Cheap Parcel Delivery Official Discussion

woodface7

Anyone beat Royal Mail for a parcel to Australia?

1.9kg 13x29x37cm, £40 value, so compensation not that important. Nor is speed. (Though I'll avoid the 30-45 day service of one courier - do they use Captain Cook???)

Found nothing to beat Royal Mail Airmail @ £27.46 as H+L+W is under 90cm. Best I've found elsewhere is Parcel Monkey Air Express at £30.69 +99p for £100 cover.

A one-off, so not looking for bulk / contract outfit.

(I'm assuming Tasmania doesn't attract a surcharge - it isn't listed separately)

And since the postage is nearly the value of the item, I expect courier insurance only refunds the cost of the missing / damaged item, not the postage?

Obviously_the_best

woodface7 wrote: »

Anyone beat Royal Mail for a parcel to Australia?

1.9kg 13x29x37cm, £40 value, so compensation not that important. Nor is speed. (Though I'll avoid the 30-45 day service of one courier - do they use Captain Cook???)

Found nothing to beat Royal Mail Airmail @ £27.46 as H+L+W is under 90cm. Best I've found elsewhere is Parcel Monkey Air Express at £30.69 +99p for £100 cover.

A one-off, so not looking for bulk / contract outfit.

(I'm assuming Tasmania doesn't attract a surcharge - it isn't listed separately)

And since the postage is nearly the value of the item, I expect courier insurance only refunds the cost of the missing / damaged item, not the postage?

Same, best was Parcel Monkey

davewinston

Taadaa wrote: »

No Citylink. They have backed down now and collected, to be fair to GWIZZ they called several times and were very polite, although they didn't apologise.

That makes a lot more sence, City link not the best, Nor GWIZZ.

davewinston

woodface7 wrote: »

Anyone beat Royal Mail for a parcel to Australia?

1.9kg 13x29x37cm, £40 value, so compensation not that important. Nor is speed. (Though I'll avoid the 30-45 day service of one courier - do they use Captain Cook???)

Found nothing to beat Royal Mail Airmail @ £27.46 as H+L+W is under 90cm. Best I've found elsewhere is Parcel Monkey Air Express at £30.69 +99p for £100 cover.

A one-off, so not looking for bulk / contract outfit.

(I'm assuming Tasmania doesn't attract a surcharge - it isn't listed separately)

And since the postage is nearly the value of the item, I expect courier insurance only refunds the cost of the missing / damaged item, not the postage?

I would go with Parcel Monkey with that one.

saftig

saftig wrote: »

I need to get a parcel of weight 9.1kg, dims 81/43/41cm collected from Germany, with trackability and insurance for £1800.

Please can anyone update me on the cheapest reliable option?

Many thanks

---

amity

Anyone used transglobal.org.uk's UPS Express Saver to send a laptop, or other computing equipment to another country?
Could you comment on how it went - what could have been better?

I'm also interested if anyone has used transglobal.org.uk's UPS Express Saver to send anything to Mexico or South America.

Thank you

Taadaa wrote: »

No Citylink. They have backed down now and collected, to be fair to GWIZZ they called several times and were very polite, although they didn't apologise.

Sorry to hear that. I've had some right monkey-nonsense off the 'man with a van', 'outsourcers' that Citylink see fit to incorporate into their parcel delivery 'shedwork', so it was not a shock to see more of that kind of cheek attributed to them.

tippertip wrote: »

Could you not get them sent altogether to somewhere in the US and then distributed from their using USPS?

This, while initially taking more to organise, there seems a significant potential for efficiency savings.

If you don't want to explore these kind of options, then I agree with what's been said, RM will be hard to out-price, and do consider that a signature being required for each parcel does not guarantee its delivery.

soar19000

My first and only experience of parcel collection for delivery in the UK has been a disaster with MY HERMES.
When they didn't collect on the day that they quoted I shrugged my shoulders and waited the next day, when I contacted them to find out when they would collect. They told me the driver couldn't find the address, so I gave them directions from a nearby known point. I waited that day and the next and the next one after that, contacting them each time. I finally had to go out briefly and told them that would be the case. Guess what, that's when I got a card through the door to say that they were sorry to have missed me and THE NEXT COLLECTION WOULD BE THE FOLLOWING WEEK. The driver had apparently said that HE COULDN'T FIND THE ADDRESS. Well, without meaning to be rude, IF HE HAD AN OUNCE OF GUMPTION HE WOULD HAVE FOUND THE ADDRESS THE FIRST DAY, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER PARCEL COMPANY THAT DELIVERS TO ME and if that was too difficult he could have phoned the number I provided and I would have directed him.
MY HERMES apologised but told me they couldn't always contact their driver, who is SELF EMPLOYED. What they didn't tell me is that their driver would be unable to find the only roadside barn conversion, next to the church, in a small village with only two roads crossing in the middle.
I haven't got the time to wait indoors forever for collections and I COULD NOT RECOMMEND MY HERMES TO ANYONE.

