Postage price rise.. April 2nd 2013

[logobear]

I have read this thread with interest........being optimistic, but not wanting to upset anyone.
re Viccar comment:
"I suppose its a clever way of the government to get people back to shopping in the high street."

[Seamus]

Myhermes.co.uk do packets up to 1kg for £3 including VAT if you drop it off at a local shop (similar to collect+). Have had no problems with them.

[JSR]

The new parcel sizes and the price increases suggest that the Royal Mail are trying to stop the parcel side of their business (which is odd given that they've said that's the only bit they make profit on).

The downloadable PDF lists Parcel Force Worldwide 48 and Express 24 side-by-side with Royal Mail's own prices. In many instances, Parcel Force is cheaper than Royal Mail. Certainly, as soon as you hit 2Kg now, you're better off going to a courier that'll not only give you full online tracking but will also pick the parcel up from you in the first place. Some slower/economical couriers may be the better option when you hit 1Kg, never mind 2Kg. A lot of non-businesses users will figure this out come Christmas. It's like the Royal Mail don't want parcel business any more.

The changes make it cheaper to send two 1Kg parcels than one 2Kg parcel - so they have to administer/sort two parcels for less than the price of sorting one. How does that make any kind of sense?

It strikes me that this is part of the Royal Mail's ongoing plan to close down more Post Offices. If it's cheaper to use someone else to send your parcels, and it's only worth using the Royal Mail for letters that can fit in a post box, who is going to be taking their posting to the Post Offices? No one.

So Post Offices will shut down, prices will go up, making Royal Mail more profitable for when it's privatised. It was clear that this was being planned before the last price rise (last year) and this year's changes make it a certainty. If you have any friends working at your local Post Office, you might want to be saying your farewells to them now because you'll go there one day soon and find the place shut.

Couriers must have taken one look at the 2013 changes and thought that their birthdays and Christmases had all come at the same time.

[viccar]

I would say that it wouldnt be long before the other carriers like myhermes and such like, follow suit and increase their prices.

[meldean]

Looks like the solution here is royal mail for 1 mug and then use parcel2go for anything else.
Reason i say parcels2go is because they have collect+ and hermes on there and the prices are the same if you go direct to collect+ or hermes.

Also collect+ is run by YODEL if anybody did not know.

So thats the solution for me.

[JSR]

Looks like the solution here is royal mail for 1 mug and then use parcel2go for anything else.
Reason i say parcels2go is because they have collect+ and hermes on there and the prices are the same if you go direct to collect+ or hermes.

Also collect+ is run by YODEL if anybody did not know.

So thats the solution for me.

As Yodel couldn't be bothered to pick up a parcel from me (I was using their 24 hour service, but they didn't bother to even come and pick up the parcel three days in succession!), I wouldn't use them if they were the last courier on Earth. If you have customers you want to p-off, use Yodel. If you want to keep your customers, don't...

[purpledragon]

As Yodel couldn't be bothered to pick up a parcel from me (I was using their 24 hour service, but they didn't bother to even come and pick up the parcel three days in succession!), I wouldn't use them if they were the last courier on Earth. If you have customers you want to p-off, use Yodel. If you want to keep your customers, don't...

Ive found this with yodel too very unreliable

[meldean]

use collect+ a few times now for big orders and no problems at all..

Anyways.. The problem here is sending 2 mugs and not 1 mug.. am i correct.
OK if there was such a box that was lets say polystyrene that measured in at 16cm x 16cm x 12cm which is big enough to send 2 mugs in and come in the lowest royal mail price bracket. Would you buy it ??

[JSR]

Anyways.. The problem here is sending 2 mugs and not 1 mug.. am i correct.
OK if there was such a box that was lets say polystyrene that measured in at 16cm x 16cm x 12cm which is big enough to send 2 mugs in and come in the lowest royal mail price bracket. Would you buy it ??

I believe there used to be such a box (probably from subli-nation, if memory serves). I can't recall the outer dimensions, but I doubt they were that tight (the mugs will need to be pretty close together to get the length of the box under 16cm).

It wouldn't matter about being polystyrene, because the weight bracket is now 1Kg - two mugs weigh about 600g, leaving well over 300g for the weight of the box. Double-walled cardboard would be fine.

The double-mug boxes stopped being sold so now we're just left with single ones. Maybe it's time now for some supplier to get in double-mug boxes? I bet they won't, though, because not enough people sell two mugs at a time. People invariably send either one mug, or a bunch of them. I think they would sell well, though, because people would use them for other things - not just mugs - in the knowledge that they fit in the "small parcel" price bracket.

I used to have a habit of sending any "misprinted" mug to my customer as a freebie, but I shan't be doing that once the prices change.

[Renniwano]

I wouldn't touch Yodel after having many run ins with them..

First time.. not turning up for a delivery but telling the supplier that they couldn't get to the property !!!
Second time.. not turning up but telling the supplier that we weren't in !!
Third time.. (thinking third time lucky) yes, they finally delivered, only to chuck the item over the back fence even though there was a note on the door to leave with a neighbour (who was in) and the dogs nearly had it !!

It doesn't take much.. but word of mouth can be a business killer !!