Parcel Deliveries in France

We have had a faulty cooker hood replaced by Darty with no problems.

I have also used C Discount, but had problems with an item from one of their suppliers, ie not actually directly from C Discount. Eventually I got a refund, minus eighteen euros which was the price I had to pay for an upgrade because the item I originally ordered was out of stock. My second order never made it onto C Discounts customer part of the web site.

We have used 3 Suisses successfully, cooker and fridge delivered free of charge.

Amazon France sent us a book within three days last week.

However, we have used the Duvet Store, M & S and John Lewis, who all manage to find us. We have the most problems with French delivery firms who, being told that we do not actually live in the village, always seem to end up there!

well done "supersleuth"! :-)

Actually, we all ought to enjoy what we have. Just imagine if a handful of governments remembered the good old days of Retail Price Maintenance, the purchase tax it reaped for them and brought it back to squeeze our pips that bit harder! In reality we got it good and don't oughta shout too loud.

Supersluth Suz has got to the bottom of the parcels please issue. Basically UPS have withdrawn their discount services from Parcels Please because they didn't want them selling the 'company to company' discounted rates to the general public online. So as a result currently parcels please can only use DHL and the £70-£125 rates being quoted are DHL rates.

Parcels Please informed me that they are looking to find other cheaper options (as obviously this will have hit them hard) and I enquired about the business rates. Basically to ship at the UPS lower rates you would need to have a limited company, put £200 a month of business through UPS and more than 50% of your deliveries have to be to non-residential addresses - your cafe, shop, hairdresser!) But who ships £200 a month...not me!

I've applied for a business account anyway (as I have a UK limited company) to see what deals I can get...I'll keep you all posted. But for now...unfortunately for many of us - parcels please is out of the question for this years Christmas presents/puddings etc!

Good grief! This price rise must have only just happened, as I used them very recently and it was a LOT less than that!! I wonder what has triggered that?!?!?

Hi Penelope,

Thanks for the heads up about parcels please price rise. Gulp! shame that the cost risen so much now. Can you tell me who you used to get delivery for £18?

I have had many parcels delivered right to our door, which is in a small and quite remote village in the Monts d'Arree. Generally no problems and the post works really well. In fact so well the postman brings it right into the house and places it on the table in our hall, although we have a letter box, just shouting bonjour as he enters! Rarely we have been out and it's left in the Post Office although that is opening less and less (it's 50 metres away). DHL don't call in advance which is maddening and they then try to get you to pick it up from a depot three hours away! Today I expecting some wine from the south, some frozen food (just arrived on the dot) and an antique (from the UK) so they'll be stacking up. 3 Suisses seem to favour the depot system which is a bit of a bore as it's half an hour away for a small item which greatly adds to the cost. I use Spice of India, M and S, Peter Christian, Amazon and a few others from the UK and sometimes the USA, Germany or Switzerland usually without problem and delivery charges are generally far less than it would be to drive to a large town and pick up or buy it. Clothes in France are generally very expensive and I can never get my size either. To be in honest when I had an office in Putney the postal service was utter rubbish, being delvered often after lunch and frequently we only knew they had been when they flung a "You were not present" card into the letterbox without ringing the bell. They just didn't want to deliver parcels, too heavy for the dears. The Council had to take it up at top level. Here the postman is really nice, interested in the family and likes the odd glass. As to prices here you have to research and then you find that some are OK, some are much cheaper elsewhere. I give priority to the UK as that's where my income comes from. Two Saab headlights were 800 euros in France and 280 dollars plus freight from the USA! No comparison. I agree with others that the on costs for businesses here are just so much higher, although I suspect that the big boys all get their income via Ireland or Luxembourg or some other place to avoid such costs and then simply ship through an affiliate registered in France. Everybody is at it.

I ordered a watch from UK, and got it within Three days...

ordered a backpack shipped from Paris, and it took three weeks.

Fnac are good, generally, though.

Hi Richard,

We frequently order things via the internet in Holland, Germany, Italy and France and we must say they are generally delivered in time. The only time we had a hard time was with the famous livebox, which came via Kiala (same story as yours, you have to pick it up at a store 10 miles from home and just hope it is open at the times indicated (we tend to go to stores/restaurants on days of 'fermeture exceptionnelle' (sigh)).

We have the feeling that the French haven't really discovered the world wide web yet, as prices are much lower in foreign e-shops than in French shops and e-shops), so it is really worth a try to shop around.

