Great Tips to Cut Postage Costs Hunt

student100

ayla261 wrote:

maybe some of us use the cheaper/faster/reliable service of email or fax for small items like that and only use royal mail for bulky items as there is no viable alternative

There has been an alternative to RM for bulky items for years: courier companies.

DHL, Parcelline, TNT, Business Express, Lynx, Interlink, Initial CityLink, UPS are just a handful that spring to mind off the top of my head...

System

pinkfluffybabe wrote:

This would be more reasonable was it not for the amount of mail that goes missing and the generally shoddy service that many people receive from Royal Mail. There are several threads on here from people who have had recurrent problems with their mail delivery. Its all very well being cheap, but when you can't send a birthday card through the post without it going missing, or having anything inside it stolen, they have a cheek to charge through the nose for their services.

Perhaps now that the Royal Mail have increased the charges, their staff won't need to steal so much from the post!

I once had a packet with £50 worth of goods in it ripped open by thieves in the Royal Mail. They had the nerve to then send me the empty ripped packet in a plastic bag stating "It appears your parcel may have been damaged in transit".

PeteW

ayla261 wrote:

when clicked this link takes me to ap age asking for language selection then takes me to a sign in page, no details of how to join

Sorry, try this link

Savvy_Sue

Seesaw wrote:

Costco sell stamps in bulk (sorry, not sure on qualities) and they were around 4p cheaper each

AFAIK that's only first class stamps though.

And of course you have to be a member to shop there ...

Midi wrote:

It will be interesting to see how the 5mm thick limit is interpreted. If you fold 10 or so A4 sheets in half they will push out the envelope to more than 5mm where they are folded. You can squeeze it back below 5mm of course but it springs out again when released.

I've seen somewhere - I think on the card guide I ordered as a business customer - that the item must pass 'freely' through the gap. At the PO they have sturdy acrilyc guides - the poster who said that the lady at the PO 'persuaded' it through was lucky, just hope it doesn't get surcharged en route!

I went to the PO the other day and someone there was checking that everyone in the queue knew about the changes. She said the acrilyc guides were about £24 each, can't justify that myself, but she warned me that the problem with the card guides is that they can be distorted and obviously 'forced' a bit - especially the larger gap for large letters!

I'm not sure I'll buy any 'large letter' stamps - I'm not sure I can trust my colleagues not to assume that if it says 1st or 2nd, it's the 'normal' price!

wileycat wrote:

They will only be usable for letter sizes tho, not the new large letter and packet sizes.

AFAIK you can use a 'normal' 1st or 2nd class stamp and 'top it up' with other stamps if that's not enough. Can't see why you can't do the same with the Large Letter stamps.

One thing I was told - but it's a long time ago so I don't know if it's the case or not - is that if you put a 2nd class stamp on and top it up to First Class, it still only goes 2nd because there's a 'marker' in the stamp and it just gets 'read' as 2nd, with the extra stamps not noticed. Is that still true? At the moment I don't use the wrong class of stamp: I start from scratch if necessary!

wileycat wrote:

Remember also I believe there is a two week grace period over which nothing will be surcharged on the new system after PIP is brought in.

That's worth knowing.

snaggle

bham-dave wrote:

Perhaps now that the Royal Mail have increased the charges, their staff won't need to steal so much from the post!


I was a postman for more than 30 years and I have to say that I find your remark very offensive and uncalled for.
In all my years I can only remember 3 people getting caught for theft and they were very quickly delt with, infact the finished up doing time.
If you were trying to be funny, I asure you, You were NOT. Dont give up your day job.
As for your fifty pound parcel you dont say if you were reimbersed,
If you were say so, If not then you should have been, Thats if it was insured.

Muppet81

Very interested in the idea of buying my postage on line. At work I already use the Royal mail's Smartstamp system where we set up an account and top up our credit regularly. I assume this system for non commercial ventures is just the purchase of single postage amounts. Could I actually just print off and pay for 1 32p postage using my credit card?

LongDongDave

Muppet81 wrote:

Very interested in the idea of buying my postage on line. At work I already use the Royal mail's Smartstamp system where we set up an account and top up our credit regularly. I assume this system for non commercial ventures is just the purchase of single postage amounts. Could I actually just print off and pay for 1 32p postage using my credit card?

It's £3 + minimum, can't remember from the last time i checked. No good if you are posting loads of items as you have to type in the address for all of them.

LongDongDave

snaggle wrote:

bham-dave wrote:

I was a postman for more than 30 years and I have to say that I find your remark very offensive and uncalled for.
In all my years I can only remember 3 people getting caught for theft and they were very quickly delt with, infact the finished up doing time.

That may have been true during your 30 years, but what about all these befuddled newbies the RM now employ....walking around with their shorts on in the middle of winter & they can't even post to the right street let alone the right number.

Tripledrop

I'm quite happy with the changes...

I sell retail DVDs on eBay. Normal size cases did cost me 68p, and will now cost me 65p, and the bigger DVDs (2 disk special editions etc), did cost 99p, but again will now cost me 65p

Bargain!

lynedoch

ukmonkey wrote:

All UK addresses will be getting a size guide delivered during August.

For more info about PiP, see Try http://www.royalmail.com/pip/ and click on "Information for personal customers"

Hope this helps.

Actually..no.

I have met only 1 person in my area of Swansea who has laid eyes on this confusing rip-off.

I'm disabled and unable to get to a post office - the local one closed - and when I write to my parents I'll have to cut down on what I say as it'll be weighed and if I put the incorrect amount on they'll be penalised.

Someone recently pointed out that we've been made insecure and will probably put 2 stamps on, 'just in case'.
Will shops who sell cards display the size guide ..