on board franking machine purchase price). With a Business account should get more savings plus they only have one packet size the same as it was before 2 April.
Awaiting a written proposal so will see what they are really offering then. -
Unfortunately…. It’s time to put prices up….. The buyers happy hour is over… They want it they have to pay more…
-
quote Mo Gillis-Coates:Unfortunately…. It’s time to put prices up….. The buyers happy hour is over… They want it they have to pay more…
quite agree, its the idiots who are taking the postage increase out of their profits.
my problem is i cant reduce the box size….
-
We sell a lot of products that are exactly the same as other products on eBay. I don’t mean identical I mean exactly the same. I suppose a good example would be a pair of Adidas trainers…. Cheapest price inc postage is £12 a pair, most expensive is £35 a pair…. (We don’t sell trainers it’s just an example) we position ourselves at a hallway point, £24 a pair…. There are a lot of people tha just won’t buy he cheapest because they honk something is wrong with them.
We also concentrate on customer service and returns options. We have very few returns and get a higher profit. I’d rather sell 10 pairs at a £5 profit than 20 pairs at a £3 profit. Less work, better margin. Then we drive them to our online shop to give them a bigger discount, but we make more money because we’re not paying fees.
It’s all about repeat business that’s done direct. But I refuse to create a buyers market where the only person who wins is the buyer. Cheapest, doesn’t always work. And although lots of people just want cheap, here are equally as many who don’t, and statistics show that these customers also create fewer problems. Cheapie seekers are also problem customers….. Champagne taste, beer money and dipstick mentality!
-
Well My hermes has got the boot…
Lost parcels, no return phone calls, delivery men trying to tell the customers they did deliver the parcel and perhaps they forgot!!! The list goes on..
NEXT LOL
-
Have been using Myhermes since royal mail price hike, now hermes also upping their price from £3 to £4.20, not such a big difference from Royal mail now 🙄
-
http://www.ipostparcels.com/
try these people they are who we use
stu -
I sent some hotelware china bowls back to the supplier recently (my ordering mistake) by MyHermes, paid the insurance to cover the cost of £72 value for 18 bowls.
On arrival I had a call, 11 of 18 bowls broken. Not just chipped, but smashed to pieces. These are vitrified, to last under heavy use.
MyHermes must have dropped them from a great height, then gave the box a good kicking for good measure.
When I contacted MyHermes (by email, only way to get an answer) I was told my insurance did not cover for breakables, only non-delivery. Apparently it is ‘somewhere’ in the small print….That cost me a fair bit, I can tell you, quite apart from the £11+ delivery cost.
Lorraine
PS, if you use Parcel 2 Go, as I did, to book the collection, you will be inundated with emails from them.
-
quote Lorraine Clinch:PS, if you use Parcel 2 Go, as I did, to book the collection, you will be inundated with emails from them.
used them once & had the same thing
-
quote Stuart Davies:
checked these Stu, am sending mainly 610 mm tubes & even though weight is low usually <500g is classed as large parcel. Am looking into Royal Mail OBA that Craig posted previously
-
I would wholly recommend APC,they do small 1kg mail packs and larger 5kg packs. Next day guaranteed. Used them for over a year never had a problem. Small independent companies linked into a national network.
Our local guys in Orpington are just 100% wicked, if local to this depot ask for Charlie and he will 100% sort you a great deal,
Don;t normally recommend anyone ! but these guys are well worth your time and trial.
Log in to reply.