Postage RANT

SuperMum2008

Our wholesale supplier who provides many of the items we sell at craft fairs and on ebay has caused my blood to boil. :mad:

They have told us that they have "accidentally" been charging us way too little for postage to northern ireland all these years, and that from now on, any order up to £350 will incur an £18 postal charge BECAUSE WE ARE IN IRELAND.

Now last time I looked at a map, we were in the UK, whatever your political or religious affiliation?

Apparently the little strip of blue wet stuff between us (MAINLAND) and that little island off our coast (Great Britain) means that the postage doubles. We have tried to explain that when we post a 1st class item, it is the same cost whether it is to Newry or to Brighton. Why, then, should the cost of delivering our items be more than if we were in England....

I appreciate that our items are not posted first class, but surely courier companies dont charge such a massive difference for delivery from England to Belfast?

RANT OVER. (For now :rolleyes:)

dmxdave

They do unfortunately :mad: have a read at this old thread

SnowyOwl_2

Courier firms work out their own pricing and yes a lot of them do end up charging more for delivery from Britain to Ireland north or south. Royal Mail postage is just as you described.
Possibly your wholesalers have been a bit lax and haven't actually looked at their courier bills to see how what they have been paying was worked out.
At least you can get your orders delivered. Some areas of the Scottish highlands and islands are in a higher delivery charge bracket again, and some couriers won't even deliver to them.

almillar

Clearly, it does cost courier companies to get stuff over here if going by road, it's false labelling on eBay that gets me. ie it says UK delivery but they mean mainland only. Ask your wholesaler to send your stuff with Royal Mail.

Old_Git

what gets me is ,If I post a letter to GB it has to go across the Irish sea and cost 39p .
To send the same letter down south cost 56p .
As for Ebay , most sellers have never seen a map of the UK

soolin

If you stuff is haevy and the supplier needs to use a courier and you don't agree with the costs then find a supplier who uses Royal mail instead.

Anyway, as a business seller all your postage costs to buy items is tax deductible anyway don't forget.

SuperMum2008

Surely only if you are vat registered? We are only a teensy business.

soolin

SuperMum2008 wrote: »

Surely only if you are vat registered? We are only a teensy business.

All expenses connected with your business are tax deductible. When you do your annual accounts the costs of materials etc are offset against the profit, and all other costs including the postage that you have been charged to get those materials is also allowable. So yes you deduct the costs before you make your declaration to HMRC.

SuperMum2008

Oh yes, sorry, was getting confused there (it doesnt take much!!), thanks for clarifying! Yes we do include these costs against the profit.

negg

Remember that the Royal Mail lose money doing certain deliveries (including Scottish Highlands). Couriers are not going to do this because they cannot get money from government departments when they make a loss.

One courier I use charges over £30 for Northern Ireland, around £4 for mainland UK. They refuse to even delivery to Guernsey or Jersey.

x12yhp

almillar wrote: »

it's false labelling on eBay that gets me. ie it says UK delivery but they mean mainland only.

It is false labelling but it is an innocent mistake. I used to assume that those on the mainland knew that NI was part of the UK but a few years on the internet has taught me otherwise. If I were in charge of education in the UK, the fact that so many people are confused about the currency used or the language spoken in a part of their own country, would worry me deeply.