On 23/01/2010 20:00, Bruce wrote:
On Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:49:30 +0000, Pete Verdon
d wrote:

Bruce wrote:
d wrote:
Bruce wrote:

http://www.collectplus.co.uk/

The problem with all these kinds of service is that I don't get to
choose how my stuff is delivered. I'd be quite happy to pick my stuff up
from the corner shop at the end of my road, but that's no good when the
company I'm buying from wants to send it to my house during office hours
or to a depot in the next city.

Collect+ would be even better if they could collect your parcel for
you from the seller

Still not sure that would work - most sellers don't want hordes of
individual couriers turning up to collect individual customers' orders.
They'll have one courier company they work with, who turns up the same
time each day, probably the same guy, and they load in their stack of
parcels and that's that.


You have a point. A high volume seller would cause traffic jams. ;-)

Lets just get the scale of this...

A high volume seller (Amazon, Ebuyer, RS, Screwfix, etc) has (say)
between one and ten 40 foot artic trailers permanently on site. The
courier drops an empty one off when they pick a full one up. There's no
way they would be willing or able to accomodate all-and-sundry couriers
collecting parcels.

On Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:34:37 +0000, Dave Osborne
wrote:

On 23/01/2010 20:00, Bruce wrote:
On Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:49:30 +0000, Pete Verdon
d wrote:

Bruce wrote:
d wrote:
Bruce wrote:

http://www.collectplus.co.uk/

The problem with all these kinds of service is that I don't get to
choose how my stuff is delivered. I'd be quite happy to pick my stuff up
from the corner shop at the end of my road, but that's no good when the
company I'm buying from wants to send it to my house during office hours
or to a depot in the next city.

Collect+ would be even better if they could collect your parcel for
you from the seller

Still not sure that would work - most sellers don't want hordes of
individual couriers turning up to collect individual customers' orders.
They'll have one courier company they work with, who turns up the same
time each day, probably the same guy, and they load in their stack of
parcels and that's that.


You have a point. A high volume seller would cause traffic jams. ;-)

Lets just get the scale of this...

A high volume seller (Amazon, Ebuyer, RS, Screwfix, etc) has (say)
between one and ten 40 foot artic trailers permanently on site. The
courier drops an empty one off when they pick a full one up. There's no
way they would be willing or able to accomodate all-and-sundry couriers
collecting parcels.


Pete Verdon has already made that point. Why repeat it?

On Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:00:11 +0000, Bruce wibbled:

On Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:49:30 +0000, Pete Verdon

Still not sure that would work - most sellers don't want hordes of
individual couriers turning up to collect individual customers' orders.
They'll have one courier company they work with, who turns up the same
time each day, probably the same guy, and they load in their stack of
parcels and that's that.


You have a point. A high volume seller would cause traffic jams. ;-)

Winder if it's occurred to anyone that some customers feel that same way!

A decent seller in my book should offer a choice of courier and Royal
Mail - at least we can choose the option where the depot isn't 50 miles
away (had one of those).

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.

On Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:48:33 +0000 (UTC), Tim Watts
wrote:

On Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:00:11 +0000, Bruce wibbled:

On Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:49:30 +0000, Pete Verdon

Still not sure that would work - most sellers don't want hordes of
individual couriers turning up to collect individual customers' orders.
They'll have one courier company they work with, who turns up the same
time each day, probably the same guy, and they load in their stack of
parcels and that's that.


You have a point. A high volume seller would cause traffic jams. ;-)

Wonder if it's occurred to anyone that some customers feel that same way!

A decent seller in my book should offer a choice of courier and Royal
Mail - at least we can choose the option where the depot isn't 50 miles
away (had one of those).


Once again, the seller has a choice to make. It may be cheaper and/or
more practical to offer just one delivery method. I have had problems
trying to get eBay sellers to use Royal Mail (my preference) rather
than a courier. But I have to respect that they may have an even
stronger preference, up to the point where their business model almost
depends on it.

One seller made the point that he had an account with the courier firm
and got rock bottom prices in return for an exclusive deal. He also
got 30 days' credit whereas Royal Mail wanted payment up front. I
know how important cash flow is to a small business, so I had to
accept that he would use a courier.

Depending on the courier, if I am not in when they attempt delivery, I
have to drive from 18 to 52 miles each way to collect the package.
There is one national courier firm with a depot just over a mile away,
but no-one ever seems to use them!

In some cases I have had to resort to having it collected by a courier
of my choice, which is why I made the suggestion. But as Pete Verdon
pointed out, that could cause problems at the seller's end.

On Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:21:18 +1100, Tony Bryer
wrote:

On Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:25:33 -0000 Dennis@home wrote :
You must have missed the point where I said goodness rather than
calories. I think there are probably more usable calories in the
cornflakes but that doesn't mean its good for you.

If you read the boxes, I think you'll find that Special K has more
or less the same calories as Corn Flakes. They sell it at a premium
price, associating it with weight loss, but the weight loss is down
to the skimmed milk and black coffee.

It's all snake oil, sugar coated cardboard that does you no good. But
on the plus side Special K adverts in the past decade or so have
featured some *very* fit women, and for that some of us are grateful
I wouldn't go out of my way to eat either Special K or Cornflakes
though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFo_5byG2OU


--