Just come across the new Royal Mail pricing structure, looks like its going to get expensive to start sending bike bits come April.

Any parcel over 8cm deep* is going to be classed as a medium parcel. Prices for medium parcels start from £6.30!

* unless you can cram whatever you are sending into a 16x16x16cm box, in which case it’s a small parcel, starting from £3.70…

Compensation also going down from £46 to £20, unless you add in recorded delivery then it’s going up to £50.

Ouch indeed! Soon going to be as expensive as the US for postage. Contrast that with Hong Kong; I bought a cheap camo field shirt and combats, came in a fairly large bag, postage cost me $1.98, IIRC.

They seem determined to lose the remainder of their business. The postal prices are already silly. It’s cheaper for me to use a courier for anything over 1kg.

Why they need to increase the current prices I cannot fathom. They made £144m profit in the 6 months to September 2012 – they are after all a ‘public service’ so it seems to be form of underhand taxation if they increase prices further.

They are probably trying to appear more profitable prior to a sell off?!

They are a bunch of thieving, incompetent ****. Sooner they are sold off the happier I’ll be.

Venom may be caused by declining compo for undelivered, tracked parcels.

Always wondered about the compo thing. Whether or not you pay extra, don’t they have a duty to deliver your parcel in a reasonable period of time and in reasonble condition?

You do realise that upping the cost of postage is in line with a reduction of funding from the Tax Payer.

For that I’m in.

A bit unfair to tar all Posties with the same brush but my most recent interaction was interesting.

I had a card through the letter box for a bit of bike, at the same time the PO had tried and to deliver two parcels for Mrs Flash, she asked me if I could pick them up for her as well. Explained that it’s not “24 hours mate” but would give it a go.

Went to the counter and handed the cards over a few mins later three parcels were handed over.

Me: Excuse me where’s mine
PO: You’ve got three parcels
Me: Yes, but mine is not one of them, they are all for my wife

PO Man disappears again and comes back with my package

PO: You’ll have to give me a parcel back, you’ve only got cards for three
Me: Fine which one do you want?

PO man looks at parcels

PO: Why haven’t you picked this one up before? (It had been in the office for nearly three weeks)
Me: We never got a card for it
PO: Don’t say that.
Me: It’s fine, my wife is chasing it up with Amazon anyway. I’ll let her know where it is.
PO: (quietly) Hang on a minute mate (waits for another customer to leave, and gives me the parcel. If you find the card just rip it up.

So in one quick interaction with the PO I experienced nearly every aspect of customer service

You do realise that upping the cost of postage is in line with a reduction of funding from the Tax Payer.

I’m in only if I can see the funding going back in my pocket from reduced taxation. But I won’t.

Just purchased a car tyre on line (225/40/18 so its not small) carriage – next working day £2.99.
mad

I think what I’ll do is, I’ll turn to some other company that provides reliable convenient over-the-counter all-areas postage. Oh no wait, nobody else wants to do that.

Northwind – go to mailboxes, on most high streets. will provide you with a choice of courier, without the queues, computer says no mentality. I send all my bike bits from Mailboxes!

A classic example, I posted a bike a couple of months ago, arrived at the post office, put it on their weighing scales. That will be £55! Walk out, go to mailboxes, chap measures and weighs the box. £20 Fedex!

I haven’t used royal mail for parcels for years. Far too expensive already.
Couriers pick up directly from you, are quicker and cheaper. Just book online and hand it over when they turn up at your door.

I use Parcel2Go, through them Hermes are cheap for bigger stuff and they collect.

mashiehood – Member

Northwind – go to mailboxes, on most high streets. will provide you with a choice of courier, without the queues, computer says no mentality. I send all my bike bits from Mailboxes!

There’s at least 10 post offices closer to my house than the nearest Mailboxes branch.

The nearest branch to Aberdeen is in Dundee 🙂 There is no comparison really.

Couriers
Great for the senders, utter pish for recipients.

Despite living on the edge of Dundee I have to travel to Glenrothes to pick up anything CityLink “deliver”. 20 mins in the car at not exactly legal speeds, half an hour if I’m not pushing it, longer if I catch a tractor.

I can swing by the post office on the way to work, it’s on route.
Collect+ and the Amazon version are however very welcome services, and something the Post Office should have been allowed to provide from the day they were split from Royal Mail.

My FiL is a postie (has been for 30 years), and this is the very likely scenario.

At the same time, they are reducing the RM workforce – what was considered “a caution offence” last year is now “try as hard as you can to sack them”.

By appearing more lean (i.e. less staff/operating costs) and more profitable, they are more appealing to potential buyers.

I reckon ebay should buy just buy the post office and have done with it. Maybe then they’ll pay some UK tax.

It’s a shame though because having a local counter and a local collection office is a much better service than any of the courier companies offer.