I have the licence 'tir d'arc' and the test was frankly a joke, could I identify several animals, answer a few very banal questions and write my name and address and little more than that without too much exaggeration. The advisory letter that came with it advises me not to take on large game such as sangliers, as if...

I've never had any problem with having things delivered - we're very rural, 300 metres down a track through the vines with our postpost 300m away along another track - our posties always come down the track to our door if there's something too big for the postbox.

We don't have any problem with free delivery in most cases either - Darty deliver free (and have brilliant after-sales service) so does our local hardware store (prices to match), Ikea gave up free delivery a long time ago, our local Leclerc is expensive but I don't like them so it doesn't really matter.

I have now my licence de tir for my local target club at Chalon Sur Saone and I will/should pass my last stage of my permis de chasse when I get back to France after this job. Yes the French won't let you hunt anything bigger than a mouse without a hunting permit and there is a special licence 'tir d'arc 'for those wishing to do so (I found it pretty difficult to hunt with the bow - tried it in the UK).

You need a European form for travelling with your shotgun/firearm but the UK place an additional hurdle with extra paperwork that make going there with weapons more difficult. I am in the UK at present and even doing some clay pigeon shooting now means that those without a shotgun permit can only fire at clays with an instructor beside them.

That shouldn't put you off though and if you need any advice or help in doing this I would be pleased to pass it on what I what I have learned.

Right Zoe, that was my Amazon thing. However, it was basically the most bizarre exception and that it worked when the people in Luxembourg deliberately wrote my address in the wrong order to try that and it worked was weird. I had an Amazon order less than 36 hours after ordering last week, by the way, about two hours after a message telling me to expect it in 4 to 5 days!

Power did a thing. I wanted to go on to - a Scots guy in the Dordogne departmental association I met at our village fete spoke about the fact he hunts here but has never been able to in the UK, partly because he is has no permit and cannot take his weapons in or out of the country and back to Scotland when he occasionally visits or even buy there (which he wouldn't because he hasn't been resident for many years). That may be for a great part in the way of what you want to do. I find it ironic that I hunted with a longbow in the UK, needing no permit, but here need to be registered and tested by my local chasse, even if I only want to keep rabbits under control. I think you need to have a deep delve into the regulations before even trying.

on reading the below comments, I'm actually happy... I thought it was "just me". thought generally when people have these problems they get postcodes wrong, or omit details... turns out it happens a bit. My mother sent me a parcel (sicks,and tee shirts,usually) about six months ago, and it never arrived. I waited three months for her consignment of tea bags.

In saying that, I sent my brother a gift voucher, and it was delivered by courier three days later, ubt at SEVEN in the morning, and with the wrong message and name on the actual card itself. That was Ireland.

Usually, with overseas things, the sending side says they've done their bit, and it's the French postal system letting the side down, and the French seem to say '"no, it never got here in the first place".

I live in town, and find the relais system works very well - eg the post office closes at midday on Saturdays but our local tabac is the relais and closes on Saturday at 17h00. Agree about prices. I buy what I can in the UK, even with delivery charges it is much more affordable.

There's a company called Borderlinx that could help get round some of these issues: http://www.borderlinx.com/pages/how-it-works

Brian - not sure what you wanted to say as your posting was deleted but drop me a private message if you like?

I never have any problems getting things delivered here - aside from drivers occasionally having to phone us to ascertain our exact location (our chemin is not on any satnavs). LaPoste in the village know us well.

On the question of electrical "stuff", I rarely buy anything from actual shops in France. It's much cheaper to buy online. Pixmania can usually beat any shop prices.

My latest purchase was a good-as-new Samsung notepad. I wanted a QWERTY keyboard so it had to be from the UK. I bought it on EBAY for £101. I then had it shipped here by ParcelsPlease and it arrived three days later in a UPS van.

Back in February, when fitting my kitchen, I wanted a 110cm cooker hood/extractor. The prices in France were staggering. One person even told me that I could not get one that size! On EBAY.co.uk I found the perfect product - it was a "second", but I am still trying to find the imperfection. The list price was £650 - I got it for £65. It was about the same to have it shipped, but was still a fraction of what I would have paid here. And it arrived three days later in a UPS van.

I think that once you get used to the living-here "system", you just do the Gallic shrug and do it! :-)

- Agree on looking after your postie - Giving the postie a few euro bonus at Christmas also helps I find, in our village 5-10 euro is the norm :)