75ZT Community

... have put up their prices yet again by way above inflation but now they've also made the pricing structure much more complex as well.

I was in the local Post Office today and posted a small parcel which I'd pre-paid yesterday using RM's own website.

The counter clerk told me I'd have to pay the "extra" as the price I paid yesterday was at the "old rate"

I pointed out that I wasn't able to post the item yesterday as she and her colleagues were on holiday and that the printed label made it clear that it would have to be posted by the end of today.

There was little or no resistance from the clerk and she mentioned that their manager had told them to try and gain extra income in just such a situation as I found myself in.

Further, she handed me a leaflet explaining the new pricing structures... and said that if I could understand it, could I return and explain it to her as she hadn't a clue

I wonder at the lack of business acumen in the Post Office hierarchy. They lose money because their prices are so high that business customers and the more switched on of their private customers turn to couriers. SO, instead of fighting back, they just hike the prices for those unable to take advantage of the competitive prices offered by courier services.

Yes, the 'extra' rise above the ordinary price rise is that now there are small, medium and large parcels, any parcel that has a depth greater than 8cm is categorized as 'medium', unless the other 2 dimensions are 16cm or less, in which case the depth can also be up to 16cm. This means you can end up paying more to send a parcel that has a smaller volume & weighs less than another parcel!

One of my pet hates! Royal Mail don't want the letter delivery side of their business and neither do their competitors. Any other business would reduce their prices and improve their service, or, in their case, go back to the service they provided a few years ago. We lived in Chingford, East London in the 1950s and our relations lived in Kings Heath, Birmingham. A letter posted before 9 pm in Brum, would be delivered at 8.30 am the next working day. We also had another delivery at 11 am, and one at 4 pm, except Saturday, which had the first two only. The cost of a letter was 21/2d or 1p today; there was no first and second class, everything arrived the next working day (post-cards were 2d). Today, a first class letter costs 60p or 12 shillings; that is 60 times the price, or taking into account inflation, three times the cost of 1950!

I recently read of an ex-pat Australian, who, in the prewar years could post a letter in the morning to his mate in the same town, to arrange a meet that evening and get a reply by 5pm the same day, all because they didn't have phones in their homes. They also had 14 collection times each day!

We have a Canadian woman running Royal Mail, with an outrageous salary, and now we have a Canadian man running the Bank of England; what happens next?

Roverite.

I use the Post office business system at work for posting sacks of mail.

For 1 month now I've not had any mail sacks despite ordering them on the web site every week.
ran out this week...

Phone up to moan/order more, and the system tells me its easier to order online !! ????

Get through to customers services who blame the local Post office. which I have phoned already, and who know nothing of my orders , given another number to call ,, its just rings ?
Back to C-services and convince them to reluctantly raise a formal complaint..

Promised sacks on tuesday by 4.40pm, went home at 5pm ..

Yes you've guessed no Sacks .. will see tomorrow ?

Its gone all to POT...

C.

I supply the Tool Hire Service for the Rover P4 Drivers Guild and the main request is for the king-pin reamers. I received them back from a club member yesterday and he paid £8.30p first class, the same as it has been since last April. Today I posted the same parcel, first class and the new charge is £6.85p! The other tools we have are now not worth sending out, because the postal charges both ways, outweighs the cost of buying the tool!

Roverite.

Roverite wrote:I supply the Tool Hire Service for the Rover P4 Drivers Guild and the main request is for the king-pin reamers. I received them back from a club member yesterday and he paid £8.30p first class, the same as it has been since last April. Today I posted the same parcel, first class and the new charge is £6.85p! The other tools we have are now not worth sending out, because the postal charges both ways, outweighs the cost of buying the tool!

Roverite.

I'm guessing those figures are transposed?

I have been selling a lot of Rover bit's on e-bay for a family friend and had a batch end just after the charges changed - over the number I had to send the difference amounted to some £35 extra.......luckily a lot of the bits are heavy and I had made sure postage reflected that, but the smaller bulkier items took a big hit.

Now making me wonder if it is worth listing half the stuff I have left over....people will just see the postage and think I am trying to rip them off.

Mofo wrote:

Roverite wrote:I supply the Tool Hire Service for the Rover P4 Drivers Guild and the main request is for the king-pin reamers. I received them back from a club member yesterday and he paid £8.30p first class, the same as it has been since last April. Today I posted the same parcel, first class and the new charge is £6.85p! The other tools we have are now not worth sending out, because the postal charges both ways, outweighs the cost of buying the tool!

Roverite.

I'm guessing those figures are transposed?

No, the prices are correct at £8.30 and now reduced to £6.85, in other words, this particular item has gone down. Royal Mail are planning to capture the small parcels business, which has been created from the on-line shopping explosion and this will be at the expense of universal letter deliveries, which have declined because of the use of E-mail.

Roverite.

Roverite wrote:

Mofo wrote:

Roverite wrote:I supply the Tool Hire Service for the Rover P4 Drivers Guild and the main request is for the king-pin reamers. I received them back from a club member yesterday and he paid £8.30p first class, the same as it has been since last April. Today I posted the same parcel, first class and the new charge is £6.85p! The other tools we have are now not worth sending out, because the postal charges both ways, outweighs the cost of buying the tool!

Roverite.

I'm guessing those figures are transposed?

No, the prices are correct at £8.30 and now reduced to £6.85, in other words, this particular item has gone down. Royal Mail are planning to capture the small parcels business, which has been created from the on-line shopping explosion and this will be at the expense of universal letter deliveries, which have declined because of the use of E-mail.

Roverite.

I'm with you now - just surprised to hear someone was saving money somewhere....