Postage AGAIN

[veekay]

I realize that this is a topic that raises its ugly head often but I am so furious I have just been quoted £23.80 to have a small parcel sent up. To anyone else it is first class £5.00. The reason given is that I am in an extended area of delivery what ever that is. I know there have been changes in the postal system but we do get post up here still - don't we!

[j4bberw0ck]

You've been quoted for delivery by courier / carrier, I'd guess. Try explaining to the parcel sender and ask them to consider sending it Royal Mail (which is all one price for the country).

[philupmaboug]

Was recently quoted a cost of £52.00 to post 3 books to England by DHL Inverness, went to post office who asked for £8.50! when I told the lady serving what I was quoted she laughed and explained that all DHL small parcels such as mine would be taken to her just before last post for the Royal Mail to deliver .... now thats a nice earner.

[henry20]

Just browsing through the studio cards book and notice their delivery charge is: fixed rate of £4.75 per order within mainland UK and N.Ireland, £5.00 to the Scottish Offshore Islands and specified remote parts of the Scottish Mainland, £7.50 to the Isle of Man, Channel Islands and Scilly Isles.

a) I can't see any areas specified

and

b) is it worth it for the sake of 25p!?!? :roll:

[veekay]

Surely there must be a way around all this. Buying locally - for the part I need isn't an option - so what can we do. Sitting back and accepting it just doesn't seem an option. Any idea whose cage we should rattle, I can't imagine our local representatives would give a hoot they are down the road so often they wouldn't have these problems.

[henry20]

Sorry Veekay, not much help - I don't really object to the 25p (if I am in the unspecified, specified areas) and in any other situation, I wouldn't order from them. Is there nowhere else you can source the item? A company lost a £100 order from me as they tried to charge me £16 instead of the £2.95 to all mainland uk addresses - I asked to get it to delivered to Inverness/Aberdeen instead, but only mainland addresses in Scotland are in Glasgow or Edinburgh apparantly! Anyway, £100 may not seem a lot to them, but I certainly would've been a regular customer as they had some really good & interesting items.

[Angela]

Normal postage should be the same everywhere surely?

Anything sent by courier may cost more - when we lived in Fife, couriers sent anything from anywhere south, to the Dundee depot first -then it was driven back down to Fife. :confused In a smaller van I guess! Deliveries for Perthshire the same - via Dundee - but anything north of Perth or Dundee would incur extra costs...

The couriers do charge the companies using them more north of Perth. I used to work for a book wholesaler and that was certainly the case -the wholesalers had to pass the extra charge on just to cover their costs. But some companies may be making money out of it. And sometimes I think they just have no idea of geography!

[henry20]

Yes, normal postage is the same to any destination. What we are disputing is the fact that:

a) some places don't have the sense to use normal postage

or

b) they clearly state delivery to all mainland addresses are a set price - until you place your order.

Well, thats my dispute anyway!

[caithness lad]

I realize that this is a topic that raises its ugly head often but I am so furious I have just been quoted £23.80 to have a small parcel sent up. To anyone else it is first class £5.00. The reason given is that I am in an extended area of delivery what ever that is. I know there have been changes in the postal system but we do get post up here still - don't we!royal mail has the same rate no matter if u live in orkney or devon. the problem is when u or the sender uses private mail companies. they dont have a fair structure as do royal mail. i dont use any other than royal mail and when i buy my goods i insist that the company use royal mail or i tell them no sale, i have not been told no yet.

[fred]

Yes, normal postage is the same to any destination. What we are disputing is the fact that:

a) some places don't have the sense to use normal postage

or

b) they clearly state delivery to all mainland addresses are a set price - until you place your order.

Well, thats my dispute anyway!

The problem is we have a mainland address but an island postcode. All to do with the days when the mail was dropped off at Wick by the mail plane from Inverness to Kirkwall so we got a KW postcode.

[badger]

Seems to me it's a combination of geographical ignorance - no surprise there - and, as Fred says, the KW postcode. I dispute it every time a company tries to overcharge and have tried in the past to find out what database they use as at least one company told me their charges were based on an external database. I suppose the only thing is to keep on fighting. I did give up with one company that thought Inverness was offshore.

[Angela]

Yes, normal postage is the same to any destination. What we are disputing is the fact that:

a) some places don't have the sense to use normal postage

or

b) they clearly state delivery to all mainland addresses are a set price - until you place your order.

Well, thats my dispute anyway!

I don't disagree - & I think your £100 order should have been well worth having - not just in itself (it seems a lot to me!) but as you say, you would probably have ordered again - and then might have mentioned the company to other people who would have ordered...and so on...

Sounds like a combination of ignorance & lack of interest on the part of the company.:(

[veekay]

Perhap we opught to have a list of who charges (or tries to charge) extra for deliveries to Caithness that way peole would know who to avoid.