topic Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ? in Selling

Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

pickapresent13 — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 04:40:30 GMT

Hi All

Interested in some feedback from people who use Fastway for their parcels. I`ve just been looking at their pricing, and they have National Satchels (A5, up to 1kg) for $6.40. Unless I`ve misunderstood, I`m guessing that means you can send anything up to 1kg that fits into that satchel for $6.40, anywhere is Australia (as long as they deliver to that area).

So, who uses them, and how do you find them, as far as their pick-up and delivery times go ?

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

tstore — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 05:15:02 GMT

Unless you want negs I would steer clear based on previous threads about this topic. Especially when sending to rural areas as if buyer is not home they card the parcels and force buyers to drive some distance to collect the item.

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

lyndal1838 — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 05:35:11 GMT

A lot of sellers use them so I am guessing their terms and prices are good....but almost without exception buyers have problems with them.

I deal with 2 sellers in Queensland who use them and every delivery is a nightmare...the courier who services my area has a "thing" about knocking on doors and I always have to ring the depot to arrange a redelivery. At least then I am able to arrange for the parcel to be safe dropped.

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

maconii — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 05:39:01 GMT

I currently use Fastway for larger business-to-business orders. Custom sized boxes, not the satchels.

I would only recommend postage to commercial addresses and never a residential address as they will take ages just to deliver. As mentioned by tstore, rural areas are a no no as well. We had a few parcels take 2 weeks to deliver to a rural area because drivers would not drive the distance. Rural areas are "scheduled" for delivery when there are more orders in the same area or one time we had a parcel sent back to us because they didn't want to deliver it so far!. Use AusPost instead for these areas.

If you really want to send to residential areas then you need to talk to your buyer first and find out their best time/day to receive the parcel. I.e. My customer said she's happy for any parcels delivered before 9am so what I did was wrote a message on the box "Deliver before 9am" and it turned up just fine within a week.

How do I find them?

They assigned me a driver in my area and I call them up to pick up parcels. From memory the pick up times need to be before 12-2pm for same day. Another way is to call the local office and they will arrange another driver to pick up the parcel.

Delivery Times?

Most of my deliveries go to NSW and that takes around 1-2 days. SA was 3-5 days.

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

shoptilludroptara — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 08:11:25 GMT

ive never used them as a seller

but as a buyer 2 sellers i brought from used them

i wasnt happy that they didnt tell me this or ask if okay

it wasnt stated in their listings either

with this delivery company you need to be home to sign for item

they can come anytime of day

i had to call the company both times to find out what day and time delivery would be

and to let them know what times i would be home

wasnt to impressed

i prefer aust post as the courier drivers know me

and i filled out forms for them to leave parcels in a certain place if im not home and they dont need signing for

as a buyer i wont buy from sellers using fastways or other couriers

only aust post.but thats just me

tara

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

haolove13 — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 08:23:14 GMT

I am using Fastway for deliveries in Adelaide. The service varies a bit but is a lot safer than Aus Post in Adelaide. I lost over $1,000 dollars via Auspost in a month so I refuse to use them anymore.

Fastway have a few black holes in their coverage but try at least twice and actually leave cards. I will be asking my customers for business hours adresses as it is too dangerous nowadays to safe drop anything.

Australia post scanning in Adelaide is absolutely dangerous but Fastway have scanned ALL my parcels so far.

MUCH SAFER THAN AUS POST

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

myhobbystore — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 08:39:42 GMT

I use them, but rarely. I only use them for larger items, and definitely do not use them to go to units.

they have a habit of not leaving reminder cards. i have received a fair amount of neutral and a few negs because of them.

I also never use them to send to Perth as quite a number take a long time or go missing. Aust Post all the way. They do cost more, but its worth it.

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

pickapresent13 — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 09:56:22 GMT

Thanks everyone for the replies.

I love this forum, you guys are great, made my mind up, think I will stick with Aust Post, and try to work out SOME way of getting lower costs on items that weigh between 500gr - 1kg, their postage prices are killing my sales on those sized items

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

cezm2012 — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 11:09:52 GMT

As a buyer, they are really inconvenient for us.

