curriors discounts ebid publicity?

[mcstudioart]

Put this int he kitchen sink but think it maybe should have gone here. When I sell larger items on the otherside I use the currior parcel2go who use DHL, on parce2go website there used to be a 10% discount for feebay customers who displayed the parcel2go logo in their auctions (parcel2go give you the HTML code to insert into the listing) (this has now dropped to 5%) but was wondering if ebid would be interested in trying to negotiate something like that as the logo is not obtrusive in the listings and more importantly would give ebid publicity on parcel2go website too?

[BarbsLamps]

I would be nice if you spoke English! I have no idea what you said.

[SalusLibrorum]

Translation.

In the UK there is a courier service reseller called Parcel2Go, who use DHL as the delivery service. Lots of sellers use Parcel2Go as their delivery service for large packages because they are cheaper than Royal Mail for everything over 4Kg, and better because everything is tracked.

On evilBay, if you put the Parcel2Go logo on your auctions and then use them to send the package, they give you 5% off the cost of the courier. There is also a corresponding logo on the Parcel2Go website for evilBay, because they sort of regard them as a trading partner because of this.

mcstudioart was wondering if the same could be done for eBid, which would gain a lot of publicity for eBid on the Parcel2Go site (which a LOT of sellers over here use), but would be fairly unobtrusive and inoffensive to have on the auction listings here.

[johnwash1]

Good idea in principle, but if Parcel2Go use Drop it Hide it Lose it, count me out. I've had personal experience of them living up to their reputation.

[TexasAda]

Good idea in principle, but if Parcel2Go use Drop it Hide it Lose it, count me out. I've had personal experience of them living up to their reputation.

LAUGHING.

I thnk it would be a fine idea for those who want to use Parcel2Go if it results in a fee reduction, but personally i don't use Parcel2Go obviously since I'm in the US. Also I don't use UPS which I assume might be a similar carrier, because 1)they require a street address and when I buy things I use my post office box address 2)they aren't open on Saturday or Sunday (USPS is open on Saturdays) 3)I believe UPS is a little more expensive than USPS but not positive.

Again, I'm only harping about UPS. Maybe Parcel2Go is better than UPS. ANY publicity plus fee reduction has to be a good thing, on the surface of it!

[SalusLibrorum]

Good idea in principle, but if Parcel2Go use Drop it Hide it Lose it, count me out. I've had personal experience of them living up to their reputation.

I could say exactly the same about Royal Mail, since they manage to regularly lose something for me around about every 6 months or so. I've also had 'recorded delivery' stuff just dumped on my doorstep for anyone to walk off with.

When it comes down to it, all delivery companies manage to lose things occasionally - heck, when I was a dispatch rider, I lost a package off the back of the bike, it does happen occasionally that a package just vanishes. (Although thinking about it, considering the number of packages that were just strapped to my seat with a bungey, I'm amazed I only ever lost 1).

I've never had anything but great service off DHL and Parcel2Go, I used them a lot up to Christmas when I was at home so they could collect, and when there was a problem with a delivery to a house in the middle of nowhere that only had a name, they were very helpful on the phone (DHL, I dealt with them direct as it was easier), and it eventually got delivered ok.

Parcel2Go also have other companies on their website that you can use, it's just that DHL are the cheapest option.

[clockmad]

I've never used DHL or Parcel2Go, so cant comment on there service.
But the idea sounds good in principle and lets face it eBid could do with the publicity.


Graham

[Huddylion]

Never had a problem with parcel2go, always had a good service from them in the past .

And yes might be a good idea

[johnwash1]

I could say exactly the same about Royal Mail, since they manage to regularly lose something for me around about every 6 months or so. I've also had 'recorded delivery' stuff just dumped on my doorstep for anyone to walk off with.

When it comes down to it, all delivery companies manage to lose things occasionally - heck, when I was a ...

I've not had a parcel go astray with Royal Mail in several hundred sales, but maybe I wrap parcels so unattractively!

I agree accidents happen. But my beef with DHL is due to an incident when Dell sent me a replacement memory chip and the driver ripped open the packaging, decided he didn't fancy it enough, shoved it through next door's letterbox (even though I was home all day waiting for this package) and forged a signature.

