Virtual Addresses post December 2020

Maidhci

This post is not directly connected to cycling, (if inappropriate, please feel free to delete or move it) but I am aware that many people on here use UK virtual addresses for purchasing cycling gear and components from UK. I have been using AddressPal for some years but the terms and conditions and modus operandi is changing post December.

The part that I am unhappy with is that it is now necessary to provided your credit card details for retention by An Post and the charges are debited to your account on receipt of the package at the An Post depot. Not too happy to provide my credit card details on that basis and wondering if there are other alternatives which permit payment on an item by item basis, upon collection or via website?

Macy0161

DPD are stopping Parcel Motel I think.

I'm happy with addresspal tbh - I used the delivery to home option so they already have my details. And I understand why they are doing it, in case they get hit with a load of stuff post brexit that people are unwilling to pay the VAT/ Excise charges for.

I've ordered stuff on Amazon.com, via my .co.uk Amazon account, and they actually build the possible extras into the cost. Pretty hard for An Post to do that just providing an address with no idea of content.

hesker

Anyone know what DPD intend on doing with the unused credit in people’s accounts.

Weepsie

hesker wrote: »

Anyone know what DPD intend on doing with the unused credit in people’s accounts.

Refund it in Jan. They said as much when their first email went out.

Theres a better part of the fourm for this and it's being talked about on the dedicated pm and ow threads

km991148

Macy0161 wrote: »

DPD are stopping Parcel Motel I think.

There are other threads - but for clarification - DPD are stopping their Parcel Wizard (i.e. it's not Parcel Motel) service (and refunds for credit in Jan).

I am not sure whats happening with Nightline/UPS owned Parcel Motel service.

seanin4711

km991148 wrote: »

There are other threads - but for clarification - DPD are stopping their Parcel Wizard (i.e. it's not Parcel Motel) service (and refunds for credit in Jan).

I am not sure whats happening with Nightline/UPS owned Parcel Motel service.

I ordered today from amazon.
went to top up dpd parcel wizard and website stated not entertaining deliveries after 11 dec.
reached out to customer service and they said straight out they would send delivery back to sender.
cancelled amazon order & DPD ,now looking for alternatives.

parcel motel- are they doing the same?
an post version- anyone use recently.

Not happy with DPD as their communication is shocking about this major change in T&C's.

thanks
J

Macy0161

I've got AddressPal deliveries as recently as last week, and one on the way. It's been pretty much my go to since it started, as I had to go out of my way to get to the other options, where as the postie delivers it to me.

About the biggest irritation has been multiple emails from them when someone with the same name hasn't addressed something properly. But there's a flipside to that, that they're actually trying rather than just returning to sender.

I suspect any that remain will end up wanting a card to cover potential VAT and Excise. AddressPal/ An Post probably just ahead of the rest.

TheBlaaMan

I gather that Nightline are still pondering options for ParcelMotel but havent yet decided what they are going to do...

sy_flembeck

seanin4711 wrote: »

I ordered today from amazon.
went to top up dpd parcel wizard and website stated not entertaining deliveries after 11 dec.
reached out to customer service and they said straight out they would send delivery back to sender.
cancelled amazon order & DPD ,now looking for alternatives.

parcel motel- are they doing the same?
an post version- anyone use recently.

Not happy with DPD as their communication is shocking about this major change in T&C's.

thanks
J

I have ordered from Amazon.fr, .es, .it & .de before without issue. Try that?

Weepsie

seanin4711 wrote: »

I ordered today from amazon.
went to top up dpd parcel wizard and website stated not entertaining deliveries after 11 dec.
reached out to customer service and they said straight out they would send delivery back to sender.
cancelled amazon order & DPD ,now looking for alternatives.

parcel motel- are they doing the same?
an post version- anyone use recently.

Not happy with DPD as their communication is shocking about this major change in T&C's.

thanks
J

They sent an email out to everone 3 weeks ago notifying of this change. Nothing wrong with the communication. Addresspal also communicated their changes in a very timely fashion. Parcel Motel still have not said anything.

km991148

Parcel Motel presumably waiting on what a deal (if any) will look like. They are probably in the trickiest situation - they are the most committed (first main service and physical motels) and presumably if no deal or tough trading conditions they will be in trouble.
I dont think DPD ever got near the same volume as PM so was easier for them just to call it quits (which also help PM out as well I guess).


To bring it back to a cycling angle:

The whole thing is going to be one giant pain in the hoop and will really hit those smaller UK cycles shops (even CRC and wiggle I guess to some degree). Amazon will (unfortunately) come out the best from online. I would like to think smaller Irish shops will see some benefit, but I don't think anyone will have the volume to match Amazon sales (which I will guess will be able to at least better streamline customs charges and delivery). This really sucks as Amazon isn't the best for cycling gear and long term just reduces choice and competition for the Irish cyclist.

