Parcel Motel Thread (post all related questions here)

GekkePrutser

jameshayes wrote: »

I posted this in the bargain alerts thread:
/edit, just checked my account and since October 2012 I've spent just over €200 on this service..

I spent over 150 euro, since December 2012 (when they opened up shop in Galway). It's not just for received parcels by the way, I had some oversized ones and I sent one to the UK as well.

I will keep using it even though the price increased. It still works out cheaper, the UK is so much cheaper with things. And it saves me a trip to the post office depot every time.

Also, to be fair they saved me loads. Only a few weeks ago I got that 220-euro 40" TV deal from Tesco Direct UK and they charged me 7 euro to pick it up from their Oranmore depot (it would have been a lot more expensive if they'd used the dimensional weight as indicated on their website). So I figure they did me a good turn there. Had I bought one locally I would have had to spend nearly 400.

So I'm still a happy camper. I'm a bit worried the tax man will close it down though, they must be losing a fortune in VAT revenue to the UK.

odckdo

franer1970 wrote: »

So if I was to top up by €105 I'd get a bonus of €13.50, meaning I'd effectively get my next 30 deliveries for the old price of €3.50 - correct?

30 would last about a year for me - is there any expiration date on top ups? Don't want to be throwing money away here.

In the email I got about price increases they say:

"New Prepayment Bonus €4.50*
As a valued customer you can avail of this exclusive offer until August 31st, 2014. Each time you top up your account by €35 or more in a single payment we will add €4.50 to your account allowing customers to avail of 10 stay bundles at introductory rates.

*This offer is valid until August 31st, 2014. You must top up by €35 or more at a time to avail of this offer. The bonus will be applied as credit to your Parcel Motel account. No cash alternative or refunds are applicable."

Gadgetman496

franer1970 wrote: »

So if I was to top up by €105 I'd get a bonus of €13.50, meaning I'd effectively get my next 30 deliveries for the old price of €3.50 - correct?

30 would last about a year for me - is there any expiration date on top ups? Don't want to be throwing money away here.

Be careful there because you get the bonus for each top up of €35 or more so you need to top up in stages to get the full benefit.

Topping up with €105 in one hit would only get you a once off bonus of €4.50

Yakuza

PeterDuggan wrote: »

PM's increase doesn't just affect your future use of the service. It devalues credit you previously ordered and paid for in good faith.

Those of us who received free or complimentary "stays" - don't forget to ask that your PM credit be increased according to the increased value PM are now assigning to stays. That's only fair. PM might not like it but you were given stays - not a fixed amount of credit.

Those of you who "topped up" your account - it might be worth asking to see how PM will respond. I suspect though that they have screwed you and there's probably nothing you can do about it.

I think your analogy breaks down there a bit. With two recent price increases by An Post, I wouldn't be able to throw my 55c or 60c stamps back at them (bought in good faith) and demand they give me a shiny new 68c stamp. I was able to buy stamps for the difference though. Credit on an account is merely credit, it's not for a fixed number of usages of a service. I'm sure the mobile phone providers don't credit existing PAYG customers to reflect any per-minute price increases.

I don't disagree with the general point that a 13% increase is well over the odds in a business that seems to be doing fairly well to begin with, and it does sting that they can offer a "free" service to a subset of their customers, for which it is patently obvious that the rest of the customers are subsidising.

username123

When An Post increase stamp prices they honour old stamps on post for ages afterwards.

Yakuza

While there may be some lenience on items posted in and around the day of a price change, in my experience stuff sent out with the wrong postage is returned has having insufficient postage on it.

PeterDuggan

Yakuza wrote: »

Credit on an account is merely credit.

You missed the very point I made. Read par 2 again.

Yakuza

You (and I (and many others, no doubt)) received credit to the value of what was a number of stays at the time. The word "stay" is not mentioned at all in the (current) T's and C's: http://www.parcelmotel.com/terms.html.

Here's all they have to say regarding free uses:

Promotions and Free Uses
From time to time we will offer free uses to customers by way of gratuity or as part of a business promotion. All free uses regardless of the circumstances in which they are awarded are offered at the Company's sole discretion and may be withdrawn at any time without notice or reason being given in advance. Free uses shall be deemed expired and will be deleted from user accounts if they remain unused after 90 days of being credited to the user account.

Free uses are not valid for use during the month of December unless by prior arrangement in writing with the company.

I'm not being a fanboi or apologist for them, but would you be so fast to look for them to reduce your credit with them if they were to have dropped the price?

PeterDuggan

Yakuza wrote: »

Would you look for them to reduce your credit if they dropped the price?

Yes, that would be fair ...to match the new value they'd then be assigning to stays.

vienne86

Pity about the increase, but I'll still use PM if it pays to do so. I just check the cost of international delivery, and compare it with the cost of UK delivery plus PM. Simples. And I'll continue to do that. Great service and very convenient.

GekkePrutser

They just checked an item in for me and I was still charged 3.50. So it mustn't have taken effect yet.

