Sitting in a tree
City Link has gone into administration
- Thread starter coffeejo
- Start date
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raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
On Monday of this week I ordered a couple of connectors for my new (secondhand but new to me) Pre-amp from the manufacturers QUAD in Huntingdon, they arrived on Tuesday delivered by the postman. 
less than 24hrs.
less than 24hrs.I continue to be mystified as to how badly you have to screw up to kill a delivery company in 2014 given Amazon, EBay, and the rest of the online stores which basically didn't exist 20 years ago and was still only used by geeks 10 years ago.
I mean, I understand that in a price war someone is going to lose badly, but how did they let themselves get suckered into competing on price in the first place? I'll happily pay a few quid more for delivery if it means the item turns up when & where I was expecting it to, in just the same way as I'll check the sellers reputation before buying if it means the item is more likely to be as described, in stock, or even to exist in the first place
I mean, I understand that in a price war someone is going to lose badly, but how did they let themselves get suckered into competing on price in the first place? I'll happily pay a few quid more for delivery if it means the item turns up when & where I was expecting it to, in just the same way as I'll check the sellers reputation before buying if it means the item is more likely to be as described, in stock, or even to exist in the first place
400bhp
Guru
Can you imagine City Link & Yodel
Jesus wept
(the above isn't some Boxing day parody of The Birth of the Chosen One neither)
400bhp
Guru
I "think" Amazon have this in the bag now. I ordered some stuff at about 1pm on 23rd Dec. It was Amazon Prime and arrived before 11am on Christmas Eve. The postage markers seem to suggest it was some kind of Amazon Named delivery. Of course, they may be subcontracting, but there is a sweet spot (as you rightly say) for price and guarantee (say 2 hour time slots, or, shock horror, a text half hour before delivery telling you to be ready to collect).
mcshroom
Bionic Subsonic
- Location
- Egremont, Cumbria
On top of the 2700 redundancies, a lot of the drivers are contractors (part of the coalition's growing 'self-employed entrepreneurs' of course)
They will be getting no redundancy money at all and will be counted as creditors so are likely to lose a proportion of pay already earnt while busting a gut before Christmas.
Merry Christmas!
They will be getting no redundancy money at all and will be counted as creditors so are likely to lose a proportion of pay already earnt while busting a gut before Christmas.
Merry Christmas!
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D-e-l-i-v-e-r-i-n-g
Is the Amazon etc link and reduced prices possibly a cause for the problem ?
It is difficult to tell, but I had a parcel delivered, and was out, to rearrange a delivery before or after 13:00 it was going to cost me £10 and to have a Saturday delivery was a £15 surcharge.
That neutralised the savings from buying it on line , and mad ethe item more expensive than n the High Street, so simply returned the item and bought it locally citing unaccpetable delivery surcharges as the reason
Yet now I can get Saturday and Sunday deliveries for free
Whether the surcharges were justifiable or not, there must be a reduction in the income and profit margins
It is difficult to tell, but I had a parcel delivered, and was out, to rearrange a delivery before or after 13:00 it was going to cost me £10 and to have a Saturday delivery was a £15 surcharge.
That neutralised the savings from buying it on line , and mad ethe item more expensive than n the High Street, so simply returned the item and bought it locally citing unaccpetable delivery surcharges as the reason
Yet now I can get Saturday and Sunday deliveries for free
Whether the surcharges were justifiable or not, there must be a reduction in the income and profit margins
Ganymede
Veteran
- Location
- Rural Kent
Same here - I sent off a few late parcels (not actual presents, just things that needed to get somewhere) and they were there the next day on first class post. I really expected a delay but Royal Mail were brilliant.On Monday of this week I ordered a couple of connectors for my new (secondhand but new to me) Pre-amp from the manufacturers QUAD in Huntingdon, they arrived on Tuesday delivered by the postman.
I think it's a bit like the supermarkets with loss-leading - eg milk, they pass the loss onto the farmers and yet the supermarkets benefit. And the public goes on thinking milk is cheap. The public loves free delivery but it's not Amazon who's paying for it, it's the delivery companies, and that's why the delivery companies are either carp or dead!
I think you may have answered your own questions. The company that bought it in April 2013, did so for only £1 and wanted to pour in £40m. Its a equity firm and a specialist in re-structuring. City Link began in 1969 so there may be legacy issues particularly staff or union contract in place and this is probably where they can't move unless they re-negotiate. Their self-employed contracted drivers are probably getting screwed in terms of load and the service is taking a dive.
There have been claims that they tried ro sell the company but also brought well credentialed industry players as recently as Sept so that suggest a ploy to bring in the union to the table. Now the incredible timing which gives credence to the high cost base and a union issue.
No different to why Virgin and Ryan became profitable on the back of BA. Airline is a growth but higly cyclical industry and if you saddled with high cost, you can't compete even with peak loads.
Andrew_P
In between here and there
When they were taken over prices went up 25-30% or a bit more. They coped very well from a senders point of view with December which would really suggest a downturn in senders. They had improved a lot of their infrastructure IT. Which suggest that my gut instinct of being asset stripped by the investment company wrong.
Cycleops
Legendary Member
- Location
- Accra, Ghana
And who should that be determined by? And what is a living wage and what is it in your opinion?
vernon
Harder than Ronnie Pickering
- Location
- Meanwood, Leeds
Share your opinions first for entertainment value.
Google not working for you today? http://www.livingwage.org.uk/what-living-wage
