"Sending Internationally with Royal Mail?" Topic

Just got back from the Post Office after posting some work abroad, and was a bit surprised to find the maximum insurance I could get was £250.00 GBP, previously it was £500.00 GBP I have in the past tried to keep the contents of any one parcel at about that value, this morning's was about £480.00 GBP They did offer me some other 3rd party service, but the cost was something like £47.00 GBP !

Last month I sent the same value/size of package for about £11.00 GBP I am guessing this has come about through the privatisation changes, or maybe they send the packages by stork and there's a high loss rate, but complaining aside, has anyone advice on how to send stuff appropriately insured without breaking the bank?

Insurance can vary on the destination…

For instance, from Ireland to the UK I can insure for up to 320 yoyos… But for the same service to send to USA, I can only get 30 yoyos insurance.

I'd not spotted that Clib. This will be a pain for me too, even the £500.00 GBP limit meant splitting parcels sometimes now it will be worse.

Prices went up in April and these new regs came in then too.

I hardly do any retail sales outside the UK any more, buyers can't afford the postage.

Tony of TTT

Yeah, came in with the switch from the old "International Signed For" and "Airsure" services to the new "signed" and "tracked" – definitely unwelcome.

depends on country and dimensions and weight and the service in royal mail/parcel force your offered, check on the royal mail site to help. Never had much of a problem have for weight split parcels mainly inland rather than Overseas, I have a good relationship with the post office girls so the always help

I read recently this reduction was granted to bring them in line with the competition.

I thought you wanted to beat the competition, not level with them.

You may want to look at courier services bought competitively via one of the many web sites which sells their services at a discount. They are cheaper for larger packages. Delivery is very quick, compared to the regular post, and that at least limits the time you are exposed to loss.

If UK minis businesses approached an insurance company for coverage I bet you could get a cheap deal.

Type looking at parcel2go, as reseller for other couriers & for heavier orders is cheaper than Royal Mail.

Regards

MMG.

Send 2 parcels?

Two parcels is a possibility, but inconvenient. In early March I did spilt a parcel into two to bring it under the £500.00 GBP limit, now that would have to be split into three or even four packages. My stuff is a bit unusual in that its figure sculpts that while of significant value are very small and light. I'd be surprised if what I just posted weighed more than 10 grams, the package they were sent in was much heavier than its contents (relatively). It doesn't take many 15mm sculpts to exceed the £250.00 GBP limit.

It feels like Royal Mail are charging an increased price for a significantly reduced service. I am not paying the fee directly as its covered by the client, but it effectively means that for the average batch the cost of postage has doubled, which makes commissioning me less attractive.

Royal Mail has gone from a dependable one size fits all Public Service to an overly complex minefield in my view. I'm going to blame Thatcher for it.

I sent some 15mm unpainted figures to Slovenia as an EBay sale. Having circled the UK for two weeks these were returned to me without explanation. There was a hint on their tracking site that they had been investigated as dangerous or forbidden goods.
I am tempted to leak story to the press – who is afraid of the toy soldiers etc.
I have not lost a £70.00 GBP sale plus £14.00 GBP postage for a box that went nowhere other than a tour of Royal Mail offices.

"There was a hint on their tracking site that they had been investigated as dangerous or forbidden goods."

That sometimes happens because the scanner picks up lead/tin and this suggests circuit boards to some operators. The fact they can't see through the material is also a surprise to poorly trained operators. It happened to mine in Hong Kong once, and in some other countries.