Shiply is shockingly bad!

A question about : Shiply is shockingly bad!

I used Shiply to try to get a good deal on a courier collection of an ebay item from Wales to London. What a mistake! It has been the most stressful experience. Firstly once you accept a price you have to pay a deposit, before you've even spoken to the courier. In my case it was Ј7 for the courier and a whopping Ј10 fee for Shiply. On their website their fee is not mentioned. Then, the courier who's price I accepted turned out not to be able to do my dates and was very incommunicative. I haven't been able to get a refund, and Shiply's customer services seem to be run by one Vietnamese guy who takes 24 hours to answer. There is no contact phone number. It's been a nightmare from start to finish. I have sent over 15 emails and can't get my money back. I just keep getting standard replies, saying I am not entitle to a refund, and only the odd personalized one that doesn't answer my query and gives me links that don't work. This has been going on for a week. In the end I gave up and have paid full wack to a normal courier company, Dex's Midnight Runners - cool name! who are extremely efficient and do what they say they will on time. But I am still persuing this as a matter of principal.

Other van bidding websites, like Anyvan are much better. They don't charge a fee and you can speak to a human who resolves problems quickly.

Avoid Shiply at all costs!!!

Best answers:

• They do say they will charge a fee, but don't say the amount it will be.
  From https://www.shiply.com/docs/useragreement.php#fees
  "6.6 As a User, when you accept a bid, we may charge you an auction service fee. This fee amount is dependant on the shipment in question and is displayed before you accept a bid. This fee acts solely to cover the provision of the online neutral venue supplied by us, it carries no liability or obligation in regards to the actual services undertaken by your chosen transport provider (in accordance with clause 2 above). Auction service fees are non-refundable."
  From your experience and reading this, I certainly would think twice before considering them.
  EDIT:
  Ah. After reading that again, I might be wrong, that might be the fee for the courier firm. End-user fees seem very well hidden.
• Yes, actually the courier fee is one thing, the Shiply secret additional fee is only displayed once you have accepted a bid, by which time you are comitted. The couriers are then free to arrange collections when they happen to have a delivery going in that direction, in some cases 2 weeks later. It seems now on ebay that there are lots of people calling Shiply a scam. Some people didn't know about the extra fees and only saw them on their Paypal charges later. Apart from that there is no way to get your deposit back if the service is not provided. Even though it's an auction of sorts, surely if no service is provided there must be some law protecting the consumer's purchase? 7 day distance selling regs maybe?
• I'm registered on all the sites and my clients say when they use Shiply they get charged an insertion fee plus the deposit fee which is deducted fromt eh transport companies amount. thats fine as it shows the amount they take off us but not the customer. Its ridiculous the amount they take on top. FingerBob, I'm signed up to Anyvan and they are for transprot companies much better. Easier site and my customers arent charged anything. Have a good weekend
• fwiw I have used silversprint a few times - their 'economy service' is a couple of vans that do laps of the country every week doing pickups and dropoffs along the way. If you're not in a rush, the prices are very similar to shiply/anyvan and you know who you're dealing with - especially good for large items/furniture.
• I have only used Shiply once (just 2 weeks ago). Advertised on both this site and Anyvan and even taking into account their charge it was cheaper than the other site. But I think I must have been lucky with the courier who took the job as he was great. Was in constant contact and did the job as and when he said he would so I have no complaints but guess it is luck of the draw as to who you get.
• You seem to work for them - forum regs are that you cannot post stuff about your own company without permission. Mods please remove.
• I also used shiply a couple of months ago and was charged a fee when i had already accepted the bid
  I emailed them straight away and told them there was no mention of this anywhere in t's & c's and that i would definately not be using them again.I received an email a few hours later saying that the fee was in it's trial period and if i am not happy to pay they will refund straight away, which they did
  Probably just lucky that time i guess.
• I have just checked my email fingerbob7 and the guy who sent it was Anthony Marriage, maybe you could mark your email for his attention.
  Good luck
  lm
• Sorry, just realised that was end of March, did you get your refund fingerbob7?
• Fingerbob hasn't been on MSe since 11th April. This thread was resurrected by Imoveit spammer - if all readers click on the spam button the mods will remove his post.
• Hi to you all
  i use shiply for removals as when work is slack it is a source of finding work. i will agree with some of the people on Martins Site they do not tell the truth.
  As a user on the site they tell the customer that they have given a deposit to the couier or removal service in which nobody gets this apart from shiply. on a job of Ј1500 which should about Ј2500 to bulgaria they will take and percentage at least in which a good chunk of the profit of the job goes to shiply and a lot of the jobs on there are fulse I know a lot of companys in this bussiness they say the same as me. If you like a service and no hinden charges and a family run give us a call
  If you do not like shiply ask the transport provide to bid a Ј1 and then come to aggrement to get it delivered they will be out of bussinesswiith a week
• Hi. I'm a service provider(courier) on Shiply, with 400+ positive feedback(100%). I source 90% of my work from there. But I agree with all the comments on this board regarding there extortionate fees!! Nothing on the site is clear and they're in danger of pricing themselves out the market!
  Theirs some good couriers on the site & some bad, but you always get a few bad apples in every cart, same with any industry. I pride myself on giving good, affordable service which reflects in my feedback
  Can I reiterate, The only money the courier receives, is the final amount from the customer at coll/del. Everything the customer has paid prior to getting the couriers contact details, goes to Shiply.
  Regards Anon
• I have just used Shiply for the first and last time. Whilst the delivery service was fine I felt I had been mugged by Shiply themselves after being charged a "fee" of over 17% of the delivery quote. Their website is one of the most deliberately deceptive and blatantly dishonest I have seen. There is no mention anywhere of their fees or specifically how much they are going to charge you if you accept the delivery bid or if there is it is buried so deep you are not going to find it without a great deal of effort. They are con merchants as far as I am concerned and I am pretty sure what they are doing is probably illegal.