The Lemon Fool

https://www.royalmail.com/prices2023

To put this into context, stamp prices usually go up in April each year. We seem to have an Oct price rise now this year too.
In April 2023, ordinary 1CL increased from 95p to £1.10 (+15.8%)
In Oct 2023, 1CL will go from £1.10 to £1.25 (+13.6%)
A total of 29.4%
Over the same period, inflation (as measured by the CPI, using latest available CPI figure July) has been 13.9%
So the price rise on ordinary 1CL is more than double the rate of inflation ... go figure ....

I'm putting aside a couple of quid a month.

I'm saving up for a stamp!

Not that they will sell many stamps at those prices. Once they started the amazing price ramp I bought lots of stamps and with after the swapout agravation providing more I've got enough for 30 years at my current 3-4 stamps a year usage.

1ST was 63p in 2015

And 34p in 2007. CPI is 60% cf 360% for stamps for the period

I've only just got my replacement bar-coded stamps, (and deposited them in my safety deposit box with my other valuables).

I trust they will still be usable when postage rates go up in the autumn?

yorkshirelad1 wrote:In April 2023, ordinary 1CL increased from 95p to £1.10 (+15.8%). In Oct 2023, 1CL will go from £1.10 to £1.25 (+13.6%)

I almost never post a letter and so I had no idea how much a stamp was, until a few weeks ago when I went into my local PO to buy a first class stamp, and was shocked to be asked for £1.10.

By comparison a standard domestic US postage stamp is 66 cents, which equates to about 53p, or roughly half the cost of a UK stamp. And for that you can mail a letter from Key West, Florida to Nome, Alaska. Or from Bangor, Maine to San Diego, California. Those are 4,500 miles and 3,200 miles respectively!

Someone I know had their late-teens son ask them where he could buy a stamp!

Watis

When the price rises the increased risk of forgeries rises also.
I know barcoding is designed to identify forgeries easily, but that's for the postal services it doesn't help the buyer.

Does Royal Mail itself want to take down the business? The land holdings could be extremely valuable for housing developments.

Add this price rise to the severely restricted opening hours at sorting offices, plus the charges for taking parcels to the post office rather than having Royal Mail collect from you, and it looks like self-destruct to me.

The Royal Mail wants to stop Saturday letter deliveries https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66721954

Scott.

I sent a small parcel by Royal Mail Tracked Returns 48™ last Friday morning. It has just arrived at Glasgow but has yet to be delivered. The service states "Aims to deliver within 2-3 days with online tracking"...so why not be honest and retitle it as Royal Mail Tracked Returns 76™ or "Royal Mail Tracked Returns When We Get Round To It™.

Still....Evri ( the new Herpes) have taken over 2 weeks with a parcel ...still not delivered, looking to be MIA.

The Post Office seems to be de-coupling with Royal Mail. The Post Office website front page now offers Evri and DPD parcel services without mentioning Royal Mail.

A few months ago Royal Mail started charging extra if you wanted to drop off a parcel (postage bought online) at a post office. The charge is waived if you take the parcel to a sorting office or let them collect it, but at the same time they have severely restricted public hours at sorting offices, and having the postie collect stuff is not always convenient.

Sad to see a national integrated service being dismantled.

The fact that you couldn't do the stupid Stamp Swapout scheme at Post Offices shows they have a poor relationship

bruncher wrote:A few months ago Royal Mail started charging extra if you wanted to drop off a parcel (postage bought online) at a post office. The charge is waived if you take the parcel to a sorting office or let them collect it, but at the same time they have severely restricted public hours at sorting offices, and having the postie collect stuff is not always convenient.

Reminds me of a time I had a letter wrongly delivered to me. The correct recipient had a post office box at the local post office in Devon.

So I went down to that PO and asked that the item be placed in box number 123. The clerk told me that I would have to buy a stamp for the item so that he could move it the ten feet to the box.

I replied that I was simply doing this guy a favour and had no intention of paying for that. He reiterated that those were the rules.

So I told him that I was leaving the letter on the counter with no stamp, and that he was free to deliver it, return it to sender or throw it away. Then I left so I have no idea what he did with it.

Surely no one will buy first class stamps now. I post about one letter every six months or so so it really does not matter to me what the cost is but on principle I will not buy a first class stamp ever again.

Dod