Cheap Parcel Delivery - official discussion

tjfs

The MSE page still says Royal Mail is generally cheapest for <1Kg

I sent a 300g parcel to UK today. Royal Mail quoted £2.80 for second class (no tracking), parcel2go charged me £2.34 for myhermes with tracking. No contest.

Titanium

I wonder if anyone watched BBC Watchdog last night. Apparently the generally cheapest MyHermes courier has a long excluding list in case of compensation claims, eg electrical items, glass items, etc. In time to avoid them before sending one, I went to Collect Plus whose staff confirmed they do cover electrical items in case of claims. They were around 50p dearer (for a 5kg package) but I think it definitely worth it.

BarGin

Can anyone recommend a courier service to send a computer weighing approx 6kg to an address in the UK please? I would need a max of 48hrs service and drop off facility. Also £500 loss/damage compensation insurance.

I've looked at Parcel2Go etc. They give lots of quotes but not seen any that offer the compensation at a reasonable cost.

mart3578

Does anyone know who does the best insurance prices on delivery items?

values of items £250, £500, £1000, £2000, and 10k

help its a mine field out there!

Obviously_the_best

https://www.ecoparcel.eu offer €500 compensation as standard. Do not that's Euros, so exchange rates and all.

Other than that, ParcelMonkey don't seem to have bad prices of their insurance, but do watch out for the exclusions list.

JJAM

Has anyone got a recommended courier I can use via parcel2go for a USA delivery? Are Trakpak OK? Or am I best going for Parcelforce/UPS?

Obviously_the_best

trakpak aren't the speediest, but it's just as likely your parcel will get there in one piece as if you used UPS.
I have however developed a hatred of Parcelforce, and would avoid them. They seem to be able to do nothing properly in my area.

gerardflanagan

Hi everyone. I'm a long standing member and need MSE's help!

I've recently launched a startup, and we're helping to solve the problem of missed parcel deliveries. We allow shoppers to get their parcels delivered to local newsagents, to collect at a time that's convenient to them. Unlike some of our competitors, we can receive parcels from any retailer.

One of the biggest risks we face is how to deal with when things go wrong. If a package goes uncollected from the newsagents, we'll need to pick it up from them to return to sender or post to the shopper's home. Do you have any suggestions for the best way to solve this? I want to use a parcel collection service, but it's £10+ for non label printed collection, which would probably cripple profitability.

freddy33

JJAM wrote: »

Has anyone got a recommended courier I can use via parcel2go for a USA delivery? Are Trakpak OK? Or am I best going for Parcelforce/UPS?

Yesterday I needed to send a small parcel to South Africa. There has been a postal strike there for months. The 'last date to post' given by the Post Office here was 5 December. I therefore thought that I'd probably post the item by the 'International Signed For' tariff - up to 5 days for delivery. However, when I tried the Royal Mail Customer Services telephone number ( the local Post office number shown online is no longer in use!), simply to ask if they were aware of any delivery delays for this type of priority mail, I discovered that I'd simply wasted my time...recordings telling me to try a different new 0345 number etc etc...no voice to ask a question!!
I then telephoned a shop/ postal agency nearby, but the owner did not have any information about any possible delays with 'International; Signed For' to South Africa.

I then did a search online for other ways to send the parcel. Eventually I decided to use 'Parcels 4 delivery', and the cost was over £30 cheaper than UPS's and Parcel Force's quotes, albeit that I have used the 4 to 5 day delivery time span.

The next collection for my parcel would have been Monday, but I took the parcel to a specified pick-up point here ( the local Co-Op ) yesterday afternoon ( that actually reduced the cost by about a £1 ). The bar code on the parcel was scanned, I was given a receipt, which includes a Tracking Reference all the way to the delivery, and that was it.

Just one item of slight 'pain'!...items sent to outside of the EU require a 'Commercial' invoice, which is a list of the items in the parcel, values, and Customs Tariff/ Code numbers. Fortunately the link provided online was user-friendly, and the search for each tariff/ code was quite easy, despite the strange wording for some of the items.

18th December,
The consignee in Cape Town received a telephone call this morning advising that the parcel had arrived, and that it would be delivered once it had been cleared by Customs. ( The Company website also showed that the parcel had been delivered to their Heathrow depot yesterday afternoon. ) I'm impressed.

soolin

Gerardflanagan you cannot advertise your site here, please read the MSE rules.