Would anyone know when this thing starts? I never got the email so I don't know. It's strange, as they have my email address, I do always get the pickup notices by text and email.

Edit: Thanks! That was super quick And also thanks for the note, I found it in my spam box now too.

IrishStuff09

GekkePrutser wrote: »

They just checked an item in for me and I was still charged 3.50. So it mustn't have taken effect yet.

Would anyone know when this thing starts? I never got the email so I don't know. It's strange, as they have my email address, I do always get the pickup notices by text and email.

Monday July 14th

Daemos

Next Monday. My email went straight in to my Spam folder

Daemos

Just got a reply to a question I asked them

I have €3.50 credit, but have my account is set up to charge my credit card directly per delivery, rather than adding credit every now and then. If I get a delivery after the price change, my card will only be charged 45c to make up the difference, not the full €3.95

So for anyone who adds credit periodically, if PM decide not to make up the difference themselves you could temporarily do the same to get full use of the credit already in your account, and then change it back again afterwards if you want

Although I don't see the advantage of adding credit every now and then, tbh, unless you continuously use 3V vouchers

Discodog

I couldn't top up with a credit card or register a card. Every time that I tried, using my phone, I couldn't input the cardholder name. I ended up using PayPal

zom

annie.t wrote: »

It's not their idea though. Same service in Poland is present for some years now.

What is this service name? How it works, considering distance from UK to Poland?
PM philosophy is very simple - they deliver to Dundalk someting that can be delivered to Derry but not Dundalk (even if there is 20km distance between them). They just simply cover all island for deliveries limited to North.
And I can't understand how it can work with remote countries as Poland or Ukraine - what about huge distance from UK??

daveohdave

I hope someone from Parcel Motel is still monitoring this thread. I've been a big supporter since the start, going so far as to defend them on a few occasions (in a previous guise) when they were lambasted over obvious teething issues and losses that were nearly always found in the end. And I'll continue as a customer, because the service is still useful in many circumstances; and to that end I've just topped up by €35 for my bonus.

However I would add that I'm not happy with how it was handled, at all. It's not so much about the money, although it does seem excessive and I think it'll be detrimental - more about that in a minute - but more about the claim that it was "due to operational costs". Our inflation rate is still very low, and has generally decreased since 2012 when the service was launched. If operational costs are rising, this is a choice by Nightline to expand and improve their operations, and it would have been much more honest to state this in the announcement. It's not like (many) people would complain about that.

I also think the size of the rise could be ill-thought. I've hovered over my address book many times this year, trying to decide whether a slightly higher price for direct shipping to ROI was worth it, and I've tended to lean towards Parcel Motel because the differences really were slight. This change will probably put many of my purchases into the direct shipping category, and it's not insignificant, I'd peg it at around 25% of my purchases, particularly on eBay. I'd wonder just how much attention was paid by the person deciding on the rise to shipping rates to ROI for small to medium packages.

On an even more basic level, common sense would suggest that a smaller year-on-year price increase wouldn't look so bad to users. Whacking on 13% or whatever in one go is mad. I know Sky have gone this way and companies seem to be following them - Netflix is another example - but I'm not a customer of theirs any more. Either of them.

ABajaninCork

What really pissed me off was the notice given for the increase. Six days notice isn't really cutting it for me....Very unprofessional.

rusty999

zom wrote: »

What is this service name? How it works, considering distance from UK to Poland?
PM philosophy is very simple - they deliver to Dundalk someting that can be delivered to Derry but not Dundalk (even if there is 20km distance between them). They just simply cover all island for deliveries limited to North.
And I can't understand how it can work with remote countries as Poland or Ukraine - what about huge distance from UK??

In my experience with Parcel Motel everything from Uk is delivered to their centre in Newtownabbey, Co, Antrim. Its then sent down to Dublin. Its then sorted for delivery around the country. Correct me someone if i'm wrong !!

That has been my experience especially with large size parcels and I think small size are done that route as well. I cant understand myself why there is no central hub around the midlands or Limerick for example to service the west and south of Ireland as i think we get the worst of what is a reasonably good service. When there is a large item on the way to me now I always contact them by phone or email several times as in the past I had shipments go wrong several times and its always dublin who were at fault. In fact they gave me several free stays as a result but thats not much good when you have lost work or business as a result of your shipment sitting in a warehouse, and no one has the cop on to read the label properly or check the PM code against your address. But, I find that when I get a face or a name to work with either on line or by phone it always works out ok these days. And once again , Do not use this service for stuff from USA--doesn't work !!
To answer the question about Poland?ukraine--you would be better having it shipped directly to you. Parcel motel is good when you buy an item from UK and there is Free shipping on stuff such as an auction on Ebay Amazon or indeed some company's now give Free shipping --BUT TO A UK ADDRESS ONLY. So PM gives you a UK address to avail of the free shipping and a reasonable cost to sent it to you at this end.

firestarter51

I ordered 2 items from eBay, £10 each to post, a box of a4 envelopes and printing material, parcel motel enabled me to get free postage and just pay them and I can collect it on the way home from work, no collection from the sorting office with restricted times, it has it's up sides even with the increase
Wherever is the best price is where the the people will go

rubadub

From the Charter

Fuzzy wrote: »

There are some guidelines listed below that you must read before posting.

