I have questions that aren’t currently answered on the delivery questions page.
Would the Huel be delivered to me by being pushed through my letter box?
I suppose this can be broken down to these 2 questions …
What are the dimensions of the package that a 1 week supply comes in?
Is a signature required?
Also
What courier company(s) are you using at the moment?
The reason I am asking is that home delivery of parcels is very impractical for me. There will rarely be anyone at home at the time of attempted delivery. Furthermore I live in a flat with a shared entrance on a high street. And I can’t realistically get packages delivered to work either.
So if the package won’t be pushed through my letter box, my best bet is probably if you use a courier company that will return the package back to their depot, and if the depot is nearby.
What I do have, is a newsagent 1 minute away that is part of the Collect Plus network, which includes the facility for me to order stuff online and get it delivered to the newsagent for collection at my convenience. I don’t suppose you can get yourselves added to the list of participating retailers any time soon?
In the meantime, I’ll start looking into Interlink to see how they would handle my situation.
I’m in a very similar position. I can see the Royal Mail collection depot from my kitchen window but it’s a 2 hour bus ride to most other collection depots. Some companies leave packages with the shop next door, but that’s even worse given their extremely limited opening times.
We could offer Royal Mail as an alternative, but it would cost an extra £7 on every order and would take 48 hours instead of 24. Is that a service you would pay extra for?
FWIW, I would certainly consider paying the extra money for Royal Mail if it was a lot better in terms of practicality (though I haven’t checked whether it is).
If you did become a participating retailer for the Collect Plus “Click & Collect” scheme, would that also cost extra?
(I’ve already been thinking that the “delivery of Huel will always be free” statement might be better off as something like “standard UK delivery is included in the advertized prices of Huel” - which seems more honest to me anyway.)
.
Anyway I’ve been looking into Interlink. The one whose domain is interlinkexpress.com, right? I notice they have a number of “DPD Pickup Shops”. But they don’t explain what that actually means. Do you think they have a system that works the same way as the Collect Plus “Click & Collect” scheme, by any chance?
I can answer my own question. Yes. (I had to go to a different website to confirm that though.)
So, @Julian when are you switching to Interlink? And will your website allow us to select one of these DPD Pickup Shops at the time of purchase?
And if not, will we instead be able to take advantage of the “In-flight Options” listed here? “On the day of delivery and the night before, allowing customers to … Collect the parcel from your local DPD Pickup Shop”
@Open4D have looked into the pick up shop and yest they work like collect+
We are now using the delivery Interlink/DPD (they are sister companies). Who offer next day delivery (which will the be norm from now on) and on the day of the delivery they will email you a one hour delivery time slot. If that time is not suitable you can decide to leave your parcel somewhere safe at the delivery address, deliver it to your neighbour, drop it off at your local shop or change the delivery date.
Thanks again Julian. I bought my first Huel a couple of days later, and picked it up with no problems. Here are some follow-up notes.
1 - They actually sent the email the day before delivery. This is a good thing, because it meant I had more time to divert the package.
2 - On that same theme, it would be even better if, as I asked above “your website [would] allow us to select one of these DPD Pickup Shops at the time of purchase.”. This option is supported by DPD. I realize it would involve changing your website slightly, which would have to be reverted if you ever switched to a different courier, but it would be nice. (Or have I missed something? Can we just manually enter the address of the pickup shop, and that works okay?)
3 - Here’s some pickup info that I haven’t found on any website (Interlink/DPD/yours): … Firstly, as well as bringing the email (typically just on your phone), you also have to bring photo ID. Secondly, it seems we have about a week to collect the parcel from the pickup shop before it gets returned.
4 - Lastly, some questions. How well do you support the situation where the Huel purchaser and the Huel
consumer are two different people at different postal addresses? Your website only asks for 1 email address, right? Does the purchaser have to provide their email address, and then manually forward any DPD emails onto the consumer? (Any plans to enhance this aspect of your website, perhaps allowing for 2 email addresses? Worth including this info on the delivery questions page?)
.2. Fair enough, thanks for the info. I suppose you could ask DPD (or even Shopify themselves) to produce a DPD Shopify app, but if they say no, there’s not much more you can sensibly do.
And what about the idea of choosing a pickup shop here then manually entering its address as the delivery address, with the first line being something like “John Smith (DPD Pickup)”. Would that work? (I guess not, but it’s worth asking.)
.4. Fair enough. Do you think it could be made to work at the moment, with the Huel purchaser providing their email address, and then manually forwarding all DPD-related emails onto the Huel consumer? I can’t see why not, and I think I might give it a try unless you think it’s a bad idea.
Thanks. True, they do, and I used it with no problem. I was just slightly wary about not having a huge amount of time to respond to the ‘in flight’ email. (Also, the email could get lost / marked as spam / etc.)
Yes I do understand, I’m not always checking my email so it can get missed.
Maybe what we can do in the short term is to emphasize the benefit of adding your telephone number during the checkout process. If DPD have you email and telephone they notify you both via email and text, most people keep they phone nearby at all times so it’s a more reliable method.
For what it’s worth DPD are by far and away the most reliable service and also text a one hour window for delivery / an option to leave with neighbour etc.
