Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Trying to ship to N Scotland


alembic1989
 Share

Recommended Posts

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1447330912' post='2906734']
I didn't say they weren't covered, I was objecting to the fact that the post office do not enquire as to the contents of the parcel and happily sell people insurance which will never pay out. Also, £100 of insurance is pretty useless for many basses, I'd guess the majority of ones which trade around here. Suffice to say that ParcelForce are wholly unsuitable for the couriering of all but the most inexpensive musical instruments - can we agree upon that?
[/quote]

Indeed, that was the gist of my post, simply for clarification. As for suitability; that depends also on one's degree of paranoia. Parcels [i]do [/i]get damaged or go astray, but many arrive safely at destination, too. [i]Extra [/i]insurance for instruments is a waste of money, and should not be bought (or sold...),but [i]all [/i]insurance is a gamble, anyway, where one loses out every time nothing happens. One takes one's choice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am rapidly going off Parcel Force. Some while back I bought a bass from Japan - 3 days from Tokyo to Parcel Force at Coventry where it sat for over w eek before getting rubber stamped for delivery. It arrived at my local depot, from where I had to pick it up, nearly a week after that. Was charged VAT and duty amounting to around 20% plus a £13 handling fee. Compare and contrast to more purchases I have made from Japan using DHL. Both dispatched from Tokyo on a Monday, emailed to request payment of duty online (which amounted to around 10%) on a Tuesday and arrived on my doorstep on Wednesday.

Currently I am waiting for a bit I bought from Spain to arrive via Parcelforce. It was posted on 28th October in Spain using Correos, arrived in UK 2nd November. Still a no show. I've tried to find out when they might get around to delivering it and have been told I should allow 15 working days. Unbelievable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The most used excuse is that because the populace is spread out over a greater distance in the Highlands, it costs them more to have an efficient delivery network, which is almost plausible, apart from the fact that they sub-contract all the work out to another company who has more vehicles. They have more vehicles, because they get sub-contracted by the major courier companies to do their deliveries for them.

Thing is though, from prior experience of courier companies, I would much rather have this local company doing the deliveries anyway, they're far more reliable than the others!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Skybone' timestamp='1447496250' post='2908022']
The most used excuse is that because the populace is spread out over a greater distance in the Highlands, it costs them more to have an efficient delivery network, which is almost plausible, apart from the fact that they sub-contract all the work out to another company who has more vehicles. They have more vehicles, because they get sub-contracted by the major courier companies to do their deliveries for them.

Thing is though, from prior experience of courier companies, I would much rather have this local company doing the deliveries anyway, they're far more reliable than the others!
[/quote]

See, this is what annoys me. Because there's all these companies that regularly deliver all over the highlands, I see no excuse for not delivering ! I get stuff from all over, in record time and yet companies from dahn sath, or sometimes even east Scotland, will tell me, don't deliver to Scottish highlands ! Lost a sale then chums!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try Parcelhero. As stated, past Perth will cost more.
I used to use one company all the time, then they stopped accepting anything over 125 cms.

https://www.parcelhero.com/

Parcelhero, through their UPS service, will take longer items and so far have been excellent, plus their tracking is great.

Edited by karlfer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='ubit' timestamp='1447807026' post='2910660']See, this is what annoys me. Because there's all these companies that regularly deliver all over the highlands, I see no excuse for not delivering ! I get stuff from all over, in record time and yet companies from dahn sath, or sometimes even east Scotland, will tell me, don't deliver to Scottish highlands ! Lost a sale then chums![/quote]

Totally agree. The ironic thing was that both Charlie Kennedy & Danny Alexander were trying to raise the profile of this issue, and seemed to be making some headway before the last election, where they both lost their seats, and then Charlie's untimely death.

Haven't heard any of the SNP MP's making any noise about this, or the fuel price issue yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Post codes in the Highlands are also to blame for some courier problems. Places north of Inverness can have post codes beginning with 'KW' which leads to couriers thinking that they being asked to deliver to Orkney, when they are actually being asked to deliver an hour's drive north of Inverness. Arranging delivery to non-mainland places like Orkney can be even more tricky.

It might be the case that couriers just don't want to deal with the A9, which is a horrible road long overdue for being turned into a dual carriageway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My postcode is PH13.

According to an online retailer I was about to make a purchase from, this is classed as "Highlands and Islands".
This despite the fact I am nine miles from Dundee and twelve miles from Perth.

In fairness though, this seemed to be the carriers conditions rather than the retailers as if it was sent via Royal Mail there was no surcharge.
Just for devilment I contacted the retailer and told them they had lost a sale of over a hundred pounds.

And yes, not being able to sleep sucks.......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...