Australia post is ludicrously expensive

[bobcat-bobcat]

Just venting..........Many examples I can think of. Here's just 1.....Recently bought 2 tee shirts. 1 from a Sydney seller the other from an American seller. Postage was dearer for Aust. Post satchel than USPS. How can it be possible knowing that the USPS item is handled by Aust. Post when it hits our shores????? Can't get my head around it!!!!! Suffice to say we are being shafted!!!

[carls*world]

As for the price, well, we're subsidising the cheap overseas postage. It costs AP just as much to deliver an imported item from the receiving centre to an address, as it does for a domestic item, but they get no payment for that service.

My biggest gripe is the speed of delivery, when O/S items can arrive faster than interstate metro to metro.

As for irregular shaped items, AP do reserve the right to cube those, by measuring the extremes and using that as the imaginary box side. They just never seem to do it. All of our mainstream carriers require cubing regardless of shape (TNT, Ipec, StarTrack etc)

P3.6 – Cubing policy
For parcels over 1kg that are square or rectangular in shape, Australia Post will assess charges according to their actual weight equivalent, whichever is greater. The cubic weight is the parcel’s volume in cubic metres multiplied by 250. Australia Post reserves the right to also apply cubic charges to a parcel weighing less than 1kg, and to parcels that are irregular

[dylan11235813]

As for the price, well, we're subsidising the cheap overseas postage. It costs AP just as much to deliver an imported item from the receiving centre to an address, as it does for a domestic item, but they get no payment for that service.

My biggest gripe is the speed of delivery, when O/S items can arrive faster than interstate metro to metro.

I think they get a payment under some sort of international agreement but it doesn't cover the cost by a long way.

The main issue with international post into australia is the time it takes to clear customs. I get EMS parcels regularly and on the EMS tracking site it says released from customs yet look at AP tracking site and what, it is still there.... It is just a plain flight to get from overseas, what is that? at most 1 day....

[more-champagne]

Just a heads up people, they are changing the satchel bags again, probably going to be more expensive and then in July they have their price rise again. I wish there was another service that goes everywhere, that is reliable.  

[kustomizer99]

They charge as much as they want as they know we have no viable alternative.

Ridiculous that it costs $1.80 to send a DVD that cost 20 cents..... and am extra $3.20 on top of that to get it registered to prevent their own employees from stealing it from you!

It really is at the point that postage usually costs more than the item itself is worth.

[davewil1964]

My postage is rarely less than half the total cost. I still sell the odd thing though. That total cost thing.

[appletreeaaa]

This an example why the pricing structure should be improved , Australia Post customer called '' A '' takes 10 parcel into Australia Post to send to different addresses in Darwin from Sydney , they all weigh 499 grams each ,  Australia Post  customer called '' B''  takes 10 parcels into Australia Post to send to different addresses in Sydney from Sydney , 7 parcels weigh 150 grams each and 3 weigh 510 grams each

Customer A has a total weight of 4,990 grams to travel by aircraft while customer B has a total weight of 2,560 grams , while Customer B is sending parcels at almost half the weight to those of customer A and the distance is only locally compare to long distance  addresses of customer A , customer B is paying a lot more in postage .

If Australia Post had a system of average weight on multiple parcels it would be a lot fairer to all .

[davewil1964]

Given you seem to sell at less than cost, I can see your point.

And Australia Post have a separate category for parcels within 50km. Plus the fact that ordinary post rarely travels by air - it's by truck, even to Perth.

[go-tazz]

The largest cardboard packaging box from AP has printed on it "the cubed weigth of this box is 8 kg".

That's why you use Click & Send for the B1,B2 and B4 boxes as you can put up to 15kg into the box,it's not affected by cubing and it's cheaper,:-D

If I were to buy that box and put my name and address on it and post it off totally empty it would weight 8 kg according to AP. How is this possible?

That's because cubing goes on dimensions,not weight,(the box regulates the maximum weight you can put in it).

[appletreeaaa]

A  parcel over 500grams cost more to send within 50 kilometres than a parcel under 500 grams to anywhere in Australia .

A parcel that weighs 510 grams cost close to $9 to  send locally while a parcel that weighs 499 grams cost about $6.60 or less to send anywhere in Australia for example Darwin to Hobart . 

Australia Post does send a lot by air , it is impossible to send parcels by trucks to islands within Australia and to many outback areas in Australia

Even if  they were sent by truck from Sydney to Darwin , the cost would be more than from Sydney to North Sydney .

Australia Post also sends many sea paid parcels overseas by air when they have containers available

Regarding my postage cost , If I want to charge my buyers the same cost regardless of where they live , that is my business decision in a free enterprise system also price control is illegal in Australia

[davewil1964]

I was talking about your total cost and didn't mention anything about price controls.