new price for GRO certs

[Redroger]

You are right Geoff, the 18% is the overall figure, but the increase on certificates is as you say 32%, almost double inflation since 2003.

[Rah1980]

Blimey that is terrible, I have so many certs I want to order but had been spreading them out so that I don't have to pay alot of money all at once which was working well for me until this - crumbs! I don't suppose we are going to get anything back for the increase such as faster turn around. It seems to me whenever I order a cert they wait until the day before the despatch due date and search then, instead of just doing them as soon as they get chance so that we might be tempted to pay the extra for a quick delivery. I don't think that is anyway to run a service.

Anyway that is my moan over with, at least I have a few weeks to prepare which docs I want ordering - thanks to Fraser and Fraser for letting us all know!

Sarah 

[FraserandFraser]

What gets me is we order £100k + every year, we also pick up from Southport, the certs are never early always 24 hours or 4 days.

Occasional I get certs sent through the post by mistake with the GRO processing (they then produce a dupe for us to collect) and it arrives early or on the day I was meant to collect. so often I know that a postal service is better than the collect offered to account holders. i think gone are the days when certs took longer to produce than the 4 day turn around time, I am sure a lot of us can remember seeing the sign in the FRC saying production time was 10 days.

sorry I miss calculated the 18% it is 32% 7 pound to 9.25 is 2.25 not 1.25 like I worked out, (next time use a calculator rather than my head when speaking on the phone!!) lesson learnt.

[Sloe Gin]

I assume that local register offices will have to charge the same?

This is awful!  There are so many certs that I'd like to get, just to satisfy curiosity rather than to make tree progress.  Particularly now that Ancestry have made the later indexes searchable.  But I simply can't justify the expense.

I've always felt that if they charged half the price, they'd sell far more than twice the number.

[kerryb]

Wish my wages would rise at the same level 

I'm just glad I started some years ago and buy a lot less certificates these days than then!

Kerry

[Roger The Hat]

Thanks for passing on that information, Neil.

What is particularly irksome is that I completed a survey, requested by the GRO, less than two weeks ago.

One of the points I made was that £7 seemed quite a lot to pay for a photocopy certificate, especially for a lot of pensioners for whom genealogy is more than just a hobby.

At least I now know how highly the GRO value my opinion!


'Hat.

[Rah1980]

I long for the day when we can access the certs on line like you can on Scotlands people, it drives me crackers having to wait for the certs. It is about time we get up to date with having records on the internet, it is nearly an hours drive for me to get to my 'local' records office. Why local libraries can't have transcribed copies of their parish records I don't know, it might actually encourage people into libraries as well.

Sarah 

[Alan b]

I long for the day when we can access the certs on line like you can on Scotlands people, it drives me crackers having to wait for the certs.

Wasn't there some talk that this was going to happen and that work on it even started before being halted or am I dreaming it ?

I suppose we are all paying for the Government's massive debts. It was always going to happen one day but that is some increase.

[Plummiegirl]

My advice is if you are looking for London Ancestors go to the Marriage records on Ancestry or ask someone on here to look for you.

I have paid out a lot of money for marriage certs & when these early records were put onto Ancestry there were most of my London ones which I had already purchased.  I have now save around £70.00 with this Ancestry facility (helps towards paying the annual fee I on my part!!)
I noticed this thread & there is also one on the Genes community board.  I would not mind paying a little bit more +p&P, which I think would be more realistic.  
I have always thought that £7.00 all in was quite reasonable, they pay for the envelopes & the postage, good deal.  But how are they justifying this really sharp rise.  I know we have paid the same price for some years now, surely it would have been better if they had had a small rise annually rather than this exhorbitant rise (and probably prohibitive for some).  
Does the Government not realise that in all probability many people will now only order when absolultely necessary, thus leading to probably an overall loss.  Less people ordering certificates, less staff required, job cuts (oh I can feel a conspiracy theory builidng up here).  Oh deep joy.  What a great government we have.  They get us in every which way they can!!!