The Price of Stamps

[LadyFelsham]

AIBU in thinking that, with competition from Amazon deliveries, that announcing that the price a first class stamp will go up by 9p to 85p on the 1st January?

I understand that less people are using the mail but surely it is better to attract more people with cheaper stamps than drive away the few they have by charging more.

I think it is short sighted.

Plus the post is absolutely shit - we haven't had any post for nearly a week now despite several people telling me they've sent things first class.

😵 every time I buy a stamp the price has jumped up!

A few years ago dh thought he was being really clever and bought a few hundred stamps ahead of a price increase. Not a bad idea, I must admit, as he paid about 1/2 what they cost now, however the flaw in in his plan was that we hardly used any stamps at the time and even less now - at the rate we're going I reckon Royal Mail will have gone bust before we get through 1/4 of them!

@jetadore

A few years ago dh thought he was being really clever and bought a few hundred stamps ahead of a price increase. Not a bad idea, I must admit, as he paid about 1/2 what they cost now, however the flaw in in his plan was that we hardly used any stamps at the time and even less now - at the rate we're going I reckon Royal Mail will have gone bust before we get through 1/4 of them!

😂

Yes, we're all using the post less even if it were reasonably priced, so to put the price up and make it even less attractive is just bonkers!

Jetadore - same here!

Timing of the announcement, to bury the news on a day when Covid restrictions were the main headline.

Royal Mail lost their way when Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier were in charge. The main crime on Peter Mandelson's charge sheet was appointing them.

@LadyCatStark
I’ll buy some off you for a saving on retail price

85p is a lot, considering the short distances involved. Over here it’s 55 cents (around 41p) and that covers from anywhere to anywhere in the country, potentially thousands of miles.

Think about the service you are buying for a mere 85p. YABU

Last year I realised the cost of sending my cards was more than the cost of the card itself. I'll still send them, as I love getting cards and its a nice way to catch up with people I don't see often. But first class is no longer a next day service.

I bought a book of 12 second class stamps and I was shocked at the price of them.

Really shocked. Couldn’t believe they cost so much.. I’m so chess I really use the postal service now

Yanbu.but while they have amazon to compete with on parcels the reality is no one else really offers the coverage needed/postbox network etc for cards and letters, which is how they get away with it. It should never have been privatised.

It's not exactly daylight robbery though is it... What else can you buy for 85p these days. You can't even get a cup of takeaway coffee for that.

@jetadore

A few years ago dh thought he was being really clever and bought a few hundred stamps ahead of a price increase. Not a bad idea, I must admit, as he paid about 1/2 what they cost now, however the flaw in in his plan was that we hardly used any stamps at the time and even less now - at the rate we're going I reckon Royal Mail will have gone bust before we get through 1/4 of them!

I often think I should invest in stamps rather than shares, buy 1000s wait a few years and then ebay them. Certainly a better return than Royal Mail shares!

I agree wholeheartedly. I'm in NZ and our postage goes up every year. NZ Post keep telling us how few people mail letters/cards these days, and it's no wonder considering how much it costs, coupled with the fact that things take about three times longer to go from A to B than they used to

I think it's the price increase along with poor service that makes it stick in the throat more. It's like when trains put their prices up despite bad service. First class stamps seem to take anything between a day and a week to arrive and that's not what people expect. I also think it's time they dropped the 'Royal' from the title; they are a private company.

Totally agree!

I've already had 4 Christmas E cards and 1 through the post. If this is replicated throughout the country then I don't see how it can keep going.

Do they have to make a profit? I thought they just had to keep ticking over, breaking even, providing a public service and jobs but if it's not a national service, I suppose that is why they keep pushing the price up.

Even so, though, it's not really a good decision to make things too expensive for your customer when there are plenty of alternatives for them to use.

Years ago they did cheap stamps for cards, I can't remember if it was just Christmas but you couldn't seal the envelope just tuck it in.

Scouts used to do a cheap service for local cards in our area, I think that stopped a while ago so presumably even that wasn't popular.

@LadyFelsham

Yes, we're all using the post less even if it were reasonably priced, so to put the price up and make it even less attractive is just bonkers!

It's the same crazy logic that town councils use with their car parks - people don't use them because of the cost, so revenue falls, so the council puts up the prices, meaning even fewer use them, so lower revenue, so the council put up the prices again.

It's what happens when you have people managing organisations who don't have any commercial experience in "proper" businesses.

@ancientgran

Years ago they did cheap stamps for cards, I can't remember if it was just Christmas but you couldn't seal the envelope just tuck it in.

Scouts used to do a cheap service for local cards in our area, I think that stopped a while ago so presumably even that wasn't popular.

Our scouts still do the Christmas post in normal years, but it's not being done this year due to covid.

Such a shame because it is so much nicer to get a card or a letter through the post than an email but I suppose letter or postcard writing has just died out.

It's less effort and cheaper to send an email-I do it myself but I still make a point of sending birthday cards through the post-although it's getting to the stage where the stamp will be more expensive than the card!

@Kazzyhoward

Another of my bugbears! I sometimes wonder how small shopkeepers must feel when councils keep putting up car parking.

Again, it makes no sense. because if those shops go out of business, the council will collect less rates.

The basic cost of stamps for the ability to send a letter from Thurso to Truro (and beyond) is extremely good value.

However, it's now become a vicious circle in that, the fewer people send things by RM, the worse the service gets, so even fewer people use it and the costs of providing it keep going up for the ever-dwindling number of people using it. It's turned into exactly the opposite to the successful, efficient, popular model that Amazon now operates. In the 1930s, London had several deliveries a day - because there were so many people using it to make it worthwhile.

A major blow was opening deliveries up to competitors, who could reap the rewards by undercutting RM on the cheaper parts of the process - huge lorryloads of mail taken from one big city to another - and then leaving RM to do all the hard, expensive work for the so-called 'last mile', as well as all of the transporting and delivery of mail across all the islands and remote areas. Competition is a great thing, but it has to be fair: not just cherry-picking the easiest and cheapest part of the most lucrative routes and then turning their backs on the rest of the network and service that was previously subsidised by the bit that they've now taken.

Overall, it is actually fairly reasonable value. However, nine pence in one jump is very off-putting; a 12% rise in postage seems cheeky.