Montane (Mountain kit shop)

Beth

Beth

Backpacker
I haven't asked them. Seems hardly any point when you see in red - " Doesn't post to Scottish Highlands" and when you look at the details you get:

Code: 
 "Postage and packaging

Item location: Ashington, United Kingdom

Postage to: United Kingdom

Excludes: Channel Islands, Isle of Wight, Isle of Man, Scilly Isles, Scottish Highlands, Scottish Islands, Northern Ireland, Africa......"

I've given up emailing and asking why/etc. I've had arguments in the past where someone has free delivery to UK mainland on their website, often to find that the Highlands is an extra £15+ delivery. I shrug and buy from someone else now.
 
TinTin

TinTin

Thru Hiker
Beth said:
I haven't asked them. Seems hardly any point when you see in red - " Doesn't post to Scottish Highlands" and when you look at the details you get:

Code: 
 "Postage and packaging

Item location: Ashington, United Kingdom

Postage to: United Kingdom

Excludes: Channel Islands, Isle of Wight, Isle of Man, Scilly Isles, Scottish Highlands, Scottish Islands, Northern Ireland, Africa......"

I've given up emailing and asking why/etc. I've had arguments in the past where someone has free delivery to UK mainland on their website, often to find that the Highlands is an extra £15+ delivery. I shrug and buy from someone else now.
Click to expand...
Yes I saw that it just seems ridiculous. I can understand the Islands but not Highlands. Unless they've screwed the carriage supplier contract down that far that they had to compromise on coverage.
 
cathyjc

cathyjc

Thru Hiker
Beth said:
I haven't asked them. Seems hardly any point when you see in red - " Doesn't post to Scottish Highlands" and when you look at the details you get:

Code: 
 "Postage and packaging

Item location: Ashington, United Kingdom

Postage to: United Kingdom

Excludes: Channel Islands, Isle of Wight, Isle of Man, Scilly Isles, Scottish Highlands, Scottish Islands, Northern Ireland, Africa......"

I've given up emailing and asking why/etc. I've had arguments in the past where someone has free delivery to UK mainland on their website, often to find that the Highlands is an extra £15+ delivery. I shrug and buy from someone else now.
Click to expand...

If only they would use Royal Mail …….
 
TinTin

TinTin

Thru Hiker
Beth said:
I haven't asked them. Seems hardly any point when you see in red - " Doesn't post to Scottish Highlands" and when you look at the details you get:

Code: 
 "Postage and packaging

Item location: Ashington, United Kingdom

Postage to: United Kingdom

Excludes: Channel Islands, Isle of Wight, Isle of Man, Scilly Isles, Scottish Highlands, Scottish Islands, Northern Ireland, Africa......"

I've given up emailing and asking why/etc. I've had arguments in the past where someone has free delivery to UK mainland on their website, often to find that the Highlands is an extra £15+ delivery. I shrug and buy from someone else now.
Click to expand...
You could get a friend in England to buy stuff for you and smuggle it over the border when they are next coming to the wilds.
 
Balagan

Balagan

Thru Hiker
slovhike said:
I had great experience with Montane factory store https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/mountainkit
and would like to spread the word of their superfast comunications and their customer care.

I had issues with Atomic jacket and they've taken the jacket back run some tests and reaplied DWR to factory standards without much asking.

Best service from Ebay shop ever! :)
Click to expand...
Just curious: do they ship outside of the UK? I can't see anything on sale in that shop unless I fudge things to make eBay think I'm a UK customer...
 
Beth

Beth

Backpacker
cathyjc said:
Where in the Highlands, @Beth ?
Click to expand...

Near Inverness... where all the major carriers have depots or get Menzies to deliver for them. Welcome to life in the Highlands - it does have a lot of upsides, even the Grauniad thinks so! https://www.theguardian.com/money/2...-inverness-invernessshire-wilderness-doorstep

Balagan said:
Just curious: do they ship outside of the UK? I can't see anything on sale in that shop unless I fudge things to make eBay think I'm a UK customer...
Click to expand...

I can only see a few things on their shop front page. If I click on the 'show all items' I get thrown back to the front page.
 
WilliamC

WilliamC

Thru Hiker
Beth said:
Hmm. But not if you live in the Highlands :(
Click to expand...
It does state: "Postage to remote locations may be possible for an increased carriage charge. If your location is listed as unavailable, just let us know and we will find a cost for you."
 
Snowonher

Snowonher

Trail Blazer
This looks like their outlet store in Newcastle. Got some good deals from them in the past. No idea they had an ebay store... thanks!
 