This is a forum for discussion of online shopping and online auctions.

Flaming and abusive posts will be deleted.

Overall, Keeps things civil and amicable.

I have deleted some posts, any more nonsense and I'll be banning users.

rusty999

Proco Jr. wrote: »

To be honest if I received two separate parcels from someone I'd expect Parcel Motel to charge me twice.
Happens a lot with Amazon, they'll send multiple separate packages rather than combining them .

You should always insist that your seller, ie the person you are buying from online--should combine shipping. And , most of them do in my own experience. It makes sense for everybody. I also type in a note on my paypal payment form to remind them to include the PM number, as this speeds up things for everybody. Surprising how many had ignored it before.

finnan1

odckdo wrote: »

(I see further down the thread pk10216 does get phone in the end.)

Parcel Motel have lost my Moto E phone from Tesco Direct too and are currently looking for it, atm.

Delivered from Tesco Direct and signed for last Friday morning in Belfast. I was initially told it was in the depot but now it seems it is lost.

Customer service are talking about initiating a claim tomorrow. It takes 2 weeks to process.

Looks like my parcel, luckily a relatively low value purchase has been "lost" in the PM system, absolutely no attempt to explain and engage where it may be etc from customer service.
They want me to submit the item invoice etc to start a claim.
I used them about 10 times, so really disappointed with a 10 per cent failure rate.
Was considering using PM for a phone purchase, definately will not now !

TOMs WIFE

podgeandrodge wrote: »

This is a valid point. And it is in addition to the fact that Parcel Motel is known to have been a massive success for Nightline. So regardless of petrol costs the success of the model should have staved off a 13% increase.

The Parcel Motel email, announcing the increases stated:

Having kept the introductory prices for two years, we need to implement the new pricing structure due to ever changing operational costs. This will allow us to continue development of our service (e.g. Virtual UK address/Free returns with retail partners including Littlewoods Ireland and JD Sports) as well as add new Parcel Motel locations across the country.


Now that doesn't make much sense to me. "Ever changing operational costs", is blather, the virtual address is already there, and I certainly don't like paying 13% extra to subsidise "Free" deliveries for Littlewoods and JD customers - otherwise I'm simply subsidising their "free" service.

Yes, we all have a choice, and yes, I will continue to use the service, but a 13% increase is not justified, at least not by the vague rubbish in their email.

+1

odckdo

finnan1 wrote: »

Looks like my parcel, luckily a relatively low value purchase has been "lost" in the PM system, absolutely no attempt to explain and engage where it may be etc from customer service.
They want me to submit the item invoice etc to start a claim.
I used them about 10 times, so really disappointed with a 10 per cent failure rate.
Was considering using PM for a phone purchase, definately will not now !

They lost a phone I ordered from Tesco Direct last Friday. For some reason they seem to have problems with handling orders for the new Motorola phone. I re-edited the delivery address before placing the order and made sure my PM ID was on the order. The package was delivered and signed for but somehow lost.

Found PM customer service not great. It toke 6 days of phone calls and emails to get to the point where they admitted it was lost and to start processing the claim so I could order a new phone.

I have used PM a number of times and found them good. First time I had trouble. I re-ordered the phone from Amazon costing me an extra £20 compared to the one I lost. I am not sure I am confident enough to order more expensive items via PM again. Parcels can be lost but I just found the customer service to be poor. Over the 6 days I had to chase them and I was told to get back in touch the next day to remind them - should be other way round I feel.

heathersonline

I just tried ordering from ebuyer, my order was immediately cancelled and refunded. Anyone know what the deal is? I thought pm would be OK. Apologies if this has been asked, can't search the thread on mobile

mac.in

Hi all.

A clarification needed. I searched the entire thread where I got to know that one could add debit card for 'pay as you go' payment instead of 'prepay credit'. But the section for registration of the card on PM website shows registration of credit card and not debit card. But in this thread many people have confirmed their debit card registered with PM on PM's website.

Is it that I should enter my debit card details in the place where it's mentioned for registration of credit cards, on PM's website?

I have ordered a parcel and it's due for delivery shortly. I wanted to opt for 'pay as you go' option rather than 'prepaid credit' to adjust the 'credit balance' in my account with the increasing prices of PM from July 14.

Thanks in advance for any clarification of this issue.

Esel

Not certain, but try your debit card details and see if they are accepted.

mac.in

Esel wrote: »

Not certain, but try your debit card details and see if they are accepted.

I tried entering the debit card details in the credit card registration section. I could successfully register my debit card. Is that all? Shall I assume that it's done?

Esel

I would think so.