Auspost Service Prices

The current Auspost international options defy imagination. The executives must be getting larger bonuses for coming up with this.

From their web site: Australia to the USA with basic tracking, minimum cost:
Letter (Express) - $31.45 (250g)
Standard Parcel - $19.95 (250g)

Send a letter and pay extra as compared to classing it as a parcel. Yesterday I posted a letter and asked about tracking and was not told it could be sent as a parcel only as a $31.45 express letter. I elected to go with the basic $3.50 airmail even though Auspost or the USPS lost one and this was the replacement. Hopefully two times is the charm?

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Is one by air and the other by sea?

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No, both are air. I may be corrected but the only relevant difference I can discern is one is a letter and the other is a small, thin parcel.

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Hi Phil,

Thanks for reminding us about some of the oddities regarding postage charges. A helpful staff member once pointed these out to me.

From the AP website, there are differences in the delivery time estimates and other features.

For the $3.50 letter option.

For the $31.45 letter option.

For the $19.95 small parcel option.

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I was aware of those product features. They are ‘in one’s face’ on the Auspost website when looking for postal costs. From my perspective the delivery times for the Express and Standard are the same as they overlap and are indeed ‘estimates’. Some of my dated experiences are chronicled in Fun with Auspost.

Tracking Auspost style is in reality like a Airtag with a dodgy battery. You might know where it is, but you might not because of the lack of rigour in scanning except at the point of receipt at the PO and at delivery.

There does not appear to be any reasonably priced (in my eyes, say $10-15) internationally tracked letter product except Standard parcel that simply (is supposed to) advise where the item is, or in cases the last place it was known to be prior to having gone missing.

Once upon a time there was ‘priority mail international’ that met that criteria. It seems gone into history.

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Totally agree. I now buy through Amazon USA website if I want to send a gift to my daughter.

The Auspost international mail cost are appalling high. I mentioned my problem in June this year when a C5 envelope as a letter was changed to a parcel rate, (less than 250g) to the UK, that cost me $14.50 for a parcel, when previously for past 10 years, before Auspost changed the dimensions of the envelope, it cost $3.50. However, to my amazement, the same size envelope with my hand painted Christmas card was “special price” to UK was $2.60 if I endorsed it with ‘Geeting card only’ during November & December. The card was sent by airmail, so why has the Auspost made the delivery of the same size envelope with a birthday card during the rest of the year so expensive at $14.40? Auspost is losing massive amounts of money as clients are sending Christmas greeting cards by email. They need to do some lateral thinking to their business model, or paper letters will be consigned to history as the telegram has.
International Economy - Australia Post

You may have answered why Auspost has decided so!

Quite the reverse, actually. The Letters division of Australia Post has lost money for years. The fewer people who send postal mail the less money they lose.

Parcels is where it it is at. Letters are a lost (and lossmaking) cause and have no future.

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If we accept that as fact, what are the down sides if that service was to cease and which consumers will it adversely affect?

Similar to the seperate discussion of a cashless society, what would it take to provide a mail free society?

P.S.
Saying goodbye to posted mail services, what do you think?

A post was merged into an existing topic: Posted Mail Services - is it time to say Goodbye?

A post was merged into an existing topic: Posted Mail Services - is it time to say Goodbye?