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Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Wed Dec 02, 2020 7:41 pm
by Rob L
Flyin'Dutch' wrote:The problem with a semi-privatised service.


Like the CAA :cry:

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Thu Dec 03, 2020 2:00 am
by riverrock
Last few times I posted something I printed off my own stamp from their website.

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:41 am
by JonathanB
Vaguely related to this thread... I want to send a smallish parcel (not sure exactly the size or weight yet) to my mother in France. She suggested that it might be cheaper to use someone other than the Post Office and Royal Mail/Parcelfarce to do so - any recommendations?

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Thu Dec 03, 2020 9:50 am
by Sooty25
JonathanB wrote:Vaguely related to this thread... I want to send a smallish parcel (not sure exactly the size or weight yet) to my mother in France. She suggested that it might be cheaper to use someone other than the Post Office and Royal Mail/Parcelfarce to do so - any recommendations?


try, http://www.parcel2go.com

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Thu Dec 03, 2020 12:34 pm
by Colonel Panic
Another vote for parcel2go - an excellent resource.

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Thu Dec 03, 2020 3:58 pm
by Robin500
My recent experiences with Royal Mail are not good. 2 small jiffy bags posted 1st class tracked and sign for. One took just over 2 week to arrive at it's destination, the other still not arrived, now assumed to be mia.

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Thu Dec 03, 2020 4:14 pm
by nickwilcock
I see the price of a first class stamp is soon to rise by almost 12% to 85p. What planet are they on?


I remember the outrage when the letter rate went up to 3d in 1957 and the purple stamp came in! That equates to £0.32 in today's money.......

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Thu Dec 03, 2020 7:56 pm
by townleyc
and ISTR it was still only 4d in the early 60's

KE

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Fri Dec 04, 2020 11:01 am
by kanga
nickwilcock wrote:..

I remember the outrage when the letter rate went up to 3d in 1957 and the purple stamp came in! That equates to £0.32 in today's money.......


<continuing drift :oops: >

.. from 2 1/2d. Air mail to Europe was 6d (surface rate was less), further afield was 1/3 (surface much less), both with very strict weight limits; but IIRC Post Office Air Letter forms (3 ~postcard-size sheets of flimsy paper, to be folded, sealed with lickable glue tabs; still sold ?) were same rate worldwide. I also recall the 11d stamp, used, being the rarest for collectors, since it was rarely needed, and bought new usually only by collectors!

Is low-level, low-cost, amateur and schoolchild philately still a hobby ?

</>

.. back to an earlier question (sorry, longish :oops: ):

I believe Royal Mail in England [sic] was originally so-called from Tudor times, when it was indeed for the exclusive use of the Monarch, Court and government correspondence by official couriers, who wore distinct uniforms. This was for legal reasons, because interference with it/them was a capital offence, so potential offenders had to have 'fair warning'. During the Commonwealth, Cromwell brought in legislation to extend that legal protection to any mail of any citizen being conveyed by a carrier licensed by Government. On the Restoration in 1660, that legal protection was continued, but the carriers (eg some but not all 'stagecoaches' which thus became 'Post chaises') had still to be licensed, with the courier (who might be the commercial driver, but often the Postillion) in appropriate uniform and the mail compartment suitably emblazoned; and the Royal Mail title was reintroduced. Cromwell had, however, also introduced a provision that authorised agents of Government could 'interfere with' (covertly intercept, copy, reseal, send on) the mails of private citizens as long as they had a legal Warrant. This continued after the Restoration until the Mazzini case revelations ..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_ ... _in_London

.. when it ceased because Ministers stopped authorising Warrants (but remained legal). The legal provisions were overhauled under the legislation which set up the Secret Service Bureau in 1909, when Warrants (mostly against suspected Imperial German covert agents) restarted.

It was under Trollope as Postmaster-General that there was the innovation (in UK first; which is why UK stamps, uniquely, do not carry a country name) of prepaid postage was introduced (previously, recipient paid, or might choose not to accept the item); and the Post Office started using its own exclusive vehicles and people for local and then gradually more distant deliveries and collections, rescinding the licences of other (road and street) carriers. However, Royal Mail rail carriages, or compartments within them, were used for long distance as the rail network spread; and required the Royal Mail cipher, for the same legal reason. That emblazoning of British airliner baggage compartments authorised to carry Royal Mail compartments with the same cipher continued until fairly recently (and may still, for all I know) for the same legal reason: to signify to any potential miscreant that extra legal penalties in British criminal courts may accrue for any interference. It is also, I gather, why Royal Mail vehicles (including extra ones hired for the Christmas rush) must carry Royal Mail signage (even if only temporary); and why that signage must be erased when the Royal Mail sells its surplus vehicles. It was also why the Royal Mail signage had still to be used on vehicles while (briefly) the 'brand' was relabelled 'Consignia'.

</history geek>

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Fri Dec 04, 2020 1:00 pm
by PeteSpencer
nickwilcock wrote:
I remember the outrage when the letter rate went up to 3d in 1957 and the purple stamp came in! That equates to £0.32 in today's money.......


Confirmed :
sad hoarding git that I am , I kept the letter informing me of my place at Univ Camb Dec 63
Image

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Tue Dec 08, 2020 5:32 pm
by rikur_
Finally an email from Royal Mail today - stamps are back in stock, and my order has been dispatched.

The bad news, apparently I have to allow 10 days for delivery.

FFS Royal Mail - you'd think that given your main line of business is delivering stuff, you could actually make the effort to do next day delivery on something that's already 3 weeks later than you claimed it would be when you took the order.

I could have actually got a sofa quicker than stamps, and that's an industry that specialises in long lead times. Much as I want to like an old British institution, and value the USO, you make it very difficult.

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:16 pm
by avtur3
townleyc wrote:and ISTR it was still only 4d in the early 60's

KE


Long before the days of first and second class postage (probably back in the 60's) ISTR there was a differential in the stamp price based on whether or not the envelope was sealed or the flap of the envelope was simply tucked in.

Does that ring any bells with anyone? I can't think why that would impact the cost but I'm sure there was something about sending unsealed letters.

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Tue Dec 08, 2020 8:56 pm
by PeteSpencer
Yep that was indeed the case .

Seemed to apply mostly to birthday cards etc.

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Sat Jan 09, 2021 12:13 am
by oldbiggincfi
Has anyone had a good experience from the "National Postal System"

We are having post and cards sent mid December delivered today .

Parcel Force even worse - sent correctly addressed and returned to sender all in 12 days !

Ordered some taps and face masks from ebay - delivered next day by Hermes & TNT

Amazon delivered on Sunday .

Re: Royal Mail

PostPosted:Sat Jan 09, 2021 12:54 am
by PeteSpencer
Large numbers of our local sorting office either down with COVID or isolating .Haven’t seen our postie since Monday We live in a tiny private road and always see postie daily.