News Flash C&S B1 B2 Postage Price Increases Tomorrow 13 May 2014

[mesonquark]

If I've got this right, my calculations seem to indicate that not only are we restricted from posting anything over 1 Kg in a B1 box, 3 Kg in a B2 box and 5 Kg in a B4 Box from the original 15 Kgs, we now have a bunch of "sneaked in" flat rate price increases to boot.

For those of you who might not have seen the "hidden" flat rate price increases announced by Australia Post on Saturday 10th May 2014, this is what's happening as of tomorrow I think:

A 500 satchel's flat rate will be going up from $7.20 to $8.00, a 12% increase.

A B1 box that was $7.15 to post now will be $13.10, a $5.95 rise or a whopping 83% increase.

A B2 box that was $11.70 will now be $15.40, a $3.70 rise, a 32% increase.

A B4 box that was $15.05 will now be $17.45, a $2.40 rise, which is a 16% increase.

There are more "hidden" price rises as of tomorrow in Clickandsend, but I've only listed those I believe apply to the eBay C&S component. eBay will then receive their unexpected bonus 6% to 10% on top of that so you'll all need to adjust your pricing as well as the GST, as that's on top of everything. 

It would be prudent for everyone to read the fine print on Saturday's C&S announcement links because I don't think many eBay sellers have, otherwise surely someone would have already posted something about these over-the-top price hikes.

This is price-gouging in the extreme. Something must be done but with less than 12 hours to go, it's unlikely to change.

[ejholden1963]

If you are talking about the ebay Flat Rate Parcel label service, then the prices appear to be remaining the same. The only thing changing is the weight you can put in each box size.

If you are referring to AusPost's Click & Send (C&S), then nothing much is changing except that it no longer prints out ebay Flat Rate Parcel labels. If you want to ship via the ebay Flat Rate Parcel label service then you use the ebay service & pay via ebay.

That chart (2nd post) omits the AusPost C&S <500gm parcel option at $7.20 which will exist after the ebay Flat Rate Parcel label service 10% promotion ends in August.

There is muted discussion that Auspost are looking at adding Large Letters to C&S.

[davewil1964]

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@ejholden1963 wrote:

If you are talking about the ebay Flat Rate Parcel label service, then the prices appear to be remaining the same. The only thing changing is the weight you can put in each box size.

If you are referring to AusPost's Click & Send (C&S), then nothing much is changing except that it no longer prints out ebay Flat Rate Parcel labels. If you want to ship via the ebay Flat Rate Parcel label service then you use the ebay service & pay via ebay.

That chart (2nd post) omits the AusPost C&S <500gm parcel option at $7.20 which will exist after the ebay Flat Rate Parcel label service 10% promotion ends in August.

There is muted discussion that Auspost are looking at adding Large Letters to C&S.

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That would be nice, depending on the cost.

[ejholden1963]

Dave,

there was no discussion about discounts or pricing, just making it possible to print postage labels for the three classes of Large Letter, $1.40, $2.10 & $3.50 as a matter of convenience for on-line sellers & APO staff.

It was a matter of trying to sell the regional manager on the benefits to APO staff efficiency of not having to deal with a large number of LL users at the counter. It seems that a lot of people stand in line to buy stamps then tend to hand them back over the counter. It also included other things such as reduced stamp production costs, warehousing, stock levels, etc ... It's frightening to find out just how many $$$ AusPost has tied up in 70c stamps Australia wide ... (think millions) ....

Anyway, he seemed genuinely interested & said he would put it forward ....

[davewil1964]

Argggh - i use prepaids, so it might not work for me anyway.

[cq_tech]

If C&S adopt large letter labelling, will they also have tracking numbers and qualify for Paypal Seller Protection? I sure hope so.

[ejholden1963]

Large letters are just that .....letters. They will never have tracking.

When tracking first came out I was paying $1.70 to attach tracking labels to my LLs.

AusPost quickly put the kybosh on that as tracking was only ever intended for parcels.

Letters, including large letters, go thru' a totally different sorting stream.

My Rep made it quite clear that if you want proof of delivery, you pay $2.95 for Signature Required.

AusPost has no intention of disturbing that revenue source.

[cq_tech]

According to AP, SOD is not available on any form of letters unless it is sent registered, and I was hoping that this may not have been the case with C&S, but I suspect it was just wishful thinking.