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.

THE PRICE OF GOODWILL POST

The price of postage, like everything else, is an expense that has got to be carefully budgeted for.  I was really taken aback when I posted a few cards and a couple of packages abroad, recently.  Not only are the weight gates for all these items very narrow, just a few grams for letters  before the cost hikes up to another silver plated level, parcels are in a gilded price class of their own as well.

I had already decided that I was going to reduce on festive mail with all its associated costs, but, in all honesty I had not realised just how much it would have to be pared down.  Where I can, I shall be emailing greetings and delivering cards myself.  I think the electronic card business might be expanding and I might swell their number. With this in mind, I am making sure people have my email address, and I want theirs too. 

The counter clerk now asks what I have packed into my packages, though not in my large letter?!  She needs to know, she says, when I stand there, silent, trying to remember what I wrapped up sometime ago. It's a memory test.  It is becoming like airport security, without the x-ray equipment at the input end...yet.

• Five cards slightly over 10 grams each - not over-sized-  for mainland Europe cost me £1.28p each

• A Parcel about 780 grams  was a whopping £6.30p 

• So, in the next consignment, I sent slightly smaller cards, they were just under the 10grams @ cost 0.88p each

• One larger card weighing under 10grams had a smaller one tucked into it to pass onto a family member; total cost £1.28p instead of 88p each.  I saved 44p 

• Surface mail USA £1.33p (Airmail would have cost £1.83p. The 50p stayed in my purse). 

• A couple of years ago I discovered  sending a package to mainland Europe by surface mail was just  5p cheaper than using air mail!!!
• UK letter mail up to 100g second class is 50p and 60p for first class mail. In addition, there are different charges for large letters. Woe betide you if your first or second class letter, or, even your large one, do not fit through the template gauges. If that happens, reach for your wallet or purse.

Goodwill becomes more than a little jaded with the kind of charges that are being imposed from many quarters. Something has to give.

DO NOT BELIEVE WHAT THEY SAY - SAYING 'HI' COSTS A LOT.

 The nice part time lady was at the post office counter today.  Even so, there was no straight answer  given to my question about the cost of posting a card abroad, it all depended on the weight, I was told.  "A normal sized, average, possibly, even below averaged sized card," I said, "I do not send big ones." "Uhm, difficult to say," was the reply.  I nudged a bit more, asking about the basic cost and was then informed. 

The stamp price for sending a card to Europe, up to 20gms has risen to 87p.  My brain  was thinking it might have gone up from 60p or so last year, to say, 70p.  Obviously that was me being too optimistic.  "And did I have the airmail stickers for them?"  There was no charge for them (yet), so I decided to add the ones offered to my small collection, just in case someone has a brain aberration brainwave and institutes charges for stickers.  It would not surprise me if we are charged for writing in cards in due course.  It makes you wonder what miniscule weight  ink or pencil lettering might add.

IT'S ALRIGHT, JUST DOUBLE YOUR MONEY.

Can I check the postage for this letter please.

The envelope is pushed easily in and through the standard post office template's 'large letter' slot.

That's a large letter, I am told.

There is a (standard) first class letter stamp already stuck on the envelope...... So how much is the extra ? I politely ask.

It is thirty pence more ........     my total postage cost will be ninety pence,.

You'll just need another first class stamp, says the assistant.......

Why....what is the value of a first class stamp? I ask...... Sixty pence, the assistant tells me.

I was just about to ask if she had thirty pence's worth of stamps for me to add, when the manager, who had heard this exchange, intervened and guided the assistant to the appropriate value of stamps to give me from her counter sales book.

The excuse from the assistant,(no direct apology) was that this was her first day working at the Post Office counter.

It's not difficult to understand why did I not feel kindly disposed the woman who served me. I was however, very pointed in my parting thanks to the manageress for sorting out the sale. As I departed, an inadvertent, (I think) loud sigh escaped from the lips of another counter assistant.