Poor grasp of Geography by ebay and couriers

[skelph]

Yet again I have lost out on bidding for an ebay item because the seller has specified that they do not ship to the Scottish Islands. I don't know whether it is ebay or the seller's courier that has a poor grasp of the geography of Scotland but yet again Aberdeenshire (east coast of Scotland for those who don't know where it is) is classed as Scottish Islands which are all on the west and north coasts. I tried to get the seller to remove the restriction but he didn't respond to my email. Trying to contact ebay about the problem is a waste of time as they have a very limited range of topics for messages and don't provide a facility for a new subject heading. :evil: :evil: :evil:

Anyone got any ideas as to how I get round this problem? With Screwfix I finished up telling them to stick their stock where the sun don't shine as I refuse to pay double shipping costs just because they don't know the difference between 25 miles inland and several miles offshore in a different direction.

It's difficult enough to find decent tools, hardwoods and hardware in this area without artificial barriers being imposed as well.

Rant over - once I calm down I can return to the shed and make more shavings.

skelph

 

[Blister]

Easy solution

Come and live in England

Everyone else does :roll:

 

[skelph]

I used to - born in Norwich but moved to Scotland aged 6 because dad was a Scotsman.

Worked in England intermittently a year or so ago but prefer living up here - fresh air, pace of life etc. It's just that I hate this idea that mainland Scotland stops in the central belt (Glasgow/Edinburgh) and everything else is Scottish Highlands or Islands.

Daft thing is, the lump of mahogany I was after sold for less than I told the seller I was going to bid so he knows he lost out in the end.

Still not calm enough to go back to the shed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

skelph

 

[moppetsdad]

I used to work with a lad who thought scotland was south of norfolk! They teach them well at school nowdays.

 

[joiner_sim]

A little off topic, but thought I'd ask anyway.... I'm staying in Port Seton for a week during the summer, just to the east of Edinburgh. Any recommendations for places & attractions to visit?

 

[skelph]

A little off topic, but thought I'd ask anyway.... I'm staying in Port Seton for a week during the summer, just to the east of Edinburgh. Any recommendations for places & attractions to visit?

Difficult to tell from a forum post with no smilies if that is a serious question or touch of humour. If it's a serious question, Port Seton is over 100 miles from me by road and since it's about 40 years since I worked in Edinburgh my knowledge of the area is a bit out of date I'm afraid but there are other forum members in the Edinburgh area who might be able to answer your question.

 

[Dodge]

I used to - born in Norwich but moved to Scotland aged 6 because dad was a Scotsman.


skelph

Lucky chap - I'm still just South of Norwich!

Take a bloomin eternity to get anywhere and that if the A14 or A47 arn't blocked by an accident!

 

[Tinbasher]

I saw one recently who would not deliver the Scottish islands or kilmarnock!!?

 

[dickm]

Yes, it's a pain in the posterior, isn't it? From what I can find out, it seems to be a fault of Ebay as much as the seller; there seems to be some automatic thing on the 'bay which insists that Highlands and Islands starts at Dundee, and rejects bids where there is this restriction. The last time this happened to me, the seller was quite happy to work around it, but that was probably a "Buy it Now" where there was no time pressure.

Out of interest, which bit of Aberdeenshire are you based in?

 

[SammyQ]

You Lot over in the parallel Celtic Paradise can quit yer grousin'! Bl**dy illegitimate couriers want to charge me £30 postage for a Litre can of paint from Lancashire to Belfast. Every ferkin Thomas, Richard (Not you DickM!) or Harold seems to think St George's Channel is on the same scale as the Pacific Ocean or that he/she/it can bamboozle the higgernunt Oirish into donating hugely disproportionate spondulicks for his/her/its chavvy social habits. How do Royal Mail do it every day? Three times per day to my place of work? How do CPC and RS(Farnel) do it for free with a £30 order? Don't even get me started on the mentally stunted wassocks who fly their kites on Ee-by-gum-bay. Wake up all you of an IQ in single figures! The world is indeed bigger than your tribally-limited little strutting patch, but modern transport is a wondrous thing - or so the Stobart-sponsored transmission tells us....


Sam, who has been patronised just sixteen times too many....

 

[skelph]

Out of interest, which bit of Aberdeenshire are you based in?

Clue 1 - I live in the home town of a proper Scottish poet - Charles Murray.
Clue 2 - We have a Transport Museum next to a Golf Club.
Clue 3 - It's on the road from Aberdeen to the Lecht Ski Slopes.
Clue 4 - Postcode begins AB33 but according to ebay I'm on an island somewhere between the Outer Hebrides and Shetland!

Where are you based?

 

[cambournepete]

In my eBay sales I've never put in a postage restriction and sent stuff to France, Italy, Turkey, New Zealand, Belfast and even Wales!
Why would people be so awkward?

 

[angelboy]

Why would people be so awkward?

Ignorance.

 

[deserter]

I think a lot of it boils down to laziness the number of items which are sold "collection only due to size and weight " is astounding, I shipped a set of wheels with tires from Newcastle to Shrewsbury for £35 but another seller refused to post a cordless drill due to its immense size and weight.

 

[t8hants]

The same thing here on the Isle of Wight, despite the fact that postally we are part of the Portsmouth postal district, increasing restrictions on Ething.
As a matter of fact the Uk Government informed the EU we are not an Island, this was so they would not have to subsidize our ferry connections, and prevented the EU from making certain grants to us, which would apparently have been unfair on the mainland!

Gareth

 

[19ninety]

Just an idea, I know it doesnt take away from certain eBayers being difficult. Ask them for their post code, then get a quote for ipostparcels.com to courier collect from them and deliver to you. They are by far the cheapest and most reliable courier I have used (living in the south), they only offer a Next Day service.
As an example, collection from my old address in Cornwall to Aberdeen University (quickest long distance address's I could think of) Next Day is £7.99 + VAT for a parcel up to 5KG packaged and upto £50.00 in value.
If you really want something eBay and the seller will let a courier collect from them this might help you out a fair bit...

 

[skelph]

Some good ideas so far but none that address the problem of being unable to place a bid in the first place because of the postcode restriction. The other question is - how do I report this "bug" to ebay?

 

[studders]

Can you use the address of a relative living in the 'right zone' ? As for reporting to ebay... usually a complete waste of time in my experience.

 

[dickm]

Clue 1 - I live in the home town of a proper Scottish poet - Charles Murray.
Clue 2 - We have a Transport Museum next to a Golf Club.
Clue 3 - It's on the road from Aberdeen to the Lecht Ski Slopes.
Clue 4 - Postcode begins AB33 but according to ebay I'm on an island somewhere between the Outer Hebrides and Shetland!

Where are you based?

So that's Alford (pronounced Afford) according to Streetmap. We've only been up here 5 years, so my local geography is nearly on a par with Ebay vendors and I don't know the works of Charles Murray. But enjoy the writings of Charles Allan, whose son runs the Bistro in Alford and lives the other side of the burn from us.
Occasionally come over to the autojumbles at the transport museum, but prices for tools are mostly silly. And Thainstone car boot is nearer to us in Methlick.

 

[tomatwark]

One of my suppliers told me that to that their courier had told them that all TD post codes expect for TD15 were £25 for delivery, TD15 was £8.

When the courier turned up I asked him why.

He said he had not got a clue but he did the TD15 deliveries as well, I ask my supplier to look into this, they came back with the response that the driver was wrong and the TD15 deliveries came from I different depot.

I told them to stick their products and now use someone else.

Tom