Cheap Parcel Delivery - official discussion 4 December 2012 at 2:59PM edited 9 December 2022 at 4:29PM in Ebay, auctions, car boot sales, post & parcels 1.3K replies 313.7K views

pipeman12

just thought I would share my experience I send parcels daily six days a week hopefully this might help others
Royal mail second class this truly is snail mail now about 12 months ago yes 2 to 3 days now seems to be closer to 7 is my experience so cheap but slow
royal mail first class usually next day price changes at 1kg to 2kg
now important point last year royal mail stopped giving delivery confirmations out and i personally noticed overnight a huge spike in non-delivery claims is this a drop in performance or an opportunity to get free goods who knows but personally I will not use any service not signed for via royal mail regardless of content not for insurance but to know it will get there

DHL pricey but good but watch out I got 2 x £100 surcharges for oversize laser dimensions given for evidence showed 5mm (1/2 cm) which was the thickness of cardboard

My Hermes I really liked my local courier he is great really helpful but past him am i confident that the parcel will ever be seen again no I'm not, the final straw has come after reviewing last months lost parcels against claim payments i saw underpayments non payments and ignored forms couple this with the deliberately deceiving nature of their referencing system ie no common ids for tracking order payment or refund makes it difficult also extra note they do not advertise a phone number and even live chat begins with an argument with a chatbot that insists on you tracking a parcel of some kind before allowing you to transfer to what i am certain is a chat service hosted in India that requires 48hrs to confirm what I have said to them

intermediary sellers parcel 2 go I try my hardest not to deal with these after an interesting conversation where i was educated that the term next day service is actually 2 to 3 working days! and I was in the wrong for expecting this. Couple this with awful support in the event of things going wrong
if I use an intermediary I use interparcel one of the only courier booking system that you can actually talk to on the phone but it is a reseller if you need to know something quick your out of luck
parcel force same rate right up to 30 kg also if you go to parcel force marketplace seller and upload an order via CSV or integrate eBay etc they are offering good rates especially on post office drop off and same day collection booked up to midday note on csv- download there template delete their entries and replace with your details- its called bulk upload but it can be just one parcel you can get it a few £ less on the above systems but really not worth it the extra customer service is worth its weight in gold
UPS check there "my choices" website I was pleasantly surprised and multiple parcels you only pay collection element of £2.20 once and around £6 for a parcel upto 10kg but keep it below the 1m length price shoots up
all of the above are services freely available to anyone I have deliberately stayed away from business only services which have in my experience due to the nature of b2b and loss of consumer rights been daylight robbery
so personally my choices at present
large letter size ROYAL MAIL on click and drop
small parcel below 1kg royal mail on click and drop
small parcel below 2kg will update shortly
above 2kg but less than10kg UPS via my choices on ups.com £8 for a single collected parcel +6 for additional
above 10kg or longer than 1m PARCEL FORCE via CSV upload on parcelforce.com £13 collected 24hr at post office £9 +vat I thnk?

martindow

pipeman12 wrote: »

now important point last year royal mail stopped giving delivery confirmations out and i personally noticed overnight a huge spike in non-delivery claims is this a drop in performance or an opportunity to get free goods who knows but personally I will not use any service not signed for via royal mail regardless of content not for insurance but to know it will get there

Royal Mail parcels labels now have codes on them allowing you to check delivery confirmation on-line and to claim up to £20 if necessary. I assume you are talking about parcels rather than large letters (which don't at present have these codes) by the other carriers you are commenting on.


Is it really worth paying an extra Pound on each parcel to get a signed for service unless it's value is over the £20 that is covered without charge?

antispam246

So, Hermes is still the cheapest for small parcel under 1kg less than £20, £2.85


Is there any services which could beat this through bulk drop offs? I have a handful of items to ship as above so curious if anyone offers bulk discounts that would be more favourable than Hermes

custardy

antispam246 wrote: »

So, Hermes is still the cheapest for small parcel under 1kg less than £20, £2.85


Is there any services which could beat this through bulk drop offs? I have a handful of items to ship as above so curious if anyone offers bulk discounts that would be more favourable than Hermes

When you say bulk drop off. All to different addresses?
Theres no real saving/gain for a courier for you dropping off in bulk.

Leaf291

I was handed my parcel by the delivery driver, he didn't say anything and walked off. I get an email to say my parcel was signed for. Not by me! I look at it on the Hermes website. It looks like how I might sign for a parcel. The shape of the letters are how I do them. Has my signature been kept by Hermes and reused without my permission?

I have reported it through the Action Fraud police website. Please report any fraud like this, the more we report these crimes the more chance we have of stopping the delivery companies getting away with it. I'm one of the lucky ones who actually received my parcel.

custardy

Leaf291 wrote: »

I was handed my parcel by the delivery driver, he didn't say anything and walked off. I get an email to say my parcel was signed for. Not by me! I look at it on the Hermes website. It looks like how I might sign for a parcel. The shape of the letters are how I do them. Has my signature been kept by Hermes and reused without my permission?

I have reported it through the Action Fraud police website. Please report any fraud like this, the more we report these crimes the more chance we have of stopping the delivery companies getting away with it. I'm one of the lucky ones who actually received my parcel.

Are you for real?

moonpenny

Leaf291 wrote: »

I was handed my parcel by the delivery driver, he didn't say anything and walked off. I get an email to say my parcel was signed for. Not by me! I look at it on the Hermes website. It looks like how I might sign for a parcel. The shape of the letters are how I do them. Has my signature been kept by Hermes and reused

Where do you find a signature on Hermes website?

I have just checked my deliveries with" signed for" and I can't find signatures anywhere!

ITCSUK

In one respect its great to know Im not the only one, on the other, its a woeful disgrace that agents and operators can be negligent in the way they operate and how they treat the customer but there is no governance to police their actions.


I have been through the same scenario as many with a 'lost' parcel I agree with others, why do you get bombarded with the scare tactic of insurance when you expect them to carryout the contract you enter into, which is, for them to deliver the parcel. I read on another forum a great analogy, "you wouldn't stay in a restaurant that offered an insurance policy just in case the food gave you food poisoning" you expect them to be responsible and pay damages accordingly.


So why do these companies get away with it?


Are there any legal beagles out there, that can answer one question. Am I entitled to request and receive the correspondence between P2G and hermes regarding my claim?

custardy

ITCSUK wrote: »

In one respect its great to know Im not the only one, on the other, its a woeful disgrace that agents and operators can be negligent in the way they operate and how they treat the customer but there is no governance to police their actions.


I have been through the same scenario as many with a 'lost' parcel I agree with others, why do you get bombarded with the scare tactic of insurance when you expect them to carryout the contract you enter into, which is, for them to deliver the parcel. I read on another forum a great analogy, "you wouldn't stay in a restaurant that offered an insurance policy just in case the food gave you food poisoning" you expect them to be responsible and pay damages accordingly.


So why do these companies get away with it?


Are there any legal beagles out there, that can answer one question. Am I entitled to request and receive the correspondence between P2G and hermes regarding my claim?

Why would you be?
You used P2G for your service. Lets turn it round.
Why did you not use Hermes directly?

mrcol1000

moonpenny wrote: »

Where do you find a signature on Hermes website?

I have just checked my deliveries with" signed for" and I can't find signatures anywhere!

You need to track it normally through their website and put in the tracking number and the recipients post code. You often get GPS tracking as well now.