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Royal Mail reintroduced a fee to collect parcels from homes this month – leaving some customers furious.
The 30p charge came in on May 1, ending a free collection promotional period, which lasted for several years.
Back in 2020, the service cost 72p per parcel, but the charge was dropped in March 2021 to encourage more people to use it.
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But the change has frustrated small business owners and eBay sellers, who heavily relied on the doorstep collections.
Charges apply to those who arrange home collections Royal Mail’s website, The Express reports.
It’s added on to the cost of postage, which can be bought either from Royal Mail directly or a marketplace site such as eBay.
However there is a way to avoid the fee, but it involves senders dropping parcels off at Post Offices, postboxes or post lockers.
Taking to X to complain about the change, one frequent parcel-sender said: “Not sure who thought it was a good idea to charge 30p for collections.
“Shame as I really enjoyed the interaction with the postman. I guess I’ll be taking them to the PO (Post Office) again from here on out.”
Another wrote: “When did you sneakily add a 30p collection charge onto collected items from home?
“Don’t recall seeing anything about it or in app alert.”
Others were not surprised about the change, including a Reddit user who said: “I’ve always been expecting it, it can’t be sustainable for them to collect for free.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “After a promotional period, we’re now reintroducing a 30p charge to our Parcel Collect service.
“Parcel Collect makes it easy to send and return items straight from your doorstep.
“Customers also have thousands of free options with our expanding network of lockers, parcel shops and the option to send small packages via our 115,000 postboxes – giving them more choice than ever.”
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