RM 24 and RM 48 reduced in price again

soolin

I don’t know if I missed an announcement and I haven’t used Click and drop for over a week so it’s possible. EBay postage on RM parcels was down for me yesterday and this morning so I went to click and drop to print from there. Surprisingly, at least to me, RM24 and RM48 both tracked and with £100 compensation were reduced to the same price as standard parcels , I paid £2.85 for RM48 when I would normally pay £3.35. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

£2.85 for a Tracked 48 small parcel with a free collection is a bargain, I think they are trying to give people a bit of confidence to counter the uncertainty due to strikes.   

I wonder if they'll eventually phase out 1st and 2nd for parcels, if they can afford to do Tracked at the same price in the long term the standard services are a bit redundant really. 

soolin

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

£2.85 for a Tracked 48 small parcel with a free collection is a bargain, I think they are trying to give people a bit of confidence to counter the uncertainty due to strikes.   

I wonder if they'll eventually phase out 1st and 2nd for parcels, if they can afford to do Tracked at the same price in the long term the standard services are a bit redundant really. 

That's an interesting thought and potential discussion point, but where would that leave the Post Office?  There is I suppose an argument that RM need to claw back business, and if that needs to be at the expense of the Post Office then so be it - but as it is at the moment people can opt to pay more at the PO than from RM but I have no idea how many people opt to pay extra, reading the threads on here is appears that a lot of smaller sellers are happy to pay that premium. However how does the number of small sellers stack up against bigger sellers or home workers who either find the cost saving to be worth making a trip to the mail centre - or can afford to be at home for collection.

I took 10 pre paid parcels to the mail centre today , just those 10 parcels all small 2nd class saved me £5 by printing online as opposed to using PO counters. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

soolin said:

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

£2.85 for a Tracked 48 small parcel with a free collection is a bargain, I think they are trying to give people a bit of confidence to counter the uncertainty due to strikes.   

I wonder if they'll eventually phase out 1st and 2nd for parcels, if they can afford to do Tracked at the same price in the long term the standard services are a bit redundant really. 

That's an interesting thought and potential discussion point, but where would that leave the Post Office? 

I'm not sure why you can't drop Tracked off at the PO, I can only assume Royal Mail doesn't want to pay the PO for this and it's not something they have to do so they've kept it to themselves? 

I think a lot of small sellers stick with old ideas, I recently purchased something for £7 + P&P and the seller paid £4.45 at the Post Office to post it 2nd Class Singed For, obviously we know with 2nd Class standard they'd be covered for £20, get delivery confirmation and the Signed For element doesn't affect the way the parcel is processed (other than a signature at the end) but the seller, with a few thousand feedback, doesn't sell much and presumably has the idea that they don't want to get scammed with a false INR and Signed For is the way to cover themselves. 

The PO is certainly convenient for drop off for those who don't find a collection or visiting the DO a suitable option, if Royal Mail could fill that gap is the Post Office needed for most of us? 

martindow

Collection is free at the moment.  When that becomes chargeable again (next year?) it will change the economics of which service to use.  For me dropping parcels off at my local sorting office which is only open for two hours early in the morning and is some distance way is not at all convenient.

I think POs will accept Tracked 24 and 48 parcels when they are returns to large mail order companies, so maybe in the future they will also take click and drop at some point?

soolin

martindow said:

Collection is free at the moment.  When that becomes chargeable again (next year?) it will change the economics of which service to use.  For me dropping parcels off at my local sorting office which is only open for two hours early in the morning and is some distance way is not at all convenient.

I think POs will accept Tracked 24 and 48 parcels when they are returns to large mail order companies, so maybe in the future they will also take click and drop at some point?

That’s a valid point, I live less than 2 miles from a mail centre with all day opening hours - plus Sundays, so drop off is no problem . I can imagine living some distance away, especially with the severely curtailed opening times might be logistically impossible. 

GadgetGuru

Wish they allowed drop off to the local Post Office. Seems its collection only, using the local posty when he/she is delivering other items. Drop-off is the most convenient for me as I tend to drop parcels off during my lunch break at work. It seems the only collection address it allows is from my home address and I'm not at home for collection in the first instance - can't even change it to my work address either....

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

IftiBashir said:

Seems its collection only, using the local posty when he/she is delivering other items. 

I'm sure it's not what was meant but just for others reading the postie doesn't have to have mail for you in order to collect, they will attend simply for the collection even if you have no mail that day

IftiBashir said:

 It seems the only collection address it allows is from my home address and I'm not at home for collection in the first instance - can't even change it to my work address either....

You could put the work address as the sender address or if you delete the free collection from the basket before payment and then after paying book one from the collections tab it appears you enter the collections address from scratch rather than it defaulting to the sender address. 

moonpenny

With this tracked 48 pick up service from home do you get Pop from the postman?

steviebabes

You get a POP emailed to you on collection.

MR1988

I had my first collection like 2 days ago for 4 items. It felt a bit strange for them to collect and not scan the items or provide any paperwork, they just took everything and shove it in the van. I asked if he was going to scan them and I've been told that they would once they get back to the center/warehouse.

3/4 items tracking numbers were updated and one is still showing as being prepared by me. This was a smaller item so now I wonder if it was completely missed or lost because of size. There is no way to claim for a lost item is there? Since no paperwork has been given to me..

I'll see how it goes but this puts me off a bit in regards to my insurance.