Although they say they deliver to our postcode they don't even attempt to deliver to our address.

Instead they drop parcels at a small post office which leaves us with a 50km drive tocollect them during business hours ... in a direction we don't travel as it is the opposite direction from our major town.

Yet they convince sellers they do deliver .....

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

pcvintageitems — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 06:09:43 GMT

This is one message i sent to an seller of a item o bought from eBay just recent 13/08/2014

Hello Mate Sorry but next time if i buy something from you and it states in the listing Postage Australia Post , Can you send post it via Buy Australia post ,Give Australian people a job Australia Post Parcel please .
Why because last week someone else sent me an item via FASTWAY COURIERS and they don't leave the items in the power box like Australia post do and i get five to ten items dropped off here every week , But with this FASTWAY COURIERS i need to travel 10KM away from where i leave to pickup the item ,And Wait theirs more when you pickup something from the normal post office they ask to look at your ID RIGHT ! but with this FASTWAY COURIERS ,
i need to pickup the item from a newsagent 10KM away and they ask for my Name Address Phone number and save it on their Samsung Mobile phone
this is a privacy issue. Why should i need to give my person information to any Newsagents when i don't them .. Would you ?.Their is 5 post office within my place .

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

i-love-my-sheep — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 06:30:27 GMT

Things may well have changed in the 8 MONTHS since the thread was started.

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

georges_hobbyworld — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 07:18:42 GMT

I've been using Fastway for over 9 years and rarely have issues.

They are certainly one of the cheapest ways to freight items, especially their 1kg, 3kg and 5kg SATCHEL delivery rates which are often cheaper than Aust Post standard rates including 'special' eBay rates.

I've never had a parcel go missing and never had a breakage reported with Fastway.

Some more distant and remote areas take a little longer than Australia Post - usually places where Fastway don't have agencies and have to rely on local couriers to complete the delivery. However I've never had Fastway go over the maximum estimate of delivery days. They have come close on a couple of occasions but it's almost always because of a 3rd party delivery agent.

If you do an online quote before the delivery you'll get an estimate of cost and delivery time to the location. I include as much postage/delivery info as possible in my listings, including prices and estimated delivery times. For larger/heavier items, a freight agency that is cheaper delivering to one location, may be more expensive to another. In this case I include a chart showing costs for Australia Post, Fastway and TNT to the various areas of Australia. Wherever possible, if Fastway fees are lower than Aust Post, we offer delivery via Fastway. I find if the customer is well-informed. they can choose the option that best suits them, and they can do it without having to make contact with me first. In the majority of cases Fastway is the cheapest option and the one most selected by customers. Customers generally will choose the Fastway option unless they have a PO Box or are in a location where cost of delivery via Fastway is prohibitive. A large percentage of our sales are delivered via Fastway. We have a 5-star rating for 'Delivery' and our eBay store feedback is full of positive comments about the fast delivery service we provide.

The other thing I like about Fastway is that you can easily locate the delivery drivers online using the destination postcode. I find this really helpful at times, for example like when a customer tells you AFTER you've sent the parcel that they want it left by the back door. A quick search online gives the driver's name, happy smiling pic and timetable. I've had contact with a few drivers over the years and all have been great to deal with.

With the recent changes to eBay fees, we've started offering Free Post on as many items as we can. Offering Free Post with Fastway satchel delivery on certain items has actually brought the item price down and increased our sales. Some items we'd never sold before are now selling regularly!

Based on my experience with Fastway over almost a decade, my opinion is you'd be doing you and your customer's a grave disservice by not at least offering Fastway as a delivery option.

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

lyndal1838 — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 07:58:15 GMT

@i-love-my-sheep wrote:
Things may well have changed in the 8 MONTHS since the thread was started.

Nope, no change except maybe for the worse.

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

robinsonmarineparts — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 08:39:39 GMT

good try.

steer clear of this mob i still have $100's worth of there satchels, there NOT worth the risk.

they are VERY bad.

Re: Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

robinsonmarineparts — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 08:41:54 GMT

When u see someone that has written an essa (spelling) think about it.