Price difference of parcels EU-UK / UK-EU

StephH

Hello,

No idea where this fits in otherwise, but it's striking me:

Is the British public once again being ripped off?

Example: A 2kg parcel UK-Germany costs £18+ cheapest (Parcelforce in this case). Once it left the country it takes no more then two days to arrive.
A parcel from Germany of the same size to the UK is around €7+ only.
It takes up to a week after it left the country of origin until it arrives.

What a difference, what a rip off in the UK. How comes the British public puts up with this? I think they just don't look abroad...

Steph

williham

not really a fair comparison, parcelforce is a courier and offers a much quicker delivery time so you should expect to pay more.

2kg can't be sent by royal mail standard airmail, the price for a 1900g packet is £13.22.
I think if you compare them exactly it's probably not much different.

StephH

Not quite. Where did you find this? I used the Royal Mail price finder on their website and as it is a (small) parcel (20x28x10) it automatically went with Parcelforce.
It should also be traceable as it is when you send it the other way around (DHL/Deutsche Post in this case). The traceable option then comes at £18.37.

Steph

yangptangkipperbang

StephH wrote: »

What a difference, what a rip off in the UK. How comes the British public puts up with this? I think they just don't look abroad...

Steph

I really get tired of reading stuff like this. I worked for a German company for some years and in most of the cases that I read like this the facts are usually the exact opposite of the "complaint".
The most common one was that we were all being ripped off by the energy companies - gas and electric is about 30% more in Germany !

custardy

StephH wrote: »

Hello,

No idea where this fits in otherwise, but it's striking me:

Is the British public once again being ripped off?

Example: A 2kg parcel UK-Germany costs £18+ cheapest (Parcelforce in this case). Once it left the country it takes no more then two days to arrive.
A parcel from Germany of the same size to the UK is around €7+ only.
It takes up to a week after it left the country of origin until it arrives.

What a difference, what a rip off in the UK. How comes the British public puts up with this? I think they just don't look abroad...

Steph

you are comparing a courier with a postal carrier.
As has been already said.
you simply selected options that required PF to meet the criteria you chose.
Now do you really understand the UK mail market/business vs Germanys?

Jeff_Bridges_hair

StephH wrote: »

Hello,

No idea where this fits in otherwise, but it's striking me:

Is the British public once again being ripped off?

Example: A 2kg parcel UK-Germany costs £18+ cheapest (Parcelforce in this case). Once it left the country it takes no more then two days to arrive.
A parcel from Germany of the same size to the UK is around €7+ only.
It takes up to a week after it left the country of origin until it arrives.

What a difference, what a rip off in the UK. How comes the British public puts up with this? I think they just don't look abroad...

Steph

Id gladly pay double to get something in 2 days rather than 7 days.

zenmaster

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

Id gladly pay double to get something in 2 days rather than 7 days.

Now, I'd rather sit it out and pay less.

NBLondon

Airmail Letter from me to my pal in US = £1.28 ($1.99)
Same size letter in return = $1.05 (67p)

That's postal service versus postal service and the postmark shows 4 or 5 days to deliver.

Andy_L

Doesn't Germany also consider the mail service to be a "vital national resourse" & thus subsidises it rather than hiving of bits & pieces of it

custardy

Andy_L wrote: »

Doesn't Germany also consider the mail service to be a "vital national resourse" & thus subsidises it rather than hiving of bits & pieces of it

well I know they have subsidised the mail service in recent years.
the last one was around the time RM got a loan from the UK Gov.

custardy

NBLondon wrote: »

Airmail Letter from me to my pal in US = £1.28 ($1.99)
Same size letter in return = $1.05 (67p)

That's postal service versus postal service and the postmark shows 4 or 5 days to deliver.

well yes and no
thats a monopolised postal service vs RM