Use parcel monkey to get the best prices. They collect, so no queuing up with pikeys at the Post Office...
Irony of course if Amazon send far cheaper via RM than you can. That is where the subsidy should lie; to allow it to be competitive enough (not buy business) in the commercial sector while keeping realistic and affordable postage costs for your average aunty or grandma who wants to send a gift themselves
Typical :-/ I think alot of grannies and aunts these days are computer savvy my mum uses amazon for sending her grandchildren presents. Almost gone are the days of letter writing and sending parcels by the oldies sadly Perhaps RM only want to deal with the likes of amazon as they aren't enticing the person on the street
And a lot of that is because of the difficult and confusing pricing policies in place in the last few years. Sure most can use amazon or whoever but a lot also like to buy a gift from their local shop, taking time and care to get the right thing, add a bit more time and care in wrapping nicely and posting. guess I'm living in 1953...
My mate's a postman. He reckons that the pay isn't good, but any "Cash 4 Gold" envelopes are a decent bonus.
To be honest with you I like to choose something wrap it send it and imagine a happy face at the end of it If RM took away the silly price of £10 and kept it at £3 I would be happy to use them that way amazon etc could pick up the other £7
Exactly my point. I also prefer to buy direct with my own hands and wallet rather than a virtual experience. But I hate packaging and queuing to be ripped off...
Mind you.....................there is definitely something seriously wrong with many postal systems..........Someone wanted to send me a parcel from Eire which could have cost abot £40.............but an identical parcel came from Glasgow for £5 approx.
Pisses me off that my postie has to deliver other mail and junk crap too. I'm on th side of those who believe that there are a set of strategic services that a state ought to keep in its own hands. What's next? Privatising tax collection and border controls? When I worked for the PolIce, there was a move to survey our "clients" to ensure they had been arrested satisfactorily!
I posted off a screen to Matt yesterday, cost just short of £12 to send. Same day ordered and paid for a screen coming from HK. Screen, air freight and post this end...~£13.00 Hmmmmmm Rip off Britain! :biggrin:
I'm totally with you on this. Private companies have to make a profit, and if they are quoted on a stock exchange, they actually have to make an ever increasing profit. There is only one way to do this over time - reduce service and hike charges. A typical way is to slice and dice the business - this is called "focus" - stripping out the things that don't make money and concentrating on things that do. Sadly, it's a lot of the things that don't make money that we as consumers appreciate the most. The interesting thing with a company like Amazon is that in fact it is doing the opposite. It is the "Long Tail" in action. Amazon makes about half its cash from just having everything in stock. It doesn't concentrate on just the things that sell the most. Strangely, it is a bit like the old-fashioned ironmongers that just had everything. And get this: I learned a few days ago that the American NSA actually subcontracts a lot of its spying to private companies. These companies are then able to work for other states in the same way. I can imagine that MI5 or 6 probably works in the same manner. Not only is your info in the hands of private companies, over which you have no redress (your MP can't even kick up a stink about it) but that info can be just sold to anyone. It's great to know that corporations actually own state secrets.
Within a few years I bet the private mail company will start to impose a series of surcharges for posting to the Scottish Islands & Scilly Isles; then to Cornwall and Snowdonia; eventually to anywhere over 10 miles from a major town. The single uniform mail stamp for the whole UK will wither away.
