Heavy Post charges

[Ed McKie]

There seems to me an increasing number of organisations which charge excessively for so called postage and packing. I have just been on to the National Portrait Gallery site and started to order a copy of a picture. The price was Ok 5 GBP (although some would think that excessive for a A4 print on a bubble jet). But when I proceeded to the checkout I found they wanted 12 GBP for postage to Australia !! How on earth can they justify that ? Is it going to be wrapped in gold foil ? Even the postage within the UK was going to be 4.95.

Needless to say I an between a rock and a hard place, we want the print as it is an engraving of one of Jean's ancestors, but it will stick in my craw to submit to this kind of rip off.

Cheers..Ed

[Blain]

Having worked in mail order for a few years £12GBP is not actually too bad a price.

Lets say that the print weighs 300g when packed, it's going half way across the world, so it needs to be packed well.
If it is sent by Royal mail airmail it is £6.64.
You then need to pay for the materials to pack it in.
Of course you then need to pay the person to complete the transaction, pack it and walk to the post office and post it.

All of a sudden £12 is not a huge amount.

[Ed McKie]

Lets say that the print weighs 300g when packed, it's going half way across the world, so it needs to be packed well..


I would doubt that one sheet of A4 paper would require 260g of packing Brian.

Even if the put it in a cardboard roll it wouldnt weight that.

And my share of someone going to the post office, supposing such a scenario was accurate for a large organisation, it still couldnt come to 12 pounds.

And generally mail order companies have been notorious in the past for adding to their margins with inflated p & P

but thanks for the comment anyway.

Cheers..Ed

[Mythology]

It wouldn't be £6.64 anyway (actually, the price is £6.84) unless the National Portrait Gallery enjoy throwing money away so use the letter rate.

300g airmail to Australia at the "Printed papers" rate is only £3.35.

[Mythology]

Couldn't find the e-mail that I sent in respect of postage on some photocopies that I sent to Oz a while ago earlier on, but I now have it.

Four A3 pages (folded in half) in an A4 card-backed envelope for protection, printed papers rate came to a mere £1.55, less than the price of a bus ride to the shops and back - even using London Transport's money-saving Oyster Card it's 80p each way.

[Rove]

I'm in Aussie

I do quite a fair amount of snail mail from Aust to UK and Canada.

For quite a good while I have noticed that the UK postal charges are a hell of lot higher then we pay in Aust. Even a simple standard letter is about 30% dearer to send from UK to Aust. I send Calenders at Xmas time and for the same size / type of an article the guys in UK pay double what I pay.

I would like to give a tip. When you go to the Post Office with an article to post overseas, get it weighed and take note of what they quote you. Do not give it to them. Go to another Post Office and get another quote. I have found that you do get different prices. Sometimes 20% cheaper. Its worth a try.

Bill.