Royal Mail new prices released

Chrysalis

lovinituk wrote: »

Don't forget that they are cheaper for a reason. The main reason being that they will often take longer to arrive than even 2nd class mail. This shouldn't be too much of a problem as long as you make your customers aware. Also offer RM as an alternative as some people actively avoid sellers that use myhermes particularly. I won't buy from a seller who ships by myhermes unless I am desperate and there is no other alternative.

am glad you intervened, that is good advice for sellers, because as a buyer I will try to avoid my hermes in future.

Chrysalis

Brummie2309 wrote: »

I told my local Post Office Manager yesterday I'm no longer going to use its service which is now uncompetitive and only for letters and celebration cards! Who have introduced a 3 tier size levels for small parcels and more levels of lesser Compensation and another dubious method to hike up their prices for and still an awful service so I've opened an account with Yodel's Collect+ with pricing starting as low as £3.99 that includes Tracking and for a confirmation Signature Delivery £1.00 extra which is far more better value with individuals like who use Amazon and eBay rethinking and certainly moving away from Royal Mail in their droves but does their CEO know the eventual calamity of its new pricing structure I dint think so!

the problem with your thinking is you only think price matters.

I consider royal mail more competitive than yodel simply because they provide a better service to buyers.

eg. my local royal mail depot is a 10 minute car journey, my local yodel depot (if can call it that) is about 30 miles away.

royal mail typically deliver early in day and also rarely miss delivery dates, yodel out of about 40 deliveries here last year were late 18 times, with 4 items going missing requiring a resend.

So when valuing a courier think of your poor customer also who incidently is the one footing the bill.

Goldiegirl

Chrysalis wrote: »

the problem with your thinking is you only think price matters.

I consider royal mail more competitive than yodel simply because they provide a better service to buyers.

eg. my local royal mail depot is a 10 minute car journey, my local yodel depot (if can call it that) is about 30 miles away.

royal mail typically deliver early in day and also rarely miss delivery dates, yodel out of about 40 deliveries here last year were late 18 times, with 4 items going missing requiring a resend.

So when valuing a courier think of your poor customer also who incidently is the one footing the bill.

As a seller, I'm investigating using a courier for large heavy items that are quite cheap in price, as I don't think it is feasible for an item costing around £5 to £10 to have to go with postage of £13.35.

But for other items I'm sticking with Royal Mail as I trust their service and the Post Office is within walking distance, so it's very convenient.

As a buyer, I'll accept a courier for a large item, but for smaller everyday items I hit the back button on the browser if I see it's a courier delivery. I much prefer Royal Mail deliveries as I know the time of day that the postman will call and also the postman will leave it with a trusted neighbour if I'm not in. A courier can turn up at any time of day and might leave the parcel goodness knows where. I'm prepared to pay a bit extra for the convenience of having a Royal Mail delivery.

So cost isn't the only driver, there are things like convenience and reliablilty to consider too.

My suggestion is for people considering courier delivery for all items, offer royal mail as an alternative, otherwise you risk losing the custom of people like me, who don't mind paying more for what they perceive as a more convient way of delivery.

soolin

I am now offering MyHermes or Royal Mail for many of my parcels with MyHermes coming in at around £3 or RM almost £6. So far not one single person has opted for Royal Mail rather than MyHermes.

justapoorboy

"If I am understanding this correctly a small parcel can be up to 16cm x 16cm x 16 cm"

Try entering those dimensions into PayPal postage system and see what happens. .... it says £5.20 for large parcel is what happened when I tried it ! So I gave up and sent it by slower MyHermes.

justapoorboy

"Incidentally I was asked to do a survey on RM today. From the sound of it they were testing whether the use of the word 'Royal' in the title was a good or bad thing. Nice to see they've got their priorities right"

Sounds to me like they're preparing for privatisation. They may have to drop the "Royal" at that time ...or call it RM ...or ...???

justapoorboy

Having to buy 16cm x 16cm x 16 cm cubes is going to mess up my costings but maybe better that than use Myhermes for small items or paying £5.20 for large parcel (NO !!)
Anyone found a cheap supplier ?
Are Viking doing them ?

I hate queueing at the Post Office

custardy

justapoorboy wrote: »

"Incidentally I was asked to do a survey on RM today. From the sound of it they were testing whether the use of the word 'Royal' in the title was a good or bad thing. Nice to see they've got their priorities right"

Sounds to me like they're preparing for privatisation. They may have to drop the "Royal" at that time ...or call it RM ...or ...???

Dictatorship Mail

On a side note
I spoke to an RM manager
it has been quiet since the price rise in his DO
Okay its coming to around that time of year when you can have quiet times in DOs,however his DO was around 30,000 items of mail down on last year same day
Packets werent hugely busy
SDs were a bit down on what was expected and RM tracked were around 150 down on an average Saturday

techspec

justapoorboy wrote: »

Having to buy 16cm x 16cm x 16 cm cubes is going to mess up my costings but maybe better that than use Myhermes for small items or paying £5.20 for large parcel (NO !!)
Anyone found a cheap supplier ?
Are Viking doing them ?

I hate queueing at the Post Office

Bargain:-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170371084586&clk_rvr_id=470381455650#ht_3262wt_1241

PeggyAnn_2

I wrote earlier (post 640) that 6in cubes may not count as small parcels as with many firms this is the internal diameter. The external diameter is often over 16cm, even without tape and labels. In fact, some definitely won't count, and there's no sure way of knowing before you buy.

For a review of cubes I sourced that are OK see post 705. Here's a link: http://www.boxbargain.co.uk/goods/goodsDetail.asp?cateCode=0010010000&pCode=079.