Cheap and reliable deivery service

Like almost all courier companies, there seems to be reviews praising them and recommending them, and reviews of upset customers with packages left on odd places, terrible far out depots and high value items left on front porches and stuff like that.

With everything I've sent on the Classifieds here I still always go back to RM - sure, the postal charge increases make it sting, but knowing it will almost certainly get there with no drama makes it worth the extra few quid to me (and the buyer!).
 
freecom2 said:
Like almost all courier companies, there seems to be reviews praising them and recommending them, and reviews of upset customers with packages left on odd places, terrible far out depots and high value items left on front porches and stuff like that.

With everything I've sent on the Classifieds here I still always go back to RM - sure, the postal charge increases make it sting, but knowing it will almost certainly get there with no drama makes it worth the extra few quid to me (and the buyer!).
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Thanks for the quick reply.....I want to send a camera (free) that you could buy on Ebay for maybe £20, so £3.33 seems worth a gamble.
 
Oh for a low value item like that, I'd probably take the gamble as well. When the cost of delivery is coming to half of the intrinsic value of the package, it becomes hard to justify!
 
I use Hermes, on the site you have the option to take your parcel to a collection point, or, have the parcel collected, called My Hermes, they are based on private collectors, who then delivery to a central site for distribution.

The last parcel I sent was £9.42, that was signed for and insured to £70,weighing 4KG, standard insurance is only £20, RM for the same was over £12.00, so not a lot of saving, but if you have small parcels with low value the saving is much greater and they perform the delivery task very well with tracking. The only collection problem is that they quote 8AM to 8PM time slot, but you can take it yourself to a very local drop off point at a lower cost.
 
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medwaygreen said:
I use Hermes, on the site you have the option to take your parcel to a collection point, or, have the parcel collected, called My Hermes, they are based on private collectors, who then delivery to a central site for distribution.

The last parcel I sent was £9.42, that was signed for and insured to £70,weighing 4KG, standard insurance is only £20, RM for the same was over £12.00, so not a lot of saving, but if you have small parcels with low value the saving is much greater and they perform the delivery task very well with tracking. The only collection problem is that they quote 8AM to 8PM time slot, but you can take it yourself to a very local drop off point at a lower cost.
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I'm surprised we haven't a sticky for how to send camera equipment and by whom.....I'm not much use at this for info as this is the first large parcel (largest dimension 8.5 inches) that I've sent for years.
 
I have used this site in the past to send a shock absorber off for repair https://www.parcel2go.com/quick-quote.aspx it would have costed a fortune to use RM. The quote I received was very reasonable and the item was collected from my home address and fully tracked.
 
I suspect the RM are now only price competitive if you are posting sheet lead in a4 packets... If you've got a good sorting office they're still the most reliable courier and their collections offices are usually with in cycling range. The bit players (hermes et al) have their offices miles out of town on nasty roads round here so I need the car.
 
wickerman said:
I have used this site in the past to send a shock absorber off for repair https://www.parcel2go.com/quick-quote.aspx it would have costed a fortune to use RM. The quote I received was very reasonable and the item was collected from my home address and fully tracked.
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It seems this is the first place to go, which I also got from google, but whether they are independent or tied into the couriers mentioned.....I have no idea.
 
At the end of the day, with the nature of deliveries and things that can (and do) go wrong, you'll always get positive and negative reviews of every courier. Just use one that offers a price and service (compensation, tracking, convenient drop off/pick up from house) that matches what you want and go from there.
 
I'm a recent convert to CollectPlus, not expensive but not necessarily the cheapest but the convenience of being able to drop and collect parcels at the shop at the bottom of my road outweighs the few pennies I can save at other places.
 
steveo_mcg said:
I suspect the RM are now only price competitive if you are posting sheet lead in a4 packets... If you've got a good sorting office they're still the most reliable courier and their collections offices are usually with in cycling range. The bit players (hermes et al) have their offices miles out of town on nasty roads round here so I need the car.
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Have it re-delivered then.
 
freecom2 said:
At the end of the day, with the nature of deliveries and things that can (and do) go wrong, you'll always get positive and negative reviews of every courier. Just use one that offers a price and service (compensation, tracking, convenient drop off/pick up from house) that matches what you want and go from there.
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If I ever sell that Angenieux cine lens, 16 inches long and weighing about 18lbs and could be worth up £250, on how to send.....I'll have to start another thread :LOL:
 
steveo_mcg said:
I just end up missing it all over again. There is rarely any one in during the day and I don't like getting stuff delivered to the office.
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Maybe I'm lucky with my delivery person, but when I've rung My Hermes to arrange re delivery, they've asked if I'm home and driven round to me with it 5-10 minutes later.

