Why am I being told who to use as courier?

JustAnotherSaver

Hmm what's going on here? 

I always thought 'tracked' was basically like Special Delivery - which is expensive.

Fine if you're selling something like a phone which costs as cover is up to £500 (unless your phone costs more than that in which case it may not be fine for you) and tracked along the way.

I've got various things for sale at the moment so let me pick one at random - a 22" TV. Sony so while it may not be top of the range, it's also not a non-brander.

I have it listed for £10. I just want rid and I'm seeing what happens before it gets binned. I'm not taking the piddle with the asking price.

So if I go Special Delivery, I either A) have to put that on top, but then that costs a MINIMUM of £6.85 (but obviously more than that due to weight) so the buyer then has to pay the price I'm asking in postage, maybe more or B> I have to take the hit and essentially give it away or worse, pay someone to take it.

So am I thinking of the wrong thing here when you're talking about tracking?

I use Seajays for pricing https://www.seajays.org.uk/postage/index.cfm as I find it infinitely easier to navigate round than the Royal Mail website to get prices. Stick in the weight & the dimensions are all there on the next page according to that weight. No clicking this that & the other jumping through hoops.

As for SFs and CSPs, they're abbreviations too far for me I'm afraid.

Spoonie_Turtle

Sorry, SF - Signed For, CSP - Customer Service Point (usually at a delivery office).

I don't know whether TVs realistically are covered.  Framed pictures, theoretically are (or were, I haven't checked recently) but in practice only at their discretion, if they den it to have been packaged well enough and if it got broken they will most likely turn round and say it wasn't, so they're not paying out.  We learned that the hard way.  

Tracking is so you can follow it on its journey, you see all the points where it's scanned.  Useful if it's something you need to stand a chance of them finding if it goes missing, because the tracking will show where it was last scanned which helps narrow down the search.

Special Delivery as far as I understand is about speed and higher cover, plus it's the only service that covers certain items like valuable jewellery.  custardy may be able to point out any other differences.

Whereas Signed For is in effect like Standard but with a higher cover and with a signature to confirm it got to a person at the address - not necessarily the recipient - instead of 'just' a scan to say it's been delivered to the address.

JustAnotherSaver

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Sorry, SF - Signed For, CSP - Customer Service Point (usually at a delivery office).

I don't know whether TVs realistically are covered.  Framed pictures, theoretically are (or were, I haven't checked recently) but in practice only at their discretion, if they den it to have been packaged well enough and if it got broken they will most likely turn round and say it wasn't, so they're not paying out.  We learned that the hard way. 

I should've been clearer -

I wasn't really wanting to stick over the specifics of the item. I just used the TV to illustrate an item that would weigh a bit that is being sold for not a lot.

I could've used other examples for the same thing. I have some car parts that are probably in the 500g-1kg area that aren't actually massive in dimensions (small parcel category maybe) and I'm not selling for huge amounts.

I'm currently on https://www.royalmail.com/sending/uk/tracked-48 trying to find locations & it's directing me towards post boxes. I don't want post boxes because what I want to send wont fit in to one.

I also don't want someone to come to my house for free with a label - because then I'm waiting in on them.

Now I thought it'd be the post office but Custardy has corrected me there saying they're not the same thing. Fair enough.

So I want a location, a building, where I can walk in to whenever I want (obviously during business hours), with my parcel & say here you are take this off me & then they give me a receipt & on its way it goes via Tracked48.

But I'm doing something wrong because when I click locations near me it's just showing me post boxes on the pavement.

Spoonie_Turtle

Understood.  For more ordinary parcel-sized items you can just choose whichever service provides the high enough compensation cover, as all RM parcel services have confirmation of delivery, which is what you need to defend against claims of non-receipt.  Or you can choose any of the other couriers, which may well be cheaper - but each one has their own T&Cs of what they will and won't accept and cover, so you'd need to check before deciding.

The RM website should have the option to show postboxes or to show Delivery / Post Offices, click on the latter then filter for Delivery Offices.  I'd include a screenshot if I knew how!  Actually, maybe let's try … (don't worry, that's just a random delivery office postcode in the search bar)

MalMonroe

In defence of Evri I have to say that last week I returned a parcel to John Lewis via them (free of charge, thanks JL - I didn't pay delivery to or from my home).

I don't know how they did it in the past but Evri DO track parcels meticulously. I received two emails from them prior to collection. One to say the parcel was being collected on that day and another to advise me of the times between which it would be collected.

