The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Rant time!

Just broke decapping pin on my .223 small base die, no major issue, cheap to replace. Quick look online and average is a pack of 5 for about £3 ( the ones with the nipple not the straight ones) then comes the postage/shipping!! Cheapest was £4 and most expensive £8.

How on earth can people justify that for a small envelope or jiffy bag and a large letter stamp? They would actually go in a normal envelope and 1st class stamp would cover it.

Time to ring around and see who has them locally.

Indeed, some take the Pee big time. Cost of a small Jiffy bag, 20p, 1st class stamp 62p, stick it in a post box when passing £0.

I've often bought stuff in the US, had it shipped to my friends on the Gulf Coast and when there's about a Kilo had them ship it in a flat rate box for $25, usually gets here in 5 days and still works out a lot cheaper than buying the same stuff here. We're going over again in a few months time and I've already booked an extra suitcase for the return flight :lol:

A reamer manufacturer tried to charge me over $100 to ship a chamber reamer from the States.

Got it sent from another source for less than 10% of the original shipping.

phaedra1106 wrote:Indeed, some take the Pee big time. Cost of a small Jiffy bag, 20p, 1st class stamp 62p, stick it in a post box when passing £0.

I've often bought stuff in the US, had it shipped to my friends on the Gulf Coast and when there's about a Kilo had them ship it in a flat rate box for $25, usually gets here in 5 days and still works out a lot cheaper than buying the same stuff here. We're going over again in a few months time and I've already booked an extra suitcase for the return flight :lol:

Nice to see that you support British industry. Not.

Also most sane sellers ship signed for which is another £1.10, simply to avoid people claiming the item never arrived.

Drive to the PO...last time I looked petrol costs money.

Pretty much always use a 'Signed' for service, if less than £100 value then typically Recorded Delivery if over £100 then Royal Mail Special Delivery. What doesn't get charged for generally is the time taken to pack and post never mind the petrol. Most people I know charge a fair rate.

I charge a flat rate of £4.95 postage. Which is a signed for service.

Quote often, the postage actually costs more than what I charge. Sometimes it's less (60p less!), but I felt that £4.95 was a fair fee for a tracked delivery.

Sadly everything we ship these days has to be signed for, both to safeguard ourselves and the customer, this has come about because of less than honest customers on a few occasions.

Memorable moments include shipping some very expensive and bespoke parts to someone who complained they did not arrive, we sent them a second time and they did not arrive so we asked the person to confirm his postal address again and apparently we were sending to the wrong place despite it being his 'registered' address. Recently we had an order for a guide from a chap who had a couple of mates with the same guide, all well and good however the first guide had failed to arrive so we had shipped a second, my guess is the first one eventually arrived and was handed out as a freebie to someone...

The list goes on and that does not include the people who order stuff, we ship it out and they cannot be bothered to pay, not only have we not been paid, we have also had to pay the VAT on the money we were not paid. What this means is even something as simple and small as a CM Adapter goes out signed for.

I would say 99% of the time we lose on any shipping or postage charges.

Royal Mail has also changed the way they ship things. It is down to size and weight now.

Standard is compensated up to £20, if there is proof of posting.
Signed for £50.

Don't even get me started on how to claim from RM...non starter!

if you have an account with them then you do get good rates, BUT by the time you have done all the online stuff, weighed them, stuck all the labels on, filled out the tracking books, bagged it etc, theres easy an hour gone in the day, local last post is 5pm, so leave at 4:30 to get there in time and make sure they go, theres an hours work gone.

soon stacks up.

For sending firearms and parts I always use Parcel Force Express24 or Express48 service, and to date I have never had a problem, it's fully tracked, signed for, and they'll pick it up from you if you cannot get to the post office.

Smaller items go RM and again I guess I've been lucky, not yet had anything go missing.

I can understand why many offer a flat-rate shipping, but the problem comes when you order a small item and find you are paying maybe £10 for shipping, the same as if you ordered many much larger items. The shipper wins on some and loses on others but has the ease of knowing exactly what any order will cost to ship. As the individual buyer you may win or you may lose, it's your choice, you can always go elsewhere.