Will you be going back to Royal Mail?
5/11/2009 at 18:51
So Royal Mail and the CWU have managed to reach enough of an agreement to call off tomorrow’s postal strikes. There will be no more industrial action this side of Christmas, although the CWU have by all accounts – the real details of the agreement won’t be published until tomorrow – reserved themselves the right to strike in the New Year, should a more permanent agreement not be achieved.
Throughout the long drawn-out round of industrial action – let’s not forget that local strikes have been going on for months now – eBay sellers, other online traders and plenty of industry commentators have been saying that once merchants leave Royal Mail, they won’t go back: that they’ll stick with couriers who’ve offered reliability where RM haven’t.
Others, of course, have pointed out that for many merchants, RM is the only viable way to ship very small and light items, so sellers have no choice but to stick with them.
So let’s have another completely unscientific poll: what will you be doing?
Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.






Kevin A says
7:11 pm on 05/11/2009
I never left( done my fair bit of moaning)because we send out a lot of large letter and small packet to the UK, so not got any choice. We are sending more via Special & Tracked as these were services that were maintained through the strike, allbeit a bit slower than normal.
Roger says
7:22 pm on 05/11/2009
Something good from this strike, I managed to get a good deal with DHL, happy to stay with it for all over 2kg+ parcel.
Emily says
8:07 pm on 05/11/2009
Stayed with RM as I send mainly large letters and small parcels under 500g. Would happily change if I could find another service cheap enough.
I wonder if all my parcels that went missing during the strikes will arrive now!!
James says
8:35 pm on 05/11/2009
Royal Mail all the way for us. I don’t see how anyone can post items under 1kg cheaper with anyone else.
Hopefully this ending of the strike will inspire confidence in the shoppers. Which is good news for everybody!
chrisod says
10:14 pm on 05/11/2009
Like most others my packages are all about 250g – the couriers are just too expensive.
I hope this is very good news – sales have been sluggish this week
Bigpoppa says
11:07 pm on 05/11/2009
Most of our packages are between 100g-1.5kg and yes, RM are the cheapest. However we are adding a courier shipping option and are going to let our customers decide what they want.
Our expectation from previous experience is that around 75% of our customers will now choose the courier option, mainly due to the tracking and speed of delivery.
Our margins will be squeezed but we believe this will help us stand out more from our competition.
amfm says
7:17 am on 06/11/2009
I agree with the comms above it was cheaper for us to offer a gift with order to say sorry for any delays than pay double for a courier service when most it not all our parcels cost £2.33 signed for and normally received the next day.
Why hasnt any courier looked into this huge light weight parcel post???
Trust me i looked
amfm says
7:21 am on 06/11/2009
Oh also the only service that was only £4 didnt include a signiture and would take 3 to 5 days,
Sadly we are tied to RM.
Though i am interested in Tracked by RM which i was told my post office didnt exsist and read that parcels sent that way were sent as normal?????
Kevin A says
4:52 pm on November 6th, 2009
RE: RM Tracked service. I would get on to Royal Mail and ask them for a quote, as it is different for everyone. It is a UK only service up to 5kgs. It is tracked all the way, but does not need a signature. You will also have to invest in a thermal printer. Also the RM software is very tempremental with what it likes to work with from your OS to your accounts package. We had to do a bit of shifting around to make it happy.Also the rate you receive is based on where you are likely to send your UK post and how much you send out over a year using the service. Finally, if you don’t already, then you will need to arrange for a daily collection (about £500 per year) and be happy to print off daily returns which attach to your sacks.
Hope that helps you
Lino says
7:50 am on 06/11/2009
Our local Royal Mail depot was actually very helpful during the strikes. Most deliveries seem to be arriving on time and sales were good so I don’t think it actually put people off buying online.
Still the cheapest and best service for us.
peter says
8:43 am on 06/11/2009
yes will be going back in a rush…. moaned a bit about them but not found anyone to touch their service.
did try other couriers with disasterous consequences, fastways, must be a play on words as still getting parcels landing a full 10 days after we entrusted them with our halloween costumes, and yes as you can guess, our customers arn’t too happy!
John says
4:49 pm on November 6th, 2009
i used Fastway Couriers for about a year, until my local franchise went bust after offloading £800 of tickets on me. They were reasonable as couriers go, but as you have to pre pay, I will not fall into that trap again! I use Interlink, who are efficient and reliable.
Andy says
6:39 pm on November 6th, 2009
Sorry to hear that.
Which area was that John?
Alan says
10:31 am on 06/11/2009
I feel susceptible because I have no realistic choice. 75% of my shipments cost me large letter rate (discounted at 57 pence) As far as I can make out the cheapest courier price is £3.50.
The universal service is a great thing
It would be madness to lose it.
If it takes goverment subsidy or a nationalised industry then that is what we should have. The unions should not have the right to disrupt a monopoly service. If they want to strike that is their right but the universal service should be kept running even if that means by agency staff. The parcel services are a different matter as there is healthy competition.
John says
4:50 pm on 06/11/2009
I do love Royal Mail, they are actually very efficient, and too many people dont appreciate them. They have to modernise for sure, but I hope the management don’t push it too far.
katakitty says
7:10 am on 07/11/2009
I will still use Royal Mail for up to 2kg and lower value items but have switched to using UPS for anything over 2kg. We’ve got a brilliant guy who collects, never fails to arrive and have had no complaints from buyers.
Having said that I have no complaints about Royal Mail, the number of lost parcels in 10 years can be counted on 1 hand and I’m not sure they were really “lost”, excellent really. Parcelforce (same but different) collection guys are great, I know I’m the last on his round but the trouble is the “computer” is horrendous. Whenever he arrived there were always parcels missing from his list, he would still take them and stick on a 24 hr label if they were the days before stuff. A case of the guys at the sharp end wanting to do the job but being held back by the system.
At the end of the day I just cannot afford to be tied to one carrier otherwise my income stream dries up.
BigPoppa says
3:11 pm on November 9th, 2009
the number of lost parcels in 10 years can be counted on 1 hand…
…So long as that hand is holding a calculator…
Sue Bailey says
3:15 pm on November 9th, 2009
Ba-dum tishhhh!
Thank you, thank you, he’ll be here all week
northumbrian says
9:12 am on 07/11/2009
we could not see what the panic was all the swapping and changing and re arranging would have been just as disruptive as the strike itself,
we never left royal mail ,though if the strike had been long term ,or had any bite ,we would have left.
Pict says
12:54 pm on 07/11/2009
Never left Royal Mail and think it’s a disgrace that their staff have been put in this position by greedy employers who are only interested in running down Royal Mail.
Liz says
11:52 am on 09/11/2009
A few of my clients have replaced domestic deliveries with couriers, but still no one can beat royal mail on international deliveries.
Our posties were all ‘non striking’ and service kept going in the local area, so for the loyalty they showed their customers is reflected in the choice between courier and RM.