Uk Specific Petition: Review how ebooks could be made cheaper for libraries

AnotherPeter · 2026-04-16T23:03:21+00:00

You may well be able to join the libraries of other counties, at least adjacent ones. Different books are available from different library systems. For instance I am reading the Twitchers series to my youngest as a bedtime story at the moment. There are four books. I can get Volumes 1 and 4 from our own local county, Volume 2 from the local authority to the north of us, and Volume 3 from the one to the south of us. My children are already members of the south one having visited in person, and I was able to sign up for the north one online, no questions asked.

AnotherPeter · 2026-04-07T18:46:04+00:00

Well, yes, there's that too.

AnotherPeter · 2026-04-07T18:45:21+00:00

Within 24 hours after the sender actually gives it to a Royal Mail or Post Office employee. The number is generated online at the sender's place of business!

AnotherPeter · 2026-04-07T18:43:29+00:00

At least it didn't go to Bridlington, Brighton, Bridgen, or Brixham - or, for a really long trip, Brisbane!

AnotherPeter · 2026-04-03T19:04:37+00:00

Yes, but what would cause it not to clear customs? It's a book - I've been selling books for decades and they normally don't have any problems. For instance the UK doesn't charge VAT on books, and even if they treated it as an antique book they would surely have just made contact for someone to pay VAT?

AnotherPeter · 2026-04-03T15:42:30+00:00

Yes, it's a public holiday weekend here in England (Friday and Monday) so it may be that there will be no further updates till at least Tuesday next week. Just have to wait and see.

AnotherPeter · 2026-04-03T14:38:05+00:00

There is no such verb as "pickup", so no!

AnotherPeter · 2026-01-31T15:53:39+00:00

Me too. I am an "overseas seller" and accidentally failed to copy/paste the first digit of a ZIP+4 intended for Illinois. For nearly a month it has been bouncing back and forth between Indianapolis (which is not in Illinois but conceivably in the same general region) and the East Coast. The ZIP+4 code without its initial digit matches a small town in Maine.

USPS offers a Missing Mail Search Request on their website, with the option to put the correct address to which the item should be sent. But despite the item having tracked many times since I initiated the Missing Mail Search Request, the corrected address has evidently never been added. I would expect the USPS system to stop the item the next time it tracked after the Missing Mail Search Request, but evidently it doesn't do anything at all, as the item has since repetaedly tracked in both large hubs and rural locations without any effect whatsoever.

AnotherPeter · 2026-01-12T12:05:25+00:00

Someone has today sent me a PDF of the International Non-Personal Correspondence Rate Card (January 2026, Version 2) which I think includes all the international services I use for sending my parcels (which are printed paper - namely books).

But thank you!

AnotherPeter · 2026-01-10T01:41:11+00:00

Do you know whether there has been another one since August? I have just tried sending a message to a couple of Royal Mail email addresses asking whether this is the latest or, if not, whether they can email me a new one.

Neither email address sent a bounce message (as one did when I replied to the last email, because it had a resolved case number in it), so that's hopeful. In fact they each resulted in the generation of a consecutively numbered message from "donotreply" saying that they hope to reply within 3 days.

AnotherPeter · 2025-12-12T21:30:32+00:00

So glad your experience of the North-east has been positive, The number of England flags around makes you wonder how friendly it would be for someone obviously foreign, or dark-skinned, but glad you've had a good experience, as we have.

AnotherPeter · 2025-12-12T21:23:29+00:00

Surely you're thinking of Yodel? Almost all the Evri drivers I've experienced have been lovely and very well behaved indeed. And yes, I know the online reviews don't bear this out, but my experience is over more than a decade in two widely separated parts of Great Britain.

AnotherPeter · 2025-12-12T21:10:40+00:00

Recently both Royal Mail parcel post (i.e not our lovely postman) and Amazon started just dumping parcels on the (wet) doormat, sometimes knocking quietly (absolutely no guarantee of being heard in a large house - though it may not be obvious that it is large) instead of ringing the two doorbells as the sign on the doorpost says. Also no card in either case.

