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We are held to ransom in Northern Ireland over shipping the same way the other “outlying areas” in the UK are. The difference is, the population is far bigger and we are firmly attached to IRELAND. So, why is it £12 to post something here? Arseholes. There is a steady stream of freight coming in and out every sodding day. They have NO right to make out like it’s a hardship to them to ship stock over. Isn’t that what they do everyday????
For the record, I don’t buy anything if the postage shoots up because of location. I’ll send an email requesting that they use Royal Mail which usually halves the price and if they decline they’ll lose the sale. I actually had an email back from one company AFTER their initial response which asked me if the goods were below £50 (their site was full of typically priced £2-10 items). I said no, it was a £500 order that I told you about as I “saved” my basked at the checkout. I was offered a reduction but they were a day too late with the response.. I had gone elsewhere. I offer both Parcelforce and DPD to my customers. There’s a £10 price difference and I have no preference which one they choose. I do not penalise someone for their location.
Rant far from over but it’s too early in the morning to get this annoyed
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It's very frustrating and though I usually pass by on the other side, occasionally there is some rare item that you simply can't get elsewhere. I forget what it was but I bought something recently where the carriage charge was twice the cost of the item itself. On such occasions I have tried to persuade the supplier to use Royal Mail but common sense does not seem to prevail.
It's often companies that use cheap courier services which are all false economy anyway, IMHO.
If someone wants a small item posted via Royal Mail to try and save money then I charge almost as much because one of my staff has to go to the post office and suffer the misery contained within.
It does cost them more to get stuff there after all.
If RM were forced to deliver *everywhere* and at the same price then everything would simply become more expensive, except perhaps those outlying destinations.
But other couriers don't make lower-cost deliveries subsidise higher-cost ones. I understand why RM do, and I understand why others don't.
I just think there's an obvious consequence to any price-fixing policy - if I ran a courier company and couldn't charge based on what a delivery cost me I'd just split the company; one would deliver to everywhere cheap so I could carry on competing, and another would specialise in outlying regions.
You'd probably find that mainland deliveries (for want of a better term) dropped in price a bit, and outlying deliveries shot up dramatically.
That's exactly my point - all couriers operating in the UK should be legally required to charge the same amount for any source and destination, and not be allowed to cherry-pick. Of course it costs them more for outer areas - they would then have to cross-subsidise as RM do for the post. It can't possibly be economical to send a small package to a small island in the Outer Hebrides by standard 2nd Class post - but they do.
As it stands, other couriers can unfairly compete against RM by being able to cherry-pick the services they offer and charge more once an arbitrary line is crossed.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The logistics of eg shipping something from Leeds to Inverness are a damn sight easier than getting a parcel from say Newcastle to Exeter.
I do wonder if a lot of these couriers at the cheaper end still assume it's a single track road once you get past Glasgow.
Having had a look at Google Maps for each journey I'm not sure Inverness would meet my use of "outlying" - they're both about a 7-hour journey. ICBM had specifically mentioned the (Scottish) islands so I was thinking more along those lines.
If it doesn't cost them more then it shouldn't cost a customer more.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein