Any recommendations?

I have a parcel to send (some desktop speakers) which comes in at over 2kg and therefore prohibitively expensive for normal post office services. This normally my preferred route as I have a post office round the corner. Unfortunately this is £12.99 worth of Parcelforce when the speakers are only worth £20.

A quick Google shows that InPost, myHermes, DPD, UPS and Collect+ all come in under half this price and have drop offs within 1.5 miles of me. I'm not interested in collection services where I have to spend all day in waiting.

I've never used any of these services before so have any of you good people experience of who is good? myHermes would be the best on paper for me as their collection point is in the supermarket next to the post office. This is close enough to send the kids to do it whilst I sit on my backside and get a bonus 15 minutes respite during the holidays.

I've used myHermes and DPD, whilst they may be cheaper, check the expected delivery time and what they do if the recipient is out, some services take longer, and some are less flexible about leaving with a neighbour for your example, and if the recipient decides to collect from a depot, some can be miles away and prove much less convenient for the recipient (but as sender, maybe you're not bothered?)

I've also used MyHermes, and apart from one disaster when they broke a washbasin (which they did cough up for) they've seemed ok and certainly reasonable.

I'm not convinced they have local depots as such - I'm inclined to think the drivers operate from home.

I'm not supposed to recommend the enemy, but Hermes are very good.


Correct. The upside to this is that their home is normally quite close to their delivery route so redelivery in the event of the recipient being out is usually quite easy. Our local MyHermes man lets me pop to his house if Mrs. Jimbob misses one of her thousands of clothing deliveries.

Lol

I also recommend Hermes for sending and receiving stuff, as well as their prices

I don't know if it's a Highland thing (after all, the world ends at Sterling in delivery terms) but I've found just dropping in at the local courier/parcel companies gets some great prices rather than using one of the Big Names.

I normally use parcel2go and then pick the myHermes option. Probably used them about 50 times in the last 3 years and stuff always turns up.

Interparcel for me and every time I've chosen the Interparcel courier, it's generally UPS

.......DPD just delivered a tool chest, only ordered it yesterday, give you a one hour delivery time and they delivered on time. Hermes have been crap the 2 times they delivered stuff to me.

Considering what's been said above, perhaps the key to myHermes is simply the person that's on duty for your area....

Not that one has the time or inclination to go and check out said chappie/ess!

Cheers for the replies, I'll give myHermes a whirl for this one off. As it's just something I'll be selling on Ebay to clear the cupboards I'm not that concerned about convenience at the other end. Saying that however I've had plenty of myHermes deliveries here which either get delivered the next day or to a neighbour. I can't remember which but I've certainly never had call to chase them.

It was Parcel2go that gave me the list of options but I found that going direct gives me more options in terms of increasing cover past the standard £20 which I may need.

Just to close this off I've sent a couple of things with myHermes now without issue.

I'm still going to use the Royal Mail for lighter items (which is most of my stuff) as I'd hate to lose the convenience of having a post office round the corner.

Thanks for the suggestions as always.