Shipping Update 2016 Newsletter

As the World gets smaller and our reach grows through the web,our customers rightly expect their packages to arrive quickly, at a low cost and be completely trackable.
 
 The good news is courier companies are offering services to match the demand.
 
We at Hi-Fi Collective are continually analysing our services providers and testing the market to get the best service for you.
 
We have made a few changes in response to several improvements in services offered by FEDEX and Interlink/DPD.
 
Within the UK, we have become increasingly aware of the shortfalls of Royal Mail. Although they are making changes to their barcoding tracking within  parcel services, the benefits will not be felt for some time as the tracking part is yet to go live.
 
The good news is Royal Mail rarely lose parcels. We send over 600 packages a month via Royal Mail be it 1st Class post, Signed For or Special Delivery. I cannot fault Special Delivery for reliability, but it is pricey. 
Signed For, however leaves a lot to be desired, although you have a tracking number, if you ever actually try to track with the number and the parcel hasn`t been delivered you will get
 
“Royal Mail Signed For™ items are only scanned when the item has been delivered. 
 Depending on whether the item was sent 1st or 2nd class, this may be a few days after posting. Please try again later.”
 
It doesn’t instil a lot of confidence, I am afraid.  That said after 13 years we have very few complaints.
 
We have experienced challenges with 1st Class post. We are aware that  parcels can occasionally take up to 10 days to 2 weeks to arrive. His is often a huge inconvenience to our customers. Whilst the package will eventually arrive we will have often needed to resend the  item and apologise to the customer. Royal mail do not offer any remuneration or investigation when a delay occurs.
 
The lowest UK carriage charge is Royal Mail 1st Class post, currently at £4.02 inc vat. This is the charge up to 1kg in weight as long as the order is under £100. There isn’t any tracking for this service.
 
A new service which we have recently started to offer to mainland UK customers is Interlink / DPD Predict service. This service provides you  full tracking with e-mail / text notification assuming you are within a one hour delivery timeslot. Upon receipt of this communication you can change your delivery time / pick up from the depot or arrange to leave it somewhere safe i.e. in the garden shed.
 
 
You can follow your parcel by way of an on-line map. It can`t get much better than that. The price for this service is £6.90 inc vat for parcels under 1kg and £7.50 inc vat up to 5kg. Personally I believe it is worth that extra expense for peace of mind. To date, we have received a consistently good service.
 
For our European customers we still offer non track-able airmail post with orders under £85.00 + vat as well as Signed For, Tracked and Tracked and Signed for depending on your location. Generally the delivery time for this service is around 5 to 7 days. You can track these through the UK track and trace system https://www.royalmail.com/track-your-item and additionally through your countries postal websites.
 
Additionally for the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands,Poland, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden we offer the DPD Classic courier service. 
Excellently priced, offering a 2 to 4 day service depending on your location, transit times are shown on the shipping options. This service is fully track-able.
 
Additionally we offer the 1 day courier service with FEDEX. However, be aware some remote locations do take 2 to 3 days. The timescales are displayed on the shipping options when you make your order. FEDEX will provide e-mail notifications.
 
For the REST of the WORLD we offer non track-able airmail post with orders under £85.00 + vat as well as track-able Signed For, Tracked and Tracked and Signed for depending on your location. Generally the delivery time for this service is around 5 to 9 days but be aware some delays can occur with customs.
 
Additionally we have the FEDEX service with transit times of 2 to 4 days depending on your location.
 
To sum up, we believe we are providing the most effective carriage solutions at the best prices so you can receive your orders quickly and without hassle. You can review carriage options and the prices that are available to you by using the “Estimated Shipping cost” section that you will see when you click “View Cart”. Simply select your country and state/province from the drop down.
 
 
Happy DIYing
 
Nick Lucas