Royal Mail Delays

[t0nyt]

Don’t know what’s up with RM lately

E.g. Had a vMap from Charlie coming from NZ and it quickly got to RM Langley Depot (50 miles away from me) and then took over FIVE WEEKS until it was delivered

Local postmen around here are great, but the RM system seems totally broken

[Pr0f]

To be fair to them - I've had something stuck at "langley" and it was down to customs check delays - so although it appeared to indicate RM had my parcel - it had not been officially released to them. I hate the fact that the tracking from either side doesn't tell you what our lovely HMRC boys and girls are actually up to and what any delay might be...

[t0nyt]

Yes, I guess it could be customs then. Though not had any problems in the past like that (from USA/Germany etc and even NZ)

Hope my parcels I'm expecting from NL & IT aren't held up for that long!

[t0nyt]

Another postal rant

Just tried to order 4 tiny plotter pens from a German supplier and they want £55 postage!

The pen price is bad enough but that takes the biscuit

[dilwyn]

Another postal rant

Just tried to order 4 tiny plotter pens from a German supplier and they want £55 postage!

The pen price is bad enough but that takes the biscuit

I sympathise with this because of my own experience. I sell some old Welsh records, CDs and tapes on eBay and people are forever moaning about postage costs, especially with the post-Covid19 period where everything in general shot up in the following years because of the fuel situation, energy prices and the "rip-off Britain" feeling which comes with that. After all, when you sell something which averages about £5 and it needs Tracked48/24 postage it almost doubles the cost of the item (£3.39/£4.19), which I got caught out by as prices quietly went up again in April. International postage is a bit of a pain post-Brexit anyway, what with the time it takes to check everything, get paperwork in order etc. There are cheaper postage options for me to use in my case, but the other services lose so many items that I ended up sticking to Royal Mail who seem to be more responsible in terms of where they leave parcels. My local social media are so full of people who moan about mis-deliveries, often sending the "proof" photos for people to identify "whose door is that?".

So your company probably have a preferred postal supplier and stick to that one. Or they have a "one price for all" policy so that you pay the same whether ordering a paperclip or a lawnmower.

There is an attitude among SOME suppliers that "it's awkward to send you that, if you want it you can either pay a price which makes it worthwhile for me or do without it as I'm not interested in selling it unless..."

If you have a friend in Germany, ask if they'd be prepared to order it for you if local postage is much cheaper, then forward it to you, there might be significant savings. I'm sure we've had examples on here in the past of this where people have helped each other out over expensive computer bits country to country.

[t0nyt]

Hi Dilwyn

Local shipping is only about 6 euro’s, that’s what is so galling

I’ve had a number of Atari boxed games shipped from the USA for only £4. Even had a TI PEB box (large and VERY heavy) shipped from USA for about £80

Does sound like, as you say, it’s a one price fits all. Or punishment for brexit

Will have to leave it for now and hope some come up on eBay at some point

Many thanks

[t0nyt]

Have found 8 pens + paper + postage for £57 all in, from the Netherlands. So am hopefully sorted