The courier collected the parcel during the time frame stated and gave me a card containing a barcode.

Five minutes later I received an email to advise that the parcel had been successfully collected (um, yes I know) and there was a tracking number.

Two days later I received an email advising that the parcel had safely reached its destination.

There's always a lot of Hermes/Evri-bashing going on, especially on this forum but I have to say that I've never been let down by them. (That's right, never.)

It may be different in other areas but not where I am. I know both courier drivers on this route and they're both very good at what they do. Also they've both been working for Hermes/Evri for several years now so it can't be all bad.

With the tracking services they use now, even if something goes missing, you can claim compensation but I've never had to do that. 

Royal Mail's collect from home service has also been good for me. Everything I've had collected from home has reached its destination on time and in excellent condition. 

Surely I can't be the only person who hasn't had any hassle with delivery services? Or is it that nobody compliments but everyone complains when things go wrong? That must be it. Brickbats and bouquets. But the greater of these is brickbats.

Spoonie_Turtle

MalMonroe said:

 Surely I can't be the only person who hasn't had any hassle with delivery services? Or is it that nobody compliments but everyone complains when things go wrong? That must be it. Brickbats and bouquets. But the greater of these is brickbats.

I personally can count on one hand the number of problems I've had with Royal Mail (two of which were repeats of identical items from the same sender - the third one did actually arrive) and likewise with Hermes after they changed our driver (the previous one was not great, we'd receive the parcels eventually but they'd be bashed up).

However Evri have changed their terms to not cover jewellery if it's substantially precious metal, and they don't accept liquids or creams of any kind from personal customers.  So we've had to default to Royal Mail for sending such items.

Overall, I've not had much hassle, but can't say 'never' either.  And there are some people who won't touch Evri with a bargepole because of either their own experiences or just the reputation, so trying to sell things has to take that into account too.

JustAnotherSaver

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I personally can count on one hand the number of problems I've had with Royal Mail

Well I personally would have to use my 2nd hand. Although not bad enough to get my 3rd one out. Still, not great.

I actually tried to book in Tracked 48 earlier as I found the local Delivery Office does printing labels & what not.

Went through the process only to get to a section where it seemed I had no choice - a postie would come to me.

I know that ticks some peoples boxes but I don't want to be waiting on someone coming to the house. Why can't I just go to the RM Delivery Office & drop it off there? I'm not complaining about using my legs!

So in the end I went through Parcel2Go & chose Yodel because they offered a drop off service - which is what I wanted.

Spoonie_Turtle

JustAnotherSaver said:

I actually tried to book in Tracked 48 earlier as I found the local Delivery Office does printing labels & what not.

Went through the process only to get to a section where it seemed I had no choice - a postie would come to me.

Very strange.  Did it tell you that before or after where you choose between printing the label yourself or for them to do it?

JustAnotherSaver

Spoonie_Turtle said:

JustAnotherSaver said:

I actually tried to book in Tracked 48 earlier as I found the local Delivery Office does printing labels & what not.

Went through the process only to get to a section where it seemed I had no choice - a postie would come to me.

Very strange.  Did it tell you that before or after where you choose between printing the label yourself or for them to do it?

I'll have another bash later on and see what happens.

I probably did something wrong because I can't see that the only option is for a postie to come to your door. Surely to god you must be able to drop the parcel off yourself if you want.

custardy

Spoonie_Turtle said:

custardy said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

custardy said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

'Recorded' is officially Signed For which covers up to £50, gets you a signature on delivery, and online delivery confirmation with the tracking number.  I don't even know if it's tracked internally to find it if it goes missing (calling it a tracking number rather sounds like it ought to, but the customer gets no update until it's delivered or at least delivery attempted - same as standard).

Standard gives you a reference number on the PoP which you can look up in the tracker for delivery confirmation.  So yes you can use standard for what you want.

I would always take Tracked over Signed for and roll the dice on compensation.
Far superior service with infinitely better tracking/features

I thought Tracked services covered up to £100, whereas Signed For is £50.  Well, for personal customers anyway, maybe it's different for business accounts.

well its a no brainer then.
Signed for simply isnt worth it

I think it depends on what the person posting actually needs. 

For me, standard parcels tend to reach their destinations fine without tracking, and sometimes I literally just need the higher compensation amount.  Tracked services are more expensive and require going out of the way to drop off at a CSP, so unless I need either the higher cover or proper tracking for some reason, I don't tend to choose that.

Im talking in reference to signed for
Either standard parcels or jump to Tracked. simply dismiss SF