Sunday, November 30, 2014

CouRteSy Of Ebenezer Scrooge and Charles Dickens ...BAH! HUMBUG.

There in front of me, in print, I read that Royal Mail 'International Economy Mail' for for post of a weight up to 20g and specified small measurements was 81p.  
  • A quick bit of mental arithmetic immediately told me that I might save a whopping 16p per item on the 97p 'Standard' International Mail.  Read on...

  • If I was not in a hurry for mail to arrive, it would be at destination within two weeks.  At this stage, the end of November 2014, there was plenty of time for my international Christmas mail to go Economy class. 
This was getting quite exciting......

I scrolled down the page where I found an invitation to print my own stamps at no more cost than it would be at a Post Office counter.  

Now that was a bit far fetched. I would be using my printer ink; my paper; my labels; all at my cost, and pay the full up postage costs.  I would still have to physically post the mail into a mail box either outside the Post Office, or, a mail box at the Sorting Office, equidistant in the opposite direction.  It definitely was not difficult to decline the invitation to be my own post mistress.  Anyway, I rather like having a fully functioning Post Office to take my business to.

Scrolling down a bit further I was invited to click for further guidance;
  • International Economy Mail is the smart new name for what we used to know as Surface Mail -  Enlightenment dawned;  that's why using this posting method would take some time to get there, but that's okay, time is on my side.
    • Uh oh. The definition for 'International' is lots of places on the map except the land mass we know as Western Europe. 
                               Except Western Europe
      !!!!
    • So, Folks, it's great news if your mail is going mostly anywhere but in Western Europe.  If your mail is going west, your extra pennies will go with it at a minimum of 97p per letter, up to maximum weight of 20g and within specified quite small measurements.

      Bah! Humbug.

    6 comments:

    Snowbird said...

    How frustrating! I find the cost of postage astronomical these days, I posted a parcel to the USA and it cost almost £50.....and the price of first class stamps is nothing short of shocking, it totally puts me off sending Christmas cards.xxx

    ZACL said...

    Hi Snowbird,

    Costs of postage anywhere are crippling. 53p for a second class letter stamp in the UK and 62p, (I believe) for first class letter stamp, not to mention the layers of complexities that raise the costs rapidly into large letter, first or second class. After that with the same complexities, there are various grades of parcels.

    In addition, you can send a package/ parcel second class to Western Europe for the princely saving of five pence on first class cost. It really does not take a genius to work out why the charging band has been manipulated to be so ridiculously close.

    Yet, from Western Europe, (Austria; bits of it border East as well, and from Spain too, I understand) I can send a parcels etc second class much cheaper than the first class cost. They will travel surface mail. It takes longer, sure, but, if you've factored the time for delivery into your calculations, so be it.

    In summation, I would say that whichever way things are mailed today, we're all assessing values and methods of mailing, on extremely increased costs. xxx

    Anonymous said...

    This doesn't surprise me at all. Postal costs have become extortionate, and trying to work out what it costs to send anything, anywhere a nightmare. Flighty xx

    ZACL said...

    Hi Mr F,

    I believe the details of the cost of mail requires an honours degree minimum to work out. Even if you do work out one or two features, when you get to the post office counter, it does appear that the staff are primed to trip up the customer by finding ways to place the mail, whatever it is, in a higher charge bracket. Some will follow the hidden rule, immaculately.

    Anonymous said...

    I was behind a man in the queue this morning who bought two books of stamps. Merely. He handed over a £20 note and got very little change. It really brought home to me how astronomical postal costs now are. Hurray for email ...

    ZACL said...

    Hi Gilly,

    I am using e-cards, I bought a 2 year subscription. Those people who have computers and have given me permission with their url's will be getting one Sadly, some people never responded to my request. I have a greatly reduced number of cards to be posted now and only to certain people, that will be so till life intervenes.

    There are so many calls on our goodwill both here at home and abroad; something just has to go.