As most of you will already know, I have spent the past few months adding my own touches to our new home, making it truly ours. Of course, me being me, I have been doing it on the cheap. I love a real bargain and while new items look great there is something special about filling your home with pre-loved items.
I’ve hit Freecycle, the Facebook buy and sell groups that have sprung up locally and the numerous charity shops that we have here in town yet my best pieces to date have been from Ebay. I adore Ebay as a buyer for many reasons. Apart from the fact that I am able to spend hour upon hour browsing different styles, types and colours of home items, I am also able to browse within my price range (which saves me from spending a fortune!).
What I do loathe when shopping for bargains online is to then find myself paying a small fortune for delivery. Not only does this take the shine off having found that perfect item for a bargain price, it irks me because quite often I could have bought a whole other item with my postage and packaging money.
Like it or not, if I want to take advantage of the variety of items that I am able to buy online for pennies I am inevitably going to have to pay out to get it delivered to my door.
Having swallowed the fact that I am going to have to pay for delivery my second yet equally intense dislike is finding that I have spent money on having an item delivered only to receive it in bits. This is heartbreaking when you find the perfect colour and shape of vase or the ornament that will fit just perfect on your mantlepiece. While this could turn into a rant about the times I’ve been let down by postal or courier services (and sometime sellers who feel wrapping a glass frame in one layer of paper and popping it in the mail is ok) I’m instead going to concentrate on the positive.
Not being a driver I rely on couriers etc not only for my home project items but also for work. The one company that to date that have outweighed the competition in my eyes has been Parcelforce. For me their charges have been reasonable and I’ve never had an item left behind a recycling box (in wet weather on recycling day) or anything similarly daft. I have had one query with a delivery in the past eight or nine months which was dealt with brilliantly by their customer service team.
So, while having to pay for delivery is a pain regardless of who you go with, at least with Parcelforce you know there is a very good chance that you will receive your item in good time and in one piece (stupidly at the wrapping stage considered).
Now all I have to do is convince all Ebay sellers to use my postal courier of choice. Any ideas on how to do that??
*Consideration has been received for writing this post
