Shipping Charges to Northern Ireland

[Goreblast]

I ordered a slot loading lite-on laptop drive, paid and everything and postage of about a tenner and then get the "we dont ship outside the mainland!".

[ernestrome]

Our problem is they can just ignore the issue. None of their Eng/Scot/Wales customers will care, and there aren't enough of us to worry them. So we just have to suck it up.

I think it is bull**** for Scan and other companies to treat northern irish customers like this.

Where are they with their explanations now?

[declanh]

Our problem is they can just ignore the issue. None of their Eng/Scot/Wales customers will care, and there aren't enough of us to worry them. So we just have to suck it up.

I think it is bull**** for Scan and other companies to treat northern irish customers like this.

Where are they with their explanations now?

The tumbleweed rolls by .....

... at a guess its quite hard to defend the indefensible - so they dont really try.
54 shops in total, 19 in the red list - 35 in the green, Scan still reign supreme in the ludicrous charges for delivery to northern ireland league!

my plan at some stage is to mailshot the entire red list asking for explanations of their policy
If anyone would like to get all the email addresses to the customer servcies depts for the redlist and PM them to me that would be good.

[declanh]

Another interesting related on thread on SCAN.care@HEXUS forum

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=82279

[Goreblast]

Another to add to the Green List

www.thecoolingshop.com

Always been very good with delivery charges. Good number of options.

[aBuLhAgaG]

That's a shame, I guess I'll just have to shop elsewhere from now on, there seems to be enough other suppliers that don't get the arm in for delivery to Northern Ireland. I guess Scan just doesn't want the 2% of business that comes from non-mainland addresses...

[declanh]

Another to add to the Green List

www.thecoolingshop.com

Always been very good with delivery charges. Good number of options.

anyone made a recent purchase from these people and got it delivered to northern ireland ?
I see their web page only lists "mainland" uk prices - this does tend to suggest a surcharge for n ireland ?

Goreblast , was your order completely unsurcharged or just a small surcharge ?

Declanh

[declanh]

Added
www.theoutdoorbarn.com to the green list
they get extra points for free delivery and notifying me personally.

Green list stands at 41 red at 19.

If there was a big enough interest and a long enough list and some people donated money (thats alot of ifs!)

I would register the domain www.youchargewhatforpostage.co.uk an host the list there!

[ernestrome]

We now need scan to explain why they can't offer the service that the green list companies do.

[DavidM]

We have already explained this.

[declanh]

We have already explained this.

If the following is Scans 'explanation' its somewhat lacking in my opinion.
Yes its explains that Scan dont use royal mail but the explanation just does not hold water as the two primary arguements put forward by scan are
1) its not trackable and
2) its not insured
are patently untrue for Royal Mail Special Delivery.

It still leaves me wondering why scan are clearly the most expensive company for postage to northern ireland out of a sample of 61 companies.

I found this thread
http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.p...ght=royal+mail

which contains the following answer from Scan

"Sorry for the delay on this one however I have had to speak to management regarding this.

Ok basically I have been told we wouldnt be able to send stuff out using royal mail for several reasons the main ones are that the items wouldnt be trackable on our internal systems therefore would create problems if the parcel was delayed etc.

Also and this is the main reason I guess if any item we send gets damaged in post to the end user then as its not insured there could be issues if for example fans etc get damaged on route to the destination.

I know this isnt the answer you were looking for however my hands are tied on this one as I have been told a firm no no.

I can see that this arguement would be valid for regular parcel post but not for royal mail
"special delivery next day" this does not hold water (imho at any rate)

Since number 1 it is trackable

How we deliver tracked mail

When we collect your Special Delivery item, either from your business or from the Post Office™ branch, we take it to our Mail Centre. There, Special Delivery items are separated from the rest of the mail, scanned to confirm we have received them, and put in to our secure network.

When we deliver your item to the address given we ask for a signature to confirm receipt. After the delivery person returns to their delivery office our online Track & Trace system is updated.

You can use Track & Trace to check that the item has arrived. In the near future you will also be able to see a Proof of Delivery online – a copy of the actual signature that was taken as receipt of delivery.

and number 2 its definitely possible to claim against lost or damaged parcels

Our Special Delivery Next Day service starts at just £4.10 – great value compared to other next day express courier companies. Compare our prices with your current next day courier company.

The basic price includes up to £500 compensation cover for loss or damage. If your item is more valuable, you can get extra cover up to £2,500 for a small additional fee.

still confused :-(

[mikmo]

Hehe SCAN really are awful in my experience... please SCAN employees, feel free to look at my order history and just see one fiasco after another (even when dealing with orders i've made to mainland).

[Tarffie]

Since number 1 it is trackable

Except it's not. Ever used it? The sender receives confirmation/failure of delivery, that's it. Even says right in that excerpt you quoted.

[declanh]

Except it's not. Ever used it? The sender receives confirmation/failure of delivery, that's it. Even says right in that excerpt you quoted.

Well I suppose its dependent on your defintion of trackable I suppose.

I was going by the fact that Royal Mail Call this "Track & Trace" and the fact you can query it online.

Personally i'll happily forgo the opportunity to know that the parcel is at 'croydon hub' if it means ill save 24 quid (the sender may have other opinions i suppose).

Those companies that do give detail on the parcel (dhl, parceline, etc... )
rarely seem to me to have the correct details on their online system anyway.
A recent parcel from amazon for me showed still being in edinburgh when it was in belfast. And citylink often shows it still out for delivery when its been delivered some hours ago.

[jnm21]

The cost of shipping has always cost us around £20 minimum to ship to Northern Ireland, and around £35-40 to Southern Ireland.

Hence the Carriage Promo only being available to mainland UK.

I can understand where Scan come from on postage - it may be unfortunate, but their choice. However, what is blatantly indefensible is the failure to offer the same saving - if cost is the only reason not to offer Hexus free del. to NI, why not offer a discount rate to NI? Even Dabs manage to include us in some way - on free shipping weekends we only pay the surcharge (£11.75 IIRC). Also how come others can offer NI Citilink delivery for ~£10 (diskdepot IIRC)?

All in all though, Scan aren't a bad company to deal with (especially if you can get things delivered to family on the mainland).

I can suggest thecoolingshop.com for the green list (no fixed surcharge, just different charges due to using RM for NI - very sensible).

Also RLsupplies.co.uk were reasonable on shipping (using Special Delivery), but that was on the phone.

My biggest tip would be try calling shops who have little or no mention on the website - once I got a Novatech order sent SD by phoning.

[declanh]

I can understand where Scan come from on postage - it may be unfortunate, but their choice. However, what is blatantly indefensible is the failure to offer the same saving - if cost is the only reason not to offer Hexus free del. to NI, why not offer a discount rate to NI?

to be 100% fair to Scan, on my latest order I placed with scan I was offered the discount of the 'mainland' shipping rate from the total charge (£27.96) leaving me 'just' the surcharge to pay - however i did not progress the order since the surcharge was £20.96 - I declined the offer as paying over 20 quid to get a hard drive delivered made no sense at all.

D