View Full Version : Highlands and Islands postage?
Chrisf1961
13-Dec-10, 15:27
Weve all seen this on shopping channels like QVC etc where they wont deliver up here ...but hang on i live in Wick and along with Thurso and the other smaller places dotted inbetween
WE ARE ON THE UK MAINLAND !
Ive rang Qvc re this and i understand where they are selling meats food etc were it has a shelf life but why not on other goods?
Why wont some companies come up here ? Cost maybe but surely these manufacturers sellers etc do deals with courier firms to reduce postage and i stress again Wick Thurso etc is UK MAINLAND ?
All beyond me ................
Chrisf1961
13-Dec-10, 15:30
Just following on from this in the same way isnt Lands End and towns/villages that way out of bounds to companies as well delivery wise ? i dont know do they refuse to deliver to the tip of England ?
This has been debated to near death a few times on here.
The outcome is always the same.
The courier services screw extra money because they can and we are screwed because if we want the item we have to pay.
They wont change, and they know we are still on the mainland, and dont care!
Oh and our parcels take an extra 2 days to arrive from the quoted 2-3 days because we are remote!
Dadie is right on all counts. They charge extra because they can. It's discrimination ;)
You could suggest arranging collection and get senditnow.com to collect. It's ParcelForce under another name but something that might cost £48+ with ParcelForce will only cost £10.49 with senditnow. Parcel2go are another one which is quite cheap I believe.
You might try advising the customer service team of the appropriate company to consider more competitve rates to the Mainland Highlands and to check the above sites to see why you feel that there is no justification for their inflated prices. Can take a while but I've gotten a few companies who had exclusive contracts with a specific courier that always overcharges to provide alternate options for Highlands customers. Took a few months (so they didn't get the sale) but they made the changes in the end.
Have they changed their delivery policy then?
If you run a mail order business and send all your parcels by courier you'll probably pay about 10-20% less than that best contract rate you're likely to negotiate with Royal Mail; however that's if you don't have all the remote delivery options. Considering Highlands and Islands only accounts for 2.1% of the UK mailorder market (although is only 1% of the population!) most companies prefer to ignore that bit of the market and concentrate on minimising the cost of servicing the other 98%.
The remote areas of England aren't really remote. Cornwall has a population of over 1/2 million in what is a tiny area compared to the H & I's so it's worth establishing a delivery network there.
To me the worst part of this situation is that by law Royal Mail has to deliver to all UK addresses at the same price, to give them a level playing field all other couriers should have to do the same.
QVC do deliver to this area except for food products.:D
When buying on the internet, I always look for sellers who don't charge extra for shipping to Caithness. Most couriers deliver to Inverness, and then either Royal Mail or a local courier bring goods the rest of the way.
The annoying part is that we don't seem to pay a premium for SENDING parcels.
carrepairman
13-Dec-10, 16:29
I buy quite a lot of parts on the web and have discovered that parcel force offer some of my suppliers a 50% discount on their rates, but that discount is only applicable to deliveries as far north as Inverness.
Dont suggest that!
THEY might be looking:eek:
Dont want to give em any ideas now...do we.[lol]
Nothing to with all that tosh on last post's, it is when they who decided to put the Caithness postcode along with Kirkwall in Orkney all this trouble came about, so those in deepest Englandshire on the end of of a phone and a big map with pins in it think we live on an Island. dafty's:mad:
Greener has hit the nail on the head.
However if I am getting stuff sent from south and they want to impose extra delivery charges I suggest they use the Royal Mail or Parcel Force. Never had a problem with postage rates with them and they deliver nationwide.... yes, even to Orkney and Shetland.
Nothing to with all that tosh on last post's, it is when they who decided to put the Caithness postcode along with Kirkwall in Orkney all this trouble came about, so those in deepest Englandshire on the end of of a phone and a big map with pins in it think we live on an Island. dafty's:mad:
Not quite true.
Inverness postcodes are normally included in the offshore/remote category too.
The big couriers don't deliver this far north, so it has to be passed on to subcontractors such as AJC parcels etc, hence the increased cost.
Maybe the "one price no matter how far the parcel is going" philosophy set by the royal mail has spoiled us a bit.
onecalledk
13-Dec-10, 18:49
then perhaps its time to contact an MP to raise this issue of postcodes ??
most people down south have NO IDEA where places are in northern scotland. I have often wondered why Thurso has a KW postcode as it is not on Orkney. Perhaps a rethink of where the postcodes are and some information about EXACTLY where they are on the map.
I thought it was bad living in an IV postcode, I have had parcels delivered to me at that postcode stating OFFSHORE highlands and islands.
K
Have they changed their delivery policy then?
aye they did. Can't remember who it was though, was one of they pc parts suppliers. Took them about six months to revise their policy. Also had a go at BT shop (aka Dabs.com) and they 'improved' their policy and made it a bit more equal & transparent.
You'll find that if you have a go at ebuyer, if it's something which can be sent by royal mail, then you can contact customer services and they will waive the highlands & islands surcharge.
carrying on with the postage theme is any body else waiting to receive items from The Royal Mail that should of been delivered a week plus ago?
I am still waiting for various items one which was posted on the 3/12/10,now I know we had bad weather but come on Royal Mail ten days later and still waiting thats not on!
And by the way do not pay for special delivery at the moment because the next day delivery is not guranteed
oldchemist
13-Dec-10, 21:29
Problem solved - most of the big companies are not doing any online orders to the north this side of Christmas.
