Cheap Parcel Delivery - official discussion

Stillgrinning

New to the forum hope this is OK.
 I live on the Isle of Wight, I use Parcelforce and Royal Mail for sending parcels.
Since the beginning of the year I have noticed a surcharge called Remote Destination Charge usual £5. 
I haven't been able to find out an awful lot about it, except that it applies to addresses that are over a certain distance from the Depot.

ibismojo-er

I avoid Royal Mail now unless I’m sending something that only Royal Mail will accept. eg perfume. I had a few items go missing through Royal Mail before Christmas. One item sent Special Delivery did not arrive to the buyer. Royal Mail say that for Special Delivery after 10 days it is considered lost. I refunded the buyer after 11 days then submitted a claim. Royal Mail refused the claim and only refunded the postage fee as in the meantime they did deliver the item(18 days after it should have been delivered) Am I supposed to tell a buyer I cannot refund you for 1 month/2 months etc just in case they do deliver it even though they class it as being lost after 10 days. They also make the claims procedure so long winded, I assume to put you off claiming. On the odd occasion I have had to claim form other couriers they have been much better to deal with. Royal Mail need to up their game and customer service. Even Hermes are much better to deal with.

freddy33

A fortnight ago I went to a Post Office nearby, in order to post a small parcel to Ireland. I was shown 2 different prices on a screen, with the cheaper price being around £35. When I queried the excessive charge I was told that it was because the parcel weighed just over 2kgs. So, I brought the parcel home, removed a packet of sweets, and took the parcel to my local Post Office. They then charged me a less eye-watering amount, of £13.00, for a weight of 1970 grams.

I wrote a complaint to the Post Office, stating that although postal rates for parcels under 2kg are displayed in 100 gram increments, parcels weighing over 2kg do not display rates according to incremental increases in weights. Instead, there's a sentence about 'a generous weight allowance for parcels over 2kg.'

I've not received a response from Royal Mail, so I'm none the wiser if this pricing structure is particular to the U.K., or if it's an  international postal arrangement. ( I'll be reverting to using DPD, as their charge for a parcel weighing 6kg was about £16 the last time I used them. ) 

Rantband

The final price you paid was correct,this link will help
https://www.royalmail.com/price-finder

martindow

freddy33 said:

A fortnight ago I went to a Post Office nearby, in order to post a small parcel to Ireland. I was shown 2 different prices on a screen, with the cheaper price being around £35. When I queried the excessive charge I was told that it was because the parcel weighed just over 2kgs. So, I brought the parcel home, removed a packet of sweets, and took the parcel to my local Post Office. They then charged me a less eye-watering amount, of £13.00, for a weight of 1970 grams.

I wrote a complaint to the Post Office, stating that although postal rates for parcels under 2kg are displayed in 100 gram increments, parcels weighing over 2kg do not display rates according to incremental increases in weights. Instead, there's a sentence about 'a generous weight allowance for parcels over 2kg.'

I've not received a response from Royal Mail, so I'm none the wiser if this pricing structure is particular to the U.K., or if it's an  international postal arrangement. ( I'll be reverting to using DPD, as their charge for a parcel weighing 6kg was about £16 the last time I used them. ) 

Over 2kg to has to go on a Parcelforce tariff - below 2kg the Royal Mail service has its own prices. 

There is likely to be a VAT and a clearance charge imposed on arrival in Ireland.  For family living overseas I tend to buy online from someone in their country as the costs of sending and taxes add up.  It is a shame as wrapping and sending something yourself is good, but sending a gift that arrives with a bill to pay is not.

freddy33

( My previous posting on this forum, dated 29th July, refers. ) I received a response to my complaint from Royal Mail today. I had queried the absence of postal rates for tiers of increasing weights above 2kg., with Parcelforce's website simply showing a '...generous allowance. 30kg maximum weight limit.'

The reply I received today was '...Royal Mail can only carry International parcels up to 2kg, parcel above this weight limit will need to be sent via Parcelforce.' There was no explanation given as to why there only appears to be a fixed price for parcels weighing between 2kg and 30kg. ( Parcelforce is part of Royal Mail Group. )

If I can buy items from - for example- Amazon ( as per the advice given in MSE's article ), that would save me the most, because the parcels are usually delivered to addresses in Ireland for little or no carriage fee. ( Please check final totals carefully before payment, in case of unexpected 'add-ons.' )

As 'Martindow' has also pointed out above, the addressee would not have to pay taxes either. If it's going to be a smallish parcel with a variety of toys/ confectionery than I'll probably use DPD again...£16 for 6kgs last Christmas, but!!, there were import fees to pay, totalling almost the same. 

Another way of avoiding hefty carriage and import tax charges would be to use a debit card which has some funds in Euros on it...ie. buy online from a shop in Ireland.

drbob

I recently arranged a parcel pick up in the US for delivery to the UK. Transglobal Express were by far the cheapest option , half the price vs the comparison sites recommended in current version of the MSE article or the blog post. Their customer service so far has been excellent (no waiting when I needed to call them, helpful call centre agents who promptly corrected a mistake I made on the electronic customs declaration with zero fuss). The actual shipping US to UK is via a contract they have with DHL. I'll update once it has arrived later this week.

Up until 2018 Transglobal was recommended by MSE, but isn't any more, did something untoward happen that I'm not aware of? They also still seem to be very competitive price wise for international shipping from the UK.

Edit: Parcel arrived, though DHL UK were a bit rubbish, they have an option ("DHL on-demand delivery") to ask for delivery before 1pm which I used, at 1pm the parcel hadn't arrived so I called the local depot who told me it would be there by 2pm. Had to go out at 2 with still no sign delivery, only to get a text at 2:16pm saying they tried to deliver but I was out. Collected the parcel from their depot that evening. DHL also delayed the parcel arrival by one day because they thought I hadn't paid the import charges when I had in fact already done so.

All in all I'm happy I got my parcel delivered at a reasonable cost, though I'd hesitate to use DHL again for an urgent item.

basmiles

Like some deliveries at the moment this 'current' parcel forum seems to be very out of date and delayed in the post!

The figures for low-weight parcels with Royal Mail in this week's email look wrong. It's suggested that:

"But Royal Mail isn't always cheaper, so check. For example, in one of our tests we wanted to send a parcel worth £60, weighing 600g, dimensions 10cm x 25cm x 25cm, and found we could send via courier collection for £5.52 (£60 cover, delivery within 3-4 working days), compared with £7.98 via Royal Mail collection (£100 cover, delivery within 2-3 working days)."

I think Royal Mail's 48 service is cheaper at £2.85 which includes free collection, up to 2kg in weight, £100 insurance, tracking and delivery within two or three working days. The parcel can measure  45cm by 35cm by 16cm. There's no signature on delivery but since it's tracked I'm not sure that matters especially as often there's no one around to sign. I may be missing something but this seems like very good value. Oh, you can't drop it off at a Post Office in theory although I have without a problem, and it can be collected free anyway. It also has to be arranged online. 

I can't see any combination that gets a £7.98 charge although delivery by 1pm next day signed for costs £8.45.
Paul