Outrageous postage

[miniconverter]

Went on line to order 4 charge leads for MCPX batteries today from Kings Lyn Models, £1.99 each and must weigh a few grams each would easily go in a normal envelope. Got to check out and post was £5.74 plus vat making it £6.90.

Didn't complete the order and sent them an email asking if this was a mistake. Got an email back stating they only use couriers and don't have time to go to the post office.
I spend a few quid on modeling well over £1000 this year so far, with various retailers both mail order and in shops along with some stuff from China.

On Sunday I am going to Norfolk for 10 days and fully intended to call at Kings Lyn Models and have a look, but guess what, I won't have time to call in or order from them on-line, instead I will spend my money where all of its wanted not just the big box purchases.

[Crash Test Dummy]

I agree ! I also have not ordered because of the postage costs

[challis349]

I paid it when I ordered my mcpx, it is extremely fast, and both times has been here before midday the following day, think they use a courier for most there things

[scoobystig]

dont see the issue myself, if they only use a courier then thats their choice
i can quite see why they havent got time to goto the Post office

we all know that UK model shops are feeling the pinch as more and more items come from china, and they need to keep their overheads down so perhaps they have only one person in the shop manning the till
and then he has to close the shop, drive or walk to the post office stand in the queue for who knows how long walk back re open the shop, how many sales has he missed while hes been gone for maybe an hour or so for your £10 order, maybe someone arrived at the shop for the "Big box purchase" while he was gone

if you dont want to pay that much for postage, find somewhere local or try another shop that will go to the Post office, but maybe when you order something large and they still only charge £6.90 for a courier when maybe the post office would charge over £10 for it, it will seem more reasonable

i myself find it hassle to go to the post office with my ebay sales, when i can just phone a courier (That excellent service from Millerman springs to mind) and they come round and pick it up leaving me free to get on with stuff that needs doing

[muscleflex]

hmm... i kinda agree with the main poster. if local shops are losing out (and who wouldn't in this recession! everyone is looking for the cheapest things - me included hehe.), then i think local shops need to do as much as they can to get that sale!
for small orders like 1s batteries.. they could just get a bunch of postages and drop the envelopes in a mailbox on their way home.

but everyone has reasons.
i emailed fast lads before as i wanted to order a screw driver and the standard shipping was something like £6 and i asked if it was correct. andy emailed back and said it's actually 2.99 or something like that.

but in your case... i guess it's a shame and kings L has lost out on that sale.

[Friskle]

I agree also with the OP, if LHS are feeling the pinch so to speak, then sort themselves out to gain more custom, they are in a business for online trade, then with respect scooby, they should make time to go to the post office, afterall, they only need to wait until X amount of orders, then make one trip for a few things at once, personally , i would rather wait a couple more days, than pay un-needed postage costs, and afterall most UK LHS have overpriced postage anyway.

It might be a chore to go to the post office, but sadly, if you want to keep customers, they need to compromise.

[cjcj1949]

HobbyKing is $2.99 up to 100g. I try to buy in advance. Postage has gone up recently and HK is more expensive from the UK warehouse. Buying small quantities of anything is expensive (except from China). Going to a shop is even more expensive with petrol and the real cost of transport.

[Mark_T]

I'm finding it hard to blame them to be honest.

Through our complaints and praise we have taught all UK stores that speed of delivery is essential, so if they advertised a 2-3 day wait for small items nobody would order from them anyway.

They can easily lose one person for an hour taking a handful of items down to the post office and the profit on those items would often not even cover the time it took to mail them that way.

They have elected to offer a mail-order service focused on larger items and if you want other smaller items at the same time then they have them available.

We can't continue to do all our big ticket orders from Hong Kong and then complain if we can't get small stuff more locally when we need it.

These guys have to make a profit too and for them the judgement seems to be that they can't make money trying to meet our need for speed on tiny orders.

I can respect that.

[raptorheli2]

some are missing the bigger picture here i feel. one of the reasons for postage that cost is so someone doesn't order something at 50p and it costs KLM 50p on stationary alone to post it. plus say 10 mins printing a label, staff picking/packing it. by doing the flat rate postage it puts people off ordering small things and encourages a large order. i forsee the entire industry going this way tbh.

i personally have no issues with KLM doing this, for small items there are much better places to go that know they only sell small items so postage is cheap accordingly or they would get no business...........makes sense.

cheers

[Kiff]

Went on line to order 4 charge leads for MCPX batteries today from Kings Lyn Models, £1.99 each and must weigh a few grams each would easily go in a normal envelope. Got to check out and post was £5.74 plus vat making it £6.90.

Stated clearly on their site Shipping and Returns - Kings Lynn Model Shop Stocking all things Radio Controlled I fail to see an issue.

[Si_B]

I guess a courier comes and collects parcels and takes responsibility for mis-placed items etc. I would buy elsewhere if it was a small order, but as previously stated, the delivery is very quick and efficient for items that I have ordered from Kings Lynn models.

Postage seems to be silly at the moment, but I guess as local model shops close and mail order takes over, they can charge what they want and as a customer, the options will be few.

[jimmyhorns]

I dont see what the issue is. I really dont.

When you compare how straightforward it is to order, and to receive I dont think its out of order what they are charging for postage.

Essentially they dont want tiny small orders that they might 'make' £3 on.

Your order, even with the P&P charge probably wasnt economically viable for them; you have;

ordered stock worth the princely sum of £7.96 , so if they are lucky their 'profit margin' will be about £4, and from that £3 they have to pay someone to pack the item, someone has to have ordered the item to have them instock in the first place. They have to have somewhere to store the stock until you order it. They have to order stuff in which they will NEVER sell.

So say I lived a 10 minute drive from the model shop...

That would be 20 minutes of my time (which after tax/pension/NI/student loan repayments e.t.c.) is £9.25
Plus the petrol , well we will say £2 although its probably a lot more
Plus the parking at my LHS £1 for 20 minutes, thanks southampton city council.

So thats going to cost me £3 in cash terms, but once you factor in my time £12.25

so its twice as expensive for me to go an collect it than it is for the courier....... that makes the courier seem like a good deal to me?...

[NoFixedAbode]

I too have been caught out and cancelled order, I will not order again from them due to postage. I can understand the reasons behind there policy, but in my case they have missed out on potential bigger purchases. I know you can set up an a/c with post office, whereby you can calculate postage on weight and print out a sticky label on-line. Stick it in a jiffy and drop off all the days purchases on way home.

[Paulice]

I've ordered a 10 kg box from the UK to Switzerland and it's costing me £60.00 plus 8% of the value for the import tax and then the customs charge don't know what that will be yet.

[RcRotaryMadness]

I agree with the OP - yes the model shop might be making very little on the purchase of a few leads BUT...

Sometimes a small purchase can lead to BIGGER purchases IF the Customer is satisfied with the service they have been provided with.

This is the line between Profits Vs Customer Service - they often work against eachother these two.

And really the proof is in the pudding - the OP was a customer of theres (Sounds like hes placed a few bigger orders previously) and now feels let down by the shop, meaning bad word of mouth (Like the black death to a business that) and in future will be less likley to place orders with that shop - his custom will be taken elsewhere.


So tell me, is it worth making £4 profit and retaining your customer OR is it better to reject the order and the Customer along with it!?

Also if the member of staff is paid say £6.50 per hour... that £4 would of helped pay those wages - but instead that money has to come from somewhere else now.

Multiply all these little orders (which could be processed in batches to save time) - all those little £4's here and there start to add up...