Postage in Australia

[i_am_awesom-o]

Hello to all

Does anyone know why a book can be posted from the UK to Sydney for 2 pound, but to go from perth/brisvegas/melbourne etc to sydney will cost 7 dollors. Does Australia post get paid to deliver mail from international senders ? Or do we subsidise their shipping costs ?

I'm also courious why eBay appears to do nothing about sellers lying about their location, so many times I try to buy local products expecting local shipping times and I get a package from an international location only to discover the people/shop are not based in Australia and are based in the UK. very poor form eBay, as long as you make a dollor hey.

[putney32]

1. no australia post does not get paid to deliver mail from o'seas. australia is a signatory to the Universal Postal Union, and all member countries carry other countries mail for free... so your parcel from the UK is carried by aust post at no extra charge to you and your parcel TO the UK is carried by Royal Mail at no extra charge to the received.


2. it is up to individual buyers to report sellers who lie about the location of their product, there is no way eBay can know where an item is actually located.

[i_am_awesom-o]

Thanks for the reply, so part of the high postage rates in comparison in Australia are due to International postage, I would expect the UK prices to be high also as they subsidize local delivery costs of international packages as well.  It works out very bad for local businesses when a package can be sent for half the cost from a European country than it can within our own.

On the location issue perhaps eBay could address the issue by requiring sellers to verify there actual address, and if a violation is reported, actually do something about it.  The responce I have received in the past is obviously only because they feel they have to say something.  But the seller continues their deception uninterupted, so it would seem.

[putney32]

i think you are confusing Seller Location and Item Location

I can be a seller in Melbourne and have items I sell shipped from Sydney, HKong or tokyo.

it is the sellers who lie about the ITEM location you need to report as ebay obviously cannot tell where a seller sends their stock from.

[***super_nova***]

The reason why Australian domestic postage is so expensive is because Australia is such a huge country with only 20 million people, and we are spread out.  AP trucks and posties have to cover lot more ground (use lot more petrol) than postal services in much more densely populated countries.  It is also possible that wages in other countries are much lower than here.

[urtundidi]

Due to the International Postage agreements, Australia Post lost something in the region of 22 Million last year due to delivering international packages.  From memory it costs them $1.76 for each package they deliver. This money was recouped by inflating the cost of domestic parcel post.

The UK government are subsidising their international postage and thereby running Royal Mail at a loss to encourage job growth, warehouses set up in poor social economic areas are granted larger discounts.

[***super_nova***]

Due to the International Postage agreements, Australia Post lost something in the region of 22 Million last year due to delivering international packages.

Well, I imagine other countries are in similar position delivering parcels sent from other countries????    AP makes money on international letters/parcels, which they only take from the PO to the nearest airport, and the o/s postal services deliver them for free. 

[happyinoz]

You are not the only buyer wanting to know where items are actually located.  There seem to be an increasing number of complaints from buyers indicating their dissatisfaction with being mislead about the actual location of items. 

As a seller, I have now added a note to my ebay shop header stating that all of my items (mostly books) are located in Australia and are in stock.

I have started to add a similar note to my listings, but it is time consuming to change all of my listings. 

If you are unsure of the actual location of an item and you want to know, ask the seller.   

[tall_bearded]

As far as postage costs in Australia is concerned, the high cost appears to have little to do with economies of scale or the Universal Postal Union agreement and a great deal to do with simple good old fashioned price gouging.

I have recently received a copy of a letter sent by the CEO of Aust Post to Senator X, and in which he attempts to justify the current costs on exactly those grounds, and yet, nowhere in that letter is there any explanation why, thought the economies of scale haven’t changed, or if they have changed, those changes were in line with normal CPI increases, and though Aust Post has achieved significant savings by such initiatives as outsourcing parcel delivery services to private contractors and Click and Send, just about every price increase in the past few years (including the one just announced) have been significantly higher than the rate of inflation.

Furthermore, the two things I found most disturbing in the letter was a complete absence of any mention of the national interest coupled, with the pride the writer took in pointing out to the Senator that, unlike other postal services which habitually run at a loss, under his stewardship, Aust Post is being run at a profit.  Disturbing because, Australia Post owes its past and continued existence as a Statutory Corporation solely to the fact that low postal prices are considered in the national interest, but the current focus seems to be profit based with price being determined by what the market will bear.

Finally, it is my understanding that the CEO will again soon appear before the Senate Estimates Committee.  So if you have a complaint about the cost of postage addresses them to one of the Committee Members, with a copy, to you local member.      

[crypsynight]

Due to the International Postage agreements, Australia Post lost something in the region of 22 Million last year due to delivering international packages.  From memory it costs them $1.76 for each package they deliver. This money was recouped by inflating the cost of domestic parcel post.

The UK government are subsidising their international postage and thereby running Royal Mail at a loss to encourage job growth, warehouses set up in poor social economic areas are granted larger discounts.

Actually it was closer to $70 Million according to one article i read.

Australia is a member of the UPU (Universal Postal Union) who set International Postage rules. This includes terminal dues, being fees payable amid countries depending on the difference in the total weight of mail between them.

The reason why Australia is so disadvantaged is because our population isn't as dense as other countries. (err.. I mean we aren't as densely populated :^O ).  

I was reading another forum on this very subject not that long ago, where a seller (of what and what quantity wasn't mentioned) said that he finds it cheaper to ship his items to China, and then posted back to Australia rather than posted directly in Australia.  Of course it doesn't take Einstein to realise that this only increases the problem.....

What AP need to realise is that there will be a point where postage costs will outweigh any online shopping savings. And the people who'll be most affected by this will be the small to medium quantity sellers....which is probably the bulk of Australian Ebay Stores.