http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-33242042

About fcuking time this made the news - the courier companies should be dragged into the spotlight too. And it goes way wider than deliveries within the UK.

It's entirely down to the courier companies. The retailers are just passing on the extra that they have been charged.

As someone who sells quite a bit a stuff on eBay, my heart always sinks when I discover that the winning bid for something big and heavy comes from NI or the Scottish highlands and islands. I try and be accommodating, but on a couple of occasions the increased delivery costs would have meant I would have lost money overall on the sale trying to cover them.

I've sent items to NI at no extra cost, compared with UK mainland postal rates - I often see "does not post to the Isle of Wight" on ebay listings, but a simple message sorts out it pretty quickly - although I have had the occasional numpty who refuses. Fair enough, I'll buy elsewhere.

You are fine sending things all over the UK including NI using Royal Mail. However once you start sending things that are bigger or heavier than their "Medium Parcel" size it become much cheaper to use a courier service like UPS. Also RM doesn't offer adequate insurance on many items so I have go to another service to get them delivered.