HELP! Trade with UK-based forum member | Delays and Royal Mail/Parcelforce problems

[gitarrero]

Hi there fellow jemsiters,

This is a cry for help. I desperatly ask for your assistance in the following case:

There seem to be many obstacles and problems with shipping a guitar from the UK to Germany via Royal Mail and Parcelforce.

Here's the story: I made a deal with a UK-based jemsite member and the guitar is a Prestige RG3270M-TB. We negotiated a price in early June and I made a full advance payment - the transferred amount included the shipping charges that I calculated on the Parcelforce website (weight, insurance value, estimated package size for a guitar case with shipping carton around) and the PayPal payment had finally cleared June the 26th.

From that day, we experienced one delay after the other, for various reasons, and I'm very embarrassed that it takes so incredibly long. The last time I received a guitar from the UK it was here in less than two week's time after the payment (thanks Gurj!!) - and in this case it's almost two months now.

There are/were the following problems:

* Royal Mail strike - but they're back to normal now.

* Royal Mail post office won't accept the 12kg package with the high insurance value, so it must be posted directly with Parcelforce.

* Parcelforce home pick-up failed two times.
-> 1st failure: For international shipments, the seller must become a registered member or something. (???)
-> 2nd failure: Unclear/unknown reason (lost order numbers?)

* Inconvenient Parcelforce head office opening hours


Thus we decided to go public on the forum and ask for help and assistance. Since there are many UK-based jemsite members around here who are experienced with international guitar shipments, I really hope that you guys can help us out here. We definitely need to figure out the shipping thing so that my guitar can FINALLY start its journey home so to speak. I can't describe how much I'm anticipating the delivery and there are oh so many roadblocks and obstacles in our way.

So if you have any hints of how to avoid more delays, recommendations of what exactly to consider with Parcelforce (e.g. any other pitfalls apart from those we already "found") and how to get the thing finally rolling, please let us know!

Thanks a lot in advance, I'd appreciate it a lot
Oliver

[dannymills]

The Parcelforce thing sounds odd... when I posted a guitar to Greece, I just took it to the office and posted it with them for £48...

[gitarrero]

Hmm, OK - do you remember the insured value and the weight of the package?

[courtney2018]

What about FedEx or UPS? Aren't they both global? Why not use them?

[gitarrero]

The last time I received a guitar from the UK and we did a research for best price, Parcelforce turned out to have the best price-performance ratio. And I also thought it would be easiest to take the parcel to the standard post office and away it goes. But apparently not...

[Algiman]

The post office will not take packages above a certain size, though some do if they are also parcel force collection points. Just take it straight to a parcel force depot (call first and make sure that they will accept packages) - the depots are open quite late.

Last couple of times that i have sent things overseas though I've used these guys: http://www.parcel2go.com/
It is actually a domestic service offered by (I think) DHL. I'd happily use them again.

[gitarrero]

Originally Posted by Algiman

Just take it straight to a parcel force depot (call first and make sure that they will accept packages) - the depots are open quite late.

That will be the most promising idea for now! The seller tried it but the depot was closed that day. I'll suggest he should try again, call first like you said and check the opening hours and availability.

Thanks for the parcel2go hint though. If it's DHL-related, shipping to Germany should be very smooth.

[Passion_and_Warfare]

Thanks for the input so far lads, I am having a nightmare trying to get this deal done and dusted.

Do I have to be an account holder for Parcelforce to pick the guitar up from me?

[gitarrero]

Thanks for tuning in mate! It seems like we're finally getting close.

[Passion_and_Warfare]

No problems, I just want you to have your guitar as soon as possible and the missus is really bugging me because we need more space lol

[Davey]

I don't see the problem. You book it online and then select the time they are to come and pick it up. I've sold dozens of guitars abroad using Parcelforce.

[gitarrero]

Yeah, that's what I thought. But the pick-up failed twice for different reasons, didn't it, Passion_and_Warfare?

@Davey, does the pick-up also work if you're not holding a Parcelforce account?

[Davey]

Yeah, I don't have an account with them. It's mainly people with businesses that have an account.

Personally if they didn't collect twice I would definitely contact customer services to find out why not.

[funkdubious]

I sent numerous guitars from large and small post offices,Jems,Prs's and high end Gibsons so I really dont see why you cant take it to any post office

[gitarrero]

Originally Posted by funkdubious

I sent numerous guitars from large and small post offices,Jems,Prs's and high end Gibsons so I really dont see why you cant take it to any post office

Interesting - did you also ship internationally with insurance to the full amount?