Parcel forwarding services from the UK - anyone know of a good one?

[vesela]

I'm fed up of Amazon charging way more than the Royal Mail to deliver thin little books abroad (we live in Amazon's Europe 3 zone which = 2.99 per book and 4.99 per delivery, whereas the post office has one standard EU rate).

We're not in Amazon Payments territory, so can't order second-hand books from Marketplace, which is great for children's books/reading books etc. Not to mention the other companies who won't deliver internationally at all.

Does anyone know of a parcel forwarding service from the UK? The sort of setup where you pay an annual flat fee to have your parcels delivered to them in the UK, and they then send them on to you for a competitive rate? I could ask my mother to do it (and often do) but I don't like to hassle her all the time.

Thanks!

alternatively, does anyone know of any other good book delivery sites? It occurred to me that for second-hand books, Ebay is probably best, since a lot of their sellers will post abroad, and for less than Amazon.

The Book Depository deliver world-wide for free and their range is good (although not quite as extensive as Amazon). The prices are about the same as Amazon usually, I use them quite a bit.

I also quite like the "watch people shop" feature, it's strangely fascinating. I especially love to watch it after I've bought a book to see my book come up.

wow, thanks Bran! Their site is down for maintenance at the moment but they sound excellent.

I can second BookDepository.....prices usually a wee bit cheaper than Amazon, although books can take about 2 wks to arrive.
(have to say I have recently returned to Amazon as live in the A$$ End of Italy and stuff kept "going missing" from BD. At least paying with Amazon it comes by courier.

I know, it was up when I did the link, but when I went back for a sneaky peek at "watch people shop" it had gone down.

The other one worth considering is Play.com but their selection of books is much more limited as they are mostly DVD and CD focused. I think if you are having things delivered outside of the UK then Play forces you to buy in Euros, which works out a bit more expensive than the stirling price at the current exchange rates. Although if the rates change then it could work in your favour in the future.

Thank you thank you!! I've just ordered four books - in fact they had one that Amazon didn't even have! (for the shopping voyeurs, it was a US children's book called the Maggie B, another Mumsnet recommendation)

Stuff goes missing on the way here, too, but then we've also had stuff go missing with Amazon, so I'll take the risk.

We use Aramax shop and ship all the time. We get stuff sent to the address they provide both in the Uk and UK and then they ship once or twice a week. There is a minimum fee by weight of 35dhs (currently GBP5.70) for upto half a kilo and then its per whatever and you pay the delivery guy on arrival. We use it all the time for shopping and general mail.

Thanks, Starmummy (I've only just found this). I looked them up, but unfortunately we're not among their destinations for Shop and Ship.

It was Amazon that was annoying me above all - the other places I've bought from recently have had fairly reasonable delivery costs (Land's End charged 6 pounds to send over a coat that was none too light). So The Book Depository is a great find - the four orders I made all came pretty fast.

I'm not sure what country you are in but have you thought of more local country specific book sellers? I got some books sent within Russia by ozon.ru and I paid no postage at all.

Erm, not sure how ethical this is, but I set up the post office post forwarding service. Due the the UK postal strikes before I left a number of things I ordered didn't get to me before I moved (to NZ). They have come thru since I got here via the redirection. I have been amazed, big parcels of clothes, shoes, etc and they have been forwarded in the same way letters are at no extra cost. My sister has told me she has sent a parcel to my old address because the cost of sending it to me here in NZ was £40 more. Naughty, but an option..?

We do actually have a forwarding service from our old flat in the UK but I hadn't thought of using it like this! thanks!

We have the Royal Mail forwarding service but it said it excluded parcels. Do they all get through? That would be handy.

I think it excludes parcelforce but not parcels sent via 1st or 2nd class post.

I recommend Skypax for UK parcel forwarding.

http//www.skypax.com

Only costs £12 plus postage cost to your country

I live in the US and have bought quite a few baby toys from UK ebayers who do not ship overseas. I used skypax and would definitley use them again if i wanted anything from a UK seller who didn't ship overseas.

There also www.parcelsplease.co.uk haven't used them myself, but have heard good reports.

I'm well aware that your issue with finding a forwarding service may have been resolved but in case you are still looking, here are a couple of services that you can look at for all your shopping needs and wants. It doesn't matter where you live, but where you want to shop from.

If its UK and EU region; look here: tech-vise.com/uk-eu-delivery-address-online-shopping/

USA or Japan, Canada, Turkey, Italy; look here: tech-vise.com/best-parcel-forwarding-services-for-international-shoppers/

Hope this helps (even if its late by few years)