Problem solved - most of the big companies are not doing any online orders to the north this side of Christmas.
Yes I can understand that as most companies use couriers but the Royal Mail have a obligation to deliver mail and small parcels quickly and a set price nation wide.
Nothing to with all that tosh on last post's, it is when they who decided to put the Caithness postcode along with Kirkwall in Orkney all this trouble came about, so those in deepest Englandshire on the end of of a phone and a big map with pins in it think we live on an Island. dafty's:mad:
When looking for a new laptop a couple of months ago i found one i liked but the sellar after i had paid for the item in question then told me they could not send it to me as they can only send to mainland uk only. After making my point that i am not on an island and they should go look at a map to check they still gave the me same answer as before. I then demanded my money back but then they insisted they would try and see if i get it! [disgust]
Needless to say i still insisted on my refund. I won't as a rule deal with sellers like that.
I went on amazon and found another i really liked and guess what delivery was?....It was free!
I have paid extra before for my son's feeding booster seat. But that was after i had shopped around and found that even though i was paying a bit extra for delivery i was still getting the better deal.
purplelady
14-Dec-10, 00:03
QVC do deliver to this area except for food products.:D
was going to say they do too Liz have had a fair few things from them xxxxxx
Amazon don't seem to charge for any packages and everything is really well packed. Thumbs up for them.
Chrisf1961
14-Dec-10, 18:18
Weve all seen this on shopping channels like QVC etc where they wont deliver up here ...but hang on i live in Wick and along with Thurso and the other smaller places dotted inbetween
WE ARE ON THE UK MAINLAND !
Ive rang Qvc re this and i understand where they are selling meats food etc were it has a shelf life but why not on other goods?
Why wont some companies come up here ? Cost maybe but surely these manufacturers sellers etc do deals with courier firms to reduce postage and i stress again Wick Thurso etc is UK MAINLAND ?
All beyond me ................
Sorry i worded that wrong re QVC yes they do deliver other goods up here ...what i should of said was that manufacturers ie Acer etc who send their goods out direct dont seem to.
Not quite true.
Inverness postcodes are normally included in the offshore/remote category too.
The big couriers don't deliver this far north, so it has to be passed on to subcontractors such as AJC parcels etc, hence the increased cost.
Maybe the "one price no matter how far the parcel is going" philosophy set by the royal mail has spoiled us a bit.
What Tosh Inverness have their own postcode starting with IV nothing to do with any offshore/ remote or Islands unlike Caithness which is according the postal/couriers is not part of the British Mainland:mad:
What Tosh Inverness have their own postcode starting with IV nothing to do with any offshore/ remote or Islands unlike Caithness which is according the postal/couriers is not part of the British Mainland:mad:
Not Tosh at all.
Find a website that won't deliver to KW postcodes and I bet they won't deliver to some IV, AB etc postcodes either.
Here's an example I found:
"General delivery charge is £5.95 per order for non-furniture items regardless of
the number of items. Certain parts of postcodes AB, BT, HS, IM, IV, KA, KW, PA,
PH and ZE carry a higher charge of £15-£18."
Now AB is Aberdeen, IV is Inverness and PA is Paisley. We're all in the same boat.
None of these places are offshore, but they are classed as remote. Many big courier companies don't deliver to these non cost effective areas so have to subcontract out. Hence the surcharge.
And who can blame them? They're not forced to supply these areas so why should they?
A train ticket from Caithness to Glasgow will cost more than a train ticket from Caithness to Inverness. A taxi from Thurso to Wick will cost more than a taxi from Thurso to Castletown. It costs more for transport the further you go. Maybe we've been spoiled by the royal mail having a one price policy all this time? Now that a large quantity of deliveries are made by independent companies trying to maximise profit we have to expect to pay more.
orkneycadian
15-Dec-10, 12:04
Its for the above reason(s) that to lose the Royal Mail, Parcelforce, etc and the universal service obligation, would be disastrous for all of us in Caithness, Orkney, Shetland etc.
At the moment, we have a very good service from the Royal Mail, Parcelforce etc, and a rather marginal service from couriers. Take away the Royal Mail and it becomes a free for all for the couriers how much extra they fancy charging in KW in order to subsidise their operation in SE. At the moment, they do have competition, and the £15-£18 quoted above is proabaly as much as they think they can get away with. Without Royal Mail, that would be an awful lot more.
This week is showing how bad couriers can be, and how good Royal Mail can be. To anyone that says the letter that was posted last week, 1st class, that only arrived today, I would say, "when did you get your courier delivery this week?"
Its for the above reason(s) that to lose the Royal Mail, Parcelforce, etc and the universal service obligation, would be disastrous for all of us in Caithness, Orkney, Shetland etc.
At the moment, we have a very good service from the Royal Mail, Parcelforce etc, and a rather marginal service from couriers. Take away the Royal Mail and it becomes a free for all for the couriers how much extra they fancy charging in KW in order to subsidise their operation in SE. At the moment, they do have competition, and the £15-£18 quoted above is proabaly as much as they think they can get away with. Without Royal Mail, that would be an awful lot more.
It would be a disaster, and I hope it never happens.
But I wouldn't be surprised if those at the head of royal mail, trying to maximise profits, would like to do so.
If royal mail is ever floated on the stockmarket I can imagine maintaining the universal service obligation would be very hard to enforce.
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