Connect delivery charges

Re: Connect delivery charges

Where did you see that Goose? My minimum order has always been £65 before VAT. I couldn’t find any reference to this increase on the site. £75 means that I may be persuaded to look at alternatives……. 😉

Steve.

Re: Connect delivery charges

I’m having trouble getting to £60 with orders at the mo. Had to pay the carriage charge twice this week as it was taking too long to fill the baskets. Everything had to go up £1 to the customers.

Tc

Re: Connect delivery charges

A lot of the problems, I think, lie with the couriers if it is a courier service as they have been putting on fuel surcharges and raising prices.

Royal Mail should be unaffected, for now.

However there appears to be marginal increases on packing materials as well as we’ve seen it too.

But even on a bulk deal the actual shipping cost will be about a fiver, then add packaging and the labour to pick, pack and process, labeling costs etc. and I have to say I can understand the need for carriage charges below a certain value, especially on lower margin trade sales where you can’t offset it on the selling price.

On trade sales a supplier will generally have about a 10-15{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} margin on most things so they need to shift volume to make any money but, even with a £75 order then they will have perhaps £10-15 at it usually. So, you can see that when you take that shipping will likely cost about £10 per order by courier that there’s not a whole lot of wiggle room there. Basically they need large orders to make it worth bothering with and small order values aren’t worth getting unless you can make it pay.

Small order values are a symptom of the more diverse industry that we have now in terms of products.

Of course with Connect there has been the discussion on pricing but that’s up to you guys to do some research then give some grief to CDSL and negotiate a better discount. Just look up a few random prices then go look on some of the “4” sites and see how much “discount” you’re getting off the supposed SRP. Alternatively, use a manufacturers price list and see what you’re being charged. I can promise you that the results will likely surprise you and, not just from CDSL.

If you don’t ask for a better discount, you won’t get it.

If you still don’t get the prices you want then switch to another spares supplier and vote with your feet and your wallet. But it has to be said that, on some of the prices I’ve been seeing banded about on here you may be better off accepting the carriage charge from another supplier in many cases (not just CDSL) as it’s cheaper even with an additional charge.

Sourcing and especially buying spares is an art and one that requires a lot of knowledge and a certain amount of skill. I will absolutely guarantee that if you use only one or even two suppliers then you will often be paying too much. Unless that is you’re dealing with someone that you know and trust to keep you right. This is where the demise of the local distributors has been a bad thing and, with the way that some websites and lookups operate, it is difficult to compare prices as the OPN’s are hidden.

I find it more annoying when high carriage charges are placed on high priced goods as that is just having a laugh, but where you’re getting a substantial discount off the SRP there’s really not a lot you can complain about IMO.

But as with most things it’s a case of caveat emptor I’m afraid.

K.

Re: Connect delivery charges

There’s no rhyme or reason as to whether they use DHL or RM. I thought they might use RM with today’s very lightweight order from me and it would then have a small chance of arriving on Saturday. But they’ve used DHL so it’ll be rushed down to the depot 30 miles away arriving there early tomorrow morning to sit around till Monday. :rolls: (Still, at least I can track it.)
Mike.

Re: Connect delivery charges

You win on some, you lose on some, but mostly, especially on genuine and fast moving competitive lines which everyone touts, the margins aren’t exactly great if you don’t hike the prices up.

Like I say, trade sales rely on volume selling, not high margins although at times you wonder. :rolls:

But you have to consider that buying in pallet loads of spares to sit on the shelf for months sometimes isn’t exactly cheap, then you have the returns and all the rest… it’s not an easy business to make money at, trust me. It’s also why a lot of the local distributors have disappeared in recent years.

But then, when you see some of the price differences on spares from different suppliers I’m not surprised that people wonder. I’ve seen “trade” prices being higher than retail, often. But if you don’t bother to check or shop around who’s fault is that? 😉

I keep telling people, you need three or four and use them, rotate the business and don’t rely on one totally as, if you do, you will pay more for some stuff. This is not often the supplier’s fault, it’s just dependent on their supplier, volumes etc.

If I was getting £3 per parcel I’d be happy, well happy, on courier deals but I’m afraid that I’ve never seen or heard of a rate that low for many, many years. If it’s to a home address or non-business addresses at all you can forget getting anywhere even close to that sort of rate so far as I know. Even Amazon charge way more than that, they have to, and they send more packages than anyone else in the UK.

Even on the deal we have the minimum charge is £4.95 IIRC and that rises to £5.95 over 1kg and upwards from there dependent on weight and destination. That’s a good deal and I very much doubt that you’d get a 40{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d}+ discount for volume and we’ve been notified that, due to fuel prices, the rates will almost certainly rise in the next couple of months so don’t be surprised if the charges go up as well as the order threshold.

Staggered charges should be possible, no reason that it couldn’t be done, especially with CDSL as they can give different prices on spares so I can’t see why they couldn’t do it on carriage charges as well.

K.

Re: Connect delivery charges

I know what you’re saying Geoff, but a two minute search, literally, gives me at random on my prices…

Servis Washer Module

Supplier 1: £87.30
Supplier 2: £34.99
Supplier 3: Not listed

Gen Hygena Fan Element

Supplier 1: £33.12
Supplier 2: £21.99
Supplier 3: £23.01

As you can plainly see I can save far more than the carriage charges on one of either part easily, for the sake of a 30 second search.

However I guess the main point from this is that using supplier 1 the chances of getting the job are massively reduced as the prices are so much higher.

I’ve left off the part numbers and the suppliers identity as it’s not fair to berate any one of them on the strength of a couple of prices and that’s not the point of the exercise either. However, it does highlight the massive disparity in pricing from some suppliers and all I’ll say is that, if you choose to do it the easy way and be lazy, you’ll pay for that, often by not getting a job that otherwise may well have been viable due to over-priced spares.

The carriage cost is secondary.

K.