amity

soar19000 wrote: »

My first and only experience of parcel collection for delivery in the UK has been a disaster with MY HERMES.
When they didn't collect on the day that they quoted I shrugged my shoulders and waited the next day, when I contacted them to find out when they would collect. They told me the driver couldn't find the address, so I gave them directions from a nearby known point. I waited that day and the next and the next one after that, contacting them each time. I finally had to go out briefly and told them that would be the case. Guess what, that's when I got a card through the door to say that they were sorry to have missed me and THE NEXT COLLECTION WOULD BE THE FOLLOWING WEEK. The driver had apparently said that HE COULDN'T FIND THE ADDRESS. Well, without meaning to be rude, IF HE HAD AN OUNCE OF GUMPTION HE WOULD HAVE FOUND THE ADDRESS THE FIRST DAY, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER PARCEL COMPANY THAT DELIVERS TO ME and if that was too difficult he could have phoned the number I provided and I would have directed him.
MY HERMES apologised but told me they couldn't always contact their driver, who is SELF EMPLOYED. What they didn't tell me is that their driver would be unable to find the only roadside barn conversion, next to the church, in a small village with only two roads crossing in the middle.
I haven't got the time to wait indoors forever for collections and I COULD NOT RECOMMEND MY HERMES TO ANYONE.

Hi there soar. Sorry to hear about your run-in with human incompetence and apathy. You're right to think that couriers would make it their business to be able to find where a collection address was... rather than, as it seems in this case, blindly expecting the satnav data to lead exactly to the parcel in the hands in of the person they must collect from.

Sadly couriers must be chased up, or at least inquire as to where things are up to when they don't happen as planned. It has the potential to end up like this, when you presume that it will take care of itself.

And it isn't as simple as MyHermes being hopeless for everyone. They are just hopeless for you and addresses in your vicinity, for the period that this guy - who it seems works as an agent for the company - is given the collections in your area. I have sympathy for you. I am unable to use Citylink in my area, for a similar reason.

While it may not seem an apt time, I don't feel it is ever a bad time to be thankful for couriers, and anyone else in any other sphere of life, that is diligent and cares about their work. WE MUST always LET THEM KNOW that their efforts are genuinely appreciated, and that they are, the people, who make the world work.
A significant number of ppl are content to go the extra mile, so long as ppl don't take it for granted. We need those ppl just to make up for the ones that won't even go the miles they're supposed to!

davewinston

soar19000 wrote: »

My first and only experience of parcel collection for delivery in the UK has been a disaster with MY HERMES.
When they didn't collect on the day that they quoted I shrugged my shoulders and waited the next day, when I contacted them to find out when they would collect. They told me the driver couldn't find the address, so I gave them directions from a nearby known point. I waited that day and the next and the next one after that, contacting them each time. I finally had to go out briefly and told them that would be the case. Guess what, that's when I got a card through the door to say that they were sorry to have missed me and THE NEXT COLLECTION WOULD BE THE FOLLOWING WEEK. The driver had apparently said that HE COULDN'T FIND THE ADDRESS. Well, without meaning to be rude, IF HE HAD AN OUNCE OF GUMPTION HE WOULD HAVE FOUND THE ADDRESS THE FIRST DAY, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER PARCEL COMPANY THAT DELIVERS TO ME and if that was too difficult he could have phoned the number I provided and I would have directed him.
MY HERMES apologised but told me they couldn't always contact their driver, who is SELF EMPLOYED. What they didn't tell me is that their driver would be unable to find the only roadside barn conversion, next to the church, in a small village with only two roads crossing in the middle.
I haven't got the time to wait indoors forever for collections and I COULD NOT RECOMMEND MY HERMES TO ANYONE.

Really does show you get what you pay for

cem

I am trying to get small boxes sent over from China (near Shanghai) to my place in London. Can't find any where on the net which would do this for a reasonable cost.

The max weight will be 4kg with dimensions around: 68 * 33 * 8 (cm)

Any idea folks? Many thanks in advance