Cheapest way to send a large parcel.

[Armadillo]

Need to send a large box, 60cmx60cmx32cm about 2kg, needs £200 insurance. Looking for the cheapest way to send it.

Royal mail won't take it. Tried parcelmonkey, reasonable enough to start with at £10ish to send and insured, but then after going through it, up it pops, price has been adjusted because you are in an olympic zone, you are in a congestion zone, delivery address is rural and it jumps to £16 . Tried parcel2go and was looking good at around £10, but the cover adds £6 (parcelmonkey was £2.50 for it).

Any cheaper options I've missed or are all the services likely to work out moreless the same (hard to judge on initial quote as the few I've tried all start adding stuff on as you go through)

Thanks.

 

[mistercrabb]

Try senditnow.co.uk, I normally use them.
You aren't going to get much cheaper because as far as I know most of them are just reselling Parcelforce services.

 

[Edrof]

This is GD, so I'm going to say via trebuchet. Sorry.

 

[GinG]

£16 is good going for what you are after, what do you expect you need it insuring to a certain value over what they give as standard

 

[Armadillo]

£16 is good going for what you are after, what do you expect you need it insuring to a certain value over what they give as standard

Just seeing if there is cheaper option I missed or whether they are all pretty much the same.

I see others saying they have sent the same thing (mountain bike wheel) for £10 or so when I was looking around, so just seeing if there is cheaper. I guess they must not be insuring it and just taking the risk or they are just price gouging cause I'm in London.

 

[Speed]

Try Interparcel, although it is unlikely to be THAT much cheaper if indeed it is at all. Unfortunately Royal Mail removed the Standard Parcel insurance options in their last round of price hikes, otherwise that would be my suggestion.

 

[agw_01]

Try interparcel. (edit... as above )

They're resellers of other courier services (as well as having their own branded vans) but they've always been very reasonable for me.

I've sent parcels with Parcel2Go twice and both times, the item has ended up damaged so I'd stay away from them.

 

[rexehuk]

Parcelmonkey is what I'd go with... unless you find cheaper.

 

[Speed]

I've sent parcels with Parcel2Go twice and both times, the item has ended up damaged so I'd stay away from them.

Surely that is more down to the courier you used rather than anything to do with Parcel2go themselves? Ultimately Parcel2go doesn't touch your parcel, they just sell the service which is carried out by another company. Bit silly to write off the site when they offer numerous different services offered by many different companies; City Link, Parcel Force, Hermes, Collect+, Yodel, TNT, UPS etc etc.

Parcelmonkey is what I'd go with... unless you find cheaper.

It is who I generally recommend, they offer more reasonable additional insurance prices when compared with the other sites. Unfortunately in this case it appears they are charging more than the others due to the delivery area.

My suggestion would be to do a few quotes with Parcel Monkey using different couriers and see if the Olympic extra charges are ignored by some of them.

 

[Uncle Petey]

Parcel friend worked well for me when I had to send a case back to OcUK.
Iirc, it was £8.99 for them to collect and deliver the 10kg package.

 

[agw_01]

Surely that is more down to the courier you used rather than anything to do with Parcel2go themselves? Ultimately Parcel2go doesn't touch your parcel, they just sell the service which is carried out by another company. Bit silly to write off the site when they offer numerous different services offered by many different companies; City Link, Parcel Force, Hermes, Collect+, Yodel, TNT, UPS etc etc.

Ahhh, I didn't know that. I thought that P2G used their own couriers instead of being a reseller.

On the occasions that I've used them, the courier turned up in an unmarked van hence my thoughts.

 

[Turambar]

Doesn't seem large enough for Shiply to be of any use but can't hurt to have a look.

 

[Weazle]

I always use Interparcel, their UPS rates are very competitive.

 

[Armadillo]

Try Interparcel, although it is unlikely to be THAT much cheaper if indeed it is at all. Unfortunately Royal Mail removed the Standard Parcel insurance options in their last round of price hikes, otherwise that would be my suggestion.

Try interparcel. (edit... as above )

They're resellers of other courier services (as well as having their own branded vans) but they've always been very reasonable for me.

I've sent parcels with Parcel2Go twice and both times, the item has ended up damaged so I'd stay away from them.

I always use Interparcel, their UPS rates are very competitive.

Going to try interparcel as long as they don't decide to throw a load of charges on during ordering. £10 or so for ups + a bit on top for insurance.

Surely that is more down to the courier you used rather than anything to do with Parcel2go themselves? Ultimately Parcel2go doesn't touch your parcel, they just sell the service which is carried out by another company. Bit silly to write off the site when they offer numerous different services offered by many different companies; City Link, Parcel Force, Hermes, Collect+, Yodel, TNT, UPS etc etc.




It is who I generally recommend, they offer more reasonable additional insurance prices when compared with the other sites. Unfortunately in this case it appears they are charging more than the others due to the delivery area.

My suggestion would be to do a few quotes with Parcel Monkey using different couriers and see if the Olympic extra charges are ignored by some of them.

Parcel monkey only offer various city link services and one other I can't remember that was expensive anyway.

 

[Converge]

Ignore. Didn't read OP properly.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

Parcelmonkey - seriously?

Wasn't there that guy on GD here who posted a £400 monitor via Parcelmonkey a couple of months back and it got lost? Even though that OP paid for insurance, there was an endless list of artefacts in their Ts & Cs meaning that it covered practically sod all and the company wouldn't square up. After a long dispute and several pages worth of said thread, PM finally decided to honour the £400 only because the OP was a regular customer of PM's. I just couldn't comprehend why that insurance existed when it didn't cover anything.

Love the trebuchet answer from Edrof

 

[Participant]

Trebuchet is a terrible answer. They cost a fortune.

The cheapest way is to walk or bicycle it.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

Trebuchet is a terrible answer. They cost a fortune.

Ahh I didn't know that they were a logistics company. Edrof wrote "this is GD..." before the trebuchet bit so I thought he was making a joke by suggesting that it would be flung from a medieval siege weapon

 

[Participant]

Lol, they're a company?

He was making a joke...I was just pointing out that they're not that cheap. You have to buy wood, string, etc.

What's it called when you deliberately take a joke literally as a joke? (Apart from lame)

 

[Armadillo]

Went with interparcel. Worked out pretty much the same as parcelmonkey, but at least they are upfront about it, rather than say X, then right at the end throw down a load of other charges. Also they don't insist on storing card details like parcelmonkey do.