Has this been done yet?
As of April 1st Royal Mail have changed the prices and types of service.

I went in to send a small box, a smidge over 2kg it was going to cost about £14!
They have done away with Standard Parcels and replaced it with 2nd class that happens to cost more than Parcel Force 48hr!

Under 1kg is still reasonable, but it does seem like they are trying to stop dealing with parcels. It’s going to really affect classifieds/ebay sellers.

Any idea who’s best to use now then?

Just following the US; a medium parcel costs $30, even a small one’s around $12. I was after a Nomex flying jacket, found one going for $80, but the vendor was asking $53 postage! Eventually got one for $73, with $30 postage. I’ve even been charged $30 for a small book with a CD.*
On the other hand, a jacket and trousers from Hong Kong cost me $2…
*and had to hand over £12.50 for duty and ‘handling fee’ when it arrived… 👿

I guess Parcel 2 go or Dispatch Bay?
Thats who I will start using anyway.

Posted a ‘small’ parcel today and the cheapest option was next day delivery at £8.25 FFS!

I don’t think the above prices are unreasonable. It’s much cheaper than taking it yourself I would guess.

I’ve started using collectplus.co.uk – they seem rather reasonable! You can drop off at pretty much any local corner shop

collectplus are good for bigger stuff, v cheap if you can trust your local corner shop

What dangerousbeans said

Always found myhermes to be good value, and they collect from you

2nd class has cover only to £20 and nothing if the package is over that.*

I think the sizes have all changed too – the staff in my local seemed pretty clueless about it this morning!

EDIT * is BS – http://www.royalmail.com/personal/uk-delivery/2nd-class-mail

yeah i have a part interent business and send quite a few parcels

next day courier £7.95 upto 30 kg

but today had one to highands – so off to PO to send it parcel force

would have been £8.80 standard parcel – this service has been scrapped

so was £16.00 2nd class
or £12.40 for 3 day parcel service

its gonna make more and more people use courier firms – they collect from despatch address, no standing in queues and cheaper

I’ve started using collectplus.co.uk – they seem rather reasonable! You can drop off at pretty much any local corner shop

Walked out of post office today with x2 parcels.. got home, signed up to collect+ HALF THE COST and tracked on top of that too. Walked to corner shop dropped it off.. simples

Funilly enough lass in the shop said she’d seen a LOT of new customers today..

.. it seems the post office is not just determined to shoot itself in the foot but to blow it’s leg off as well.

Small stuff has gone up 40p

I don’t think the above prices are unreasonable. It’s much cheaper than taking it yourself I would guess

But I guess if I had a lorry/train/plane load of stuff and a nationwide series of sorting depots, I could do it cheaper

What a stupid statement to make, of course its cheaper than an individual hand delivering, however the fact remains that numerous other companies can do it cheaper and still, unlike Royal Mail, make a profit. Why is that?

£3.70 2nd class recorded today. Its almost not worth selling low value stuff now.

Aye! commercial suicide Moya Greens idea to make us profitable and ready for privitisation deluded CEO!!

I sent two (light) folded tyres to a buyer on STW today in a small box…1200g £8.90!!!

Yeah 55p increase on 2nd class recorded from £3.15 to £3.70 and what with the Ebay and Paypal fees nobody will buy my old tat now 🙁

Waits for courier firms to put up their prices…, won’t be long now.

I was busy using the work’s franking machine on around 1300 cvmbc entry form envelopes today. Mid-way through, the franking machine ran out of postage ‘credit’ so I had to put some more on. As it did this it also did some ‘routine updates’ at the same time. Once I started franking again the blimmin’ price had gone up from 31p each to 33p each. Another 750 x 2p means I need an extra entry just to get the postage cost back. Bugger!

[/quote]I don’t think the above prices are unreasonable. It’s much cheaper than taking it yourself I would guess

But I guess if I had a lorry/train/plane load of stuff and a nationwide series of sorting depots, I could do it cheaper

What a stupid statement to make, of course its cheaper than an individual hand delivering, however the fact remains that numerous other companies can do it cheaper and still, unlike Royal Mail, make a profit. Why is that?

