New postage costs

[MrsZoidberg]

The huge rise in the cost of first and second class letters was widely criticised on the news etc, but have you actually looked at the new prices?

I have an ebay shop selling crafting items, they can be bulky but frequently light, so a lot of my stuff goes as under 100g packet at £1.33. BUT they have done away with most of the bandings on packet, the first banding is now 0-750g, so the new cost is £2.20.

Oh for the good old days when sending anything under 60g cost the price of a stamp !

i usually sell my ds's old clothes etc on ebay and a few other bits (just to clear out now and then and make a little money) but i am seriously considering closing my account because its not worth it and people will simply not pay the price of posting an item that they bid 99p on when the postage my cost them the best part of £3

Think that will be the end of Christmas cards in this household!

mrsZoidberg -where did you find the info? I couldn't find anything on Royal Mail's site yesterday - only the new letter and large letter rates - and I asked in the PO today and they hadn't got any info.

www.royalmail.com/prices2012#business

If you go down to the business section and select the wallchart, it's much easier to read.

Thanks MrsZoidberg - I should have looked at Royal Mail again before posting. That info definitely wasn't there when I looked before. Sigh!

The removal of the lower bands in "packet" is going to be a real pain, as far as eBaying goes. I often have light but bulky items. Also, the extra for recorded delivery is going up to 95p. Sigh!

From the services booklet it looks like a Certificate of Posting/Proof of Posting still covers things up to £46 after the price rise, not £60 as expected! Damn!

If we all write to Ofcom we may get a change.

Ofcom
Riverside House
2a Southwark Bridge Road
London
SE1 9HA

My letter is in the post (2nd class of course!) I have just asked them to request that RM puts the bandings back in place. I also mentioned that postage on a 90g item will be going up 71% as opposed to the 30% increase agreed.

It's also not just sellers who need to complain.

At the moment, as a buyer, I might look at the postage of an item and think that it is cheaper than driving into the town & parking.

I sell craft items, small, light but can be bulky. Lets say a £2.50 item weighs 90g, so I would charge about £1.60 postage - £1.33 plus approx 25p for packaging. I will now need to charge £2.45. Suddenly, that trip into town isn't looking so bad!

I think this will also be the end to "free" P&P. Let's face it, it's not free, it's built into the cost of the item. "Free" P&P is also more of a benefit to the seller and not the buyer. i.e. If you buy 3 £2.50 items, with free P&P on all of them, you will be paying 3 x the built in cost for the P&P, whereas I would prefer to combine the postage on all three and charge you accordingly - with a lot of my items that would save you nearly 2 times the P&P cost i.e. if an item has 75p postage, chances are I can send all 3 for one lot of 75p so I would refund you £1.50, or if it now went over the 100g I would still refund over £1 postage.

So, all Ebayers - sellers and Buyers - write to Ofcom - and Amazon sellers, and small businesses and users of small businesses, and those who want to send pressies to their releatives and........... If everyone does it, there is a chance it will change.