Postage

paddyrg

Gelatin capsules are usually best part of 5mm by themselves, so you'll pretty much always be a Large Letter. It's an extra 22p from 36 --> 58p which is due to the fact the mail can't be automatically sorted as easily, so actually costs more to process. This has been the case for several years now. Perhaps you should adjust your charges?

You always have the freedom to use another courier service, or deliver yourself, but it's unlikely you'll get much of a service for 58p, the Post Office/Royal Mail is in fact a staggering bargain!

BTW - using the wrong stamp - last week I had to queue for 20 mins to collect a letter with 22p (+ £1 handling charge) owing. It was addressed to my company, and I've been expecting something important, so couldn't risk just abandoning it. On opening, it was a thin card that would have fitted into an A5 envelope, but posted in an A4 one. I called the company to chew their ear, they had had HUNDREDS of customers calling up very annoyed - they had refunded each the £1.22 each, but they admitted they had had at least 50% of the customers had asked they never contact them again and to be removed from their lists. What was supposed to be a bit of generic, harmless junk mail ended up losing, not gaining customers, and cost them FAR more than the original print run and postage with too low a stamp. All because they used inappropriate postage.

Premier_2

AivarasTR wrote: »

Hi there,

I have started small business online and I have some questions about postage.

My one item weights around 50grams I fit it into an small padded envelope(letter size), but when I take it to the post office I have to pay postage fee for Large letter.. Why is that? I tried measuring thickness and it seems to be around 5mm, not sure if it's more, maybe a bit in the middle. So what would happen if I would buy stamps for 0.36 second class letter and send them? Should I try it?

Today I tried sending two same items together hoping I will be able to send it as a large letter, but I had to pay for small parcel near the counter..

So are they trying to rip you off when you pay in post office? Or are they just being sensitive to every mm?

You'll probably annoy any customers you do have, they'll tell others and you'll end up being one of the many business that folds in the first 3 years of trading.
(only in your case it'll be all of your own making!)

AivarasTR

Thanks for all the replies!

So yeah I'll just adjust charges or compensate from profit.

Sad to hear that they will increase fees.. I think they are already high comparing other countries.

Thanks again

Sid_Wolf

royal mail will notice, the letters have to fit through the slots easily as its done by machine so any that dont go through easily your customers will have to pay excess postage, and no one is going to appreciate that, especially not from a business

custardy

AivarasTR wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies!

So yeah I'll just adjust charges or compensate from profit.

Sad to hear that they will increase fees.. I think they are already high comparing other countries.

Thanks again

you might be surprised

paulwf

AivarasTR wrote: »

Today I tried sending two same items together hoping I will be able to send it as a large letter, but I had to pay for small parcel near the counter..

We've established you need to send a single item as large letter due to the thickness. However, I can't see why two of the same item need to be sent at parcel rates? The large letter category has different prices depending on the weight, my guess is you just have to pay a small amount more as you'll go up one weight band (from under 100g to over 100g).

Spend some time on the Royal Mail site and on some stationery suppliers sites and get very familiar with postal rates and packaging options. I expect offering bulk deals to reduce the impact of postage is the way forward. As you are talking about reducing profits to absorb the postage you need to get this right if your business has any chance of success. The boring mundane processes can sometimes be more important that the product or marketing.

custardy

As I posted before
http://www.royalmail.com/royal-mail-you/size-weight-formats-mail?campaignid=pip

this covers the basics
be a fair amount of capsules to go over 750g, I would think

terra_ferma

I have one of these to avoid making mistakes, and found it worth investing a few quid:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-HELIX-POSTAL-POSTAGE-CHARGE-POST-SIZE-TEMPLATE-/130664981129?pt=UK_Packaging_Materials&hash=item1e6c3d6289

soolin

terra_ferma wrote: »

I have one of these to avoid making mistakes, and found it worth investing a few quid:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-HELIX-POSTAL-POSTAGE-CHARGE-POST-SIZE-TEMPLATE-/130664981129?pt=UK_Packaging_Materials&hash=item1e6c3d6289

Thats what I have as well, saves a lot of worry. I can measure my items as I go along and if necessary adjust the packing to make it slim enough for a large letter rather than a packet.

Premier_2

More expensive, but you can get the real thing here

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Royal-Mail-Large-Letter-Postage-Template-Size-Guide-New-/360424718161?pt=UK_BOI_Office_Equipment_Supplies_Office_Equipment_ET&hash=item53eafcbf51