Royal Mail new prices released

thebestnameshavegone

lovinituk wrote: »

You used to be able to get a business account if you were sending less than 5000 items a year and you may still be able to get one after the changes even if you are sending under 1000 items. The old 5000 limit related to the even cheaper PacketPost service which is being replaced in April by the new RM24/48 services and has the 1000+ limit.

Don't wait until you reach 1000 items a year - contact them now. Even if you don't qualify for RM24/48 you may still be able to get a standard business account which is still cheaper than than PO retail prices.

Thanks for this - I will prevaricate no more!

lovinituk

thebestnameshavegone wrote: »

Thanks for this - I will prevaricate no more!

The only downside to the standard business account is that I believe it will be subject to the same size restrictions as the retail side (whereas RM24/48 is not).

thebestnameshavegone

lovinituk wrote: »

The only downside to the standard business account is that I believe it will be subject to the same size restrictions as the retail side (whereas RM24/48 is not).

I've spent the past few days working out different ways to package some of my products - some things that I currently wrap in tons of bubble wrap but which weigh less than 200g will count as medium sized parcels, which will be very expensive to post. I'm going to try changing to the cube-shaped postage boxes and fill them with shredded paper instead. It's going to cost me a bit more on packaging materials (a box is pricier than a mailing bag + bubble wrap), but save me on postage. If, however, I can qualify for the 24/48 service I can go back to the bubble wrap option!

What with that and digesting the new ebay rules there has been a lot of head scratching this week.....

soolin

jetplane wrote: »

No I think someone else has mentioned it was wrong, what's an OBA? And does anyone know crowqueen's gone?

I haven't seen Crowqueen on the boards since Christmas. She mentioned she need a new laptop- I do hope that means she hasn't been unable to get online since then!

whatyadoinsucka

thats strange CD's DVDs BLURAYs will stay the same price..
although 2.5 cm thickness may knock out a few
the 8 cms rule on small packet is ridiculous

macfly

whatyadoinsucka wrote: »

thats strange CD's DVDs BLURAYs will stay the same price..
although 2.5 cm thickness may knock out a few
the 8 cms rule on small packet is ridiculous

Really? What would you have done?

phil_jd

lovinituk wrote: »

What cost do you put on your time?.

It's a fair point, but most of the year it's not much time out of my day. Only the run up to Christmas would I benefit. Plus it gets me out of the house everyday.

I was told it was a single up front payment too, not being able to split the cost monthly is a issue right now, but this will be visited in December/January once I've discovered how many times the PO turns me away

phil_jd

lovinituk wrote: »

If over a 1000 parcels and you qualify for the RM24/48 services then you should be able to just average all the parcel weights per class. I say 'should' because the assumption is that it will be the same as it is currently for PacketPost but I've not seen it confirmed anywhere yet.

I was told that the price you pay is based on the average weight of the parcels entered on one order. So if you have 1 over 1.5kg and one under 500g, the average is under 1kg - so that's the price you pay.

So, if you have a heavy one it might make sense to be more accurate on the lighter ones to ensure the average weight is under 1kg.

phil_jd

lovinituk wrote: »

OK, I see now. That will be fine but you could get away with the smaller/cheaper labels too...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2500-x-Royal-Mail-PPI-Labels-Return-Address-PPI-02-24-24s-1st-2nd-Class-/230886864761?pt=UK_BOI_Packing_Postal_Supplies_Labels_LE&hash=item35c1edf779

I use the 54x14mm PPI impression on a 110x75mm label (which also holds the customers address and my return address). I use this on everything, from the smallest letters to the largest parcels.

Thanks to alx2013 and lovinituk for the labels links. I'd been thinking of having them printed on delivery notes, but that would have meant ordering loads of both RM24/RM48 and blank ones for Special Delivery (cheaper for me at PO). Printing your own is a short term solution, but so expensive.

alx2013

phil_jd wrote: »

Thanks to alx2013 and lovinituk for the labels links. I'd been thinking of having them printed on delivery notes, but that would have meant ordering loads of both RM24/RM48 and blank ones for Special Delivery (cheaper for me at PO). Printing your own is a short term solution, but so expensive.

If you order any remember that the old style labels are only valid until June - the new ones are valid from April 2nd...
Airmail ones don't change