Great Tips to Cut Postage Costs Hunt

scatz

andrewmoorcroft wrote:

I know someone who crosses out the address on received letters and put xmas cards in the old envelope. He writes on the envelope "No longer at the Address. Try 'NEW ADDRESS'" and sure enough the card arrives at the new address he's wriiten on the envelope with no charge! All his mates know the trick and think it's funny. I think this is really naughty and wouldn't do it myself!

This would then be classed as an unofficial redirection which is some cases may actually be 'killed off' if a return address is not available, therefore, never actually arriving, therefore, starting family war over having not received a christmas card.

Furthermore, this is exactly the sort of thing that would force RM to hike their prices even further. Some people have no morals!:mad:

pudsey23

meerustar wrote:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember someone saying yonks ago that you cannot deface a stamp as it has the queens head on it (or something) and that Royal Mail can refuse to deliver if taped over or glued on with anything other than the original glue/sticker.

Not sure if its true but I've never sellotaped over a stamp. I know we're all moneysavers but it's only 32p or whatever ... and quite reasonable too I think to send my family a card on the other side of the country.

As a Royal Mail Manager we will always deliver to an address. However you are not permitted to sellotape over stamps as this amounts to fraud.The item will be surcharged at the appropriate rate and will be delivered. Uncancelled stamps can be defased with a pen so as not to be used again. I hope this cleared up this issue.Thanks.

pudsey23

scatz wrote:

I beleive that it costs Royal Mail somewhere in the region of £1 to actually deliver a regular letter, therfore, running at a loss to do so, bearing in mind a first class stamp costs only 32p. Royal mail make their money from business contracts not the average Joe and are, as such, NOT defrauding consumers but actually providing a very good service (albeit some misshaps bearing in mind the millions upon millions of correctly delivered mail) for a very reasonable price.

If Royal Mail were not to 'hike' prices then, due to the deregulation, consumers may end up with NO Royal Mail altogether and a rather heftier price to pay to a competitor for the delivery of their mail.

Royal Mail are not allowed to increase prices they have a regulater POSTCOM and as such have to apply for any increase in postal charges.

pudsey23

As a Royal Mail official may i clear up a few points. We never refuse to deliver to an address. Sellotaping over stamps is fraud and the item WILL be surcharged at the appropriate rate. Uncancelled stamps can be defased will a ballpoint pen and they will be delivered. Royal Mail does NOT hike up prices but we have to apply to the regulater POSTCOM for PERMISSION to increase any postal charges. They are not increased out of hand but for a reason. I hope this cleares up a few points. Thanks for reading this.

HCDayantis

scatz wrote:

I beleive that it costs Royal Mail somewhere in the region of £1 to actually deliver a regular letter, therfore, running at a loss to do so, bearing in mind a first class stamp costs only 32p. Royal mail make their money from business contracts not the average Joe and are, as such, NOT defrauding consumers but actually providing a very good service (albeit some misshaps bearing in mind the millions upon millions of correctly delivered mail) for a very reasonable price.

If Royal Mail were not to 'hike' prices then, due to the deregulation, consumers may end up with NO Royal Mail altogether and a rather heftier price to pay to a competitor for the delivery of their mail.

Exactly. Next time someone complains about the price of stamps, tell them to drive across half the country to deliver it themselves!

majusau

Bit of a change of tack, but can anybody tell me if I have a right to a refund after sending a parcel 1st class recorded for £17.20 and it wasn't delivered for 3 days. Letter from Royal Mail says no!.....does anyone know otherwise?

Cinders2001

"Sellotaping over stamps is fraud and the item WILL be surcharged at the appropriate rate."

Why is sellotaping stamps in place wrong?
What if the glue had become ineffective or you were sticking stamps onto a rough parcel?

misterthrifty

I have found this an interesting thread as I sell items on ebay, and, with yet another postage price increase looming I'm sure many people will be looking here to save on their postage. This has become quite a long thread now so I thought I would sum up some of the main points made, though I will try to stick to the aim of saving money on postage.

Buying stamps cheaper
Discounts are sometimes available at Costco

Online stamp dealers will sell them at a discount for example discountstamps@gmail.com or Robert Murray

Royal Mail provide lower prices for business users who register with them

Buy 1st, 2nd, or E stamps which are not affected by price rises

Stamps can be bought for a discount on ebay

Using PiP to your advantage

Choose the size and weight of your letter to get the best price under the RM PiP system

Remove packaging and excess material from items before sending

Other suggestions you may or may not like!

Posting from work

Re-directing used letters and put new contents in them

Sellotaping over stamps (this is apparently fraudulent)

Re-using business post envelopes

I apologise if I have missed anything but I hope it will bring new readers up to date.

Mr T

ukmonkey

Cinders2001 wrote:

"Sellotaping over stamps is fraud and the item WILL be surcharged at the appropriate rate."

Why is sellotaping stamps in place wrong?
What if the glue had become ineffective or you were sticking stamps onto a rough parcel?

Selotaping the stamps means that they can't be cancelled out (i.e "stamped" at the mail centre, you know, with the date, time and name of the mail centre...) hence they can be used again. This could therefore be seen as an attempt to defraud Royal Mail Group PLC.

Re the glue: I think there were a few problems with the stamps becoming "unstuck" when RM first introduced self-adheseive stamps a few years ago, but I'm pretty sure these problems are now very few and far between.

ukmonkey

misterthrifty wrote:

I have found this an interesting thread as I sell items on ebay, and, with yet another postage price increase looming I'm sure many people will be looking here to save on their postage. This has become quite a long thread now so I thought I would sum up some of the main points made, though I will try to stick to the aim of saving money on postage.

Buying stamps cheaper
Discounts are sometimes available at Costco

Online stamp dealers will sell them at a discount for example (email address removed) or Robert Murray

Royal Mail provide lower prices for business users who register with them

Buy 1st, 2nd, or E stamps which are not affected by price rises

Stamps can be bought for a discount on ebay

Using PiP to your advantage

Choose the size and weight of your letter to get the best price under the RM PiP system

Remove packaging and excess material from items before sending

Other suggestions you may or may not like!

Posting from work

Re-directing used letters and put new contents in them

Sellotaping over stamps (this is apparently fraudulent)

Re-using business post envelopes

I apologise if I have missed anything but I hope it will bring new readers up to date.

Mr T

Re-directing used letters and putting new contents in them is at the very least dishonest and possibly unlawful.

Sellotaping over stamps well, see my post above.

Re-using business envelopes - not sure what you mean by this, do you mean business reply envelopes, or PPI'd envelopes?

Regarding buying bulk amounts of stamps just before a price rise - it'll soon be much harder to do this1 ;-)