Cheap Parcel Delivery - official discussion

[MSE Rose]

Hi all,

This is the new discussion for the Cheap Parcel Delivery article, so please post your feedback on your parcel delivery experiences.

The previous five discussions have now been closed, but can be found here for reference: Thread 1, Thread 2, Thread 3, Thread 4, Thread 5.

Note:

This thread is meant for posting genuine feedback on experiences with budget courier re-sellers, not for promoting or slandering companies or other forumers involved. Posts which don't abide by the Forum Rules will be deleted. Please don't do business with websites which lack fundamental adherence to regulations, especially those that don't have a privacy policy; there's no comeback.

Thanks,

MSE Rose

[vet8]

I will start this thread by saying Avoid Hermes.

I have literally been waiting 6 weeks now for parcels from 2 different companies. Hermes will not deliver if you live in an unadopted road, they have confirmed that to me. They are supposed to then transfer the parcel to UPS who come in a van, but even though the companies have now sent 5 different parcels between them none have arrived. Apparently the parcels are too small to go to UPS so Hermes will not deliver then and will not pass them on so I do not get them.

Ebay sellers, be warned you are liable for a lot of negative feedback if you use this firm. From what I understand they are good if things go smoothly, but if there are any problems they are USELESS.

[richto]

What is the cheapest current non guranteed next courier service for circa 10KG please?

[Obviously the best]

Originally Posted by richto

What is the cheapest current non guranteed next courier service for circa 10KG please?

Depends on dimensions

[techspec]

Yodel, Collect Plus (Also Yodel) and MyHermes have been all over the place last few weeks, and probably will be until after christmas.

Might be worth paying the extra to Royal Mail in some cases.

[dsided]

I'm surprised there was no mention of parcel aggregators such as parcel2go (parcel2go dot com) or parcelmonkey (parcelmonkey dot co dot uk

These can cut a few pence off the list price, and for heavier or unusual items can offer the best price from larger companies such as FedEd, UPS etc.

Also worth noting for sending bulky items (such as a pram) parcel force is the cheapest at £12.50.

[Iwork2shop]

I've used collect+drop twice in recent weeks to send eBay items. Both times the parcels have arrived quickly and I have received good feedback. I particularly like the convenience of paying for the postage via PayPal, printing off the postage label and dropping it off at a local shop.

I've also used 'parcel to go' twice. Again the parcels arrived quickly but I didn't like the fact that the parcels are collected from my home sometime between 9am and 5pm so I have to plan to be at home all day.

[gareththered]

Hi,

I've noticed that Parcelforce come up cheap on these websites. Has anyone used Parcelforce this way? I need to send a large (but light) parcel to Australia and it's about half the original price using Parcel Monkey.

Thanks

[ampersand]

Originally Posted by gareththered

Hi,

I've noticed that Parcelforce come up cheap on these websites. Has anyone used Parcelforce this way? I need to send a large (but light) parcel to Australia and it's about half the original price using Parcel Monkey.

Thanks

#######
Please clarify - you seem to be praising parcelforce, so do you mean THEY are half the cost of Parcel Monkey, or vice versa?

Thankyou. I have a family box to send to NZ.

[simplydevine05]

I use Collect Plus (Yodel) anywhere up to ten times a week and have been doing so for around eight months. I have never had a single problem, 90% of my parcels arrive within two days when the service is a 3-5 day one. When things have gone wrong (even on my part), they have resolved everything I've thrown at them within a few hours. Their customer service staff are brilliant and they're open later than most. I also find it very convenient to not have to stay in all day for a collection but instead drop off at my local shop that is open until 9pm. Their prices are the best I've found but the maximum size requirements are restrictive. Don't book through parcel2go but direct at collectplus.co.uk as if you book direct you get £50 compensation cover automatically instead of £20.

[simplydevine05]

Originally Posted by ampersand

#######
Please clarify - you seem to be praising parcelforce, so do you mean THEY are half the cost of Parcel Monkey, or vice versa?

Thankyou. I have a family box to send to NZ.

I think they mean book parcel force via parcel monkey who are an intermediary and it is cheaper than booking with parcel force direct.

[fivespud364]

If you send parcels regularly it is worth talking to parcelforce we have a pay and go account with them which means I pay for them online and they collect from me when I have parcels booked in as opposed to a regular daily collection and pay £7.57 for all parcels up to 30kg in weight which includes VAT which we can claim back bringing it down to £6.31. We send all orders over 1.5kg by parcelforce the rest go Royal Mail. We are sending vegetable plants so delivery timing is critical and safe delivery without damage. we send 24 hr delivery so it is cheaper still for 48hr or 3 day delivery.

