Switched to Parcelforce but feel conned

kevinyork

We were approached by a Parcelforce rep in July 10. She asked what our volumes were and advised what their rates would be which turned out to be 15% lower than our courier at that time. She visited us, confirmed the rates and we switched to Parcelforce.

Weve now had a meeting with her boss who advises the rate she put us on was wrong. Due to our mix of private/business customers and the low number of multiple parcels to single addresses they need to put our rate up by 20%! This is after just 7 months and despite our overall volume exceeding the level the rep based our rate on. We argued that the rep never asked about our private/business mix or the number of multiple parcel consignments, only the volume, but it appears the rep is no longer with them??!!! They have referred to their terms which allow them to change their rates at 14 days notice but we have argued that they are only changing them due to their reps mistake/deliberate miss-selling of their services. Our contract showed a renewal date of July 2011 and we had thought we would not need to re-visit our courier or rates until then.

When changing couriers this takes a lot of time as each of our listings needs amending for price, description of courier service and the exception postcodes for the Highlands and Islands changing and having done all this last July we dont want to have to go through it again.

We stressed all this at the meeting but they have just written enforcing the new higher prices starting in 2 weeks. We are furious and feel we have been misled by a dodgy rep who suprisingly doesnt work for them any more. Any advice please?

chancesare_2

It depends on your contract. Are you contracted to a set amount of collections per week? It also depends on the terms for ending the contract early. Is there a penalty for nil shipments? The more info you can give the better we can help.

As for ebay, I have contractual rates and use a bulk edit in SMP to change each listing at once.

kevinyork

chancesare wrote: »

It depends on your contract. Are you contracted to a set amount of collections per week? It also depends on the terms for ending the contract early. Is there a penalty for nil shipments? The more info you can give the better we can help.

As for ebay, I have contractual rates and use a bulk edit in SMP to change each listing at once.

Thanks. Contracted for a minimum number of collections per year and we are currently exceeding that. No penalty for nil shipments but then we never have no shipments......always at least 10 per day and sometimes 80! Contract can be ended anytime from what I can see and in fact they said as much this week presumably hoping we will jump ship rather than create a hassle for them.

Am aware of bulk editing but the text within each listing details the courier service and the excluding postcodes so every listing would need manual re-editing of the listing text itself as well as a re-pricing of all items.

chancesare_2

Well you have a few options.

If there is no get-out then clause, you can just get out! Jump ship and get a new courier contract.

If there is no nil shipment penalty, you can chose not to send your shipments with them. When they have a few weeks of nil, they should contact you to regain your business, if that is what you want.

Either way, only you can decide if you want to have no hassle in editing your listings but keeping PF, or change the listings and the contract.

I don't know how heavy your items are, but have you considered Royal Mail Tracked? They ship two levels but either up to 5kg or up to 15kg depending on what you have. You get one price and it includes ALL uk postal codes, so no extra charge for Highlands, NI, etc. You can choose next day or 2-3 day service. Its all tracked (5 point scans) but requires no signature. So keeps the customer and Paypal happy.

custardy

chancesare wrote: »

Well you have a few options.

If there is no get-out then clause, you can just get out! Jump ship and get a new courier contract.

If there is no nil shipment penalty, you can chose not to send your shipments with them. When they have a few weeks of nil, they should contact you to regain your business, if that is what you want.

Either way, only you can decide if you want to have no hassle in editing your listings but keeping PF, or change the listings and the contract.

I don't know how heavy your items are, but have you considered Royal Mail Tracked? They ship two levels but either up to 5kg or up to 15kg depending on what you have. You get one price and it includes ALL uk postal codes, so no extra charge for Highlands, NI, etc. You can choose next day or 2-3 day service. Its all tracked (5 point scans) but requires no signature. So keeps the customer and Paypal happy.

it also has the benefit(over RD/Special delivery) that it must be delivered/scanned via PDA
so ha a better tracking system over other RM products

chancesare_2

I didn't know that. That is helpful to know. I must admit, it is the best system. Even in the snow where items were delayed, I was reimbursed full postal rates as the delivery must be within 3 working days. I never get the dreaded.....processing through network.....message. But have had a couple of incorrect scans showing delivery when they aren't. My RM buisness manager just sends me the internal audit, which shows the full detail and is very helpful in sorting out mistakes. (which are very few).

custardy

chancesare wrote: »

I didn't know that. That is helpful to know. I must admit, it is the best system. Even in the snow where items were delayed, I was reimbursed full postal rates as the delivery must be within 3 working days. I never get the dreaded.....processing through network.....message. But have had a couple of incorrect scans showing delivery when they aren't. My RM buisness manager just sends me the internal audit, which shows the full detail and is very helpful in sorting out mistakes. (which are very few).

tracked was designed from the ground up to use the PDAs
so it has its own tracking system
the tracks are all logged and audited
so any failures are noted and wherever that happens it will be flagged up to the managers at that point
theres nothing to say RD/SD cant be scanned the same way(at the delivery office) but they dont have ot be and you still have a crossover of the ancient RM guns and the new PDas
the tracked can only be scanned on the PDAs

Pembroke

If you use turbolister or other listing software for your listings and they are mostly BIN's you may have a backup of the older listings when you used a courier so changing the listings back to courier maybe quite easy if the listing doesn't mention prices within the text.

chancesare_2

From the sounds of it, I would guess the seller uses something like Auctivia or SSB. I use SSB and you do have to do things in the blurb as manual edits, but the Ebay dropdowns can be done by bulk edit. I tend not to be too detailed in the blurb for exactly this reason.