Happy-Post. A cautionary tale

General Discussion
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We have a friend who often uses Happy-Post.com to send packages and parcels from France (local Relais drop point) to the USA, and who tells us that it’s much cheaper than using La Poste.
So we thought that we would give it a go.
Looked at their website and found that the cost was indeed substantially cheaper and that there is a drop off point not too far away from us.

So far, so good, but of course it’s necessary to create an account in order to send the package.
Therefore we sat down together in front of the laptop to enter into this new venture. (We have reached an age when we find it better to have two sets of eyes on the screen when doing these things to avoid silly mistakes.)
We entered our email address which is used as the username, and then created a password which we carefully wrote down.
Next we entered details of the package (weight and dimensions), the details of the intended recipient in the US, and our own senders address.
Then it was just a matter of choosing one of the different ‘grades’ of transmission. We decided to pay a bit extra in order to absolve the recipient from any risk of having to pay US Customs charges upon receipt.

So then the website redirected us to the payment portal (BNP Paribas) and we paid the fee by card.
Next, we were returned to the Happy-Post website and instructed to log in to our account, go to ‘My Orders’, and from there we could print the now pre-paid shipping labels.

Well, try as we might, the website declined to accept our account log in and password that we had so carefully written down.
So, no shipping label and €21.64 down the swanny !

Much tooing and froing to their customer service people by e-mail (still ongoing), finally results in establishing that although their computer system happily took our money, it never actually created an account for us as it was supposed to do.
Just goes to show that these computer systems are not always what they are cracked up to be.
Whether we will ever get our money back remains to be seen…

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My daughter uses Parcel Monkey from the USA to me in France,has been a few years now using them and no problems until this xmas when she got found out and the parcel was a bit too heavy and not just candy so she had to pay UPS a customs fee of €42 which she did immediately from the US so it could be delivered on the set date before the 24th Dec and on monday, I got an official receipt from UPS to say it was paid.

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Update. Just received an e-mail to say that they are going to give us a refund. We await seeing it actually happen.

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Rule of thumb - if at all possible pay for online stuff by credit, not debit card. Gives an extra avenue to explore as the CC company is jointly responsible if things go wrong.

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Agreed. However, French banks don’t do credit cards to my knowledge, so when dealing with a French company we have to use our French debit card in order to avoid the Foreign Transaction and Exchange Rate fees charged by our UK credit card provider.

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Nod - CCs seem much harder to come by in France.

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BUT seem to be offering a Mastercard credit card which seems to be reasonable,much better than banks,has anyone got one,thanks.

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For UK credit cards it’s Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 for purchases from £100 to £30000. Even £1 as a part payment covers the full purchase price.

I have no idea if the Frecnch banking system has such a protection for credit cards.

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I *think* it’s an EU thing as well, but could easily be wrong.

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If ever you need to buy from India, I use www.brownpost.in they ship anything from genuine spices to Royal Enfield (motorcycle) parts at a fraction of the cost. I now have an Amazon India account, they deliver to BrownPost in Chennai then it’s flown/delivered to my address.

I pay douane fees but everything is still much cheaper than buying in France.

They’re super friendly, every stage is communicated via WhatsApp.

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Hi, M Le Pest, I’d be interested to know what’s the difference between having an Amazon.in account, and logging in with an Amazon.fr account.

ETA Thank you for your reply.

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That’s realy interesting, thanks for the info.

I need to send what my son and GF couldn’t take on the plane back to Holland so I’ll try parcelmonkey.

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Hubby just trying to look at this site, are you sure this address is correct? No hyphen or anything??

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the website is correct but it comes up as ‘caution, not secure’ however, you can try them on their WhatsApp number +91 91502 66966

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There’s no difference logging into Amazon.in/uk/de/fr but you usually need to pay in local currency, I pay .in via Revolut to save on bank charges.

I’ve found that brownpost.in +91 91502 66966 (WhatsApp) to be the most reliable shipper from India, they accept deliveries from Indian suppliers to their depot and ship to your door.

I have an Indian friend who recommended them, they regularly get spices sent over, I get Royal Enfield parts shipped.

Just bear in mind, something for sale in India for 30€ with shipment and douane will cost about 100€, but it’s still cheaper than buying from a French dealer for 180€.

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That’s a bit of a problem for us as for ethical reasons we don’t use any FB products :rofl: . Thanks anyway, he managed to get on to their site.

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They are there but the rules are very strict regarding repayment in full and not in drips and drabs plus your financial situation e.g. monthly salary etc as proof. I wouldn’t touch one with a bargepole to be honest and if I can’t afford it, don’t buy it or need it!

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Which is fair enough - but you don’t have to use the “credit” part of a CC - I have one largely for consumer protection and pay it off in full at the end of the month.

Yes - the couple I looked at (Hello bank and BNP Paribas) seem to be more in the model of what you might call a “charge card” (à la American Express) rather than a credit card which need not be paid in full at the end of the month. Are there any true “credit cards” in the French market?

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The credit cards offered by French banks seem so far to be in their category of “Gold” cards. Obvs there is Platinum as the higher level above. The Platinum ones in particular are very expensive relative to other countries for a poorer package of benefits than, say, the UK.

The Gold or Platinum cards all require a subscription. To get the ‘credit’ type, you must select this option otherwise it will defaiult to giving you a useless debit card - even at Gold level. Some banks still only offer a debit card option at Gold level. So look hard and make sure you’ve chosen a Credit type Gold card.

While the Gold card fees look high for benefits that don’t amount to much once you read the small print, if you take away the exorbitant cost of the basic cards from French banks that do practically nothing, that you’d probably have anyway, rule of thumb about 1/3rd of the cost falls away, of the Gold.

I know this because while I am a most un-Gold card type person I needed a credit card for rental cars abroad. So I had to look into it. As larger country major rental chains do know France doesn’t really issue credit cards so for a French resident will exceptionally accept a French debit card as guarantee on the rental, smaller chains or countries are going to insist on swiping a credit type card for authorisation of the huge ‘excess’ charge guarantees required these days.

And car hire is not an honest business - I’d put them below estate agents in honesty - so the slight additional protecrions potentially offered by a credit card give a safer feeling.

If you’ve read this far be aware that while you can get an officially Credit card in France this way, it’s not much better than a debit card. As you still have to settle the bill at the end of each month, or, with clever planning, at the end of the following month a maximum of 5 weeks or so after incurring the charge. So not much credit really.

There is also sometimes a debit card option that lets your account be charged at the end of the same month instead of immediately. But be very careful that type of card is still a debit type so won’t be accepted anywhere a credit card and not a debit card is required.

In France you simply can’t self-administer and decide you’ll just pay some of the value outstanding, pay interest on the rest and roll it over to later months before you settle it on your credit card. I am sure your French bank will tell you to take a loan for that. With all the disclosure and rigmarole that that involves. I am sure any service is available at the various high net worth private banking services in France as elsewhere, but in the mainstream you simply don’t get the option to operate a credit card like this in France.

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There is the cartezero and various cards offered by FNAC, But, etc, which work like real credit cards.

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