Whose leg is being pulled?

[dickm]

As part of my kitchen upgrade mentioned elsewhere, have a whole heap of quite good quality but unfashionable oak cabinet doors for disposal, so put them on Gumtree. Got some interest, including one from the West Midlands. I'm offering the doors for a couple of pounds each, and the guy was really keen, but realised transport from Aberdeen would be expensive. So checked with Shiply and other web sources for cost of 12kg package 75cm by 55cm by 10 cm. Prices ranged from £70 to £125, which were obviously useless for £6 worth of doors.
By chance, SWMBO needed to send package to daughter in USA and checked with Post Office leaflets. Once you begin to make sense of their layout, you discover that Parcelforce do a large parcel service nationally and internationally called Express48 (or Express 24 for quicker delivery). Went through their website and got a price of £22. Which when I actually bought it came down to £19 because there was an introductory discount.
So what is the justification for £125 from a courier? And why don't Parcelforce make it easier to find their service?

 

[AES]

That's "funny"!!!!

Just recently I did a check on line with some parcel companies plus the GPO (or whatever it's called these days).

I wanted a price to move a 17 Kg parcel whose overall dimensions came within the 90 cm total limit. The parcel was to go from UK to Switzerland (NOT out in the sticks, and near the French and German borders). The cheapest I could find on the GPO site was 250 quid, and the best was from a parcel carrier who came "down" to 220 quid. I wanted it insured for a replacement value of 120 quid and also signed for on arrival but was NOT bothered about speed "slow boat to China" would have been fine if it reduced the cost.

Since in geographical terms the distance between the pick up point and my home would be roughly double (at most) compared to any straight line between any 2 points in the UK, I wonder if:

A) did I miss something on the Royal Mail web site (compared to the price quoted in the OP), or;

B) is this all just a rip off because to get to me from UK you'd have to cross at least 3 borders (but remember please, 2 of these are almost non-existent as they're in "EU land")????

Any comments? Didn't I look in the right places/ask the right questions?

AES

 

[Rorschach]

That's "funny"!!!!

Just recently I did a check on line with some parcel companies plus the GPO (or whatever it's called these days).

I wanted a price to move a 17 Kg parcel whose overall dimensions came within the 90 cm total limit. The parcel was to go from UK to Switzerland (NOT out in the sticks, and near the French and German borders). The cheapest I could find on the GPO site was 250 quid, and the best was from a parcel carrier who came "down" to 220 quid. I wanted it insured for a replacement value of 120 quid and also signed for on arrival but was NOT bothered about speed "slow boat to China" would have been fine if it reduced the cost.

Since in geographical terms the distance between the pick up point and my home would be roughly double (at most) compared to any straight line between any 2 points in the UK, I wonder if:

A) did I miss something on the Royal Mail web site (compared to the price quoted in the OP), or;

B) is this all just a rip off because to get to me from UK you'd have to cross at least 3 borders (but remember please, 2 of these are almost non-existent as they're in "EU land")????

Any comments? Didn't I look in the right places/ask the right questions?

AES

That seems odd, I shipped a 35kg piece of machinery to Germany for only £100 with insurance up to £1000

 

[Rorschach]

Like with everything these days you need to shop around, prices will depend very much on the size, weight and shape of the parcel, as well as value. For low value, large but lightweight parcels the new couriers like Hermes are cheapest, for larger heavier parcels couriers like TNT or DPD work well since they have vans/lorries and then for smaller but high value items, the old couriers like UPS are superb. Of course the costs vary on all of these since they all specialise in a certain category of parcel.

Once company that I will never trust though since not only have their prices been higher than their competitors but they have let me down many times and have a legalised racket is Parcelfarce, won't ever touch them.

 

[AES]

Thanks Rorschasch. I did visit several web sites, and the 225 odd quid I came up with was the cheapest rate I got for that particular parcel & trip. Perhaps I should have tried more, I dunno, but for me, it just seemed A) expensive bearing in mind the value of the goods was only half that (approx.) and B) the costs I did come up with seemed so much more than the within UK rate quoted by the OP. I could run my own car there and back for less than that 225 - not only petrol, but also car depreciation, servicing, insurance, etc. But NOT including my time - I guess that's the crunch factor, 'cos that would have to be an almost non-stop 2 day trip - but a long UK-only trip would be more than 1 day too..

Just interesting.

AES

 

[Rorschach]

Did you try using a comparison service like Parcel2go? That is always my first port of call as it's fast and easy to get a quote from all the major courier companies.

 

[AES]

No I didn't ('cos I didn't know about it). So thanks for that, because I found some much more sensible prices, so it's now bookmarked for the future.

One thing I found interesting with the various quotes from that site though:

As said, I wanted to insure the parcel for it's cost price (120 quid). Some of the quotes showed "protection" for 50 quid, some for 25, and some for nil (no doubt if I'd have looked into it further, I could have got the 120 quid I needed, but I didn't bother this time, the offer has passed). BUT the price reduction for "no protection" compared to the 50 or 25 quid protection varied enormously - some showed almost half price without protection, some showed a reduction of just a couple of quid, and some showed no price reduction at all for nil protection.

The quotes themselves varied enormously as well - from over 80-odd quid to almost half that. But all a LOT better than the "best" 225 quid I found, so interesting for the future.

As said, thanks, book marked.

AES

 

[Rorschach]

Glad to be of help. Some of the newer couriers offer very little protection but so far I have not had to make a claim. If you need to insure then it's better going with a bigger company like TNT or UPS, they will insure up to any value, for a price of course.

 

[RogerS]

Same goes for tiling grout. Originally going to buy from the company who supplied the tiles but delivery times over a week away! And pricey grout and pricey delivery. Found a cheap online source and then discovered delivery would be £60 :shock:

Then came across TileFix...cheapest of the lot and delivery charges minimal. =D>

 

[dickm]

Just to close this down, took the parcel into Post Office in next village and got a delighted email from the customer confirming safe receipt well within the 48 hours.

 

[HappyHacker]

A friend used one of the agencies to find a decent price to send a parcel which was both heavy(2X15kg) and long 6ft. As he was working and I was at home it was to be picked up from my house. After a week of 'it will be picked up tomorrow" he cancelled the order. A courier arrived the day after he cancelled it for me to tell him it had been cancelled. The guy it was being sent to was obviously upset about the delay so they agreed to meet half way and each drove about 100 miles.