Parcel force

[Urabug]

Its nothing to do with individual surcharges it is the individual contracts signed by organisations with Shetland being out with the contract

So Royal Mail/Parcel Force does not recognise our Northern Islands as part of the uk,so leaves us out of the contracts  .  

Edited January 19, 2017 by Urabug

[BigMouth]

Could I just correct the typo that has been part of this thread?  The proper spelling is:

 

ParcelFarce

 

[brian.smith]

 

Its nothing to do with individual surcharges it is the individual contracts signed by organisations with Shetland being out with the contract

So Royal Mail/Parcel Force does not recognise our Northern Islands as part of the uk,so leaves us out of the contracts  .  

 

No Urabug they deliver here for the same as anywhere else however when they are approached by large companies looking for better pricing options it is the companies who choose to sign the mainland UK deals as they tend to be better value. Now I noticed earlier in thread that someone mentioned amazon earlier as far as I am aware Amazon have a UK wide delivery price when they choose to use parcel force

[Urabug]

 

 

 

No Urabug they deliver here for the same as anywhere else however when they are approached by large companies looking for better pricing options it is the companies who choose to sign the mainland UK deals as they tend to be better value. Now I noticed earlier in thread that someone mentioned amazon earlier as far as I am aware Amazon have a UK wide delivery price when they choose to use parcel force

 

I do not dispute that many businesses have contract arrangements with Parcel Force but nevertheless us islanders are being ripped of with the extra surcharges which are not just a few pence but many pounds for even small items.

By all means have special arrangements for company's who post a lot of parcels but why penalize us. We should be part of the deal.

Amazon does not have a UK wide delivery price unless it is being dispatched directly from there own warehouses or they have some agreement with there many outlets. Several times I have cleared my basket when I have been aware of a surcharge.

Incidentally order an item from Ebay Wed afternoon late and it arrived this morning,small package but to big for letter box and cost  £2. That is good service. 

[George.]

 

 

 

No Urabug they deliver here for the same as anywhere else however when they are approached by large companies looking for better pricing options it is the companies who choose to sign the mainland UK deals as they tend to be better value. Now I noticed earlier in thread that someone mentioned amazon earlier as far as I am aware Amazon have a UK wide delivery price when they choose to use parcel force

 

I do not dispute that many businesses have contract arrangements with Parcel Force but nevertheless us islanders are being ripped of with the extra surcharges which are not just a few pence but many pounds for even small items.

By all means have special arrangements for company's who post a lot of parcels but why penalize us. We should be part of the deal.

Amazon does not have a UK wide delivery price unless it is being dispatched directly from there own warehouses or they have some agreement with there many outlets. Several times I have cleared my basket when I have been aware of a surcharge.

Incidentally order an item from Ebay Wed afternoon late and it arrived this morning,small package but to big for letter box and cost  £2. That is good service. 

 

 

The statement, "Incidentally order an item from Ebay Wed afternoon late and it arrived this morning,small package but to big for letter box and cost  £2." implies that you bought something from eBay, the company. Can you please confirm or deny whether this is correct.

[Urabug]

 

 

 

 

 

 

The statement, "Incidentally order an item from Ebay Wed afternoon late and it arrived this morning,small package but to big for letter box and cost  £2." implies that you bought something from eBay, the company. Can you please confirm or deny whether this is correct.

 

That is correct,I did order an item through the Ebay web site which I could not find locally and it was delivered to my door something like 40hrs later for a cost of £2 by the postman.

Ironically I'm still waiting for the item ordered through Amazon,that if it had been sent via parcelforce would have been surcharged £7 but was sent via Hermes instead..

Spent 2 days hanging about the house in case I miss delivery,just a pest.

[George.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

The statement, "Incidentally order an item from Ebay Wed afternoon late and it arrived this morning,small package but to big for letter box and cost  £2." implies that you bought something from eBay, the company. Can you please confirm or deny whether this is correct.

 

That is correct,I did order an item through the Ebay web site which I could not find locally and it was delivered to my door something like 40hrs later for a cost of £2 by the postman.

Ironically I'm still waiting for the item ordered through Amazon,that if it had been sent via parcelforce would have been surcharged £7 but was sent via Hermes instead..

Spent 2 days hanging about the house in case I miss delivery,just a pest.

 

 

If you check it out, you'll find that Amazon list Parcelforce as a carrier that they use. Of course, as you know, Amazon sell their own goods while also allowing sellers to advertise their goods as well, while eBay are no more than a marketplace. They don't sell anything to you or I themselves. Therefore, eBay don't have any choice of courier to use, it's solely up to the seller.

 

So, where's the benefit with eBay?

[Urabug]

George:- answer none I'm only trying to emphasize the disparity in the costs of "postage" to us islanders .This is not great big bulky heavy items which might require some special attention but "normal" sized parcels and packages we are speaking about,of which the costs should be roughly the same for all not pounds of difference.

It is a rip off that the costs vary so much from one firm to another even taking geography into consideration.Not sure whether to blame the senders or the carriers,possibly both.

Also delivery times with some carriers are indeed very slow but Royal Mail /parcelforce are usually the quicker

. 

Edited January 24, 2017 by Urabug

[George.]

You also tried to promote eBay as being better to Amazon, Urabug.

 

 

 

 

Amazon does not have a UK wide delivery price unless it is being dispatched directly from there own warehouses or they have some agreement with there many outlets. Several times I have cleared my basket when I have been aware of a surcharge.

Incidentally order an item from Ebay Wed afternoon late and it arrived this morning,small package but to big for letter box and cost  £2. That is good service. 

 

 

 

 

 

I still don't see any justification for that.

