u/CognitorX

Has anyone else noticed how much sea bass fillets have gone up recently?

At Aldi, the 180g Sea Bass Fillets (The Fishmonger) went from £2.89 to £3.79 — that's a 31% increase.

At Sainsbury's, the generic sea bass went from around £3 to £5.75 — nearly double what it used to be.

These aren't premium or fancy products, just regular supermarket sea bass. Is this a seasonal thing? A supply issue? Or are these prices just here to stay now?

Would love to know if anyone has had any official response from either supermarket, or if there's a wider reason behind it — overfishing concerns, fuel costs, import prices?

Been holding VUAG and ACWI as my core for a while now and while they're doing fine, I'm honestly a bit bored of them. They're great but they feel like parking money rather than actually investing.

I've been doing a lot of research this week and I'm thinking of putting around £3,000 split across two positions inside my Stocks & Shares ISA:

• BRWM (BlackRock World Mining Trust) — copper, gold, iron ore, mining majors. The thesis being the AI energy infrastructure buildout + energy transition = structural metal demand for years. Just had their best year ever in 2025 (+74% NAV). Currently near its 52-week high around 989p but the managers are bullish on H2 2026. Anyone holding this?
• AVSG (Avantis Global Small Cap Value ETF) — this one is less obvious but it's a factor play (small cap + value + profitability). +28% in its first year. I like it because everything else I hold is large-cap growth — NVDA, AAPL, AMZN, META etc — so this feels like genuine diversification rather than just buying more of the same.

Longer term I also have my eye on STAN (Standard Chartered) but I'm waiting for a pullback from its current near 52-week high (~1,888p). The Asia/EM banking exposure appeals since I'm already heavy LLOY and BARC for UK banking.

A few things I'd love to hear thoughts on:

1. Is BRWM still worth entering after such a strong run, or is the mining cycle too extended?
2. Does the AVSG small-cap value factor thesis hold up in the current macro environment (Iran war, elevated rates, potential stagflation)?
3. Anyone holding STAN — do you think there's still meaningful upside at current levels or is the re-rating largely priced in? Is it worth it to reduce BARC, LLOY or HSBC in STAN's favour now when it's at all-time highs?

Not looking for financial advice obviously, just genuinely curious what the community thinks. Been lurking here for a while and always find the discussion useful.

Hello everyone,

I’m constantly looking for an AI agent that can handle most email tickets automatically, but I’m struggling to find a setup that actually makes sense financially.

Is there any way to connect existing Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini accounts to Zendesk, either directly, through something native in Zendesk, or via a third-party app?

I’ve noticed that a lot of automated ticket-resolution services are extremely expensive, often around $1+ per ticket.

Personally, I can answer up to 60 emails in 60 minutes, and I could also hire someone for much less than that to handle the replies manually.

The goal is to save time, but also save money — not replace one cost with an even higher one.

Has anyone found a practical, affordable setup that works well for ecommerce support tickets? That actually responds ,or make changed to the Shopify order etc.

I’m asking other UK small business owners who use Royal Mail business accounts: how are you dealing with invoice adjustments, correction charges and the endless surcharges?

I recently saw another business say they were hit with around £15k in retrospective Royal Mail surcharges, with no proper warning, and it made me wonder whether enough of us are actually checking and challenging these charges properly.

For anyone shipping regularly with Royal Mail, do you dispute every adjustment line, or do you usually just pay the invoice and move on?

Here's what I do but if you can help me add something else, please do it.

My advice is simple: open a customer support case for every single invoice where they add adjustment lines, correction charges, oversize charges, unreadable barcode charges, wrong format charges, or anything similar.

Do not just pay it quietly.

Make them justify every penny.

>You can submit invoice/payment disputes here:

>https://help.royalmail.com/s/contactfinance

You’ll need your Royal Mail account number, invoice number, and the details of the disputed charges.

In the details box, I’d write something like this:

Hello,

I am disputing the adjustment/correction charges applied to invoice [INVOICE NUMBER] on account [ACCOUNT NUMBER].

Please provide a full breakdown of each adjustment line, including the adjustment code, item reference/tracking number, date processed, declared service, alleged corrected service/format/weight/size, and the exact reason for the charge.

For each and every disputed item, please also provide clear photographic evidence showing the original parcel, the original label, the measured dimensions/weight where relevant, and the specific reason why the surcharge was applied.

Please do not provide a generic response such as “items exceeded specification”. I require evidence for each individual charge, because these charges materially affect our business costs and we need to verify whether they are accurate.

Until this evidence is provided, we do not accept these adjustment charges as valid.

Also, remember that from 3 May 2026 Royal Mail are increasing the Fuel and Energy Surcharge from 11% to 16%, and the International Surcharge from 6.5% to 12%.

So before blindly using your business account, compare the total cost against the public Royal Mail website for the same service. The website prices are usually all-inclusive, and you can pay by PayPal or credit card, potentially earning rewards too.

Also look again at 1st Class, 2nd Class, stamps, Post Office pricing, and VAT-exempt services. Depending on your weights and formats, some “old school” options may work out cheaper than CRL/Tracked business services once VAT, fuel surcharge, green levy, peak surcharge and other extras are added.

The maddest part is the compensation side.

Royal Mail’s own business claims wording says:

>“No loss or damage compensation is available for untracked contract services posted using a Royal Mail account…”

So you can end up in the ridiculous position where the so-called “business” services — such as RM24 and RM48 under the CRL code — cost more once VAT, fuel surcharge, green levy, peak surcharge and other extras are added, yet still offer no loss or damage protection.

Meanwhile, the cheaper/basic options, like VAT-exempt 1st Class, 2nd Class, Royal Mail Signed For, and some International Standard/Economy services posted on account, can still include compensation cover for up to £20

>For Business Accounts you can submit claims for loss for even untracked 1st and 2nd class here: https://help.royalmail.com/s/accountclaims

>For postage purchased at www.royalmail.com or Post Office use this: https://help.royalmail.com/s/onlineclaim

So the cheapest option may actually give you more protection, not less.

That is exactly why every business needs to compare the real final cost, not just the headline business account rate.

So some business account services can end up costing more once all the extras are added, but still give you less protection than basic 1st/2nd Class-type options that can include up to £20 compensation.

How does that make sense?

Check your invoice line by line. Check every adjustment code. Ask for proof. Compare business account pricing against retail pricing. Weigh your parcels properly. Check whether Large Letter, 1st Class, 2nd Class, Signed For, stamps, Post Office, or the Royal Mail website works out better.

Do not let “small” surcharges quietly become thousands of pounds.

And calculate the risk properly: is it worth paying all the extra surcharges for a service with limited protection, or does it make more sense to use a cheaper untracked option that still allows claims of up to £20 when something goes wrong?

Every penny matters! Am I missing something?