Patrick

Patrick

Ultralighter
I'm also just outside Inverness. Postage here is a bit of a lottery - Royal mail is obviously normal price, but most private parcel companies charge something of a premium and some just clearly don't want to drive up the A9 at all. I was once quoted £200 for delivery of £50 worth of kitchen cupboard doors, which in the end we had delivered to friends in the central belt for £5. Which, given that Inverness is on a trunk road, a mainline railway and has an airport seems a bit ridiculous.

What is particularly frustrating is that places that use these private couriers never seem willing to just use Royal Mail instead when the customer is in a premium area like this.

But as Beth says, there are upsides to living here as well :).
 
cathyjc

cathyjc

Thru Hiker
OwenM

OwenM

Thru Hiker
I work in haulage so know that most firms just won't go further north than Perth. Because presumably "there be dragons" actually it's the state of the roads. What's called a trunk road in the Highlands and in the rest of the UK are two very different things.

I got stuck behind an accident a few weeks ago by Bridge of Orchy, the division 160 miles. This meant I ran out of driving hours so I had to park up overnight and subsequently mist the next days job. Not many firms can afford that kind of disruption to often.
 
cathyjc

cathyjc

Thru Hiker
Delivery firms/Couriers should be putting their "Highlands" parcels on the train to Inverness then delivering from a hub up there.
Cuts out the A9 - which most folks up here know can be a problem.
 
Bmblbzzz

Bmblbzzz

Thru Hiker
I wish all deliveries were by Royal Mail. I find them far more reliable, as well as cheaper, than couriers. And if they try to deliver something when you're out, you can pick it up from the depot rather than having the courier leave it in some supposedly safe place. Obviously, there are times when you want something next day, which RM can't do, but personally that's never. YMMV. For reference, I live in the centre of a large city in England, and in the 90s I was a courier myself for a couple of years. Oh, and this year we got a card from our postie!
 
Dave V

Dave V

Moderator
Staff member
Bmblbzzz said:
I wish all deliveries were by Royal Mail. I find them far more reliable, as well as cheaper, than couriers. And if they try to deliver something when you're out, you can pick it up from the depot rather than having the courier leave it in some supposedly safe place. Obviously, there are times when you want something next day, which RM can't do, but personally that's never. YMMV. For reference, I live in the centre of a large city in England, and in the 90s I was a courier myself for a couple of years. Oh, and this year we got a card from our postie!
Click to expand...

I like supporting RM, my old postie down south was brill and the one up in Scotland seems pretty good too. Unfortunately, I have had some bad experiences with RM and found the service pretty awful. As a result I will only use the Next Day Special Delivery option which is often more expensive than a DPD pickup with full tracking.

When it comes to postage locations, I tried to order a desk form a well known Oak furniture specialist earlier in the month and was told delivery to me near Glasgow may be extra due to my location... I didn't buy the desk
 
cathyjc

cathyjc

Thru Hiker
Dave V said:
I like supporting RM, my old postie down south was brill and the one up in Scotland seems pretty good too. Unfortunately, I have had some bad experiences with RM and found the service pretty awful. As a result I will only use the Next Day Special Delivery option which is often more expensive than a DPD pickup with full tracking.

When it comes to postage locations, I tried to order a desk form a well known Oak furniture specialist earlier in the month and was told delivery to me near Glasgow may be extra due to my location... I didn't buy the desk
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I hope you told them why you didn't buy. If I'm correct you live within 10 mins of the M74.

We, also 10 mins from M74, are classified as remote when it comes to landline broadband services - it's a PITA and a ridiculous excuse. :rage:.

For the folks living in truly remote parts of UK - back of beyond in the Highlands and Islands - RM is a "Lifeline" - almost all other couriers either refuse or charge rates that are prohibative.
Please support RM or we will lose it and them and whole communities will be held to ransom.
 
TinTin

TinTin

Thru Hiker
cathyjc said:
I hope you told them why you didn't buy. If I'm correct you live within 10 mins of the M74.

We, also 10 mins from M74, are classified as remote when it comes to landline broadband services - it's a PITA and a ridiculous excuse. :rage:.

For the folks living in truly remote parts of UK - back of beyond in the Highlands and Islands - RM is a "Lifeline" - almost all other couriers either refuse or charge rates that are prohibative.
Please support RM or we will lose it and them and whole communities will be held to ransom.
Click to expand...
The trouble with RM is the unions. I worked in a sorting office for a couple of Christmas holidays. A group of us were on a massive parcel sorting contraption and set about racing to see who could clear their shoot the quickest, we were having great fun and the time flew by. After a few hours of this the union rep came and told us to slow down as we were going to get the regular workers a bad name. That was back in the late 70s but from what I hear the unions still hold sway and it is like the whole organisation is on a continual work to rule.
 
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