royal mail rip off

olias

I cannot believe the prices Royal Mail charge these days. I took a parcel the other day that was only about the size of a shoe box, though admittedly quite heavy and was charged just under £15! I could get a 24hr courier company to pick it up from home and deliver for half that.

The icing on the cake was last week when i had a letter (5"x6" and one sheet of paper thick) which I needed to send next day signed for and was charged £6.40!

I think I will try to stick with courier companies in future....

Olias

KxMx

For parcels you may well save quite a bit using courier companies but i'd be surprised if you can with letters.

wealdroam

OP, you might find this post on the ebay board useful:

aeb wrote: »

OP, on Parcel2go UPS have special offer to send a 1kg package for 90p including VAT, next day, shop to shop, insured to £50

custardy

olias wrote: »

I cannot believe the prices Royal Mail charge these days. I took a parcel the other day that was only about the size of a shoe box, though admittedly quite heavy and was charged just under £15! I could get a 24hr courier company to pick it up from home and deliver for half that.

The icing on the cake was last week when i had a letter (5"x6" and one sheet of paper thick) which I needed to send next day signed for and was charged £6.40!

I think I will try to stick with courier companies in future....

Olias

Well use a 24 hour courier that charges less than £6.40 (will it being 5" x 6" make it cheaper?)
You need to realise RM group have a courier arm.
They have a legal requirement to offer a letter service.
This dictates certain parts of their business model.
A postie can deliver to 2-300 doors in an hour with letters and small letterbox sized packets.
For larger packets. That figures drops to the 20's
for the same cost to RM on wages.

If you dont like the prices,use a courier
I'm not really sure why you dont given you know they exist.

Money-Saving-King

custardy wrote: »

If you dont like the prices,use a courier
I'm not really sure why you dont given you know they exist.

olias wrote: »

I could get a 24hr courier company to pick it up from home and deliver for half that

Yes this post has confused me somewhat. The question being as Custardy said, why did you use them?

Sayaka

I've switched to myHermes recently and they've been great, I've sent over 35 parcels now with no problems.

I supported the Royal Mail for years because I felt it was the right thing to do, but this 8cm limit for a small parcel is so crippling I've been forced to switch. Couriers are less than half the price in many cases - I was offered £12.50 Parcelforce the other day. I said no and send it with myHermes for £5.48, fully tracked.

It's almost like Royal Mail are trying to commit suicide.

custardy

Sayaka wrote: »

I've switched to myHermes recently and they've been great, I've sent over 35 parcels now with no problems.

I supported the Royal Mail for years because I felt it was the right thing to do, but this 8cm limit for a small parcel is so crippling I've been forced to switch. Couriers are less than half the price in many cases - I was offered £12.50 Parcelforce the other day. I said no and send it with myHermes for £5.48, fully tracked.

It's almost like Royal Mail are trying to commit suicide.

read my post.
people need to realise couriers/postal sevices work to the market they have/want
RM are not a couriers and have certain limitations on them. this dictates their market/services they 'want' and can cater fro.

Ms_Chocaholic

Sayaka wrote: »

I've switched to myHermes recently and they've been great, I've sent over 35 parcels now with no problems.

I supported the Royal Mail for years because I felt it was the right thing to do, but this 8cm limit for a small parcel is so crippling I've been forced to switch. Couriers are less than half the price in many cases - I was offered £12.50 Parcelforce the other day. I said no and send it with myHermes for £5.48, fully tracked.

It's almost like Royal Mail are trying to commit suicide.

There's two sizes for small parcels now, the larger size goes up to 16cm deep but the length and width is slightly shorter, 35cm x 25cm I think but you would need to check.

Smithers37

It's funny when people complain about RM's prices for postage. If it's so expensive, why not deliver it yourself?

olias

The reason I don't always use a courier is that i am not always in to await them and sometimes have to drop in a PO while I am passing.
The bottom line is that if RM can deliver a letter first class usually next day for 62p, it seems a huge jump to £6.40 for a guarantee and a signature. Thats a 1000% increase. I expect to pay a premium obviously, but 1000%!

Olias

mrssaver_2

I have been using MyHermes instead of the Royal Mail for precisely this reason - their prices are just too high.

If you don't want to stay in and wait for the courier to arrive then drop it off at one of My Hermes' Parcel Shops - you can find where they are located on the My Hermes website but where I live they are generally small Spar shops and the like. They knock a small amount of the price if you are dropping it off, and it gets into their system far quicker in my opinion as often the courier can take two to three days to pick up parcels from me.