Huge Parcel Post Royal Mail Price Increases sending to the UNITED STATES

From the 1st July Royal Mail (RM) have been forced by the United States Postal Administration to greatly increase prices for sending "parcels" to the USA.

RM have now had to introduce a 3rd. "international zone" (zone "3") to their price list exclusively for the United States.

Very fortunately myself and sellers of stamps and first day covers we will not be effected as the Royal Mail prices for "Letter" and "Large Letter" size mail remains the same. But anyone in the UK who needs to post to the USA using Small, Medium or Large Parcel sizes will be face with huge price increases of between 50% & 100%.

https://www.themailingroom.com/royal-mail-adds-world-zone-3/

https://www.royalmail.com/sites/royalmail.com/files/2020-05/royal-mail-our-prices-valid-from-1-july-


(below is a UK Ebay forum post on this subject)

Is this the end for selling to USA?
Options
on ‎03-06-2020 7:37 PM

I've just found out that Royal Mail are greatly increasing prices for sending parcels to USA, at the beginning of next month.



https://www.royalmail.com/sites/royalmail.com/files/2020-05/royal-mail-our-prices-valid-from-1-july-...



These new prices make USA the most expensive country in the world for sending RM Parcels. It has been given it's own new category "World Zone 3"



I sell vinyl records on my business account, and the price to send a parcel weighing around 450g is increasing by over 50% overnight, from £10.06 to £15.18. I will be able to send the same parcel to literally anywhere else in the world for a maximum of £10.83.



Most weight bands show a similar percentage increase.



Surely this will kill sales to USA?





Comments

  • 19 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Royal Mail state that: "We are closely monitoring the cost of conveyance and "may" reduce our prices accordingly in the future".

    I will not be holding my breath.
  • edited June 2020 2 LikesVote Down
    Tania,

    Your rates may have gone up to the US but it's still more expensive at this time for those in the US to send a 13 oz package to the UK. A 370 gram package is $24.50 to send to the UK (19.54 GB Pounds)

    A 450 gram package is even more (They don't show the first class parcel rate over 13 oz but they do show the priority mail flat rate which is $37.45 US) So welcome to our world. (And we have been dealing with this for over 2 years now)
  • Tania, it is NOT the United states that is causing the rate increases. it is the Universal Postal Union. The rate increases already happened in the US a couple of years ago. The rest of the world international price increases are being phased in over the next few years. This has been discussed ad nausea. The European countries wanted the US to raise its international postal rates, because the EUROPEAN countries wanted more money to delivery mail from the US. You got what you wanted. Complain to the Universal Postal Union, and to your postal service.
  • edited June 2020 0 LikesVote Down
    The ridiculous shipping costs from the U.S. to Canada has resulted in my not buying anything through E-Bay; I always assumed that it was as a result of greedy vendors making up in dollars what they couldn't otherwise 'make' from the sale item itself. This discussion has modified my perception.
    Even for something as light as a stamp can be attached to shipping costs ranging from $25.00 U.S. to $48.00
  • Yes - It's a good job that at the moment it's only bulky/heavy parcels and not letters or large letters/envelopes as I don't send that many parcels.
  • Quite right Michael - and as I said it's good that letters(envelopes) and Large Letter (Jiffybags & envelopes up to 25mm. thick) prices have not yet been increased.

  • Unfortunately here in the states the UPU only authorizes documents to be sent by letter or large letter rate. . Anything other than a document must be sent by parcel rate regardless of value or weight. So indeed, legally sending a used common stamp for which I charge 8 cents across the border to Canada. costs over $10 to send at a post office. I believe sending to Europe starts at around $15.
  • Right now it's 12.50 to Canada,14.50 to the UK and most of Western Europe,15.25 to Estonia and Lithuania,and 17.25-17.50 to countries around the Pacific rim.
  • Tania, Carol & Michael, your posts have reinstated my observation that the S & H charges generally seen from the States to Canada is a combination of U.P.U. involvement AND greedy vendors.
    Shame.
  • "Greedy Vendors" !!!!

    Robert, I'm sure that all the posters on this forum and most of the sellers on Hipstamp don't fall into that category. If I were you I would put my tin hat on and keep your head down! (smile)

    Just for the record I charge the following posting from the UK:
    100 grams Letter to the USA Tracked and Signed = £8.55 (up to 5mm. thickness)
    100 grams Letter to Europe Tracked and Signed = £7.75 "
    100 grams Letter to the USA Untracked = £2.75 "
    100 grams Letter to Europe Untracked = £1.85 "

    Any order over £25 in value most be sent using tracked postage/mail.
  • Royal Mail is just as bad. I received an envelope yesterday -posted 25th April- with 4 postcards in it from California, which was posted 24th April. It got to UK 24th May (after going to four different US cities) and then took a further 13 -yes 13 days to get from London to me -an hour's drive. For that brilliant service I was then charged a further £15.88 in VAT (on 100 year old cards) and, insult to injury £8 'Handling'. Embarrassing, considering we invented the whole sytstem.
  • International mail delivery times during this pandemic is a different topic. Mail to and from some countries has moved from the air to the sea with expected consequences. For example, take a look here for some of the details! In many cases it is taking months vs. what used to take days.

    https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/international/welcome.htm

  • Robert I have not seen anyone on Hipstamp charging $25.00 to $50.00 to ship to Canada. If that is the case, I would not buy from them either. My international shipping charge is $9.25.
  • For my future reference, I have noted your names to ensure I try to buy from you lot when looking at offers from the U.S!!
    My initial comments related to S & H charges on E-Bay, which I longer patronise...
  • I thought this a hobby. Now it is turning into money game. Greedy postal higher up’s. We the buyers and sellers are in the middle. We buy and sell stamp,post cards and envelopes and they are making money, but now they want more. What would they do if we stop buying.
  • Shipping stamps doesn't even raise a pimple on their revenues.
  • The postal systems as in Canada in the 1800's tried to reduce prices to get the economy going, people in communication with each other and to learn to read, as Newspapers were free to mail.

    I ship in North America $2 for as many items as you like, a few larger things or stuff of course requires higher postage. 1 item or 20 items it is $2 to Canada and US. $3 to the rest of the world.

    Most of the problems are ebay trying to control everything, labels, envelopes, shipping fees etc. $20 to mail a $5 stamp is crazy but people sign up and then they are stuck.

    The real problem are countries like China getting away with very very low rates as a developing country when they are no longer a developing country. They are able to send tons of stuff very cheaply thus able to sell very low priced items and ship accordingly. Whereas to ship a small parcel to China would be a fortune. So it is not fair.

    In Canada our domestic rates are 92 cents, compared the U.S. almost free, to the U.S. a $1.30 CDN, and the rest of the world is now $2.71 CDN so almost 3 times the price of a domestic letter.

    I have no shortage of postage / FACE to put on my mail so it is really not a problem anymore, maybe 10 years worth not including annual collections I could get postage from.

    When looking at Hipstamp, it is great to be able to list 100,000 items, not that I would ever get there in my lifetime, but to pay more than the monthly Store fee to just view SOLD items is pretty petty in my mind when ebay does it for free. Dont' give them any ideas.

    So what happens when you get to 10,000 listings, does it say, STOP you can't list any more? and then have to pay up for the other store?

    I assume we can list just on Hipstamp, as free listings, but they don't go to ebay do they?

    Gary
  • Gary,

    Perhaps you should read this regarding International Shipping - effective since January 2018

    https://help.hipecommerce.com/support/solutions/articles/14000112965-international-shipping-costs-from-the-us
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