Hopefully yodel will be next. City link haven't been much cop for many years. Someone bought them for a quid last year and they've lost 40 million since then.
Let's hope UK Fail, My Herpes and Yodel follow suit.
What ever happened to the GPO?
Really! ... and who do you think would take up the slack if that happened? It sure as hell wouldn't be TNT, DPD, DHL, or Interlink Express because they're probably stretched to near full capacity already. Most independent courier companies wouldn't touch it with a barge pole either because there's no money in it. If they did decide to 'help out' they'd be wanting in the region of £150 £160 a day per transit load and you could bet your boots that would force delivery charges up pretty quickly.The problem, as always, lies in the fact that retailers offer and the public demand dirt cheap or free delivery. Getting stuff from A - B costs money in the form of fuel, insurances, vehicle wear & tear and that's more likely to be the reason that Citylink have gone under ... because it cost them more to deliver than they could get away with charging.
Hermes, Yodel and the other cheap delivery companies might be crap but because people have come to expect their stuff to be delivered to them for next to nothing ... they're a necessity. If they "follow suit" as you hope then parcel deliveries across the country would be up sh*t creek without a paddle PDQ.
It became Post Office Ltd which incorporates Post Office Counters, Parcelforce & Royal Mail.
Surprised no one wants to them go bust as well!
Fuel costs, well l drive a newish Vauxhall combo and get about 230miles to a tank of diesel on stop/startd
delivery.
Have no problem with other delivery drivers round here, not had a problem yet
We deliver most of out stuff via Royal Mail (2-300 items a week) and beside the occasional missing item they are the best courier by a country mile.
Being an online retailer, I totally understand that customers expect dirt cheap or free delivery and I subsidise all of our deliveries. Being cheap isn't an excuse for crap customer service.
Being an online retailer, I totally understand that customers expect dirt cheap or free delivery and I subsidise all of our deliveries. Being cheap isn't an excuse for crap customer service.
I bought a small item recently in a box about the size of after eight mints. Buying direct from the seller meant paying £10 for delivery to the highlands, but buying from the same seller via Amazon was free and delivered by PO. Someone obviously took a hit.
Being an online retailer, I totally understand that customers expect dirt cheap or free delivery and I subsidise all of our deliveries.
In those cases I expect the shipping / courier cost to be paid by the online seller if it's within the UK mainland.
The only money coming into a business is what the customers provide. Therefore they are paying for everything - even things they think they are getting free.
Steve.
But however you look at it, your customers are paying it.Steve.
Really..
Lets take a look at an example.
Business Sells online an item for £10.00 of which £2.00 is profit.
The customer pays 50p postage at check out This amount being the total cost to the business of the postage.
Total cost to customer £10.50
Customer has covered postage in the total price
Business says hay sales are down lets do free postage
Now customer pays £10.00 NO Postage..
Business profit is now down 50p as this is the cost to them for postage.
So profit £1.50
At what point did the free postage cost reflect negatively on the purchasers experiance ????
My post was in response to Steve's comment which implied all.
No my customers do not pay for delivery unless they choose an express method.
I'm not surprised tbh, after they failed to deliver my sounds new bed a couple of years ago they have been avoided at all costs in our house, at work and by colleagues in work ordering stuff.
They told us they couldn't find my parents road (where they were supposed to deliver... ) Let alone the house. Yet for several days before delivery was due and for several after, there was a city link van parked at the bottom of the road!!!
My husband and father went to try and find out what had happened to it from the depot and had to wait for over two hours iirc. They didn't know what had happened to it. About a week after it was due we got a phonecall from a company about quarter of a mile away saying our parcel had been delivered there, just before they closed for Christmas and they hadn't realised it wasn't for them until now... a month or two later the city link website still said the parcel was "in transit" or words to that effect. Bl**dy useless IMHO.
After all that I am sorry for the staff that have lost their jobs at this, well any time of year tbh.
Even more annoying, the local depot around 2 miles ago wasn't my local depot