CPC delivery charges

[Stephen]

Hello,

There was a recent thread about CPC's free delivery promotion and I said: " I often add things to my cpc basket but never checkout until I reach the £45 ex vat threshold. In the meantime I often buy the items from somewhere else." Quite a few people posted that they did the same. I copied and pasted my post to CPC using their usual sales@ address.

They sent me a reply saying it would be uneconomical for them to offer free delivery on all orders. I don't think anyone disputes that but I do think they could make a profit and generate more orders if they offered free delivery on orders over say £30 rather than £53.

I just thought I'd mention that they do listen to emails and will reply, so may be if enough of us email them, they might be persuaded to change their minds?

Stephen.

[The Medway Handyman]

That annoys me intensly. I want to know delivery charges 'before' I got to checkout or bugger about registering.

Toolstation offer free delivery over £10. I get regular 'plaes take part in our survey' e mails from Screwfix & I always mention this. No change yet.

[Bob Eager]

You do know them. It's in the help on the website, under 'Online Ordering'. Clearly states the threshold is £45.

[John]

If it was "free" on smaller orders than someone has to pay - the prices will have to rise to reflect the cost of P&P. It is not just P&P it is also the cost of processing the transaction - raising the invoice - accepting the payment, etc.

[Man at B&Q]

Easily done, it seems.

Read the terms on the website.

MBQ

[Mike Barnes]

It would be even clearer if the additional charges were put into your basket at the outset. Not so much for a site you use often, but when going to an unfamiliar site - especially when just comparing prices - having the charges displayed clearly in the basket would be a Good Thing.

1 Handling charge for orders up to £29.99 (ex VAT) £5.95

(and click on the description for chapter and verse)

On many sites you can't see the invoice total until you've identified yourself. At that point I go elsewhere.

[Stephen]

That's what they said and there's no argument there but no-one is asking fro free delivery on all orders, just to lower it from orders over £53. As TMH has said, other companies can make a profit with free delivery on orders >£10, why can't CPC.

[Mike Harrison]

Low prices Free delivery Pick one....

[Man at B&Q]

Different businesses (e.g. TS v CPC) will have diiferent typical order profiles. TS probably worked out they can tempt extra customer with a low threshold without swamping their system with small orders as a result.

MBQ

[chris French]

In message , Stephen writes

Maybe they have decided that it isn't worth them playing that game?

And just because a company offers free delivery for a £10 order, doesn't mean they are making a profit on it, it might even be they make a loss on that. It might be they use it to draw customers in, knowing that most will put in a bigger order, or it will encourage them to come back etc.

[chris French]

Delivery charges quite often aren't given anywhere on the site, even in the T&C.

[tim....]

But you shouldn't have to bugger around reading them either

Dave's right

As a general principle, online shopping sites should show you the whole cost before they get to the point of asking for your payment details.

tim

[Man at B&Q]

They are in the specific case being discussed.

MBQ

[Andrew May]

That seems to be the problem that I have, particularly when the postage is dependent on the item rather than the order. You need to create an account, sign-in and provide credit card details before getting the final cost. Not necessarily with CPC but with a lot of sites that one makes one-off purchases from.

Andrew

[chris French]

In message , Man at B&Q writes

I thought we were discussing things in general, since there didn't seem to be a question about CPC's delivery charge

[chris French]

I agree, as do most people I imagine. Though I will often just move on to another site, that is clearer, though sometimes it might be a hard to find, or especially well priced item you might want to make the effort.

I think it's just sloppy, rather than deliberate obfuscation, but you do wonder if the owners never go shopping on other sites, do they not consider they might be losing customers over this?

[Stephen]

On the last thread everyone agreed with me, this time everyone is contradicting me! Perhaps all those in agreement are quietly emailing cpc. This is just imho but to clarify I am not asking for free delivery on all orders or orders over £10. I am happy for them to set it at some higher limit but last time we all agreed £53 was too high for that limit.

One point that no-one seems to have made yet is that if the threshold was say £30, more people might place orders. In the last thread people said that they slowly deleted things from their cpc baskets whilst they shopped elsewhere. I know I have deleted various screws, cables, junction boxes etc recently having bought them from Screwfix instead. If free delivery happened at £30 then I might place four £30 orders; that's £120 for cpc. As it is, I place one £60 order and get free delivery and the other £60 gets spent at Screwfix. I still feel CPC would get more business if they set the threshold slightly lower.

That is just imho and ymmv etc, so I'll shut up now.

[Bob Eager]

As CPC do. All charges are shown in the basket once one item is in it. And it continues to reflect the charges as you add things.

[Bob Eager]

Charge more to start with?

[chris French]

In message , Stephen writes

From our POV as customers yes, maybe it isn't from the POV of the business?

I don't think anyone would disagree with the principle, what we don't know is the customer profile, order profile etc. Maybe CPC think it's not worth their while? Or maybe their business is not quite so competitive as the SCrewfix/Toolstation type market so they do think they need to go down that route?