The amusing bit was when I phoned Dell at 5pm to enquire why it hadn't arrived. The Indian clown who took the call told me it had indeed been delivered to me, and would I like him to fax my signature to me so that I could see I had indeed received the parcel!!!

Still, one swallow doesn't make a summer. My impressions of DHL were reinforced when I searched on the 'net and found too many other horror stories.

Of course, the most reliable way to deliver things is to buy locally. But now I'm in danger of banging the "we need postcode-related distance options in the search" drum!

[mapesdhs]

alusLibrorum writes:
> could say exactly the same about Royal Mail, since they
> manage to regularly lose something for me around about
> every 6 months or so. ...

R.M. are proud that they now lose 'only' 14 million items a year.

I only use 1st Class Recorded if an item is worth under the 36
UKP insurance limit, but even then not always, eg. disk drives
should always be sent by Special Delivery (SD) in my opinion;
see my shipping and packing advice for why. If it's valuable
or fragile, I always use SD, asssuming I use R.M. at all; for
items close to 2kg, my PF rate is cheaper since using SD
means a bus fare to the P.O.

Many people think an item sent Recorded must be signed for
by the named recipient - wrong, it can be signed for by
anyone at the destination address. And as you say, quite
often Recorded items are left on the doorstep, or with a
neighbour, etc. Ok if you know your neighbour well, but really
bad if it's an SD item.

Some advice given to me was always use SD for items going to
London as internal theft, etc. in R.M. sorting offices is much
worse there than elsewhere in the UK. I think there was a TV
documentary about it a year or so ago.


> When it comes down to it, all delivery companies manage to
> lose things occasionally -

Very true, which is why proper insurance is so important. For
sure if one tries to help buyers by allowing them to use a
shipping service without extra insurance (ie. cheaper), it will
backfire eventually.

One time I sent an item worth 300 UKP to Australia by ISF with
proper insurance; it never arrived. I filed a claim and though it
took a while (3 months) I did receive the full 300 back from
R.M. Without the ISF option, I'd have lost a valuable item with
no recompense.


> ... heck, when I was a dispatch rider, I lost a package
> off the back of the bike, it does happen occasionally that a
> package just vanishes. ...

Indeed, stuff happens. Year or so ago I sent a parcel by PF,
properly insured for 500. Never arrived. Enquiring after the
buyer asked what was happening, I talked to the boss at the
depot in question, turned out the PF van driver had been
assaulted (ended up in hospital) and the van stolen with all
the parcels inside lost, so PF had a mammoth refund task on
their hands, couple of hundred parcels to deal with re claim
forms, etc. It was just taking a while. The driver btw did recover.

A few years back when working at Salford Uni, my dept. was
awaiting a delivery of GF Ti4600 gfx cards to upgrade all the
PCs (coming from outside the UK iirc). They were late, very
late. Enquiries logged, etc. Found out eventually the driver
had crashed in bad weather and died, cargo a total write-off.

So stuff *does* happen. As you say, given the phenomenal no.
of parcels in transit at any one time, it's a wonder the level of
loss isn't higher.


> I've never had anything but great service off DHL and
> Parcel2Go, I used them a lot up to Christmas when I was at

I've not had any problems with DHL either, though that's
only been wrt receiving items sent by someone else. My
courier account is with PF.


People often have strong opinions about courier companies.
A few bad experiences and that's it, a company is loathed for
life. Sometimes it's outsourced drivers that are the real issue,
or items are not properly packed for posting which isn't the
courier's fault.

Just wish there was some way I could enable people here to
make use of the fixed Euro48 rates I have which are 60%
cheaper than sending heavy items by Royal Mail to mainland
Europe (eg. 20 UKP to send a 30kg box to Germany). Alas, not
practical I guess, though I help friends, etc., when I can.

Isn't there some organisation which offers low rates to small
businesses? They arrange for many different businesses to
use the same account, thus getting good rates, something
like 6 UKP fixed-rate for next-day UK. Probably worth asking
any small business organisations in your area for advice.

Ian.