Guest Posted June 26, 2019 Posted June 26, 2019 (edited) Based on the number of negative threads on couriers and postal services, you wonder how eCommerce can survive, let alone prosper. The reality is that most shipments arrive on time and in good condition. I thought I will start this thread to encourage people to post their positive comments on couriers and postal services. Hopefully, it can help people to pick whom they use. The best courier was StarTrack Express whose drivers look and act professionally and overnight service is superb e.g overnight Melbourne to Perth and a few days later after upgrade, back overnight. Less than 18 hours from Melbourne to country NSW. Most frequently used courier is Couriers Please, reasonably priced and usually on time. Other than a parcel left on the lawns when a signature was required, the service has been good. Australia Post is often a punching bag for many, but generally most of my parcels were on time and my local delivery driver is good. Express Post satchels have mostly worked. Express Post Platinum got my passport from Melbourne to embassy in Canberra and back with visa stamp to Melbourne overnight . Parcels handled by Royal Mail (UK) are fast. Most impressive was Amazon UK order (standard delivery) placed on Sunday night and item on hand on Thursday. Have had items spending more time in Australia than getting here from UK. Please post your positive experiences here on couriers and postal services. In the spirit of this thread, please limit negative comments. Nov 2020 COVID-19 Update Australia Post parcel post has slowed to a crawl e.g. 10 days to 2 weeks from Brisbane. Parcel post from USA (US Post) and UK (Royal Mail) is taking about 3 weeks. Postal services rely heavily on regular commercial flights and all delivery times have suffered during COVID-19. Australia Post Express Post is mostly back to normal, but there are hiccups. Fedex/DHL, with their own planes, are the fastest from overseas, but they are still slower than previously. Edited November 6, 2020 by Snoopy8 Typo, COVID update
Pops110 Posted June 26, 2019 Posted June 26, 2019 I’ve had a bit of success lately using TNT, booked through Interparcel. They were very good to deal with and speakers arrived nice and safe and on time. Star Track Express driver was also very good dropping off my new speakers. He phoned ahead and asked if I would be home, which I wasn’t. I said I would pick them up from the depot. He phoned about 45 minutes later saying he would come back on the way to the depot and drop them off for me to save me the hassle. Happy days. 3
metal beat Posted June 26, 2019 Posted June 26, 2019 I find all my local purchases that use Aussie post very good. Online tracking and gets delivered the day it says it will. 1
eman Posted June 26, 2019 Posted June 26, 2019 Aussie Post has been doing a good job with all of my stuff. 2
elcamry Posted June 27, 2019 Posted June 27, 2019 No problems with Star track , Aussie post has always been good to me .
kevanp Posted June 27, 2019 Posted June 27, 2019 Recently purchased a Billingham Bag from the UK it was on my door step with in 6 days using UPS. I generally have no problems with Australia post parcel service or Startrack. Some things like my Nesspresso coffee i generally get within 2 days. Most items posted with in Australia i get in 2 or 3 days. 1
Guest deanB Posted June 27, 2019 Posted June 27, 2019 (edited) Online reviews for courier and freight service are mostly brickbats, very few bouquets. Living in remote Northwest WA for two years gave me an appreciation for the good work our national freight carriers do almost all of the time. Consider this list of audio items that made their way to Kununurra through wet and dry seasons- PrimaLuna preamp, ExtremA CS-14 rack, Cymer ST-80 amp, ATC amp, Vincent preamp, Naim cdp (all Melbourne) Naim cdp, Q Acoustics 3050 (Sydney) Line Magnetic amp (Gosford NSW) Spendor S3e (Qld) PS Audio P10 (Brisbane via Darwin) ATC 19, Vincent SP331MK amp, Bryston integrated (all Perth) TeddyCap (Israel) Dozens of valves from the US, UK and Germany. And hundreds of cd's from all over the world, undamaged apart from the odd hinge broken. Everything arrived unscathed and in working order. When you take into account the kilometres covered, pretty bloody amazing. Then eventually I had to get it all back to Perth but that's a story for another day. Edited June 27, 2019 by deanB
Guest Posted June 27, 2019 Posted June 27, 2019 18 minutes ago, deanB said: Living in remote Northwest WA for two years gave me an appreciation for the good work our national freight carriers do almost all of the time. Good to hear it works for you so far away. Can you please edit your post and add the names of the carriers.
Guest deanB Posted June 27, 2019 Posted June 27, 2019 When you live that remote, it's usually multiple carriers between start and finish. I often wouldn't know what freight yard I'd be picking up from until they rang. As I said, our national freight system works pretty well all things considered. 7 minutes ago, Snoopy8 said: Good to hear it works for you so far away. Can you please edit your post and add the names of the carriers.
Guest Posted September 29, 2019 Posted September 29, 2019 (edited) Australia Post and Couriers Please continue their good work. It helps when the local drivers are good. Please post your positive experiences with couriers and postal services. Edited September 29, 2019 by Snoopy8 Typo
Guest Muon N' Posted September 30, 2019 Posted September 30, 2019 Australia Post and Couriers Please seem to do service the best out of everyone, Aussie post is not perfect at times, but way better than the likes of Toll, Fasways and others. Couriers Please I am yet to find fault. DHL also seem to get it right with international shipping to here.
