Cheap Delivery of Large Goods - Help Please!

skyblue33

Hi,

I am looking to buy a couple of 3 seater sofas I have seen on ebay, but dont know anyone with a van and dont really want to hire one myself and drive 4 hours there and back to pick them up.

Would anyone be able to recommend some reasonably priced delivery services of large goods that they have used before?

Thanks - advice much appreciated!

soolin

You really need to be asking your sellers. I can't imagine many would be happy at some strange courier arriving and expecting the stuff packed and ready for them.

Find a local man with a van, give him the cash and tell him to pay cash when he collects your items. That still leaves you the problem of what happens if the stuff you get back isn't as good as quality as you were expecting, but you'll have to take that risk if you can't collect yourself.

hermum

You could try shiply.com list what you want collecting & couriers with space will send you quotes. You need to know though when the seller wants the suite out, they may only give you a window of a few hours or so.

skyblue33

Thanks soolin - I found something called shipley delivery which matches 'already empty' vans, but not sure if too good to be true?

skyblue33

Thanks Hermum - coincidence or what! Have you used Shipley yourself at all?

hermum

I'm registered but everytime I've asked for a quote I haven't won the auction. Some of the quotes I've had have been very good. There's feedback on the site so that you can check the courier. I think that some of them will pay for the item & then you pay them when they deliver it.

skyblue33

That sounds really good, think I will give it a go.

Thanks again.

hechizero

First time I use shiply all was well. Got a good quote for an ebay purchase and it all worked out. This was all free. You simply paid the deposit to the courier and paid the balance on delivery.

Now shiply have got sneaky and started to change heavy fees. You only tend to find this out when you you go to accept a bid. This is on top of the courier paying shiply fees also.

I understand that shiply need to make revenue, but this is not a fair or reasonable way to do it. Their T&C's are vague and their customer service not all there.

The other problem with shiply in terms of ebay auctions - couriers will bid and then later advise they are not able to collect. I got one guy saying within 21 days. There is no way to vet these couriers or give them negative feedback. There are a lot of time wasters out there.

The bottom line is shiply is expensive and can turn out to be a lot of work.