Parcel farce

[Tugmistress]

Is parcelforce 24 part of royal mail or not?
been told they charge a surcharge for delivery up here?

[RecQuery]

I've never had them charge me anything extra, Though Parcelforce 24 is more like Parcelforce 48 or Parcelforce 72 up here.

[Tugmistress]

the message i got from the ebay seller was ...

Hi there,
I can only send it via courier. We use Parcelforce24 who are very reliable and the shipment is also trackable and insured. I have checked your postcode and you are definately in a surcharge area. We have a set charge from Parcelforce for up to 30k in weight, so you can buy several packs for that one off postage cost.

[RecQuery]

In that case then no you technically don't have to pay extra, the Seller should have put an extra delivery option on there for people in the Highlands and Islands or one could have been auto-selected based upon your address if they wanted to charge more. Check here (http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/pay/shipping-costs.html) for ebays own advice

[Tugmistress]

Thanks rec, i just replied saying i wont be buying from them as they are charging extra for somewhere that doesn't need to be charged extra for (hope that made sense lol).

[RecQuery]

Yeah, you could have argued it and any dispute raised would have come out in your favour, in my experience though what usually happens is they conveniently 'lose' the item.

[Connor.]

I've used Parcel Force a few times before for getting computer bits shipped up from the Birmingham area. They deliver it as far up as either there Perth Depo (or Inverness, i'm not entirely sure) it then gets passed on to AJG Parcels.

Usually receive it with the 48 hours (dependent on time of shipping)

[alanatkie]

I bought something from ebay last week that was been delivered by parcel force. I was told by the seller they charge extra for delivery to here but thankfully the seller only charged me for 1 lot of P&p as i had ordered 2 items.

[cazmanian_minx]

Is parcelforce 24 part of royal mail or not?
been told they charge a surcharge for delivery up here?

It is and it isn't - it's a separate company but it's owned by Royal Mail Ltd. Because it's not part of Royal Mail itself, it has to charge VAT on all its services (most RM postage is VAT-free) but that also allows it to surcharge for Highlands and Islands whereas RM doesn't.

What's really annoying is that if you're in Highlands and Islands and want to send to another H&I address you still get surcharged!!

[carrepairman]

I did look into the fact that e-bay sellers charge extra for parcel farce deliveries and this is what I found out, If one has an account with parcel farce then you are given a discounted flat rate, the discount is based upon the volume of goods dispatched, However this discount is not applied to deliveries to the Highlands which is the reason for the surcharge. The reason most sellers use parcel farce as opposed to the post office for smaller parcels is that parcel farce collect from account holders whereas the post office don`t. Parcel farces deliveries are taken over by the post office once they reach the northmost depot of parcel farce.
What does not make sense is that I recently bought an exhaust system for my saab turbo which is big bulky and heavy, carriage from a UK seller, £50.00, Bought one from a seller in Poland, Cheaper and delivery was £15.00 and was delivered by parcel farce for it`s UK part of the journey.

[Tugmistress]

yeah it's enough to make you scream the double standards as we are not charged a surcharge for sending to lands end!

on a slightly brighter note i've just had a confirmation email that the new weather station has been dispatched via fed ex and it's free delivery :D

[pentlander]

What the seller is telling you is technically correct. Parcelforce operate a 24 hr service from here south but not the other way around. If you live in the south you may be able to get a 24 hr service but I would assume it comes with a surcharge. I can send any amount of stuff south in 24 hours but the service to have something collected and brought up here in 24hr is not available.

[sids]

I did look into the fact that e-bay sellers charge extra for parcel farce deliveries and this is what I found out, If one has an account with parcel farce then you are given a discounted flat rate, the discount is based upon the volume of goods dispatched, However this discount is not applied to deliveries to the Highlands which is the reason for the surcharge. The reason most sellers use parcel farce as opposed to the post office for smaller parcels is that parcel farce collect from account holders whereas the post office don`t. Parcel farces deliveries are taken over by the post office once they reach the northmost depot of parcel farce.
What does not make sense is that I recently bought an exhaust system for my saab turbo which is big bulky and heavy, carriage from a UK seller, £50.00, Bought one from a seller in Poland, Cheaper and delivery was £15.00 and was delivered by parcel farce for it`s UK part of the journey.

"Parcel Farce" is a weak pun. It didn't make anyone laugh the first time. You repeated it six times.

[Kodiak]

Hi Tugs, I am fairly certain I am correct but to be 100% sure you should check with Fireclown.

Quite some time ago when Royal changed its name to Consignia, ParcelForce split away from them and became a seperate Company. Then later on both the Companies changed their minds. Consignia changed their name back to Royal Mail and ParcelForce bacame part of Royal Mail again.

Although ParcelForce is now part of Royal Mail they have a completely different pricing system to Royal Mail, this being a hangover from when they split. So it is true ParcelForce do charge extra for delivery up here, even though they do not actually deliver up here. ParcelForce usually, I say usually as they do deliver up here for extra large items, ie items that take 2 to deliver, hand all their parcels over to Royal Mail at Inverness and it is the local Postie on Parcels that deliver for them.

So yes ParcelForce are a part of Royal Mail and yes they do charge Extra for Delivery up here.

[Kodiak]

The reason most sellers use parcel farce as opposed to the post office for smaller parcels is that parcel farce collect from account holders whereas the post office don`t.

This is not quite correct. The Post Office are completely seperate from Royal Mail and that is why the Post Office do not pick up small parcels. The Post Office are only agents for the Royal Mail.

On saying that Royal Mail do pick up Letters, Packets and Parcels for Business Account Customers.

ParcelForce will pick up Parcels Only.