The insanity that is Postal Charges

[vitesse]

Please spare a thought for us in foreign parts who’ve seen postal charges increase to the absurd, coupled with post-Brexit import charges.

An example: I recently bought some keyfobs, price £6.16 each free UK postage, but postage to Sweden £22.49 even for one (Royal Mail), then a few pennies in customs duties but everything incurs a standard handling change of about £5.

Fortunately a few members here have helped me out by forwarding some items at a more normal rate, thanks, you know who you are, but without their help buying smaller items from UK would be impossible.

Regards

[Kevin Williams]

It works out badly for imports too.

I'm a member of a society that's based in the Irish Republic and produces a magazine every 3 months. About a third of the membership is based in the Republic, about a third in the UK and the rest around the world. To save postal charges a member takes the UK magazines across the border and posts from Northern Ireland. Unfortunately, due to an error at the NI post office, the latest charges were not put on the postage so all R Mail deliveries stopped unless £1.50 per item added to the original cost. Now the interim post Brexit customs charges per individual item need to be added too which, apart from the cost, adds a lot of admin time.

I guess this is just a small example of the problems that now face all businesses both on import and export wherever based

In short,a shambles that, even if sorted to help users, won't cut the c£1million the R Mail is losing every day!

[KWIL]

Many suppliers have a fixed courier fee based upon "X" shipments per annum, makes it expensive for us on small items.


For me no more 1st class stamps.

[torque2me]

Originally Posted by vitesse

Please spare a thought for us in foreign parts who’ve seen postal charges increase to the absurd, coupled with post-Brexit import charges.

An example: I recently bought some keyfobs, price £6.16 each free UK postage, but postage to Sweden £22.49 even for one (Royal Mail), then a few pennies in customs duties but everything incurs a standard handling change of about £5.

Fortunately a few members here have helped me out by forwarding some items at a more normal rate, thanks, you know who you are, but without their help buying smaller items from UK would be impossible.

Regards

I believe the "extra high" charges are a EU imposition to make UK people wish they had stayed in the bloc. The offer of reciprocal charges was on the table but not taken up by EU. Mind you, I've had to stop purchasing items in the USA due to customs and delivery charges. No surface mail ex-USA now.
Kev

[torque2me]

Originally Posted by KWIL

Many suppliers have a fixed courier fee based upon "X" shipments per annum, makes it expensive for us on small items.

For me no more 1st class stamps.

I've never purchased a 1st class stamp as I didn't believe the PO/Royal Mail could afford to insert another delivery slot. The unnecessary extra cost not being needed was confirmed by a drinking buddy who worked at the Victoria (London) sorting office.

2nd class is eye watering enough. To keep the cheque system alive I've always paid my Council Tax by that method. At 70p a pop I've gone over to DD.
Kev

[rab60bit]

Originally Posted by another_clean_sheet

The Royal Mail has a legal constraint that they have to deliver to every post code in the U.K. 6 days a week which other couriers do not.
The problem with the £1.90 clips is that you have to go and pick them from the stores bin and then pack them which comes at a cost. I would suggest that this cost is not much different to some expensive injectors.

Picking (handling) is included on the declared price if we are talking people like Rimmers. Packing on small items (other than very delicate parts) is a smallish padded envelope-type or maybe a tough plastic bag (at volume cost, something quite minor say £0.10 - 0.20). On average that packet via RM might be £2-3 - is that what we the customer sees? I'd expect a larger lump is a bit more difficult to cost out but regardless the general fees for P&P often seem exorbitant but specialist courier/delivery services seem to do better at this.

[CivilSteve]

I feel similar but also have to consider the time spent getting the parts, packing them up, making sure it's labelled and wrapped correctly, sending it out, taking the risk of items getting lost/damaged, dealing with the occasional unhappy customers etc etc...

Therefore selling a £2 clip for £4(?) posted seems pointless for the effort and end profit margin.

[Southern Star]

Originally Posted by torque2me

Mind you, I've had to stop purchasing items in the USA due to customs and delivery charges. No surface mail ex-USA now.
Kev

I bought a seat cover for my Honda Express from a company in Florida, the weight was marked on the Customs label on the envelope, five ounces, it was sent in a small Jiffy bag and that cost me over £20 in shipping costs.

Luckily, I didn't get clobbered for Import Charges and VAT although its value was above the threshold, it seems to be a bit hit or miss whether HMRC come after these.

[DMGRS]

It may be worth dropping us a message with details the clips you're after - we're XPart dealers, and rather than relying on a computer to tell us what to charge for postage on custom orders, we'll price it as low we can.

Small clips etc often fit within our £1.49 'Jiffy bag' rate - this can be up to 25mm thick including packaging.

Likewise, if anyone abroad is struggling to get bits and pieces abroad then let us know - we're happy to combine parts bought elsewhere with items from us, and we'll only charge what we need to. We do this regularly for customers around the globe, as with a lot of destinations the postage is flat-rate up to 20KG, so makes sense to get the most out of the space available!

The great news for customers in Australia and NZ is that FedEx have recently introduced a much more cost effective banding system for their FedEx Economy service - it still only takes 5-7 days, but is around half of the cost we've previously had to charge!

[stevestrat]

Originally Posted by Southern Star

Luckily, I didn't get clobbered for Import Charges and VAT although its value was above the threshold, it seems to be a bit hit or miss whether HMRC come after these.

Years ago I used to be big into American railway models. Bought several expensive brass locomotives (several hundred quid) from the US and more than once HMRC slipped up and charged no import duty or VAT.