An Post - Price comparison to & from UK (We pay 4 times the UK shipping price!)

stelydave

Hi - just wondering if anyone else has experience sending books/small heavy items to the UK via An Post & if anyone knows cheaper ways to do so.

I recently ordered some specialised books for an exam from Amazon.co.uk as I couldn't find them here in Ireland. I was charged £7.95 (~€9.15) for registered delivery.

I have now (thankfully!!) finished the exam and have put them online to sell. As they will have a limited market here in Ireland, I expect to ship them to a buyer in the UK so I dropped in to An Post to find out the shipping rate.

It comes to between €36.50 (3kg) and €38.50 (3.5kg) depending on what it will weigh when packaged. I am more than surprised at the difference and will have to cancel the auction as I will be lucky to get that for the books themselves!

I do expect us to have higher charges due to economies of scale & such but roughly four times the equivalent price in the opposite direction is a bit severe for an identical service.

Does anyone know any better priced alternatives? It would be great for small business and independent sellers to have more competitive shipping rates as I would imagine at these rates it is pretty prohibitive to send similarly weighed & priced items to the UK.

Thanks for reading - SD

snubbleste

AnPost have a website
You can send 3kg books to the UK for €9
You can send 2kg registered for €15.10

Air_Bass

stelydave wrote: »

Hi - just wondering if anyone else has experience sending books/small heavy items to the UK via An Post & if anyone knows cheaper ways to do so.

I recently ordered some specialised books for an exam from Amazon.co.uk as I couldn't find them here in Ireland. I was charged £7.95 (~€9.15) for registered delivery.

I have now (thankfully!!) finished the exam and have put them online to sell. As they will have a limited market here in Ireland, I expect to ship them to a buyer in the UK so I dropped in to An Post to find out the shipping rate.

It comes to between €36.50 (3kg) and €38.50 (3.5kg) depending on what it will weigh when packaged. I am more than surprised at the difference and will have to cancel the auction as I will be lucky to get that for the books themselves!

I do expect us to have higher charges due to economies of scale & such but roughly four times the equivalent price in the opposite direction is a bit severe for an identical service.

Does anyone know any better priced alternatives? It would be great for small business and independent sellers to have more competitive shipping rates as I would imagine at these rates it is pretty prohibitive to send similarly weighed & priced items to the UK.

Thanks for reading - SD

I'm guessing that they weren't books on economics anyways because you're not really comparing like with like.
Amazon can afford to charge less on delivery since they are a regular heavy user of parcel companies and as such pay less than the average joe.
I checked Royal Mail / Parcel Force's website and to send a 3kg package from the UK to Ireland is between £17.46 (€19.46) to £54.40 (€61.55) depending on how quickly you want it delivered and tracking etc.

Yakult

You cant hardly compare a postage service from Amazon to An post? Not really identical as they would ship in bulk thus getting a way better service because of contracts etc. with the delivery company.
How about getting a individual quote directly from a postage service from England? Would make for a much better and accurate comparison.

dudara

Moved to Online Buying & Auctions

dudara

stelydave

Hi - Thanks for the replies and for moving the post.

@snubbleste - Just checked that after reading your post as I had been quoted from the postal rates guide (11/04/2011). From anpost.ie I see it is the same...

Rates & Transit

You have selected a Parcel with a weight of 3.5 Kgs from Dublin to Main cities/towns, Great Britain.

Rate €38.50
Vat n/a
Total €38.50

Transit Times: 2 Working Days
Service Features:
Premium Secure Delivery Service
Track & Trace
Some service elements destination dependent
Inclusive Insurance up to €320.00

Can you tell me where you saw the 3kg to UK for €9?

@Air_Bass - Haha - glad to say they weren't on economics but I did mention that I would understand a certain price difference due to scale, etc. The books were sent to me via registered post so it is a considerably like-for-like comparison, but I take your point on the RM/PF website.

@Yakult - Not so much comparing Amazon with An Post, just the difference in price for identical services in opposite directions. I assume you are right & that Amazon will have bulk arrangements with RM.

@dudara - thanks.

@all - Just very surprised at the cost I was initially charged versus the cost of the return journey! Maybe if An Post is reading they could consider promotional rates for such shipments - could lead to increased volume & incentivise smaller businesses & individual sellers to export, even if it is on a small scale. SD

Badgermonkey

snubbleste wrote: »

AnPost have a website
You can send 3kg books to the UK for €9
You can send 2kg registered for €15.10

Guessing you were quoting the business rate.

http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/MainContent/Business+Customers/Sending+Mail/Facilitates/Posting+Books.htm

wmpdd3

Seems to be around the same for sending an item from GB to here, it will only allow a weight of 'not under 4kg'.

http://sg.royalmail.com/portal/rm/PriceFinderResults?pageId=pc_sltc_rm_results&keyname=rmPriceFinderResults&catId=23500532

maxer68

split it into 2 packets.

a 2 kg packet costs €10.25 to UK.

a 2 kg packet with royal mail to Ireland costs £11.36 (about €13)

Amazon and other companies will have contract rates with An Post - I pay €4.75 for a parcel up to 20kg next day anywhere in Ireland - they even collect them from me. In the post office it would cost me up to €30 for some of the parcels I send.