Postal charges

[Primrose]

I think the tail is now beginning to wag the dog in terms of postal costs.

Yesterday I ordered a replacement bare rooted flowering reducurrant shrub from an internet supplier because it was one of the few sources I could find of the particular variety I wanted.

The shrub cost a very reasonable £2.99. The cost of carriage was £8.95. I really don't know how the Royal Mail can justify this and the high postal costs must be a real deterrent to customers. . I certainly won't be making a habit of such purchases with postal costs like this.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Primrose, i think some companies load the price of the item onto the Postage and Packaging price. You often see bargain priced items followed by hefty P.P prices.

[FelixLeiter]

I would take a look at the price of the stamps on the package when it arrives. It may not be the Post Office charging this, it's often down to the supplier. I ordered a spare for a bit of kitchen equipment a few years ago, a simple rubber seal of a particular size. The part was 90p, postage and packing £5.00. It arrived in an ordinary envelope with a single first-class stamp on it. I took this up with the supplier and they agreed that something was awry. They refunded the difference and they have since revised their postage terms.

If I might enquire: which variety of flowering currant is it you've ordered? If you really want to economise, flowering currants are insanely easy to strike from hardwood cuttings, which you can take now.

[Primrose]

Felix, I ordered a King Edward VII flowering redcurrant because I liked the darker pink flowers than some of the other varieties. It was the only one I had or I could perhaps have struck another one before it died on me. Unfortunately I don't know anybody else who grows a similar variety or I could have scrounged a few cuttings!

Thanks for the tip about the postage. When it arrives I'll try and see how much postage actually was and will try and query it if there's a large discrepancy.

[ken]

Not exactly to do with gardening, but definitely to do with postal charges. I swop emails with a guy in America, and we agreed recently to send each other a copy of a magazine. For each of us, the cost was equivalent to £6something, which we agreed was ridiculous.
Also, my wife was queuing in the local supermarket just before Christmas. In front of her was a young girl with a pack of Coca-Cola. She asked for a dozen 1st class stamps, and when they were produced, asked how much they were. When told she said that was far too much, could she have six? How much were they? She was told. That, too, was too expensive. Could she have a dozen 2nd class stamps? How much were they? Again, they wre too much. Ditto with six, after she'd asked how much they were. She then stormed off, saying she wasn't going to buy the Coca-Cola, either!

[FelixLeiter]

It all seems to be unravelling for the Post Office. I don't see what went wrong. I know we all email each other nowadays, but then buy stuff over the interweb, which then gets mailed. However, mostly it's by courier firms rather than the PO, who do well to deliver our post before sundown. Some people must surely have their mail delivered before noon, but I don't know of anyone. With stamps at 50p a pop, it's a poor show. i think the Queen ought to step in: it's the Royal Mail, after all.

[tracie]

I hate with a vengance going to my local post office. The woman who runs it is consistantly grumpy and unhelpfull and everything is always too much trouble. There is always a queue and no customer service

Also they charge me more to post the same thing as they do at the post office near my allotment.

[Monika]

Just to make it clear for a start: I have no connection whatsoever with the Royal Mail or the Post Office, but I can't fault them.

Our mail arrives before noon every day, our regular postman has been on our round for several years and is very pleasant (and grows his own vegetables, too!!), we have never lost anything and post which we regularly send to France and Germany arrives there within two or three days, our village Post Office is most useful in acting as a bank ......

Ok, postage has gone up, but it is very competitive compared to European countries.

And, Felix, I often order books and other small items over the internet and most of these are sent by Royal Mail.

[Geoff]

I too think post is wonderful, but it is possibly rural post that is still good because it is still an old fashioned personal service. My wife has just finished some knitting for her sister in Shropshire. It was a few grammes short of a kilo so she posted it second class Saturday at 10:00 am, delivered 08:00 am Monday for £3.50. I think that's pretty good especially as I have been let down again today by City Link, one of the least reliable supposedly overnight carriers.

[ken]

Oh, yes, and if we're going to go on to courier services...One of my grandsons had been saving for an i-Pod, and, with Christmas money added, he had enough by last month. His dad ordered one from Amazon. When it didn't arrive on time, his dad contacted Amazon, who said it had been delivered, and signed for. My son asked whose signature it was. They checked - "Oh, it just says 'box', we'll have to ask the driver what happened." They then came back to say that the driver had got no reply, so he had left the i-Pod in the recycling box (!!!) by the front door. My son then pointed out that there wasn't a recycling box by their front door. The next thing they knew, the package was pushed through their letterbox, without any explanation. Further enquiries revealed that the driver had dropped it off in a recycling box outside a house with the right number, but in the next street....

[PLUMPUDDING]

When I was small - ages ago - a first class stamp cost 4d the same price as a Mars bar . How much do Mars bars cost today - 50-60p? - more or less the same as a stamp. I think that to be able to send mail to anywhere in the UK for that price is very good value for money.

Also parcels etc. sent by Royal Mail always get delivered with no problems, but when they are sent by courier they always say there is a problem with my address. Yodel is the worst. The parcel is either returned to the depot or it disappears altogether. There is a few hundred yard gap between me and the next house and apparently the courier's sat nav says my house is in the bushes next to the other house, so they can't be bothered to look further on the road for the next number. Grrrr!

[Primrose]

I once had a voluntary job of delivering addressed letters & other materials to houses in our surrounding area. and was surprised at how the Post Office managed to deliver mail so accurately when a large number of houses were either set far back from the road, had no house number or name visible from the road so I'm not really surprised that couriers, especially when under pressure, or trying to deliver in the dark, give up.
In many cases, I actually did the same out of frustration.

I would make it compulsory for every property to display their house number and/or name at street level in highly visible lettering. Some of these problems might then disappear.

What happens if an ambulance is needed late at night because somebody's has a heart attack or something similar? It's in everybody's interest that their house is clearly identifiable quickly by the emergency services, quite apart from the postal delivery aspect. A few minutes delay could make the difference between life and death.

[PLUMPUDDING]

Hi Primrose, I agree with you that houses should be clearly numbered, but I have the number on the gate next to the road and also in foot high white numerals on a black background on the house next to the front door, so in Yodel's case it is more like lack of gumption, or can't be bothered driving further along the road to look.

It must be a nightmare delivering to some of the little villages like Eyam, where there aren't any house numbers only names, so I suppose it relies on local knowledge. I wonder if it is easier with a sat nav there - do they show places by house name?