Are bike shops taking the Mick with postage charges.

[531colin]

Northern Ireland gets the same postal service as the village down the road.
So for parcels which are bigger than packetpost maximum size (that they have suddenly decided to implement) parcelforce is a slow, cheap alternative....OK, thats a fair point.

And that's my only point Colin in relation to Spa that I was trying to make.

Oh good. For a minute I thought this thread was about shops ripping off customers.

[johnb]

Oh good. For a minute I thought this thread was about shops ripping off customers.

Which of course it is, however that couldn't possibly be said of Spa in this instance due to the inefficiency of their staff, its a long time since lunchtime on Wed to wait for a call to be returned concerning postage charges.

And a handy little postcode map for anyone that needs it.

http://www.direct-marketing-lists.co.uk ... de_map.htm

[thirdcrank]

531Colin

how long did you say it was till your 65th birthday? Have you begun counting down in seconds, yet, or are you still only working in weeks?

[531colin]

531Colin

how long did you say it was till your 65th birthday? Have you begun counting down in seconds, yet, or are you still only working in weeks?

York rally time....can't wait!!

[pete75]

Some retailers eg chain reaction manage competitive prices along with no charge for P & P.

[thirdcrank]

Some retailers eg chain reaction manage competitive prices along with no charge for P & P.

And I presume they have a BT postcode. It's a small world.

[cyco]

Northern Ireland gets the same postal service as the village down the road.
So for parcels which are bigger than packetpost maximum size (that they have suddenly decided to implement) parcelforce is a slow, cheap alternative....OK, thats a fair point.

Maybe have not been concentrating properly on this thread. Slow and cheap? Do you not just choose 24 hr or 48hr service with Parcelforce and there in one or two days..in theory.

Paul

[johnb]

Perhaps a bit of clarity is required.

The issue is Bike shops charging more for posting packages to a BT post code which according to Royal Mail and Parcelforce websites carries the same postal charges as all other UK postcodes dItem in question is a Surly fork with a value of £67

I have been quoted in one case a charge of £20 for what others get free postage for the same item for which the bike shop pays the same postage to any UK postcode.

The other quote was £17 to my postcode and other postcodes are charged £5.00 while the bike shop pays the same postage charge to all UK postcodes.£30 charge if your unfortunate to live in the Scottish Highlands or Islands.

Prices quoted are for using the same postal service to all UK locations.

The issue is not about free postage, which many shops offer, the issue is when postage charges are required for longer/heavier items bike shops are taking the Mick and lashing on excessive postal charges for items going to a UK, BT postcode which they pay the same charge for as any other UK post code.

[pete75]

Some retailers eg chain reaction manage competitive prices along with no charge for P & P.

And I presume they have a BT postcode. It's a small world.

My point exactly...

[thirdcrank]

I'm suspect this is one of those things where the market prevails. Seeking further amusement (and with no locally available zoo) I did a google:-

Although Chain Reaction Cycles has six pages of bike forks and sundries, searching on Surly gets no result.

Spa is advertising the LHT fork at £67-50 but available in 700c only.

http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php ... rks_-_Road

at wiggle it's £62-99 - post free (?) but available in only 26"

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/surly-long-haul ... ing-forks/

[The Mechanic]

If i buy an item A for £1 and sell it to you for £2 what percentage of profit have i made?

I suspect this is one of those QI questions where you give the obvious answer and a loud claxon goes off indication that you are a dummy. SF, AKA in this case Lanssurfer74, then proceeds to drone on about overheads etc. When I was at school, questions were answered using the information given. It seems that you now have to invent your own additional info in order not to be taken the michael of.

Patronising ***.

[pete75]

If i buy an item A for £1 and sell it to you for £2 what percentage of profit have i made?

Too many unknowns for me to answer that so I'll turn it round.
If I buy item A for £1 and sell it to you for £2 I've made 100% profit. I'll leave it to you to answer the question for yourself.

[ambodach]

For about 20 years we ran a shop on one of the Scottish islands so have quite extensive experience of carraige charge problems. We bought from wholesalers or manufacturers. Their price to us was often negotiable but if they could not build carraige into their price they were often at the mercy of whatever carrier (which includes royal mail and parcelforce) they happened to be using. We had various strategies to to try to minimise the price to us. In one case for instance parcel force could not be used as they were tied to one carrier.We arranged for the goods to be sent to a local carrier who brought the goods to us for a separate fee. The parcel arrived at our carrier by Parcelforce! Again an actual carrier invoice was for £44. The cost when I checked from our end was in fact £4.50. Bike shops are not charities and they have to make a profit to exist. If they have a pick up arrangement for example with one carrier they are at the mercy (or rather the customers are) of that carrier . Unless you are keen enough to chase up the best deals which can involve quite a bit of work you just have to accept what the carrier charges. The shops are not necessarily the villains but are perhaps guilty of a but of complacency in accepting what they are charged.Unless you have the power (or turnover)to challenge the carriers you have problems.In addition of course charges are rising all over the place and the costs of sending quite small parcels has risen alarmingly.

[Drake]

I also think that some postal charges can be excessive . I recently went to purchased a genuine kick/prop stand for a Raleigh Swift folding bike at 5.50p . Not a bad price for a genuine part i thought . But when the postage came 6.50p,i decided not for me . Purchased a universal type from Amazon for 7.70p no postage costs .
But i do take the point that companies have to factor in the cost of packaging . As long as it's not excessive.

[Reigncloud]

I also think that some postal charges can be excessive . I recently went to purchased a genuine kick/prop stand for a Raleigh Swift folding bike at 5.50p . Not a bad price for a genuine part i thought . But when the postage came 6.50p,i decided not for me . Purchased a universal type from Amazon for 7.70p no postage costs .
But i do take the point that companies have to factor in the cost of packaging . As long as it's not excessive.

Whenever shopping online I always make sure I factor in the cost of postage when comparing costs on the same product. This is because a) the 'free' postage companies will just have the postage built in to the price anyway and b) postage varies significantly between retailers. I often find places with delivery costs added in that are cheaper then CRC.

Google shopping is always a good place to start (filter results by price low to high), though does not always pick up postage costs correctly.

Most annoying thing about online bike shops: having to place an item in the basket and then register and login before the delivery price is revealed. What a waste of my time!