Petitioning Royal Mail about shipping paints!

[joroas]

signed.

[Sangennaru]

Me too. Definitely ridiculous.

[Rivera]

Well and truly signed.

[Leon Pendraken]

Speaking of shipping, Leon, please can I have my order that I placed 12 days ago (8944) - thanking you!  

Apologies for the delay, with all the preparation for Smoggycon I've dropped behind on my casting, so I'll be getting straight into the pile on Monday and I should hopefully have yours done asap for you.

[Wirelizard]

Is it worthwhile for those of us from the colonies to sign this thing, or should we leave it up to the actual Brits?

I don't do quite as much mail order from the UK as in years past, but a pretty good chunk of my wargaming budget still goes to Airstrip One and leaves via Royal Mail...

[moonshado]

@ Wirelizard f the Post Offices restrictions will affect you then feel free to sign the petition. It may be helpful if they realise when they read the petition that it is not just Brits who will will be hurt by their inane bureaucracy.

[Conquistador]

@ Wirelizard f the Post Offices restrictions will affect you then feel free to sign the petition. It may be helpful if they realise when they read the petition that it is not just Brits who will will be hurt by their inane bureaucracy.

Working in one of the "greatest" bureaucracies in our time my fear is that the Royal Mail may acknowledge the impact but

A) Not Care and/or

B) claim it can't change because of "Law/Guidance/administrative decision that acts as law" considerations and/or

C) Bury the petition in "process"

Gracias,

Glenn

[Conquistador]

Is it worthwhile for those of us from the colonies to sign this thing, or should we leave it up to the actual Brits?

I don't do quite as much mail order from the UK as in years past, but a pretty good chunk of my wargaming budget still goes to Airstrip One and leaves via Royal Mail...

My concern was if it was appropriate - do they check to see of the signatures are from UK citizens and will that reduce the impact?

How appropriate is it for a non-UK citizen to try and change how a UK entity behaves in its own matters?

Paint shipping issues in the UK mail don't affect me personally but that is not the reason I don't put my name on a petition like this.  I really would like to hear/see/read the reasoning behind this decision first.

Gracias,

Glenn

[Too Bo Coo]

Working in one of the "greatest" bureaucracies in our time my fear is that the Royal Mail may acknowledge the impact but

A) Not Care and/or

B) claim it can't change because of "Law/Guidance/administrative decision that acts as law" considerations and/or

C) Bury the petition in "process"

Gracias,

Glenn

Hmm... The UK, USA, I have experience with both the Dutch and Russian bureaucracies as well..... are they all the same?!?!  Awful and seemingly monolithic!?!?!

[Too Bo Coo]

My concern was if it was appropriate - do they check to see of the signatures are from UK citizens and will that reduce the impact?

How appropriate is it for a non-UK citizen to try and change how a UK entity behaves in its own matters?

Paint shipping issues in the UK mail don't affect me personally but that is not the reason I don't put my name on a petition like this.  I really would like to hear/see/read the reasoning behind this decision first.

Gracias,

Glenn

I had the same concern.  As non-constituents, would it make a positive impact or detract from the effort?

[moonshado]

I think there may be some confusion due to the fact that we Brits are still referring to it as the Royal Mail. Earlier this year the government sold off the Royal Mail. It is now a private company whose shares can be bought and sold on the stock market. There is no longer a connection to the royalty and government(unless Her Majesty has some bought some shares for her portfolio).  So like any private company out to make a profit it will listen to anyone - British, American, Samoan or Martian , provided their opinion is liable to have an impact on the company's profits and more importantly their directors' bonuses. So please sign up if it affects you. This is not a private British party everyone is welcome.

[Conquistador]

Hmm... The UK, USA, I have experience with both the Dutch and Russian bureaucracies as well..... are they all the same?!?!  Awful and seemingly monolithic!?!?!

While Asian history is not my forte' I trace the bureaucracy as we know it to them as descending from the ancient Chinese culture where the purpose was to keep Emperor "A" from screwing things up so badly that Emperor "B" couldn't fix the mistake without the empire imploding or collapsing under stress of the outside forces.  Actually many (not all) bureaucracies do that really well.   Government, private, or mixed (USPS) they all can excel at preventing excess.  Not that they always do that but it is their strength of the organization.

Where they lack is two fold - innovation and reacting to bad decisions implemented.

Gracias,

Glenn

[Ray Rivers]

Gads...

An amazing regulation which will cost UK businesses money.

I'm sure I'll be able to get the stuff I absolutely need but overall it will simply push me to buy my paints from European suppliers.

[Too Bo Coo]

I think there may be some confusion due to the fact that we Brits are still referring to it as the Royal Mail. Earlier this year the government sold off the Royal Mail. It is now a private company whose shares can be bought and sold on the stock market. There is no longer a connection to the royalty and government(unless Her Majesty has some bought some shares for her portfolio).  So like any private company out to make a profit it will listen to anyone - British, American, Samoan or Martian , provided their opinion is liable to have an impact on the company's profits and more importantly their directors' bonuses. So please sign up if it affects you. This is not a private British party everyone is welcome.

I'm very sad to read that...  There are moves to take the USPS to the private side, having lived in the US and living now with TNT in the Netherlands i can say that the USPS is faster, cheaper and has better service.  One can argue that their charter forbidding the turning of a profit went a long way to creating this distinction.

[Silent Invader]

Looks like the new wording was covered by this RM consultation document sent out in April 2013.

Pages 25-26 show the introduction of max 4 items.

http://www.royalmailgroup.com/sites/default/files/RM%20UK%20Post%20Scheme%20DG%20Changes%20condoc%20April%2013.pdf

This consultation was for customers who do not have an account contract with RM, the consultation being a legal requirement.

Business customers who do have an account contract had been subject to the same rules since January 2013, that seem to have been introduced in conjunction with changes for carrying dangerous goods.

Last year, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), Department for Transport (DfT) and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) agreed new rules with Royal Mail Group for sending small quantities of specific consumer items through the post, which have been effective since 14 January 2013.

We wrote to all our contract and account customers on 31 October 2012 to notify you of these changes, which affected what you can and cannot send in the post to both UK and international destinations.

The quote is from the 2/4/13 entry here

http://www.royalmail.com/termschanges#Dangerous%20goods%20–%20important%20changes

And there's also some stuff in the 14/1/13 entry that includes a reference to NEW restricted guidelines

Specific conditions covering lithium batteries contained in a device and prescription medicines not classified as dangerous goods, together with details of volume/battery capacity, quantity, packaging and labelling requirements which apply are detailed in our new guide to Prohibited and Restricted items  .

With a link in that quote to prohibited and restricted items going here

http://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/Royal-Mail-Prohibitions-and-restrictions-domestic-internationa-Jan-2013_2.pdf

Which was published effective 14/1/13 and includes the same new wordage limiting paint to 4 pots.

So I'd say the decision preceded 14/1/13 and the proposal preceded 31/10/12 and possibly came about from or coincidental to RM discussions with the CAA, DfT and MCA.