Royal mail consultation on increasing small parcel size

campdave

http://tamebay.com/2013/09/royal-mail-propose-extending-small-parcel-size.html

AKA "we made a massive boo-boo"

Good news for some...

mrcol1000

It is stupid that a huge company like Royal Mail with its huge network and many staff and virtually a place to use their services (post office) in every town is not taking advantage of the boom in online shopping and the large number of Ebay users.

If the parcel is over 1kg or larger than a small parcel size then not only is it cheaper to use a courier but it is fully tracked. I don't even use Royal Mail for 2nd class recorded now for small parcels. I would rather pay 50p more for My Hermes and have it fully tracked the whole way rather than a 80% chance of getting a signature on delivery.

plumface

mrcol1000 wrote: »

It is stupid that a huge company like Royal Mail with its huge network and many staff and virtually a place to use their services (post office) in every town is not taking advantage of the boom in online shopping and the large number of Ebay users.

If the parcel is over 1kg or larger than a small parcel size then not only is it cheaper to use a courier but it is fully tracked. I don't even use Royal Mail for 2nd class recorded now for small parcels. I would rather pay 50p more for My Hermes and have it fully tracked the whole way rather than a 80% chance of getting a signature on delivery.

100% Correct.
What gets me is that some utter moron at RM thought the small/medium parcel sizing/pricing route was the way to go forward and increase sales/profits on the boom in online trading.
I bet the idiot got a bonus and when the price/size structure changes to reflect reality he/she will get a good pay off when they 'move on' to another unfortunate business.

RFW

plumface wrote: »

100% Correct.
What gets me is that some utter moron at RM thought the small/medium parcel sizing/pricing route was the way to go forward and increase sales/profits on the boom in online trading.
I bet the idiot got a bonus and when the price/size structure changes to reflect reality he/she will get a good pay off when they 'move on' to another unfortunate business.

I think the idea was to find a third company, somewhere in between Royal Mail and Parcelforce so they could sell that off too.
RM appears to have been a headless chicken for a few years, I doubt privatisation will make it any better.
At first they were anti anything internet and now they've gone full circle without actually working out what it is they should do.
I was at an etrader conference with Royal Mail recently and they were pretty clueless.

techspec

I made a point of showing my bag of medium parcels to PO staff - before dropping them off at Hermes.

When they said "anymore", i would say - "no these are too big for Royal Mail - i'll take them to the shop on the road".

When asked how i was finding medium parcels - i said "i don't know - ive never tried it - i use Hermes now".

To my surprise one PO staff member told me they are reveiwing it - this was in back in August.

So to all those who boycotted medium parcels - well done - you played your part.

I had thought, with all the templates etc in place - they would just alter medium parcel prices. But this is even better.

soolin

This would be great news for me, so fingers crossed. I cut several lines from my business that couldn't go small parcel and for which I was reluctant to use MyHermes for varying reasons. I still have the stock packed ready for face to face sales, but can easily add it back onto ebay if the changes go through at RM.

ih8stress

Just came on here to post about this and saw this thread.
According to staff at my local Post Office today they have just had a memo regarding small parcel sizes being altered.

I don't know what the new sizes will be but the 80mm thickness will be increased.

It would be nice if it is soon - to help Xmas posting!

HTH

vacheron

Many months ago, when small/medium parcels first came in, I took a parcel back across the P/O counter when told it was going to cost £15.10 to send a 2.2kg parcel measuring 20x15x10cm without tracking.

I went across the street and sent it for £4.80, fully tracked using Collect+ instead.

The staff mentioned that dozens of people were doing this and they were losing customers "in droves".

I guess it just took a long time to filter back up to the idiots that made that decision in the first place!

Cornucopia

They need to do something about the other boundary - between Large letter and Small parcel.

For 2nd Class items under 100g, the jump from 69p to £2.60 is ridiculous just because the item is 26mm thick, not 24mm

I appreciate that they changed the method of using the template thing so that items can be pushed/pulled through instead of the "free-fall" approach it used to be, but a lot of staff seem not to have been told about that.

mrcol1000

Post Office manager complaining I never bring him bigger parcels to send. I use Drop and Go and he pointed out that Royal Mail are doing 20% off exclusively for drop and go customers on more expensive parcels. A second class small parcel is now only £4.32. Still a whole 12p more than My Hermes who will track it the whole way and offer more compensation compared to Royal Mail's fingers crossed it arrives.

thebestnameshavegone

My local Post Office have been informed that changes to the Small/Medium parcel sizes are afoot too - one of them is off on a training course in a week or so. They've been told informally that 'shoe box size' will quality for small parcel rates 'from some time in October', although don't yet know anything officially. They're very pleased as weren't looking forward to Christmas - so many people only post parcels at that time of year and were in for a shock at the changes introduced in April.

Do hope the cube exemption doesn't get cut - I've just bought 100 of them!!!!