Cheap Parcel Delivery - official discussion

kuepper

when I saw royal mail had an offer on sending up to 45x 35x 16 ('small' )parcels for £2.80 in the UK I decided to sell some corduory curtains which were just under that size folded on ebay with that amount for p&p. Went to post it today in a polybag and they said it was ~50g over the 2kg limit so it'd have to go as 'medium' parcel for £13.75, which will mean i'm well out of pocket. Obviously a lesson learned and I feel really stupid. Would have been cheaper to give away. Can anyone recommend a service for something that size and weight to cut my losses?

soolin

kuepper wrote: »

when I saw royal mail had an offer on sending up to 45x 35x 16 ('small' )parcels for £2.80 in the UK I decided to sell some corduory curtains which were just under that size folded on ebay with that amount for p&p. Went to post it today in a polybag and they said it was ~50g over the 2kg limit so it'd have to go as 'medium' parcel for £13.75, which will mean i'm well out of pocket. Obviously a lesson learned and I feel really stupid. Would have been cheaper to give away. Can anyone recommend a service for something that size and weight to cut my losses?

My Hermes would be £5.28 if you can drop off at a shop, or £5.48 if not. However, buyers don't tend to like sellers switching services after auction ends so you may run the risk of poor feedback.

kuepper

soolin wrote: »

My Hermes would be £5.28 if you can drop off at a shop, or £5.48 if not. However, buyers don't tend to like sellers switching services after auction ends so you may run the risk of poor feedback.

Thanks that seems ok. I contacted ebay and they said explain things to the winner and ask them to agree to the change of deliverer and if they say no, cancel the transaction, refund any monies if paid, and readvertise. Messy but i''ll do that.

soolin

kuepper wrote: »

Thanks that seems ok. I contacted ebay and they said explain things to the winner and ask them to agree to the change of deliverer and if they say no, cancel the transaction, refund any monies if paid, and readvertise. Messy but i''ll do that.

Did they tell you how you are expected to just cancel a completed sale and avoid getting a defect, stuck with fees and possibly poor feedback?

You have to love the eBay 'advice'

invisiblecabbage

Try hermes, i always go on parcel monkey put details in and then it comes up with options. I sent a lacrosse stick the other week that was too long for cheap post office posting but got good price with hermes. Hth

daisylou_466

Has anyone used TrakPak before? Sending a parcel of cookie cutters to Canada about 3.5kg length 41cm, width 31cm and height 26cm. Using parcel monkey TrakPak are coming up at approx £29 and the next cheapest is Parcelforce at approx £39. Value of cookie cutters is about £100. Any advice greatly appreciated.

stevads61

the 1st time i used p2go was for a collection and they didnt turn up til next day, i was furious having had the day off. then i discovered my local garage was a drop off point and have used them frequently mainly with hermes and deliveries are normally 3 days i,ve had no problems at all , i have just sent 6kg to germany for£22 with p2go/ups that took 5 days.i buy/sell golf clubs and ebay allows sellers to charge £12.60 to post a golf driver(gpo), i can send one for £3.

custardy

stevads61 wrote: »

the 1st time i used p2go was for a collection and they didnt turn up til next day, i was furious having had the day off. then i discovered my local garage was a drop off point and have used them frequently mainly with hermes and deliveries are normally 3 days i,ve had no problems at all , i have just sent 6kg to germany for£22 with p2go/ups that took 5 days.i buy/sell golf clubs and ebay allows sellers to charge £12.60 to post a golf driver(gpo), i can send one for £3.

Is GPO a new courier?

soolin

stevads61 wrote: »

the 1st time i used p2go was for a collection and they didnt turn up til next day, i was furious having had the day off. then i discovered my local garage was a drop off point and have used them frequently mainly with hermes and deliveries are normally 3 days i,ve had no problems at all , i have just sent 6kg to germany for£22 with p2go/ups that took 5 days.i buy/sell golf clubs and ebay allows sellers to charge £12.60 to post a golf driver(gpo), i can send one for £3.

Ebay don't 'allow' any excess charge- do not mistake the capped charge in a category for what ebay expect you to charge. It is a maximum, not a target.

If ti costs you £3 to post something then charge buyer that - buyers now hold all the power and if you do work to a maximum then your account will suffer.

BigHairyFinn

This discussion seems to be a lot about about sending, but a lot of problems stem from being in the "receiving end" of these couriers.

These days I personally try to avoid any eBay items that have "courier" marked, and prefer those that have Royal Mail as an option. The reason being, I am fed up with "courier" companies and basically would want a way to "deny your address" from certain courier companies to accept a parcel for my address.

Fair does, there are a few I know I can deal with. The funny thing is I've had relatively good experiences with Yodel And Hermes that most people seem to be having troubles with. Must be the local drivers. DPD sends a text of a time window, DHL leaves boxes at the book shop in town and UPS and FeDex you can "deal with".

The "idea" of internet shopping, at least for me is I to save time. I "work for a living" so I do long hours, odd hours and generally have a varying schedule. And I live alone so there is nobody home except the cat. I do not sit at home all day like some of the courier companies expect you to. The neighbours change and may or may not be home. Also, I live in a relatively big city on the coast, not in some small village so I kind of expect if I need to go "pick up from a local depot" it would be "local" as in even the same city or county, and not at Gatwick Airport - if I had the time I would already taken the train to London and gone shopping on Oxford Street to start with!

OK, so you come home and have a card left. Sometimes the numbers work out, sometimes not. Then you call to arrange the redelivery, but with certain companies you are not the "customer" so you get no "service" ! This is what you get from UKMail that I refuse even to call up these days.

Q: Can you deliver it at a certain time?
A: "between 8-18, you need to contact the sender"
Q: Can the driver send me a SMS or call me when he is near I can be there in 10 minutes"
A: "between 8-18, you need to contact the sender"
Q: Can you deliver it to my work, its in the same postcode?
A: "you need to contact the sender"
Q: Can I pay extra you bring it on Saturday
A: "you need to contact the sender"
Q: OK, so who is the sender?
A: We can not tell that, you need to....

Yeah, guess what the "contact to sender" is going to be like after that :mad:

From a sender's POV, they should refund the charges as they do not "deliver" - and Gatwick Airport is not "local" unless you live in Gatwick.

Fair does, I can pay an extra fee and pick it up from the local Nisa corner shop or garage or whatever, but half the time I won't even be given that choice. "Contact the sender" - how does the sender know when I will be at home - *I* know that!? eBay sellers quite right require a "registered address" for deliveries, so that is the address I can give. Online shops you sometimes can deal by giving a "business address", like my local pub - if the landlord can countersign my passport photos I think I can trust him with a delivery. But why is it so difficult with some courier companies??? FedEx just rang me up and will drop the parcel to the caf I go for my breakfast... see now that is "customer service".

So after my experiences I just try to avoid "courier" options or then try and make an agreement the seller won't use one causing me to pop a vein. I'd be rather happy to pay the exorbitant charges for Royal Mail or Parcelforce, but some eBay sellers just can't understand... its "cheaper" they say and "I'm not dealing with those people" I answer.