ROYAL MAIL LOSING YET ANOTHER BUSINESS CUSTOMER

[DLM Photographic]

Good morning everyone.

I have just joined this forum this morning purely to share something important that is unfortunately a growing trend and will inevitably destabilise and potentially ruin what I believe is a fantastic company and a great British Icon.

I have ran my own business selling photography equipment for some time now and although there are much cheaper options out there, I have been a strong supporter of the Post Office and Royal Mail so therefore remained loyal to them and solely used them for my postage needs, both domestic and international.

As we all know, RM put there prices up at the beginning of April to counteract them losing their government subsidy, which i suppose is fair and right.
However, I have looked into this and the increase is astonishingly more than what they were actually being subsidised and even combined with the rate of inflation, the maths simply don't add up. Another prime example of a company using recessional cutbacks as an excuse to disguise their greed and profiteering.
(all this information is available on the web, you simply just have to put the numbers together)

So, in the name of fairness, i gave remained loyal and decided to give the new system 2 weeks so I put my postage costs up to reflect these changes.

During these 2 weeks (first 2 in april) my sales dropped by 38% yet my visits to my company sites remained the same as always.
In the last week, I have reverted back to my old postage costs and decided that in the name of research, I will absorb these hikes into the small margin of profit that I have for one week. The result???
Within 48 hours or reverting back, my sales are now back to normal.

Due to these price hikes and re-structuring of the packaging system, my postage costs have now reached a level that is unsustainable.

The only solution, to now use another more competitively priced rival company.

Royal mail have been been receiving on or between £300 and £500 per week from me, week in and week out.
As of 22nd April 2013, this relationship stops.

After speaking to several of my friends who own businesses too, they have already flew the nest. One of my friends uses Royal Mail to the tune of £1,500 per week. Now his postage needs are met by a rival who charge almost half of what Royal Mail want AND this rival firm will come and collect the mail from you for no extra cost.

I have done my calculations and even pricing them against Royal Mails old pricing structure, I will be saving money, which means, in this time of austerity and cutbacks, I will be able to pass this small saving on to my customers.

So, why am I talking about this???

Simply to wish all you Royal Mail workers all the very best and to say thank you for providing me with such an excellent service and for working so bloody hard, rain sleet or snow. Without you, my company wouldn't be what it is now.
I wish you all every success and happiness for the future.

Considering I alone know 4 people who have jumped ship already within 3 weeks of the restructure and I am sure that we are not the only ones, I feel the company/organisation that was Royal Mail is now fractured and getting weaker.

A combination of Government ineptness forcing poorly thought out cutbacks combined with corporate greed has now destabilised and potentially ruined one of Britain's last iconic companies.

Good luck guys.

[barrowc]

I can't disagree with some of what you posted but I would point out that Royal Mail don't receive any subsidy from the government and haven't done so for many years. Indeed the government ran off with our £26 billion pension fund last year so it's us who are subsidising them at the moment (and also hearing that our pensions might get cut anyway).

Royal Mail's competitors may be cheaper but watch out for poor quality of service (who measures their QoS anyway?), doorstepping, increased claims for loss/damage and complaints about the difficulty of collecting undelivered parcels.

The recent format changes didn't affect most account customers. If you had a 2nd class item which fell into the new Medium Parcel category but weighed under 1kg then this would cost £5.20 (VAT exempt) via stamps/Post Office, £4.40 (VAT exempt) via a franking machine or £1.845 (plus VAT = £2.214, includes 2.5% fuel surcharge) if sent via Royal Mail 48 on an account. So it's about 57% cheaper on an account for this example.

£300 to £500 a week would qualify you for most RM services and spending more than £15K per year would get you a free collection. So, if using RM's competitors doesn't work out for you, then you could try using RM via an account instead

[GT750rider]

The counter staff at the sub post offices I collect from all say their customers moan about the price increases. Some of the more regular senders of ebay type packets, sorry, parcels have said they will give some of the other couriers a try. And as they say, some of these couriers will pick up from the customer's door at no extra cost.
I guess if we're to be sold we need to generate a decent profit for the would-be carpet-baggers, sorry, I mean investors.