Royal Mail to increase Postage From April 2011

KxMx

In the US you can send first class from one end to the other for $0.44. That's £0.28 here. And the US is alot bigger than the UK! Even taking into account the cheaper way of living there that is a huge difference.
And the US gov stopped a rise on first class mail just recently, they allowed the other increases but not that one.

marleyboy

dollypeeps wrote: »

agreed its a big hike..especially in % terms but where else would you be able to send a letter for 46p from one end of the country to the other...and rural areas have van deliveries.....

Europe and the United States both work out cheaper and they have a vaster area to cover nationally.

However it matters not, RM is being sold off, it wont be long before there are competitive prices for all mail deliveries (even though the prices will still rise to accommodate), we will soon have an option of which post box to use.

charlie-chan

Stamp prices are going up. Wow.

Do you think they could use this extra money to train their counter staff on whether a letter is a letter or a large letter? Or that it has the correct P & P to avoid paying the £1 charge to pick it up?

custardy

KxMx wrote: »

In the US you can send first class from one end to the other for $0.44. That's £0.28 here. And the US is alot bigger than the UK! Even taking into account the cheaper way of living there that is a huge difference.
And the US gov stopped a rise on first class mail just recently, they allowed the other increases but not that one.

now since you are comparing to the US
how much competitors mail does the USPS have to deliver at a regulator set discounted rate?

custardy

marleyboy wrote: »

Europe and the United States both work out cheaper and they have a vaster area to cover nationally.

However it matters not, RM is being sold off, it wont be long before there are competitive prices for all mail deliveries (even though the prices will still rise to accommodate), we will soon have an option of which post box to use.

really? when was that all arranged?

KxMx

custardy wrote: »

now since you are comparing to the US
how much competitors mail does the USPS have to deliver at a regulator set discounted rate?

I do admire your one man mission to defend Royal Mail on here custardy, I really do, but can't you accept some of us have genuine grievances with them? Like ever rising costs and ever decreasing services, and in some case, standards?

I'm not privy to the inner workings of USPS so I can't comment on that to you, however it's my understanding Royal Mail lost alot of big firms due to unreliability. They've only themselves to blame in some instances. The US senate I believe has a veto on new mail companies. They are also allowed to veto price increases (as the have done just a few weeks ago) to help protect the integrity and consumer satisfaction of the service, instead of approving inflation busting rises. Maybe our Government should have done this, however if RM delivered a good enough service there would be a smaller consumer demand for firms such a TNT, and they wouldn't have lost so many of the big firms.

I value your experience with them because you have been able to tell us many things that the public are not generally privy too. But RM is not exactly in line for a sainthood you know.

custardy

KxMx wrote: »

I do admire your one man mission to defend Royal Mail on here custardy, I really do, but can't you accept some of us have genuine grievances with them? Like ever rising costs and ever decreasing services, and in some case, standards?
and yet you know nothing of the reasons?
I'm not privy to the inner workings of USPS so I can't comment on that to you,they have a monopoly.remember when RM as and you had cheap postage subsidised by the business mail? however it's my understanding Royal Mail lost alot of big firms due to unreliability. and yet it is still RM that delivers the mail from these 'lost' contracts?They've only themselves to blame in some instances. The US senate I believe has a veto on new mail companies. They are also allowed to veto price increases (as the have done just a few weeks ago) to help protect the integrity and consumer satisfaction of the service, instead of approving inflation busting rises. as the regulator has in the UK Maybe our Government should have done this, however if RM delivered a good enough service there would be a smaller consumer demand for firms such a TNT, and they wouldn't have lost so many of the big firms. so you are comparing TNT to RM? a company that is the biggest user of DSA with RM. a company who uses RM to deliver mail and its unaddressed mail as well?

I value your experience with them because you have been able to tell us many things that the public are not generally privy too. But RM is not exactly in line for a sainthood you know.

Im not defending RM. however having no grasp of how the UK system works means comparing it to the likes of the USPS is pointless.
compare RM in its monopoly days if you want to draw a direct comparison.

vikingaero

KxMx wrote: »

In the US you can send first class from one end to the other for $0.44. That's £0.28 here. And the US is alot bigger than the UK! Even taking into account the cheaper way of living there that is a huge difference.
And the US gov stopped a rise on first class mail just recently, they allowed the other increases but not that one.

That's a little bit disingenuous to compare UK to USA. I lived briefly in the US and from what I can recall, mail to door deliveries certainly isn't universal. If your area is served by mail to door then there was normally a historical reason for it - old town with PO on a primary route etc.

Indeed most new estates don't seem to get mail to door - but they have mail trees of a group of post boxes for each house. And a fair proportion of the US still have to collect mail in person from their local PO.

lrr_2

Never pay for 1st class as Royal Mail doesnt seems to know what that means in regard to service.......

marleyboy

However it matters not, RM is being sold off, it wont be long before there are competitive prices for all mail deliveries (even though the prices will still rise to accommodate), we will soon have an option of which post box to use.

custardy wrote: »

really? when was that all arranged?

It hasn't been yet.

Hence the words SOON and WONT BE LONG, now I do appreciate some postie's lack the ability of basic English language, but I thought even You could work out that such words indicate a future not previous context.