Yodel and City Link have been pretty bad over the years though where the packages are returned to depots 30-40 miles away and you can only get through to answering machines, so you're never sure whether your item is in transit or awaiting collection.
 
Only thing with myhermes is if you look at the list of things they won't insure it pretty much excludes everything you'd be likely to send with them.
 
hlens said:
Have you tried http://www.collectplus.co.uk/ its abit slow but very cheap for sending large parcels. Though you have to drop it off at a local shop.
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No but I did a search for the nearest one and there was a large circle of shops about 6-8 miles radius and nothing inside...h'mm well there is a lot of farmland around :shrug:
 
According to their website there's one in New Denham just down the road from you Brian and another in Harefield.
 
The only time i ever used Hermes it took 2 weeks for them to deliver an xbox 360 from liverpool 40 miles away, you get what you pay for imo.
 
Swissy said:
The only time i ever used Hermes it took 2 weeks for them to deliver an xbox 360 from liverpool 40 miles away, you get what you pay for imo.
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H'mm maybe they they should be in the category of "cheap and reliable but not quick" :shrug:
 
excalibur2 said:
H'mm maybe they they should be in the category of "cheap and reliable but not quick" :shrug:
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Maybe it's like the golden rule for tripods (tripods can be cheap, stable and lightweight - but you can only have two of those). Courier companies - cheap, reliable and quick... pick your two?
 
For in-UK shipping I now always now start at www.interparcel.com and then look at the standard, ie cheapest level of service. Because I have a collection point within half a mile I favour Collect Plus where I as the sender drop the parcel off at a collection point. For us this means that neither of us is having to hang around waiting for a courier to call and collect from us.

Also I don't have to run the gauntlet of a queue in the Post Office or the kommisars behind the counter who think they're doing me a favour.
 
Couriers are only as good as the drivers at either end. Hermes work like the catalogue companies with some random dude just going round in the family car doing the legwork. Had nothing but crap service from them myself, though most people on cart forums are using them now it seems.

Royal Mail is surprisingly much more competitive these days unless you're sending something very light but fairly hefty in size. £6 covers most of my posting needs these days. A lot of stuff I'd previously couriered (usually at £10 or more) now goes through the regular post. I hate to say it but they're also still the most reliable.
 
Alan Clogwyn said:
Couriers are only as good as the drivers at either end. Hermes work like the catalogue companies with some random dude just going round in the family car doing the legwork. Had nothing but crap service from them myself, though most people on cart forums are using them now it seems.
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This is one if the things I like about CourierPlus that I'm not subjected to the vagaries of the driver. None of the waiting and hoping.
 
RaglanSurf said:
This is one if the things I like about CourierPlus that I'm not subjected to the vagaries of the driver. None of the waiting and hoping.
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I think if CollectPlus were called CourierPlus then you would be subjected to the vagaries of the driver! :LOL:
 
I use collect+ and myhermes all the time. Being able to drop off the parcel saves me from having to hang about. I've especially had it bad from inter parcel bad where I was all day at a client site but no courier turned up, they were too busy so they come tomorrow but I'm not here tomorrow aargh. Nah I'd like to be in control and just drop it off myself.

Our local drivers are fantastic, as they get paid so little per parcel but have to make three attempts to deliver which eats up their profit because of where we live, they just call us to check when it is convenient for us to receive ;) now that is the way it should be done by all. Are you listening ups/citylink etc no point trying three days in a row at exactly the same time, school run and all that ;)
 
I have used collect+ a number of times to send laptops I have sold and cannot fault the service and price. Convenient drop off at any time to a shop and if you use the delivery to a shop I paid under £4 for a 14" dell laptop with the power supply and a bag.
 
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