I discovered this service whilst trying to work the intricacies of moving my MG Midget from an ex girlfriends folks place in Nottinghamshire back to the folks in Bracknell. My initial though was to hire a trailer and car with tow bar and collect. All in though this would have cost me £300 or so for a weekend, commercial quotes on the delivery were even more.
Then I spotted Shiply and thought would give it a go. Essentially Shiply operates on an Ebay auction type system whereby you specify your item for delivery alongside where it is and where it's going and transporters/couriers bid on who can deliver it most cheaply. The winning bid was £125 which was obviously a big saving. There were a number of competing bids around the same price and the facility exists to choose which bidder you wish to go with. As wih Ebay there is a feedback system which keeps things nice and simple.
Shiply traders work on the premise that they can combine deliveries with other jobs so it is still economical to transport the item, as obviously to move a car that distance would chew up at least half that amount in fuel and of course it's a days work.
The other key advantage of this service was that I didn't even have to leave London to coordinate it. I arranged with Tony, the courier who had won the bid, suitable times to do this for both of us and he got on with it. The car was delivered right on time and the service was excellent with the car well looked after. Most car transporters will offer insurance and specify this so if you are transporting something like an old car with some value to it you are covered.
I have no hestitation in recommending the service. It saved me money, a day and achieved exactly what I set out to do.
Shiply can be found here.
I regularly send large parcels and have been using Shiply for a while, but have issues
ReplyDeleteThe first thing to realise is that whilst it looks a lot like eBay it isn't eBay and there is no buyer protection.
Thus once you have accepted a bid, you pay your money (to Shiply) and that is the last you will see of it, whether or not the courier actually performs.
Shiply's advice is to check the bona fides of a courier by, amongst other things, asking to see their insurance and professional association membership details. However, whilst you can do this before you pay the courier it is impossible to do before you pay Shiply! (the website software intercepts and blocks any attempt to exchange email addresses or phone numbers etc)
The only thing you can check before paying Shiply is the courier's feedback. Having been caught twice now by couriers* with apparently good feedback, I would advise caution. Feedback can be 'manufactured' by an unscrupulous courier, so I would suggest looking to see - amongst other things - whether the person giving feedback also has a good feedback score and over how long a period it has been given. If all a couriers feedback has been given within a few weeks by people with low feedback scores of their own, you could be in trouble.
Remember - if some 'courier' bids for your job, picks up the parcel and you never see him or the parcel again - Shiply don't want to know
*Experience 1. Courier picked up, delivered item to the house of a friend of his that was 20 miles from the recipient of parcel and asked friend to do the final leg. Friend's van was off the road. Courier still left the parcel and when contacted by me asked if recipient could come and collect the parcel!
Experience 2. Courier (good feedback) bid for job, was awarded it, we paid Shiply, courier did not reply to emails, phone calls or text messages. No pick up. Lost fee.