Fastway Couriers, who uses them ?

[pickapresent13]

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 ?

[tstore]

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.

[lyndal1838]

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.

[maconii]

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.

[shoptilludroptara]

hi

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

[haolove13]

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

[myhobbystore]

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.

[pickapresent13]

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

[cezm2012]

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 .....

[pcvintageitems]

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 .