Postage Costs in the UK

[nauticant]

I sell only in the UK and I offer free shippnig. My items often go out in decent size shipping boxes, think more than 50cm long.

I've just had my first transaction with a seller in Jersey. The normal UK shipping cost of £7 is going to be £25. I've done my checks on various sites like Parcel2Go and ParcelMonkey etc and this is the result.

For future transactions I could remove free shipping and put in place a complicated schedule of differential postage costs depending on size and destination but for me keeping things simple is a top priority. I've decided to remove non-UK mainland destinations from my settings.

I just thought I'd share this in case it might be relevant to anyone else.

All parcels going to Channel Islands, via a Royal Mail, are the same prices as those going to the UK.

personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/98/~/sending-mail-to-the-channel-islands-and-isle-of-man

That link relates to Royal Mail which unfortunately wasn't available for my parcel because of its size (over 50cm long).

The size meant it couldn't be sent by normal Royal Mail and it had to go by Parcelforce. Once it fell into the Parcelforce category it became an international parcel and the relevant services were Global Express/Priority/Value. In this Global category I was given the choice of £15 for no tracking and no signature, £35 for signed for, or the really expensive option that I didn't ask about. I went over this with the counter staff again and again and they swore blind the only other choices were even more expensive.

It doesn't wipe out my profit for the transaction but it takes a big chunk of it. Still, it's a useful lesson and from now on my transactions will be UK mainland only.

Yes I think you have to limit destinations with anything heavy or odd shape unless you charge going rate. I just cocked up postage of a book to USA - charged £7 thinking that would be fine but actual cost was £13 and not even signed for. Annoyed with myself for not checking cost before listing.