The RM has to collect and deliver to everywhere in the UK. Their competitors can pick and choose the most lucrative collections and deliveries, either by not offering services there or pricing themselves out of contention. As mentioned above commercial senders are using couriers for the easy stuff and RM only for the things the couriers won’t touch which leaves RM only doing most of the remote/far flung / unprofitable deliveries and far fewer of the central, busy, economical ones.

Strewth.
I’ve just sold some On One Mary bars on Ebay, which should cost about £3 to post and I cant post them now for much under £10 anywhere.
It’s pointless me selling them at all now

Parcel is 720g, 750x17x5cm if anyone can find cheaper then £9.59 🙁

Crazy increases! I posted a BMX handlebar yesterday. Before the increase, based on weight, would have been £4.45. Now based on size/weight, it cost £11.96 Mental! Even regular little boxes fall into “medium” package category and have gone from £3.15 to £6.30 for second class recorded. And this is hot on the heels of the last round of big price hikes in january 2012. I’m now weighing up the pros and cons of My Herpes and Collect+ 🙄 I think long term, parcel costs may push people to trade more locally. Maybe it’s time for STW “Area Groups” so we can trade amongst our selves without involving the postal service so regularly.

edit; PP in the same boat as me ~ I made a loss on some items i posted yesterday!

Well I’ve been directed towards MyHermes who can post my parcel for £4 signed for, £3 without, if I drop off at a local shop. Perfect!
Royal Mail have lost my custom, sadly.

I work for Royal Mail the reason that they ve made the changes is that they lost money on every parcel accept the small ones. Now all with parcelforce and tracked. Royal Mail are actually making more money by not doing standard parcels anymore. Plus parcelforce part of Royal Mail group will pick up a lot of it

I don’t think the above prices are unreasonable. It’s much cheaper than taking it yourself I would guess.

Brilliant! Not many businesses would exist if they couldn’t offer us a service cheaper than us doing it ourselves. The pricing level is set based on the competition though no point doing something if you can’t make a profit. So fair enough that they charge enough to make a profit but there’s enough competition among couriers to keep things keen.

£12 to post a pair of tyres yesterday.

Shame as I’d only specified £6 postage on Ebay. Didn’t know that that the prices were changing. 🙁

like a lot of people above. total disgust at the price rises. forced to use myhermes. hope they’re reliable

royalmail may have lost money previously, thats there issue to sort out internally. compared with european delivery costs royalmail was already expensive. but with this massive price hike they’re going to loose considerably more money, purely as people will be forced to use other companies.

Just had issues with both parcel2go and myhermes.
Myhermes have a very odd way of calculating parcel dimensions, so had a package rejected
as oversize- their max volume calc is actually l + 2*w + 2*h must be less than 225 cm. nowt to
do with volume then, and of **** all relevance to the pic on their site.

Parcel2go will quote and quite happily take the money off of you for a package that is over
a couriers size limits. They also don’t guarantee a pickup- spen a whole day at home last week waiting
for a courier who never appeared.

Then again parcelforce quoted £33 for a package the above two wanted a bit over a tenner for.

£12 to post a nintendo 3ds i had ebayed off, twice the amount i was quoted 2 weeks ago before popping it on ebay, and £3 for my hope bar end plugs and £3 for my hope qr skewers.

I think my ebay days are pretty much done now, its just not worth it.

Wish I had put a load of my bits on ebay before now!

How much would something like a mech, shifter, cassette etc cost to send now then?

glasgowdan – Member
Wish I had put a load of my bits on ebay before now!
How much would something like a mech, shifter, cassette etc cost to send now then?

Who knows! Best send it soon before RM put their prices up (again).

£8 today to return some walking boots. I’ll be using collect + from now. This well really hammer the buying and selling of small goods on Ebay

my new cunning plan is to buy £10k worth of first class stamps and watch the inflation-busting capital appreciation they generate, then sell them on in three of four years. can’t fail!

Dagnabbit – I’ve got three cameras on eBay just now, along with a lens and a flashgun. I’m stuck with Parcel Force as I need more than £300 cover 🙁

RM stamp prices are frozen for 2013, and are among the best value in Europe.

Yes think RM have shot themselves in the foot, unless all the other courier prices go up as well….

Will have a look at hermies as well but already look at Collect+ & Parcel Monkey when pricing up stuff.