Parcelforce and TLC

In message , Piers Finlayson writes

"Here be Draggunz"

Experience, and I was being optimistic.

You cant logically conclude 100% delivery rate from a sample of one.

NT

Extrapolate: 1 out of 1 delivered is 100%; 1 out of 1 failed is 100%. So for each delivery, it's always 100%.

I trust that's a tongue in cheek interpretation :)

NT

In message , Man at B&Q writes

Interesting comment. Are you referring to the time taken to process, or the duty and fees levied? I ask because, in my experience, couriers such as Fed Ex always levy the duty (and fee), whereas PF sometimes do and sometimes don't.

Even more interestingly, I get stuff via UPS. From Mouser and from DigiKey (so, same sort of stuff).

If it's DigiKey, I pay the VAT to the driver. If it's Mouser, I pay VAT and quite a bit more to the driver.

I can only surmise that DigiKey have some arrangement where they cover the handling fee.

Oh aye - it's always the same for each person ;-)

I've recently bought three lots from DigiKey - total value of goods under

I've always gone for the 50 quid free carriage option, so that's probably why. I suspect the break point is somewhere in between.

I was only buying stuff I couldn't get here - hall effect sensors - and wasn't too worried about buying extra stuff just to get above the limit.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Dave Plowman (News)" saying something like:

Unless you paid through the nose for an airline pilot's back pocket special, it was sheer luck of the draw. I've had normal USPS mail arrive within two days.

They send the stuff by a UPS 'priority' service - not USPS. That reduces the luck element considerably.

A lot depends on what's happening at Mount Pleasant where all the regular airmail from outside the EU comes in (still true AFAIK). Sometimes it's very slick, but if the sack containing your parcel is the first to be thrown in a corner because they're busy, it will also be the last to come out.

And then there's the airmail packages from the USA that turn up two months late, stamped "UK Customs - Port of Dover"...

On the positive side, the incoming postal service seems to be staffed by genuine UK Customs people with some individual powers of discretion, so even though they could charge, they sometimes don't. But the courier companies are only acting as agents to HMRC with no delegated powers of discretion, so they must always charge.

Like Bob, I treat the US Postal Service route as a gamble. It's cheap, but I don't necessarily expect things to turn up on time with no extra charges. When they do, that strictly a bonus.

Well, it happened on all three orders. All arrived early on the next but one day after ordering. So make that 48 hours to be safe.

My stuff was delivered by UPS. Does that still go through the PO? It surprised me by being in a box - the parts would easily have fitted in the smallest Jiffy bag.

Of course not. As I said in that same message, courier companies like UPS are authorised to charge duty and VAT as agents for HMRC. They handle it entirely themselves - though no doubt they are audited for every last penny, which is why nothing gets through "on the nod".

Packages from the USA arrive at the UPS depot at East Midlands Airport. If there's anything to pay, you receive a phone call or an e-mail, and can then pay whatever is due. On a good day you can get all this done while the package is still in the air, so on landing it has already cleared Customs and can go straight out on the lorry.

I've had a package leave Seattle one day, overnight to Baltimore(?), phone call from East Midlands the next evening, and by breakfast time it was already on the road to us from Carlisle.

It's much more expensive than US Postal Service and Royal Mail, but I can't fault the service.

Only a box... only ONE box?

Or, as with my DigiKey orders, they charge me on my doorstep at the point of delivery.

I thought the P&P charge reasonable for a small order value - especially given the fast service. I've been charged a lot more for stuff from the US

- which hasn't been anything like as fast.

there's useful