The most important thing for us is that they are delivered fast and undamaged and with parcelforce I would say over 99% are and we ship about 300 orders a month peak season and we have been with parcelforce for 2 years now We have used City Link and Interlink Express in the past and both were seriously bad for delivering on time and damage we used to get up to 4 or 5 a week either not delivered on time or damaged we had reports of plant parcels being chucked over a 6 foot gate and one was found under a hedge of an empty house down the road from where it was supposed to have gone two months later when a gardener was clearing the garden for a new tenant.

[Cordy]

I'm confused. Sending a 1kg package to Australia for Christmas is £28.88 by Transglobal express ( Martin's best buy for worldwide delivery), but Royal Mail small packet (for gifts) is £14.66.

Am I missing the point of the article, "If it weighs more than 750g, you can save an absolute packet (sorry) by using a discount web courier service instead of the Royal Mail" ?

[davegood]

I would never ever use COLLECT PLUS
I sell laptops and had used COLLECT PLUS before once or twice, then I sold 6 refurbished laptops via ebay packed them up in identical boxes and posted them off all to be signed for on delivery, 2 went missing entirely with no trace on the system after initial collection in Leeds, one which was supposed to go to Surrey was delivered and signed for by someone in Leeds, COLLECT PLUS can't find the paper work or trace where it was actually delivered to, another was allegedly delivered to customer and signed for by customer who flatly denies it, again COLLECT PLUS have no paper work that they can find,
customer service is non exsistent, I must have rung about 30 times and been promised call backs and had none, emailed complaint to manager and head office numerous times and still not been contacted,so to cut a long story short was refunded aprox £50 for each laptop, and had to refund customers aprox £1200 through paypal for non delivery of laptops

[davidsuffolk]

You must speak as you find but I have used MyHermes many times without problem. I needed to send a bench grinder recently; Royal Mail was around £21 and MyHermes under £7.
As long as you can accept they are slow at 4-5 days, so far I have been completely happy.
Most problems with any courier are the driver doing the final leg. Good driver = happy customer, poor or careless driver = problem and this will apply with them all including UPS, DHL Yodel etc etc.

[tony gp]

I run a company that does a lot of mail order in the uk & abroad, for uk mainland we use & have an account with ukmail which are very good on price & excellent on service. they also do a bagit service for items that would fit in a bag they supply them in 4 sizes (from £3.50 next day)
we use parcel2go for most international parcels as they are the best on price we have found with good customer service with their online chat help service (only had a couple of minor problems in 2 years of using them & they were sorted out very promptly)
Have used hermes but they never collected the day they were supposed to & had a couldnt care less attitude - never again.
Beware of parcelmonkey we did use them for a short while but they kept charging our credit card with extra fees (quite large £10-£25 a time) saying that the parcel was wrongly measured but couldnt offer proof from the courier- we send 100's of parcels out so we know how to weigh & measure them- strangely these were with ups & fedex who we use through parcel2go now & have never had an extra charge with them.
hope this helps
tony

[tony gp]

Originally Posted by gareththered

Hi,

I've noticed that Parcelforce come up cheap on these websites. Has anyone used Parcelforce this way? I need to send a large (but light) parcel to Australia and it's about half the original price using Parcel Monkey.

Thanks

we use parcel2go using parcelforce even cheaper & better service
unfortunately large parcels are measured by volume as well as weight so it may not be cheap

[proptilyoudrop]

Hi. Can anyone help with shipping from US to UK please? I tried companies mentioned here but they charge more than 4 times what they charge from UK to US. Tried EBAY, but no luck.
Thanks

[moxxy-girl]

You can only speak of your own experiences :
I have recently started using MyHermes ( 5 times in last 3 weeks) and have used both courier pick up and local shop drop off. I have found them cheap and efficient.
Personally they get the thumbs up from me

[critchley999]

I'm confused.

Booked a parcel collection through Parcel2Go website and Yodel seemed a good deal so went for them. Due to be collected on Monday. Waited in all day and at 7pm (the latest they work) I went on to Live Chat to ask what had happened. They were very apologetic and said they would rebook with TNT as in their words "they are more reliable". Had to print off new labels and paperwork and it was duly collected Tuesday afternoon.

I just tracked the parcel and it said the usual things about received in Crawley Depot, then received at Rotherham depot, then it said:

05/12/2012 11:57:00 ROTHERHAM Receiver not home. Follow up action underway.

but then it said:

05/12/2012 20:36:00 ROTHERHAM Held awaiting customs clearance

Anyone know what that's all about?? Does that mean they're going to open it do you think? It's only a doll.