Type 17

km991148 wrote: »

Parcel Motel ... are the most committed (first main service and physical motels)

The physical lockers are a decent asset - many people use PM for the fact that you can collect your item at your convenience, rather than getting the dreaded "While you were out..." card in the letterbox. They are also used by Nespresso and some (non UK-based) mail-order retailers.

As a result, they should still get a lot of business to their Finglas, D11 address.

Also, if it turns out that a lot of Irish people start using Amazon.de or .fr (as well as other continental online shops) it might mean that, being a part of UPS, it may be viable to set up virtual addresses in French or German UPS centres, for onward routing to Finglas/your local Parcel Motel.

Macy0161

km991148 wrote: »

To bring it back to a cycling angle:

The whole thing is going to be one giant pain in the hoop and will really hit those smaller UK cycles shops (even CRC and wiggle I guess to some degree). Amazon will (unfortunately) come out the best from online. I would like to think smaller Irish shops will see some benefit, but I don't think anyone will have the volume to match Amazon sales (which I will guess will be able to at least better streamline customs charges and delivery). This really sucks as Amazon isn't the best for cycling gear and long term just reduces choice and competition for the Irish cyclist.

I've brought via Amazon.com (belt for my turbo!) - they just add the appropriate extra charges at checkout.

CRC/ Wiggle are big enough to do the same if they want. It'll be the smaller shops like you said. SJS is someone I've used a good bit in the past for those hard to find bits. And Rutland a good few times.

TheBlaaMan

km991148 wrote: »

Parcel Motel presumably waiting on what a deal (if any) will look like. They are probably in the trickiest situation - they are the most committed (first main service and physical motels) and presumably if no deal or tough trading conditions they will be in trouble.
I dont think DPD ever got near the same volume as PM so was easier for them just to call it quits (which also help PM out as well I guess).
.

I'm pretty sure that Nightline will pull the plug on the Parcel Motel UK address and inbound delivery from the UK, but maintain the Irish element of the PM business, whether that on its own is a viable option, only time will tell.

Otherwise Bike-discount or Bike24 for me from now on; you pay a bit for postage OK, but it is not unreasonable and overall very efficient.

km991148

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that Nightline will pull the plug on the Parcel Motel UK address and inbound delivery from the UK, but maintain the Irish element of the PM business, whether that on its own is a viable option, only time will tell.

Otherwise Bike-discount or Bike24 for me from now on; you pay a bit for postage OK, but it is not unreasonable and overall very efficient.

Forgot about those guys actually (Bike-discount) - got a bottom bracket for an older bike at practically half price.

Ye - hopefully PM continue - but it could easily be killed, especially since nightline got taken over.

But then again, maybe (as someone said above) a german/ french forward address would be a good business opportunity.

paddydriver

Amazon.co.uk and Wiggle (assuming CRC too) have generally been charging Irish VAT all along so still should be able to buy off them as normal - but once goes to €150+ then there are customs/duty charges to be collected and think that is circa 12%. Only caveat to this is Amazon marketplace sellers as they will not collect the Irish VAT and you'll be stung - but think anything Shipped or Fulfilled by Amazon should be fine.

I've also got more stuff from bike-discount in recent times and they are always cheapest on most stuff, and if you bunch together a load of stuff then shipping cost is worth it. The smaller bits (sub €150) should still be able to be got from Amazon.co.uk and Wiggle/CRC as before.

Not 100% on all this but from research I have done it seems to be the case.

... and not forgetting there is always the trusty LBS!

dahat

Didn't Wiggle/CRC aquire Bike24 this year?

Weepsie

They have sold them on. No longer owned by wiggle

Breezer

Does the stuff on Wiggle’s French site ship from France, or the UK?

Type 17

paddydriver wrote: »

Amazon.co.uk and Wiggle (assuming CRC too) have generally been charging Irish VAT all along so still should be able to buy off them as normal...

That only worked because the UK was in the EU (reciprocal arrangement amongst the EU member-states), but from now on, they will either:

Charge UK VAT when shipping to a UK address (so you wouldn't want to give the Parcel Motel Newtownabbey address, or similar), or

Will not(?) charge any VAT if you give a non-UK address, meaning that you will have to pay Irish VAT (and import duty, if applicable) before receiving your item.

Type 17

Breezer wrote: »

Does the stuff on Wiggle’s French site ship from France, or the UK?

The french website seems to be simply a translation of the UK one, with no mention anywhere of french addresses and, for example, all of the job vacancies on it are based in the UK, so I'd say that their entire operation is UK-based.

paddydriver

Type 17 wrote: »

That only worked because the UK was in the EU (reciprocal arrangement amongst the EU member-states), but from now on, they will either:

Charge UK VAT when shipping to a UK address (so you wouldn't want to give the Parcel Motel Newtownabbey address, or similar), or

Will not(?) charge any VAT if you give a non-UK address, meaning that you will have to pay Irish VAT (and import duty, if applicable) before receiving your item.

