Postal options for sending parcels

Nazitf

Hi everyone,

I'm pretty new to selling on ebay and so far I've been listing small items and using the royal mail to send them out. I want to list a few larger and heavier items which would be best sent with a courier. Can anyone suggest a cheap company to use for these ad-hoc auctions?

Thanks

appleblossom

I think after the demise of the cheapie couriers on ebay, the cheapest one now is payperdrop. Have not used them myself and have heard various good/bad things about them. Do a search on here and see what it brings up, if you want to see it on ebay, just search payperdrop in the search field. They charge £5.99. hth

greenstreetprince

payperdrop link: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170119641580

baffcat

julieblake wrote: »

I think after the demise of the cheapie couriers on ebay, the cheapest one now is payperdrop. Have not used them myself and have heard various good/bad things about them. Do a search on here and see what it brings up, if you want to see it on ebay, just search payperdrop in the search field. They charge £5.99. hth

I send out 500+ packages a month. Everything under 1kg goes post. For everything over that, I use payperdrop, probably sending 40-50 a month with them. Thus far, at least, they've been very good. I always buy the consignment and pay for it the previous evening, and the DHL guy always has the pre-printed paperwork ready when he gets here around 11am.

The especially good point about using PPD/DHL is the online tracking. As soon as I have the paperwork, I insert the number into the paypal tracking link, so that the customer knows it's coming, can track it, and I'm covered by paypal's own terms & conditions. Funnily enough, though a few RM packages have gone astray, none of the PPD/DHL have (yet). Strange, huh?

I'd guess that how good their service is/remains depends on my being organised enough to notify them in good time, and our local DHL depot being good/quick enough to initiate the collection.

HTH

Baff

CelticStar

I'm a bit confused about all the 'one delivery attempt' info. What does this mean exactly? Does your Ebayer buyer have to make sure that they are in the house when the parcel is due to be delivered? What if they're not - who's responsible for the extra postage costs then?

Thanks
CS

Dave_Brooker

CelticStar wrote: »

I'm a bit confused about all the 'one delivery attempt' info. What does this mean exactly? Does your Ebayer buyer have to make sure that they are in the house when the parcel is due to be delivered? What if they're not - who's responsible for the extra postage costs then?

Thanks
CS

You are I suppose.

I can't help thinking some of the ebay parcel operators run on quite tight margins...

baffcat

CelticStar wrote: »

I'm a bit confused about all the 'one delivery attempt' info. What does this mean exactly? Does your Ebayer buyer have to make sure that they are in the house when the parcel is due to be delivered? What if they're not - who's responsible for the extra postage costs then?

Thanks
CS

I used to worry about that, but in the 4 or 5 months I've been using PPD, I've never had to pay for a second (or more) delivery attempt. I think DHL leave a note at the delivery address, asking the addressee to call to arrange to collect, much the same as the PO do.

In all honesty, As I notify each customer of the DHL tracking number, if for some reason it doesn't arrive the next day, they can see for themselves where it is, and can call DHL to arrange to get their parcel.

HTH

Baff

CelticStar

baffcat wrote: »

I used to worry about that, but in the 4 or 5 months I've been using PPD, I've never had to pay for a second (or more) delivery attempt. I think DHL leave a note at the delivery address, asking the addressee to call to arrange to collect, much the same as the PO do.

In all honesty, As I notify each customer of the DHL tracking number, if for some reason it doesn't arrive the next day, they can see for themselves where it is, and can call DHL to arrange to get their parcel.

HTH

Baff

Is that right? I would say that with most of the people both partners (if they are a couple) are working now and would be unlikely to be at home when a parcel was delivered.

What generally happens with couriers when I have parcels delivered is that they will try to deliver the parcel and then, if I'm not in, they will leave a delivery attempt notification which states that I have to telephone them to arrange re-delivery or collect my parcel from their depot. In a 'one attempt' operation, if the buyer rearranges their own redelivery, who would pay for that? You couldn't stop them doing that either. Theoretically you could be billed twice

CS.

baffcat

CelticStar wrote: »

I would say that with most of the people both partners (if they are a couple) are working now and would be unlikely to be at home when a parcel was delivered

I agree.

I can only speak from my own experience. Every parcel I've sent out via PPD/DHL, which have all been covered by their "one delivery attempt" condition, has been delivered/got the the intended buyer without a further charge. Now I'm almost certain that there's no way every single customer has been home to accept the package, so again I'm almost certain DHL do as you say - leave a note to rearrange delivery or collection from their depot.

I think the "one delivery attempt" condition is in their terms to cover them for if there really is a problem, to stop them having to pay out in the (unlikely, I hope) event of a further charge from DHL.

I'd imagine that with the amount of work PPD are putting through DHL, DHL would be unlikely to risk the loss of a customer for the sake of a couple of pounds, especially when there are so many courier firms out there that'd love to pick up that business.

Baff

CelticStar

baffcat wrote: »

I agree.

I can only speak from my own experience. Every parcel I've sent out via PPD/DHL, which have all been covered by their "one delivery attempt" condition, has been delivered/got the the intended buyer without a further charge. Now I'm almost certain that there's no way every single customer has been home to accept the package, so again I'm almost certain DHL do as you say - leave a note to rearrange delivery or collection from their depot.

I think the "one delivery attempt" condition is in their terms to cover them for if there really is a problem, to stop them having to pay out in the (unlikely, I hope) event of a further charge from DHL.

Thanks again.
I'd imagine that with the amount of work PPD are putting through DHL, DHL would be unlikely to risk the loss of a customer for the sake of a couple of pounds, especially when there are so many courier firms out there that'd love to pick up that business.

Baff

That's very interesting, thank you. Without your post I would probably have been a lot more nervous about starting to use couriers but you have clarified things a lot. I think you are right when you say that it is probably a 'safety clause' providing a get-out if things go wrong. In practice I think it would be almost impossible to deliver items if this was strictly enforced as you could never price items if you couldn't be sure that they would be delivered at the first attempt.

greenstreetprince

the one collection one delivery attempt phrase in PPD listings is really to just cover PPD's back.

i'm not sure about the one collection bit, that sounds fair enough, but i know for sure that re-delivery is free