ROYAL MAIL PRICE INCREASES AND NEW SERVICE TAKE EFFECT 2 APRIL - UPDATED OPTIONS NEEDED ASAP

[BelieveToBeBeautiful]

Royal Mail introduce new prices and new options for delivery on 2nd April including two different options for signed for shipping based on the compensation required.

I have just been in to start writing new shipping profiles but have found that United Kingdom Delivery services have not been updated with the new options. 

Please, Etsy, could you confirm that this is on your urgent to-do list?

As today is a Bank Holiday any orders placed today with payment cleared in time can ship tomorrow for sellers who work on Saturdays - this will be possible using the old rates.

For those who don't, with no service on Sunday or Monday (another Bank Holiday), by the time services resume on Tuesday the shipping profiles will be out of date and buyers will have paid the old rate whilst the price rise and completely new postal services will already have taken effect. 

Many sellers may not even be aware of the increased cost and may face additional costs which are in some cases, an increase of 60p with at least one service now £1.00 dearer. 

If the profiles cannot be updated before Tuesday then sellers can of course increase their prices on existing shipping profiles but they will not be correctly identifying the service they are using. So the second issue we need assurances from by Etsy is whether tracking for new, cheaper services which aren't showing in shipping profiles will still update on sales?

Please update UK delivery services updated as soon as possible.  Thank you.

[Marmalady]

Etsy get their prices from Royal Mail -- and RM don't update their online prices until the new price takes effect (so probably not until midnight Monday/Tuesday. Nothing Etsy can do to adjust prices when buying Etsy labels

So yes, in the next few days, there may well be orders taken at the old rate which will have to be shipped at the new rate

As I don't use online postage, I adjusted my shipping profiles a couple of days ago to account for the new prices

As it is upto individual sellers in the UK to set their rates, not Etsy (we don't have calculated shipping)  -- you need to adjust the rate you charge your customers now

[BelieveToBeBeautiful]

Thanks @Marmalady  yes, sellers can change the rates. 

I don't purchase online either.

I was adding to my post when you replied - the issue is possible loss in underpayment but also the accuracy of tracking on Etsy for services which are new and not yet identified by them - we need to know that tracking will be updated for new services that have been introduced. You are probably right that this will come via Royal Mail but assurances from Etsy would be useful.  

[CappuccinoLace]

Can't find anything about new Signed For services.

The service is the same, regardless of the compensation you chose. It's still RM Signed For 1st or 2nd Class.

[BelieveToBeBeautiful]

From 2 April services will include:

Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 -  proof of delivery, photos on delivery, compensation up to £150 

Royal Mail Tracked with Signature  - proof of delivery, photos on delivery, compensation up to £150 

Royal Mail Signed For 1st or 2nd class - proof of delivery,  compensation up to £20

The info is available on the Royal Mail website

[ButterandBath]

I thought that is what it always was? The options appear the same.

[CappuccinoLace]

Those services existed already.

[HarshandSweet]

Is this why we cannot buy them on Etsy today? Are Etsy's links with RM out of date?

[HoopaholicsUK]

I have online business account and do not see any options for different compensation for signed for delivery service, I have checked the business rate cards and cannot see any information in regards to this either, not sure if you maybe seen a change to the over the counter prices or confused with the tracked 24/48 services but I do not see any different codes for just signed for service..

[KittyKnitsDesigns]

For a long time you have been able  to buy online, direct from RM, 1st/2nd class, 1st/2nd class signed for, tracked 24/48 and tracked 24/48 signed for. What's changed between October 23 and April 23 prices is the compensation for untracked 'signed for' which is reduced from £50 to £20. Other compensation remains the same : £150 for tracked (signed or not) and £20 for 1st/2nd class 'standard' .

I don't use Etsy labels but as far as I recall they haven't ever offered tracked 24/48.

[CharmaramaCo]

I managed to buy international labels on Etsy but not domestic. Just tried again and it's still not working. The Royal Mail Click & Drop website isn't working at all (for buying either domestic or international labels). Is anyone else experiencing the same still?

[LittleGemsJewells]

I don't use Etsy labels but click and drop and I was able to print international and domestic as of 12:12.

Last night at around 8:30pm I could not buy international it was shut down until 3:00am for maintenance which I guess was when they were updating prices.

[MaggieandRose]

I did 6 parcels on click and drop about half an hour ago, it’s working fine. 

[DigTheDesign]

I send quite a few parcels up to 2kg and use Etsy labels as far less faff than any other method. I have noticed that Etsy are suggesting Evri as the best option for far more parcels now - and Evri seem to be offering lower prices than before - sent a 1kg parcel yesterday for £2.84 which is quite a saving on RM  

[GlitteramaCrafts]

I was told last week by our Post Office that from today we could buy Tracked24 and Tracked48 over the counter from the Post Office.  When Hubby took the parcels down this morning, she couldn't get her computer to actually do them, so I've had to send them all Signed For instead.  Not sure what is going on.

[PreciousNewbornKnits]

Etsy postage labels still not working for me, any update from Etsy?

[SheByTheSeaStickers]

@PreciousNewbornKnits  Isn't it strange.....I HAD to purchase using Etsy postage as click & drop wouldn't work for me.

Mac, Firefox

[BelieveToBeBeautiful · Accepted solution]

Seems that the changes have not caused any real issues. Someone at the PO was able to do Tracked48 when we were there this am so maybe that was a local blip? Thanks everyone for your input to the discussion. I can see that there are many more postage options with RM and ways to offer my customers cheaper shipping going forward. 

[CharmaramaCo]

I've made some progress which hopefully will help anyone not able to print labels: On the Royal Mail Click & Drop website, it seems that orders sitting in there from before the Royal Mail price change (last night?) won't work, they sit with spinning wheel, then pending and then fail. But orders since the price change seem to work. The way to print the labels for the pre-price change orders is to clone them — this option is under the dropdown menu where the orders are listed; this is quicker than re-entering orders.
I've tried to print labels from Etsy but they are not working, although I have not tried the orders I have received since the price change so maybe those will work OK.
Bottom line is that the price change by Royal Mail seems to be the cause of all these problems — absolutely unbelievable that they wouldn't bother to put up a notice somewhere to advise customers of the error and a quick couple of lines of instruction to get around it.