FA: LAST DAY! British railway videos for sale on eBay

"MartinS" wrote

Neither does the UK, everying sent by Royal Mail [1] is charged according to weight, and based on two main charging systems - known colloquially as first and second class mail. You can send a 2Kg parcel by first class (letter) mail providing you are willing to pay the cost. Second class is only available up to a certain weight

I understand the system is to change, and will not solely be weight governed.

[1] - Royal Mail is notionally the mail system, whilst Parcel Force are there nominally to carry parcels. We send everything by Royal Mail or independent courier, Parcel Force tends to be expensive and unreliable.

John.

He's a psychiatrist? That's criminal!

"Jane Sullivan" wrote

It could be worse Jane - he could be a 'social worker'!

John.

"John Turner" wrote in news:do5u2m$ttv$ snipped-for-privacy@newsreaderm1.core.theplanet.net:

...

... and they tend to have their depots in the most inaccessable places a long way away. At least the Royal Mail (or at least what's left of them) have local delivery offices.

But, unlike a courier company, you can ask to have your package forwarded to a post office of your choice - for a small fee, naturally.

And if you're out when they try to deliver, they don't deliver you a "premises closed" card saying they will make one more attempt on the next day and after that the parcel goes back to where it came from. My house wasn't "closed", I was just at work...

What seems pretty stupid is that - in my experience - when you order something via a courier company, there is no procedure for telling them which day you are going to be in. They have to send a van round, discover you are out, leave a card, and then you can negotiate on when you might be around for them.

If you try to pre-empt this, you are treated as if you are being utterly unreasonable and trying to get some special service you haven't paid for, rather than stopping them sending a van miles out of its way to no purpose.

At least with Parcel Force they were probably going near your house anywhere.

"A Woodcraft" wrote

So why not tell your selected retailer on what day you'd like your purchase shipped? We regularly do this for our customers - that way they know they'll be in on the day the courier calls.

John.

A Woodcraft wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@bowey.me.uk:

On top of what I've already paid. Or have the pleasure of a 2 hour+ round trip.

Got to say the only courier company I've ever had a problem with is 'White Arrow', absolutely sodding useless. As for the rest they all have regular drivers around here, they know who will be in and who won't be and where they can and cannot leave parcels.

"John Turner" wrote in news:do6c00$b6d$ snipped-for-privacy@newsreaderm2.core.theplanet.net:

As you mentioned it, spoke with Expo Tools today

or at least my wife did, they were ringing to confirm delivery of my new airbrush (the BA310 FWIW) precisely for the reason you mention above. Hats of to them ... no connection other than a repeat satisfied customer.

Don't they operat a "volumetric weight" system where the size is taken into account along with the weight. So large light items can be penalised as much as small heavy ones. The Royal mail have talked about moving to a similar system to penalise those really huge greetings cards and similar that have to be processed manually.

MBQ

The companies I've dealt with don't seem to offer this option, or I would do. I'm glad to hear that your company is more enlightened.

"A Woodcraft" wrote

Customers are hard to get and even harder to retain, we try to bend over backwards to keep ours. If your suppliers won't play ball, then change them.

John.

Well, phoning up a courier company and arranging a redelivery isn't much work; it's not really an incentive for me to find another company that I can trust with my money.

It just seems a waste of time (and fuel) for a courier company to make a failed delivery because nobody gave me a chance to tell them I was going to be out. It seems to me that some courier companies haven't woken up to the fact that they are being used to deliver significant quantities to private homes rather than other businesses, which usually do have someone there to recieve goods every day.

Yes, but even with a jiffy bag the weight rarely exceeds 350g and in the UK it is all weight dependent.

The second class postage for items up to 350g is 94p (according the the PO website). Even 1st class is only =A31.21 for that weight. If people insist on recorded delivery then the prices are =A31.60 and =A31.87 respectively.

I have no complaints about the delivery of parcels, and I have posted over 80 items sold on Ebay in the last couple of years. I have had no problems so far with non-delivery, and so do not consider that signing for a video is necessary, although I may be a touch biased as one of my sons is a postman.

Yes but add on the cost of the jiffy bag, which can cost 50p - 80p when purchasing in singles, and then there's the commission fees due from e-bay and paypal. I've paid £3.50 for a couple of n gauge coaches that cost me £12, and these weigh a lot less than a VHS video. If e-bay and paypal (especially paypal) made it cheaper when selling low cost items, then there would be no need for people to charge £12 p&p to circumvent these charges when listing things that are just a couple of quid.!

The other thing, why was everyone harping on about this guy charging £3.50 P&P.. place an order with most large model shops and they will charge typically £3.50 - £3.95 per order, which is fine if you have a lot of stuff to order, but a bit much if you simply want an n gauge coach or wagon, which could be sent for less than a quid 1st class !!

Malcolm

Maybe you would buy a single jiffy bag when only selling one item, but I would just re-use one that I had kept from a previous parcel sent to me - cost? Nil. You can buy suitable jiffy bags in bulk for about 13p each. As for Ebay 'commision', bog standard auction entry with one photo costs 35p, or thereabouts, and not everyone pays by Paypal.

So, why should non-Paypal payers pay for commission that the seller is not being charged?

However, I seem to be in a minority of one, so the message is clear. Ebay sellers - charge as much p&p as you like because it seems there are lots of suck...(sorry that should be buyers) that will not only pay up, but bend over backwards to find excuses to justify you ripping them off.

There has been a marked increase in the number of private address deliveries in the past few years - especially due to the number of firms trading online. Various new services have been made available, but unfortunately most of these are premium products - evening deliveries are becoming more common, but not cost effective for anything other than very high value items.

Courier firms are happy to leave consignments at an alternative address, provided that it is in the sender's instructions to do so. If the sender is happy to have the item left in a given location (shed, porch etc) without a signature, firms will do so. Providing an alternative (Neighbour's) address is another option.

The driver would much rather complete the delivery than fail it, for no other reason than they usually only get paid for consignments successfully delivered.

I'd suggest you talk to your sender, and see if one of these options can be arranged.

As posted to this group Sept. 5, 2005, 21:24:43 +0100

In message , MartinS writes

That's OK. The best lines will withstand repetition.

And you're on about this guy ripping people off !!