Amazon.co.uk registered for Irish VAT so should continue as normal. They've invested massively in their own delivery logistics in Ireland over last few months and this now offers next day delivery on many items (mainly to Dublin at moment) so can't imagine they did this without planning ahead for post Brexit. Guess we will know for sure on 1st Jan...

Weepsie

Being registered for VAT is one thing, they've always been. It's now that we should be expecting customs charges on top of anything too. Might do as ebay do for things from the US and just show you how much it is likely to be and charge you in advance

CantGetNoSleep

paddydriver wrote: »

Amazon.co.uk registered for Irish VAT so should continue as normal. They've invested massively in their own delivery logistics in Ireland over last few months and this now offers next day delivery on many items (mainly to Dublin at moment) so can't imagine they did this without planning ahead for post Brexit. Guess we will know for sure on 1st Jan...

Amazon is terrible for cycling stuff I find. So much cheap Chinese no name tat. The three German sites are great. Bike Discount has been my go to for a while, but Bike24 and Bike Components are both good too. There's a few French & other European sites that are worth a look too - Probikeshop, Alltricks (just bought by Decathlon), Futurumshop etc

joey100

Have been using bike24 a bit recently, they are very good. Quick delivery and no hassle returns, returned a helmet to them, no issues at all and money refunded pretty quickly. Compared with wiggle where I'm waiting a month now for a refund. Have also used deporvillage in Spain too, can have decent prices and have their own brand too that seems similar to some of the DHB stuff.

Tony04

I wont be missing much.
All the components ive bought recently have been from germany, when you buy a few bits it adds up much cheaper than wiggle/ crc and they have much better stock.
Mantel have free shipping over 75€ which is good for consumables like tyres and chain/cassette so have been using them for that.
Only thing id be missing about wiggle crc is some of the dhb stuff, which is starting to become overpriced now that theyre establishing themselves. And the vitus bikes are nice for the price.
All the german stuff takes a weak to get here so does mantel and so does wiggle and chain reaction. Surprisingly ive found alltricks to have the fastest delivery ordered thursday arrived monday last time, much faster than wiggle crc who have never taken less than a week.
I would miss merlin and pbk though as they have some nice deals.
The other thing im really missing is ebay uk have found some savage deals on used components there before, i was using dpda parcel wizard which has now stopped. Other than word of mouth i dont know where im going to get used components, hopefully ill figure something else out rather than having to pay a premium on adverts.ie. was looking on ebay de and fr but they have no selection like ebay uk has.

Other thing i hope is there will be no issues with galibier. That would really scuk.

Daroxtar

I've been using bike24 for years now. Very rarely buy from chain reaction or wiggle unless it's a real steal. Bikediscount.de, bike-components.de and Rose bikes are all very good too and I've used r2-bike.com for fancy lightweight stuff (they post pics of actual components being weighed on their site)

Tony04

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Amazon is terrible for cycling stuff I find. So much cheap Chinese no name tat. The three German sites are great. Bike Discount has been my go to for a while, but Bike24 and Bike Components are both good too. There's a few French & other European sites that are worth a look too - Probikeshop, Alltricks (just bought by Decathlon), Futurumshop etc

Agreed its almost always cheaper to get branded cycling stuff from cycling sites even wiggle/crc is cheaper than amazon.
If you want cheap unbranded stuff buy off aliexpress, some good stuff can actually be found on there just be prepared to wait.

Macy0161

Tony04 wrote: »

The other thing im really missing is ebay uk have found some savage deals on used components there before, i was using dpda parcel wizard which has now stopped. Other than word of mouth i dont know where im going to get used components, hopefully ill figure something else out rather than having to pay a premium on adverts.ie. was looking on ebay de and fr but they have no selection like ebay uk has.

AddressPal by An Post isn't stopping, so you can still ebay. The only change is they're insisting on a registered card so they can deduct any extra costs due. You will no longer be able to pay on collection at the post office.

RacoonQueen

Weepsie wrote: »

They sent an email out to everone 3 weeks ago notifying of this change. Nothing wrong with the communication. Addresspal also communicated their changes in a very timely fashion. Parcel Motel still have not said anything.

No they didn't! I didn't receive anything and no other regular users I know did either. Only found out a few mins ago they sent out comms on it after I posted it on twitter.
I've a parcel thats going to be returned to sender now and I'll loose postage fee.

Comms was terrible, but that's not surprising based on my previous experience with DPD.

Weepsie

RacoonQueen wrote: »

No they didn't! I didn't receive anything and no other regular users I know did either. Only found out a few mins ago they sent out comms on it after I posted it on twitter.
I've a parcel thats going to be returned to sender now and I'll loose postage fee.

Comms was terrible, but that's not surprising based on my previous experience with DPD.

Well I got one weeks ago so they at least tried to contact everyone.

It came from a ukva@dpd.ie address rather than a parcel wizard one so can very easily go into spam/junk

I found there comms over the non collection of stuff from depots bad as it was on dpd site and not anywhere on the PW site. They for some reason seem to avoid putting notices on the main pw site which is very frustrating, but their emails have to me at least always been well in advance