An Post Parcels

ghosttown

Firstly, if this is not a rip off, I'll hold my hand up and apologise....

Sent a xmas box to the in-laws who are in Poland. 4.9kg. Standard delivery. An Post charged me €55 today...

OH reckons it was €19 for a heavier box last year.

Is this really the cost to send a box of this weight to Poland ??
Should I be looking at putting business elsewhere ?

CombatCow

Your OH must be mistaken, I post stuff to the uk thats generally around 1kg and costs €20'ish. Price hasnet changed in a long time.

Check out the Zone 3 pricing here:


http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/MainContent/Business+Customers/Sending+Mail/Standard/StandardPost.htm



CC

Tabnabs

I sent a similar weight package to the other side of Europe last christmas and it cost me similar amount to your higher cost. It would be cheaper to take it on a cheap flight and deliver it by hand :rolleyes:

mcaul

Depends on whether it was a "packet" or a "parcel" and unfortunately too many of An Post's staff do not have a clue about what is what and try and chage parcel rates for items with Packet size.

However in your case, the weight determined that it is treated as a parcel nio matter what the size.

A packet has a combined lenght, width & height of 90cm

So it can be a bit bigger than a large box of photocopier paper, but it must weigh under 2kg.

Over this size/ weight it is regarded as a parcel.

The other problem with An Post is they only use air mail, so parcels will be very expensive. - Someone like GLS Parcel shops / DPD will send it for much less by road.

ghosttown

Ok, apologies all, appears wasn't a rip off after all, just a bloody expensive way to send some scarves and jumpers !! The idea of the flight being cheaper is probably the best one of all............:)

mcaul

ghosttown wrote: »

Ok, apologies all, appears wasn't a rip off after all, just a bloody expensive way to send some scarves and jumpers !! The idea of the flight being cheaper is probably the best one of all............:)

the strange thing is if you divided it into 2 parcels it would have been cheaper!!

chutney50

Just been done today in a similar fashion for a 4.3 kg parcel of bits and bobs to Italy - nearly got sick at the price of 55euro.:eek: Was expecting it to be about 30euro.

Even more annoying to check
http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/PostalRates/Standard+Post.htm
and realise if I'd packaged the items as 2 x 2kg packets the total cost would have been 21.50

Live and learn. A great start to 2013 :rolleyes:

sandin

chutney50 wrote: »

Just been done today in a similar fashion for a 4.3 kg parcel of bits and bobs to Italy - nearly got sick at the price of 55euro.:eek: Was expecting it to be about 30euro.

Even more annoying to check
http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/PostalRates/Standard+Post.htm
and realise if I'd packaged the items as 2 x 2kg packets the total cost would have been 21.50

Live and learn. A great start to 2013 :rolleyes:

Why didn;t you check the site first and see the optimum way of sending it?

From another persepctive, I was able to send a 20kg box to Oz for €60 and it arrived in 5 days and because what I send is quite heavy and about 50% more expensive in Oz than here, An Post have opened a new a lucrative market for me as €60 postage means customers in Oz will save about €100 on the local price for the goods.

So whilst its poor value for 3-5kg, its brilliant value for 20kg as the price ceiling is €60.

Corruptedmorals

Yes, I have sent 5 boxes to Australia with varying weights from 5-20kg, all the same price which is great. An Post are heavily subsidising the cost of the heavier boxes, very very good value. My sister IN Australia sent my Christmas present which weighed 1.5kg and it cost the equivalent of more than €50, so I think Irish postal customers generally are getting a good deal, except for light packages.

chutney50

Why didn;t you check the site first and see the optimum way of sending it?

Ah, because I was in a hurry to wrap it and post it off before I went to work, and because a package of identical weight had just been posted to us from Italy and IT cost 30 euro, so I assumed it would be roughly around the same amount to send one back - how wrong I was.

Yes, it IS useful to know that if you have very heavy items, once you hit 60 euro at 4kg, that's the ceiling right up to 20Kg.

sandin

chutney50 wrote: »

Ah, because I was in a hurry to wrap it and post it off before I went to work, and because a package of identical weight had just been posted to us from Italy and IT cost 30 euro, so I assumed it would be roughly around the same amount to send one back - how wrong I was.

Yes, it IS useful to know that if you have very heavy items, once you hit 60 euro at 4kg, that's the ceiling right up to 20Kg.

and an item posted to me from the USA cost $156, yet to post the same item back would cost me €60.

Other options are GLS Parcel shops - they have them in most larger towns and a parcel to Italy would cost about €25 and take about 5 days.

grenache

I think people are mad to use An Post. I was sending a 40kg box to Naples last year, An Post quoted me €155. I said thanks but no thanks and went with GLS for €49.

A €106 difference. The mind boggles.

An Post are, like most things run by the state, neither value for the customer nor efficient at what they do.

Kat1170

Plenty of small delivery companies/couriers doing Irl-Pl Pl-Irl deliveries

Gormal

I've stopped using An Post for parcels and use parcel2go.com

brokenarms

Gormal wrote: »

I've stopped using An Post for parcels and use parcel2go.com

Same here. An Post makes it impossible to sell anything on ebay . Their loss really.