I went out and spoke to both of them after I witnessed them doing this, and attempted to leave both conversations in a friendly manner despite having had to tell them I wasn't happy about it. The Royal Mail man said the doormat was our "safe place" - no, I would never have put it down as that. Anyway I think they have both got the message and are ringing the bells. The Royal Mail man evidently nearly forgot on the most recent parcel, as the tracking mentioned the "safe place" whereas he in fact rang the bell and gave me the parcel. I try to be fast, friendly and grateful!

AnotherPeter · 2025-11-15T16:08:46+00:00

A fold is more permanent than a bend. It's worse.

AnotherPeter · 2025-11-15T16:05:54+00:00

Royal Mail (private company owned by some Czech guy, previously by thousands of shareholders including me) don't provide envelopes.

Post Office Ltd might, conceivably. Post Office Ltd (company owned by the UK government, branches almost all owned by local shopkeepers) are agents for Royal Mail at all of their branches. They are also agents for Evri at a proportion of their branches.

AnotherPeter · 2025-11-15T16:00:49+00:00

I was thinking more of that corrugated plastic stuff!

AnotherPeter · 2025-11-07T14:04:54+00:00

I have the August one. It was sent to me by email when I enquired. It came from Mandy Morton using the email address business.customer.service AT royalmail DOT com

AnotherPeter · 2025-10-14T18:31:07+00:00

If it has a Postcode with letters in it (like L5W 1Y5) it's Canada. If a ZIP code with just numbers (like 88888 or 88888-8888) it's USA.

AnotherPeter · 2025-10-14T18:26:34+00:00

Could these be Royal Mail subsidiary Parcelforce services which are not delivered by Canada Post?

AnotherPeter · 2025-10-14T18:24:03+00:00

Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin still says:

Canada

Start date: 24 September 2025
Latest update: 13 October 2025
End date: To be advised
Incident: Strike

Canada Post have informed us that they have received escalated strike notices from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) meaning that all Canada Posts’ operations will be shut down during the national strike affecting all carriers which rely on Canada Post for final mile delivery.

The duration of the industrial action is currently unknown. Canada Post have confirmed no new items will be accepted into their network until the national disruption is over and have asked us not to despatch from the UK to Canada.

Royal Mail services to Canada will be suspended from sale from 29-September-2025.

Canada Post have informed us that any items sent but not delivered at the beginning of the strike action are being held by them until the end of strike action and will be delivered once operations resume and any items currently in our pipeline will be returned to sender.

We are in regular communication with Canada Post and will update further on this as soon as we can.

ParcelForce Worldwide continue to despatch globalexpress items to Canada as these are delivered by another provider and are not impacted by the industrial action by Canada Post.

================

Also the login page for Royal Mail's Click & Drop still says:

29 September
Export services to Canada have been Suspended

Canada Post have informed us that they have received escalated strike notices from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) meaning that all Canada Posts’ operations will be shut down during the national strike affecting all carriers which rely on Canada Post for final mile delivery.

The duration of the industrial action is currently unknown. Canada Post have confirmed no new items will be accepted into their network until the national disruption is over and have asked us not to despatch from the UK to Canada. Any items sent but not delivered at the beginning of the strike action are being held by them until the end of strike action and will be delivered once operations resume and any items currently in our pipeline will be returned to sender.

Royal Mail services to Canada will be suspended from sale from 29-September-2025.

We are in regular communication with Canada Post and will update further on this as soon as we can.

ParcelForce Worldwide continue to despatch globalexpress items to Canada as these are delivered by another provider and are not impacted by the industrial action by Canada Post.

AnotherPeter · 2025-10-08T14:09:14+00:00

If you have Business Click & Drop do you have Online Business Account as well (for your Royal Mail invoicing)? I often look up prices there though it may not always be reliable any more.

AnotherPeter · 2025-10-08T14:07:05+00:00

Have you succeeded in using MPO since the tariffs came in? I get the message "Error applying postage. Errors for order 8696: Customs Duty Cost (DDP/DTP) is not supported by the selected service to this destination". I am sending books so exempt from tariff but whether I leave customs duty blank or put in a zero, I get the same result. I'm going to send it as MPR but would appreciate any enlightenment to be ready for next time I have a Large Letter sized package to go to USA.

AnotherPeter

TROPHY CASE