Parcel Farce ...Robbing B*******

Rooster21 · 17 March 2008, 17:41

Just a nugget of info I found out today at my cost.

Ordered some gear from Brownspoint USA.

Tracked it online and watched it "Awaiting Customs Charges". Ok I was going to get clobbered at some point. Hey-Ho

Anyways turns out that I got charged VAT. No import duties. Fair enuff.

But Parcel Farce also added charges of £13.50. How Much

The nugget of ifo is, is if when you order from say Brownspoint and take the Express delivery option as I did. You get charged £13.50. If I had just taken the standard delivery option. Parcel Farce would have only charged me £8.00. Tos***

Didnt arrive any quicker either. Had to go and collect.

Just thought Id let you peeps know that.

codprawn · 17 March 2008, 18:11

How much was delivery in total and how big a box - just as a matter of interest???

Poly · 17 March 2008, 19:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rooster21

Didnt arrive any quicker either.

how do you know that? did you post an identical shipment at exactly the same time using the standard service?

Quote:

Had to go and collect.

why? were you not in for the original delivery or has the shipper not provided the correct paperwork to enable customs clearance?

K&S · 17 March 2008, 19:54

We had the exact same problem and PF didnt deliver to my door despite arranging delivery times etc.

After a call to the PF Directors office i was refunded.

Rooster21 · 17 March 2008, 19:57

Aprox. $450 total...(inc.shipping) Shipping was about $50 of that, for express.

I ordered some gear a month ago, same size box, half the value.
Didnt get stopped at customs. Exactly the same time from order to delivery.

Only i collected this package as not to have to wait for the letter from Parcel FARCE informing me they have my package and if I dont pay the required amount they will not deliver it.

So I probably save myself 2 or 3 days by collecting it.

Paperwork from Browspoint is spot on.

Next dumb ass question Polwart.

Poly · 17 March 2008, 20:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rooster21

Aprox. $450 total...(inc.shipping) Shipping was about $50 of that, for express.

I ordered some gear a month ago, same size box, half the value.
Didnt get stopped at customs. Exactly the same time from order to delivery.

Only i collected this package as not to have to wait for the letter from Parcel FARCE informing me they have my package and if I dont pay the required amount they will not deliver it.

So I probably save myself 2 or 3 days by collecting it.

Paperwork from Browspoint is spot on.

Next dumb ass question Polwart.

The reason I asked is I ship stuff to and from the states frequently. Even if the paperwork is correct it can take anything from 48 hours door to door - to 10 days using the same courier on the same service. If the customs paperwork is wrong (or a customs official thinks it might be wrong) it will take anything from 4 days to 4 weeks, depending on the complexities, who is sorting it out etc.

So - comparing two packages shipped at separate times is not a fair comparison; especially if one made it though customs and one didn't.

If you are not happy with the shipping tell the person who organised it. We generally find inbound stuff from the US is much more efficient if chanelled via UPS or FedEx - but you will still have the charges!

Next insult?

Bigmuz7 · 17 March 2008, 20:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by K&S

We had the exact same problem and PF didnt deliver to my door despite arranging delivery times etc.

So did I, it was for a $3 cooling fan for a Toshiba lap top that came from Canada, and ended up costing me £20 or so, or something crazy amount like that, and the reason they wouldn't deliver to me was so that the originator would have money to pay all the taxes when they collected imo, and not baulk at the price, since they knew they needed it !

ian parkes · 17 March 2008, 20:49

If ever I have a problem with delivery it usually parcelforce .
i watched the parcelforce guy pull up outside the other day and just put an atempted delivery card in my letterbox and drive off . he didn't even knock let alone open the back of the van .

Rooster21 · 17 March 2008, 21:15

Polwart...The point I was making was that if I had chosen Standard delivery Parcel Force would have charged me "only" £8.00 but because I chose Expess they charged me £13.50.

With no gain in delivery time more charges (Parcel Farce). Irrespective of how big/small/colour or ethnic origin the package is.

Why should it cost £5.50 more.

see here: http://www.parcelforce.com/portal/pw...&catId=4800016

Plus the Express delivery is more expensive to start with.

So dont choose Express delivery and stick with the Standard delivery. Cheaper all round.

Poly · 17 March 2008, 21:40

rooster - suggest you ask PF to explain the difference. I suspect they will claim that when the package does get customs delay they priortise getting the express stuff sorted over the mainstream stuff. However in general your advice is probably reasonable - if you want something fast buy it in the UK - if you want something cheap and are importing it - leave plenty of time.

MikeCC · 17 March 2008, 22:49

It's a painful aspect of importing. Items that go through the postal system quite often don't get held up.

Unfortunately, it's not always obvious that an item will arrive through ParcelForce. So while the shipper may think they are doing you a favour using 'express post' by the time it gets here, it becomes a ParcelForce EMS item. It might be difficult for the shipper to even establish whether you'd end up with the higher, lower or no charge.

What really annoys me about it is that they WRITE to you to ask for the charges. This can take 2-3 days and then another day to get it out to you. They do this even if you have an account! Even UPS will just take a cheque at the door (but then they charge £20).

In fairness to ParcelForce, we get a pretty good service from them for UK and European deliveries.