Post Increase UK 2012

[olivia8143]

I

Same here for UK postage for small items, but beware the Airmail increases are eye watering and I don't see how we can avoid putting up the shipping charges.

See this thread http://www.ebid.net/forums/showthrea...Increase-Query.

[bunsock]

Good idea for light items, but I would need a lot of 1st class stamps on the package for some of my heavier items. Just been weighing a few books and working out the postage. This increase is really going to kill my overseas sales. Looking on the bright side most of my UK postage charges will remain unchanged and that's where most of my market is.

[crafters_corner_2]

See this thread http://www.ebid.net/forums/showthrea...Increase-Query.

Sorry, folks, just realised I should have posted on this thread.

Will close other one.

[loconotion]

Just posted off a catalogue today, just over 1kilo. Cost an eye watering £5.30 as a parcel. Maybe I should have ripped it in half and sent it as two packages at £2.20 each ie total of £4.40 maximum! Talk about a stupid system. Going to have to hike my postage charges considerably and suggest to Hornby they reduce the size of their catalogues?

[rokins_toys]

Royal Mail are like the British government, up their own rear ends and out of touch with reality. The majority of items I sell have to be sent small packets and the majority of them were "up to 250g" but now it is one price, £2.70 first class "up to 700g" which means now including cost of packaging materials, I would have ot charge over £3.50 to send just one carded action figure which is absolutely ridiculous. I am now in the process of updating postage costs on the listings and I am having to use second class services which still means customers have to pay £3.02 postage for just one carded action figure. Even the cost of a sending one loose action figure has now shot up to £2.20 for second class where as before, I could send one loose figure, small packets first class for £2.00 including cost of packaging materials.

Now I have to charge £2.67 for a single loose action figure if has to go small packets, but luckily, a lot of loose action figures fall in to Royal Mail's large letter so at least I can send them for £1.32 including packaging materials.

Royal Mail have truly screwed up their pricing system. They should never have done away with "up to 250", they should have kept it, then done 251g to 750g, then 751g to 1000g, it just would have made more sense and would have kept small items that still weigh under 250g including packaging materials relatively cheap to post. We all know the most commonly used weights over the past few years have been hit hard with yearly increases but they should never have done away with "up to 250g".

Another mistake Royal Mail make is discounts for businesses, you have to send a minimum of a few thousand parcels to qualify for cheaper postage rates and a to of small businesses fall outside of this limit so have to pay the public tariff price. I will be making a case to the government about forcing Royal Mail to lower this limit so more small businesses can take advantage of this discount business tariff. Like many small businesses who trade online, I do not ship over 5,000 parcels per year and I believe that limit should be reduced to 500 parcels per year to qualify for the business discounts, that way, myself and many other business will benefit from discounted postage prices, savings which we can then pass on to our customers. I easily ship 500 parcels per year, but unless I have Toys R Us' bank balance and ability to advertise (radio/tv/papers), I'll never shift 5,000 parcels per year lol! Royal Mail have done nothing to help small businesses over recent years and all they have done is hit us with excessive yearly increases in postage costs.

I will try and start an online petition with the government and see if I can get the magic 100,000 sigs required for it to be debated. Royal Mail have been given free reign over what they can charge now and next year, we will see prices increase again and in a 3 years, it's going to cost over £5.00 to ship one single carded action figure to a customer and that's not on.

[dave1066]

hi, I post alot of items around 200g large letter, I always use stamps as I bought them before increase.
I can now put on 2 x 1st to cover the new 1st price of £1.20. If I did this before increase it would only be 2nd Class, save 17p per item.
Have not worked out yet if cheaper to send larger items as well