[Ghostrider]

 

On Shetland Do the post office deliver parcel force parcels or is it someone else

Well the postman delivers my parcel force items, but beware parcel force has a surcharge on many items to the Northern Isles although I was under the belief that we still had a universal charging  system in the UK..

 

 

We do still have universal charging, but it only applies to items sent by the Royal Mail brand, ParcelForce, although wholly owned by the Royal Mail brand, is considered to be a subsiduary but wholly seperate company and consequently exempted from the universal service obligation of the Royal Mail branded services. Same idea as buying a Lambourghini, Seat, VW or Skoda etc car, they're all made by the same folk, but what you get is very different with each marque, with one having little bearing on anything to do with the other.

 

Royal Mail offer a parcel service, ParcelForce offer a parcel service, they're two entirely different and unconnected services, the Royal Mail one is usually much cheaper and much quicker to/from here than ParcelForce. South its two wholly different fleets of trucks/vans, staff etc that handle one than handle the other, what often causes confusion up here is that there are no ParcelForce facilities up here, all ParcelForce work is sub-contracted to Royal Mail making it the same staff/vans which deliver both, creating a wholly incorrect impressions that they are one and the same entity.

 

South, for reason(s) they'd need to explain, folk seem quite familiar with the ParcelForce marque as a parcel courier, but very few seem to be aware Royal Mail too have an entirely seperate universal price (and for here, quicker0 parcel service, which leads to us paying more and getting a worse service incoming than we really need too as well.

Edited January 24, 2017 by Ghostrider

[Urabug]

I take it from the response so far that I am about the only one who is unhappy with the delivery charges to these beautiful islands, so I rest my case..

[Ghostrider]

^ I wouldn't know, I take the attitude that if anyone tries to charge me more than actual stamps on parcel cost plus 15% to cover packing and handling, I take my business elsewhere or do without whatever it is they're selling. Excessive shipping charges only matter, and will continue as long as folk pay them and continue to pay them.

Edited January 24, 2017 by Ghostrider

[tooney1]

Excessive shipping charges only matter, and will continue as long as folk pay them and continue to pay them.

 

Unfortunately they'll matter long beyond that since it's not a consumer driven / shop with your feet scenario that will bring them down. Neither retailers nor delivery companies really want to deal with a small/awkward island's custom, but usually they have to because in some marketing literature they claim to "delivery nationally".

 

It's like when you quote for a job that you really don't want, so you inflate it hoping you'll be rejected, but then you get it...

Edited January 26, 2017 by tooney1

[BigMouth]

You can always arrange collection using whichever carrier you prefer, assuming they offer the service.

[Ghostrider]

 

Excessive shipping charges only matter, and will continue as long as folk pay them and continue to pay them.

 

Unfortunately they'll matter long beyond that since it's not a consumer driven / shop with your feet scenario that will bring them down. Neither retailers nor delivery companies really want to deal with a small/awkward island's custom, but usually they have to because in some marketing literature they claim to "delivery nationally".

 

It's like when you quote for a job that you really don't want, so you inflate it hoping you'll be rejected, but then you get it...

 

 

Not sure I agree with it not being a "shop with your feet" scenario. Perhaps with a retailer that has a huge customer list and an arrogant management it is, but they're not all like that. Any though that are keeping their finger on the pulse and see that again and again their server's and telesales' resources are being drawn upon for orders from one small geographical area which all get cancelled at the payment stage as soon as the offshore surcharge is added, are going to do something about it, one way of the other. Its not good business to incur costs for no return.

 

The overwhelming reason companies get away with this kind of thing is by relying on the instant gratification ("I must have it, and I must have it NOW") modern shopping attitudes created and driven by aggresive Ad campaigns, and a perceived need to "keep up with the Joneses".

 

I really don't get why advertising "deliver nationally" somehow translates to "deliver nationally at flat rate cost", only Royal Mail do that, and that's because they're considered a "public service", as opposed to the being the commercial enterprise that all other delivery companies are. If you hire a van to shift a load or furniture from Edinburgh to Shetland you'd expect to pay a hell of a lot more than if you hired the same set up to shift it to Glasgow, so why folk in Shetland get bent out of shape when they're charged more to get their sofa delivered from wherever on the mainland than if they lived 50 miles from the shop its coming from, is beyond me. This set up has been going on so long now, and has been so well publicised during that time that it seems hard to believe that hardly anybody is going to be suckered in to believing that as often as not when ordering from south you're going to be hit with some sort of surcharge on delivery living here. There's small print tucked away in a corner for a reason (and if there isn't Trading Standards will wooble up their ears if its mentioned to them), those who do not seek it out and read it before clicking on the "Buy Now" button do so at their own cost.

 

If you overprice a job because you don't want it, and a customer agrees to it, you have to assume they're happy to pay that amount to get the job done. Paying loaded delivery charges then moaning after the fact is the same thing, as long as folk pay them, those levying them are going to assume that folk are happy to do it. It also destroys a fair bit of the credibility and validity of the argument to do something about them as well. Were folk to refuse to pay surcharges and compile a list of those things they would have wanted/liked to have purchased, but were denied the ability to do so because they weren't available locally and were grossly overpriced because of the delivery surcharge, the argument for some sort of external  intervention would have a good bit of added clout.

 

The "We're being deprived/discriminated against/treated as second class citizens" cards always get the sympathy vote long ahead of the "we're being ripped off" card.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd love it if I could ship anything I wanted up here from Penzance, Dover or wherever for the same cost as a mile up the road, but I doubt we'll ever achieve such a utopia, and paying what delivery companies ask, then moaning about how much you've had to pay them is probably about the least effective way of driving any change which might be possible.

Edited January 26, 2017 by Ghostrider