Taking effect from May 1, Royal Mail has reintroduced its fee to collect parcels from home. In an announcement that left customers furious, the company said the previously free collection had been part of a promotional period, which has now ended after several years. Royal Mail is now charging a 30p fee to collect parcels from homes.

In 2020, the cost was 72p per parcel, but the charge was dropped in March 2021 to encourage people to use the service. The change has caused frustration especially for small business owners and eBay sellers who rely heavily on doorstep collections. The charge is applied when you arrange home collections on royalmail.com, and is added on top of the cost of postage, which can be bought either from Royal Mail directly or a marketplace site like eBay.co.uk.

Senders can avoid the fee by dropping parcels off at Post Offices, postboxes or post lockers for free. Some customers are now worried the charge might cripple their small business.

One frequent parcel-sender said on X: "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 added: "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."

But some are not surprised about the change.

A Reddit user commented: "I've always been expecting it, it can't be sustainable for them to collect for free."

A spokesperson for Royal Mail 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."

Royal Mail increased stamp prices last month, sparking frustration among many households. As of April 7, the price of a first-class stamp rose by 5p to £1.70, while second-class stamps went up by 2p, now costing 87p.

Larger items saw even steeper hikes. Sending a first-class large letter weighing up to 100g now costs £3.15, a sharp rise from the previous £2.60. The price of a first-class small parcel up to 2kg also climbed from £4.79 to £4.99, while the second-class equivalent increased from £3.75 to £3.90.