Guest Posted December 15, 2019 Posted December 15, 2019 Kudos to Hong Kong Post for their express post service and also superb service by Australia Post. Shipped on Wed from HK, arrived at my home in Melbourne on a Saturday! (yes, a Saturday, to ease the Christmas rush). Sometimes, it takes longer to post domestically!
manchu Posted December 15, 2019 Posted December 15, 2019 (edited) 13 hours ago, Snoopy8 said: arrived at my home in Melbourne on a Saturday! I had a Myer online order delivered yesterday (sunday) by Auspost. I got an email notification beforehand and thought it must have been a mistake, but sure enough it turned up. I've also recently realised I can set permanent Auspost delivery preference to always leave packages at the front door which is great. No more 'sorry we missed you' notes!. A notable mention to Amazon US too for getting a pre-ordered CD to me within 1 business day of release. Released on the friday and arrived the following monday, about a week sooner than their own estimate. Edited December 15, 2019 by manchu
blybo Posted December 16, 2019 Posted December 16, 2019 I've used Aust Post for many years in my business. Never lost a parcel (touch wood) or had to claim for damage. Of course I've had an occasional delayed delivery, but usually within a couple of days anywhere in Australia. Express Freight Direct are also great but have no "sensitive" item service, but I don't require it for my industry. I think most local delays are caused by the shipper stock piling orders prior to dispatch to cut costs. I use Aust Post eParcel and Direct Freight Express couriers and both services have charges for picking up small quantities so I make sure I have 3 or 4 cartons to go before ordering a pick up, or I simply drop a single parcel at a Aust Post distribution centre which is only 1km from home.
Papajero Posted June 13, 2020 Posted June 13, 2020 Hi all, I hope I have the right forum for this question.... I am looking at a pair of floor standing speakers for sale in Sydney but will need to get them couriered to me in Torquay, Victoria. They are just under 1m tall, rectangular, no weird protuberances, and about 20kg each. Seller does not want to be responsible for packing but has offered to deliver them to a convenient location like a PackSend depot where they can safely box them up. Only suggesting PackSend as Ive used them once and they were good, though the goods were VERY well packed by the seller. I trust the seller to be honest, and careful getting them to the depot. As they are closed for the weekend now I just want to get an idea of how much they might charge for the whole shebang... packing AND delivering. Basically, if this is going to cost $500 then it's not worth it. If it's going to be around $200 (or less haha!) then it is a reasonable proposition. I'll get a proper quote on Monday morning but maybe I'm kidding myself about the affordability. Anyone have any ideas of cost??? Thanks Papajero
gibbo9000 Posted June 13, 2020 Posted June 13, 2020 You will need somewhere like Pack and Send to do the packing carefully - professional but expensive in my experience. But also very easy to get a quote from. I sense the need for packing rules out the pure logistics companies that are lot cheaper. Just went through a similar exercise getting some speakers from Melbourne to Tassy - but we were fortunate that we had the original packing. They were 60 x 54 x 135 cm by 2 and 40kg each. Pack and Send were just under $1,000. We ended up going with a smaller logistics company we found through truckit.net - one of the 'get three quotes' type services. They were professional and whole thing was $250, and $50 of that was insurance. Weight is also important as there is some weight above which WH&S says they must use a power tailgate truck (might be 25kg?) Maybe post to see if anyone is driving down and has space - they go in the 'Pay it Forward' section I think. Good luck! Gibbo 2
Dean Gale Posted June 14, 2020 Posted June 14, 2020 You need to ask on pay it forward if someone is travelling from Sydney to Melbourne I sent a pair of Dali Ikon 6 from Frankston to Newcastle cost was $166.00 they were excellent I wasn't paying so , anyway they were about the same dimension and weight 22kg . 1
Papajero Posted June 14, 2020 Posted June 14, 2020 Thanks gibbo and Deano. Will ask on pay it forward. Pack and Send actually replied today. Cost is $310 all inclusive, just too much to make it worthwhile for me. Posting this price may help others considering same
Robbo1802 Posted June 16, 2020 Posted June 16, 2020 Hi, I could not find another place to post this, so if it is wrong, my apologies (in advance). I am looking at buying a turntable off eBay Canada but the seller only seems to ship to Canada and the USA. Are there people or services to act as third party shippers? That is, is there a service where the turntable is shipped to the service which then on forwards it to Australia - for a price. I used to buy motorhome parts from the USA this way although, in that case the third party shippers were integrated into the suppliers' web page. At the checkout, you would click on international, a shipping estimate was generated and if you accepted it you were whisked to the shipper's page, you entered details and then paid. Seemed to work quite well and meant that the supplier didn't have to worry about all the complexity. The countdown is on Any help greatly accepted. Regards Bob BTW, I am going to post this on a few different sites.
Papajero Posted June 16, 2020 Posted June 16, 2020 Yes there are No I don't know what they are called There are (were?) sites that will buy with US credit card/address and forward internationally for a reasonable fee. Surprised you haven't found anything via Google...
kelossus Posted June 16, 2020 Posted June 16, 2020 (edited) If you want to use a freight forwarder Shipito.com has a few warehouses on the west coast of USA. They are free to sign up with but have progressively raised their prices over the year. If you want to leave it to a freight forwarder in Canada shipbuddy.ca come recommended. They picked up, crated and shipped a pair of 80kg each speakers to me in Brisbane. Total cost was $570 USD but I had to the handle the customs clearance and pay the 50 separate fees involved with sea freight. With all the fee's and clearances involved with sea freight it only works out marginally more expensive to go air freight door to door. Edited June 16, 2020 by kelossus
Ittaku Posted June 16, 2020 Posted June 16, 2020 Shopmate from Australia post. It's expensive, and a bit slow, but it will get here. https://shopmate.auspost.com.au/ I use it to buy valves from upscale audio who normally only ship to North America.
kelossus Posted June 16, 2020 Posted June 16, 2020 Shipito have Australia Post as one of their carriers. I usually get my package within 5-7 working days. 2
Candyflip Posted June 16, 2020 Posted June 16, 2020 I wouldn't recommend Shopmate (hideously expensive and awful online reviews). I was lucky - I got my stuff from the States on time, but I wouldn't use them again due to the cost and potential for real delays and losses.
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