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View Full Version : Maybe the wrong section but postage?



Tryweryn
16-08-2013, 04:23 PM
Just had a shock...posting my first order. One mug to post in a polystyrene package is £2.99 second class. Is that right...that seems shocking?

FlyingAl
16-08-2013, 04:43 PM
Hi,

As far as I'm aware, as long as your parcel fits inside a 16cm x 16cm x 16cm cube and weighs less than 1Kg then posting 2nd class is £2.60, posting 1st class is £3.

shocking indeed.

mrs maggot
16-08-2013, 06:32 PM
there was a long post on this a while ago when the postal rates changed, and prompted lots of conversations about how the cheapies were still being done on ebay and how they might all go away now the post has changed - if you are posting 2 mugs and wrap carefully they will fit in the cube, but yes 1 mug seems very expensive to send on its own

Tryweryn
16-08-2013, 06:38 PM
there was a long post on this a while ago when the postal rates changed, and prompted lots of conversations about how the cheapies were still being done on ebay and how they might all go away now the post has changed - if you are posting 2 mugs and wrap carefully they will fit in the cube, but yes 1 mug seems very expensive to send on its own
Well you have to start asking if some of these guys on ebay make any profit and even a loss as I have seen £2.99 with free postage...mad!.

purpledragon
16-08-2013, 06:53 PM
Just had a shock...posting my first order. One mug to post in a polystyrene package is £2.99 second class. Is that right...that seems shocking?welcome to the world of mail order

Renniwano
16-08-2013, 07:07 PM
I send all mine out in single card boxes and they are £4.10 signed for.. £3.00 unsigned..

So yes, it seems off for that to be £2.99 for second class.. was it normal or signed for ?

Tryweryn
16-08-2013, 07:45 PM
I send all mine out in single card boxes and they are £4.10 signed for.. £3.00 unsigned..

So yes, it seems off for that to be £2.99 for second class.. was it normal or signed for ?update.....It was the wife who posted it and I have just been told £2.60 second £3 first it was 330gm so it is correct......someone has ordred 4 and wants a postage quote so I can whittle it down. I'm selling the mugs at 5.99 so i may up to 6.99. Or does that sound steep?

thanks for all the advice...your all invited to dinner lol

Renniwano
16-08-2013, 08:22 PM
I sell my mugs at £9.99 which includes UK postage and packaging.. and think that's a fair price, people are happy to buy them :)

Tryweryn
16-08-2013, 10:02 PM
I sell my mugs at £9.99 which includes UK postage and packaging.. and think that's a fair price, people are happy to buy them :)
If I keep them at 5.99 plus 3.10 pp i think its fair...lot of work goes into it.

smo
18-08-2013, 10:49 PM
This might upset a few people as it did last time I mentioned it, but I can post a mug for £1.80 with Royal Mail, that said I can post 4 for £1.80 if I pack them together!

dazzul
19-08-2013, 03:02 PM
Im also with SMO, £1.80 for a Mug & Phone Cases for 58p and my best selling items cost only 33p to send.

I believe by having such low postage costs im passing the savings directly onto my customers, before i had such cheap postage, i used to pass of the postage on at COST price, you should never attempt to make money from postage just cover costs.

FlyingAl
19-08-2013, 03:34 PM
Share the luv guys, where do these rates come from, franking..... sorcery? :)

smo
19-08-2013, 04:17 PM
Simples - Royal Mail Online Business Account (OBA as its known) :)

I never have to leave my office for deliveries, collections or supplies. Post is delivered in the morning (haha), collected in the afternoon and if I need bags, tags, zip ties etc. they are ordered online for free and delivered to my door (by a courier usually, how ironic!).

Rates are +VAT but as we claim that back it makes no difference. Far cheaper than franking and no silly machine or hidious ink costs etc.

FlyingAl
19-08-2013, 05:04 PM
aaaah, thanks smo, how the other half live :) no use for me, sigh!

socialgiraffe
19-08-2013, 05:21 PM
you should never attempt to make money from postage just cover costs

Disagree here, sorry :-)

Many of my customers are on 30 or 60 day credit terms which is pretty standard for business customers. I use City link for my day to day couriers who operate 14 day credit terms, which again is standard for most of the overnight couriers.

My City link bill each week is about £300-400+

If I just passed the cost on, I would essentially be up to £1000-1600 per month out of pocket until the invoices were paid. Simply passing on the cost is not good business sense unless the customer is prepared to pay upfront. As most overnights are done by weight the minimum I add on is £5.00 per delivery and increase it on a sliding scale depending on the weight sent.

Passing on the cost of a courier is the same as passing on the cost of a blank. So presumably you charge £1.00 (approx) for 1 mug :-)

dazzul
19-08-2013, 08:51 PM
:p Theres always one hahaha

Im in a slight different boat all my customers pay in advance maybe becasue of the trade i came from before i was here, or im just mad. I only started this when people became hard to chase for payment due to failing businesses. I do love the public more :p

RM's OBA are done in a similar by weight and we do have to pay on a 30 day period but as ive already taken payment i dont have the problem you describe.
If you were taking your payments upfront would you then agree to not make extra from it?

SMO, the one thing i cant get to grips is THEY hate sending bags out, then when they do i only get a weeks supply, i just befriended the local postmaster he now supplys my sacks, but still use RM for everything else get it while its FREE :). On the other hand i drop all my mail off to the local post office daily (its 15 doors down).

socialgiraffe
19-08-2013, 09:36 PM
Hi Dazzul

If only I could have pro forma customers :-)

If I did have pro forma I think I would still charge more than I am being charged. Probably not as much but still more. As an example I currently pay £6.00 for up to 20 kilos on an overnight with City Link. This is charged out at £11.00. If I were to have pro forma then I may knock it down to £9.00 but that would be as low as I go.

It may seem excessive but sometimes I can find packing and labeling etc etc can take longer than the bloomin job!

smo
19-08-2013, 09:42 PM
The old mail sack issue is a pain in the backside! I got told off by RM's head office for asking for 200 bags at a time on their online system when they said I must use it. Thankfully we've always had excellent collection posties who bring a "bag of bags" (or 2) whenever we ask so we dont have to deal with beaurocratic crap through the online request system.

Incidentally on the postage charging question, we post everything for free and never charge for postage or packaging! (This is going to change soon, my postage bill is over 30K!)

dazzul
19-08-2013, 09:57 PM
I do admit today all my orders did take two of us an hour. :)

There just silly with the sacks!

socialgiraffe
19-08-2013, 11:18 PM
I should clarify that I do not deal with the public. I can see that if I had to deal with them then I would not get away with that much of a mark up.

dazzul
20-08-2013, 03:45 AM
Ahh i see where your coming from there then :)

pisquee
20-08-2013, 09:53 AM
We mainly deal to trade, and round our deliveries from £8.39 that the courier charges to £10 - this covers us for the time it takes to package items, and additional cost of packaging. It is called "postage AND packaging" they are not just paying for the actual delivery.

Also, if we have a large amount of orders to ship (say following a trade show) the the extra £1.61's on the smaller orders offset the larger orders which cost us more. We charge a flat rate of £10 per order, rather than having a postage paid MOQ threshold.

For the few sales we have direct to public, then we charge lower where possible.

guarddog14
04-06-2014, 08:49 PM
sorry to revive a old thread but i now have the oba account but my prices are differnt from those stated here , can i check what your getting charged now?