FIFTEEN POUNDS delivery to Ireland - Me&Em you have just lost a sale

[Greenstone]

£15!
£15 pounds delivery to Ireland!

The thing I want is only £24.

Bloody hell. AIBU?

Lots of online stores hike up their delivery prices to Ireland, North & South. So annoying when you only find out just before checkout.
I never ever go through with it, the cost is ridiculous.

Drives me mad. Look at lovely item on Amazon. £6. £1.000.000 delivery charge.

disclaimer - I know I'm exaggerating but it might as well be million rather than £20, it's still a rip off

No you're not!! The most i will pay now is £6 for clothing. Any more, they can feck off. It amazes me the variance in delivery prices between uk companies.

And I'm boycotting vero moda now because they have a minimum order of €40 before they will deliver to you. The cheek! It's a shame tho, because they're jeans are great (the rest is shite).

My limit is about the same Coconut, about £6 or 8 euro.

Me&Em, seriously, if you're listening: don't be such idiots. (Whistles' delivery to Ireland is FREE.)

Have you tried Parcel Motel? I use it for some deliveries to Ireland. If they accept Parcel Motel you use a postcode in the North and get the UK delivery rate.

Yes i have used them myself and its a good service, especially useful for when you want to buy from those companies who don't deliver to rep of Ireland.

At least with Amazon if you spend over £25 delivery to ROI is free.

H&M and Clarks won't accept the Parcel Motel address unfortunately but I've use it for quite a few things with no issues.

I also use Parcel Motel quite a bit for this kind of thing. The Book People, for instance, have some great deals but charge between £5 and £9 per book to deliver to Ireland. I get it delivered to Belfast and Parcel Motel send it to my nearest pick up point for under €4.

The postal charges to Ireland are horrendous - even if you're doing it yourself. I sent something recently - piece of clothing as a present - and was horrified when my local post office very apologetically asked for 12.

It's because it's classed as Europe now I think. So doesn't matter if you're sending something to Dublin or to Palermo, it's the same price.

I don't mind £6 to £9 or so - I reckon if I added up the petrol for me to drive to my nearest decent shops (about 40 miles away), parking, coffee or lunch, it would come to far more. Obviously it depends on the value of the stuff in the first place.

My problem is, I tend to keep stuff even if it's not quite right, because the cost of returning it as well just seems a step too far!

I have to commend Mint Velvet here. The postage to Ireland is €4.95 and comes very nicely packaged.

Have to say I think Me+Em have a long way to go to improve their customer service. It takes 30 days to give a refund if you return anything, which I just resent - just give me my freakin money back!

I bought a dress in the sale which was 50% off, so £44. I like it, but would have never been able to justify full price.

We have an online business and the difficulty is that the costs of postage can very enormously if a courier is required rather than Royal Mail. We can send parcels that fit within RM size dimensions for the same price as to the UK mainland. If the item, or combination of items is over that size then we need to use a courier and the cost is significantly higher than using that same courier for a UK mainland delivery. Our website system just isn't sophisticated enough to calculate the size of every possible combination of items so we ended up applying a higher charge for NI deliveries (otherwise we were losing 10 or more on every NI sale that included a larger item such as a long box of wall stickers). We do, however, always refund the difference to the customer if the actual postage cost is lower than charged.

I love Me and Em, but agree on the time it takes to get a refund (sorry I know that's not the original point of the thread). Currently waiting 8 days for even an acknowledgment they have received the return. Every single time I have to call them, and they agree its rubbish, but it doesn't change. Baukjen are the same. I'd love to know if it's the level of business agreement they have with Royal Mail or if they are just rubbish.
BUT Me and Em use Quidco, so do go via them and you'll get a few quid back at least.

Why do Clarks not accept the Parcel Motel Belfast address?

Am I missing something? It's free delivery to the UK, and for purposes of delivery, you could get it sent to the Parcel Motel address in Belfast and it would be forwarded to your nearest Parcel Motel in Ireland for the princely sum of €4. A lot cheaper than £15.

How much do they charge to deliver to France, or Germany?

You are in a different country...

Trills yes we are in a different country but they can deliver 100 miles up the road (Belfast) for free. SOME companies really pull a fast one re delivey charges.

Try living in Australia, then.

Trills - I do realise that I am in a different country and as such am subject to European rates of delivery! My point is that it's a) bonkers b) seriously cheeky and c) bad business to charge fifteen quid to anywhere in Europe for a tiny slip of a piece of fabric when other online fashion stores offer either free delivery or more normal rates to Europe.

Re. Parcel Motel - yeah it sounds like a great service, I know people who've tried it with no problems. Unless I really really wanted a specific item, though, it's not something I think I'd bother with. I just want everything to be in one step and hassle free

Sympathies, Koala... Where do you shop in Australia?

Greenstone, the shopping where I live is expensive and fairly shite. Every time a new online retailer decides they'll ship to Australia, I get all excited. Then it turns out to cost an arm and a freaking leg for postage on top of the item cost. Last time, they wanted 35 quid to ship one small bag.

We're not part of the UK.
If you want free delivery, live in Northern Ireland. Otherwise, why not give Parcel Motel a try.

I agree that £15 is too much for delivery to Europe - it seems to be standard, and I would never pay that much. It doesn't HAVE to be courriered, I don't understand why they insist on doing that, as the OP says, for a just an item of clothing.