Cheap Parcel Delivery - official discussion

Brooker_Dave

techspec wrote: »

Thats the same for most couriers ive used. Did they not tell you the collection dates when you booked?

I did have one agree to take them all, even though he should'nt - but the guy who came the next day wasnt happy they had gone.

UPS are happy to take anything that's ready, seems silly when it's there and ready to go.

myusernamehasgone_2

techspec wrote: »

Its always been that price - but you used to have to use a jiffy bag. I just taped jiffy bags round my boxes - so made no difference

Ive used about 100 times = 100 sucessfull deliveries (a few went on a site seeing tour and took a couple of weeks).

At the moment - many are arriving next day - and most within 2 days.

Thanks I think I might give them a try

Goldiegirl

I like Royal Mail.

My postman delivers at around the same time every day so I can arrange to be in when I'm expecting a parcel.

When I'm posting parcels, the Post Office is 5 minutes walk away, it's so convenient .

BUT

I've got an auction ending this weekend, for something that weighs 2.5kg. It's going to cost me about £13 to send. I've started the auction at £15 with free P&p and I should get around £30, so I'll be happy with having £17 in my pocket for something I no longer want.

It's brought home how expensive Royal Mail is for heavy parcels. I've got a few heavy items to sell in the next couple of months, so I'm investigating couriers.

I don't want to wait in all day so I want to use one where I can drop off the parcel.

Myhermes has a drop off shop which is a few miles away, but it's the other side of town and not terribly convenient for me to get to.

Collect plus has a shop about five minutes away in the car, and is quite easy to get to. I checked out their web site and I have to say I'm quite impressed. I'll be trying them out next time I have a heavy parcel.

I might turn into a courier convert after all

Chocmonster7

I met a rep from this company at a trade fair today. I don't send enough parcels to use them but might be of interest for some of the higher volume sellers on here.

http://www.lowcostparcels.co.uk/

fredwalton

Since the new Royal Mail sizes and prices came in to force the cost of posting my Ebay items is almost double the price of the items
I have stared using Hermes and so far I have no complaints other than there non existent customer services department. The best way around this is to send with Hermes via Parcel 2 go the price is the same but the customer service is excellent

sulamaye

Help I want someone who will take ceramics!
I can't use Hermes as the driver won't come up our track so any parcels via them go back to the shop - great!

Parcel monkey are fine until something goes wrong and then you try getting a sensible response ! It took 2 weeks of m banging my head against their e-mail system to get a refund after a complete mess up with DX and that was only after I looked up their head office - no phone - and sent a complaint. But no responses when I asked for a complaints procedure, no offers of compensation for the mess, agro and stress they caused. Don't use them is my advice!

Then I tried using parcel collect but they won't take my ceramic birds stonewarebirds.co.uk even though I always have to waive insurance with royal mail and parcel monkey etc. I e-maild parcel collect and they said if my birds broke they would damage other people's parcels! Rubbish, they are tiny and wrapped in bubble wrap!

I live half way up a welsh mountain so even using collect was desperation, but now I'm looking at paying £8.60 for a 1.2kg parcel via royal mail and £3 for a single bird to be posted! There has to be a cheaper solution that will take my birds, insured or not.
Please help!

Obviously_the_best

ravenjet wrote: »

Do the drivers get paid per parcel they collect or per address they collect from?

Per parcel.

Blank Blank Blank

John_Pierpoint

For what it is worth Channel 4 is doing a documentary next Monday about parcel delivery.
It will be interesting to see if they name names or will it just be sensationalism, like this trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=J0XWJ7tZsqw

I have done parcel deliveries as a self employed courier, the main problems are:

It is an "industry" driven by time and cost - it can be difficult to make minimum wage. So the employees are transient.
Unlike taxi driving, there is no requirement to pass "the knowledge" or a CRB check.
A sat nav is no substitute for having a spatial map in your head and local knowledge of when commercial addresses are open for deliveries.

The reality was I would be called in, because the employee driver had not turned up and some gorilla would throw a ridiculous number of parcels into the van and I would shoot off - that enabled the manager to tick the box saying all the parcel deliveries had left the depot before xx:00 hours.

I would then park up somewhere in a field and try to sort the mess into some logical order. The big difficulty was that some parcels would be before 10:00, some before 13:00 and the rest realistically before 16:30. In the winter many firms start refusing deliveries then and searching for house names in the dark is a no hoper.

Some of the "difficult" parcels would have been out for delivery for as much as a week.

Then there would be the phone calls, some little chain of muppets would have had that 'phone call from Mr Angry and tried to pass the pressure down to the driver. I was quite happy to say "Have you checked the map [key the postcode into any suitable application] ?" "Well if you had, you would know that Loose Chippings on Sea is 10 miles from Central Loose Chippings, so you tell me which of these half a dozen before noon parcels I should not deliver in exchange for delivering Mr Angry's parcel that appears to be a not-at-home from yesterday". !@!*! "Feel free to give Mr Angry my telephone number, I am happy to talk to him".

Most of the time it is just a matter of communication and calmly discovering the facts of the situation. Obviously if it was a medical emergency the before-noons would have to look after themselves; but usually nobody is going to die and if Mr Angry really has a problem, then perhaps he can jump in his car and come and get his parcel.

Personally I think all homes should have something like an old fashioned bank night safe for secure "not at home" deliveries. Given modern technology it should be possible to issue a receipt "reference number" on a small display, while filming the transaction. Perhaps the delivery driver should key in the registration number of his vehicle?

As I write, I can glance at the TV and see a mother bird bedded down on a clutch of eggs, the bird box with its camera and microphone cost £35, so I cannot see the parcel drop off arrangements costing more than (say) a meter cupboard and its contents.

Brooker_Dave

The vans tell you all you need to know.

UPS/Parcelforce/Yodel/Fedex newish livered vans, drivers with uniforms.

Citylink/TNT/Hermes ten year old rough looking vans, no uniforms, drivers who look like people you'd see shopping in poundland...

derwentcrescent

gareththered wrote: »

Hi,

I've noticed that Parcelforce come up cheap on these websites. Has anyone used Parcelforce this way? I need to send a large (but light) parcel to Australia and it's about half the original price using Parcel Monkey.

Thanks

Don't bother. Can't deliver to correct address. Can't correct their error.
Promised re-delivery in 24 hours but after 2 days parcel still not arrived.
Not fit for purpose.