Wot, just how much extra?

I’m not adverse to decent kit costing a bit more, but adding cost for random reasons & overly expensive postage? ..Being meaning to get a spare padlock key, so popped onto the squires website .. £8, which escalated into £19 delivered 🙁

• Cart Subtotal Incl. VAT £8.31
• ShippingCourier Service – UK Delivery (Incl. VAT) £8.34
• Small Order Surcharge (Inc. VAT) £2.34
• Order Total Incl. VAT £18.99

I’ll go see if the local key cutter wants to do for me… or just buy RoundLock Padlock instead (£6 shipping for lock..)

Companies charging for small orders on their websites seems reasonable to me – they have a dealer, wholesale and retail network so it’s prob not worth their while doing small online orders. As for shipping again it’s probably mainly heavy items that are sent out with a courier rather than small package royal mail so again reasonable imo…

I’d disagree, obviously.. it’s pure laziness and misleading pricing, if they’d included the small item charge on the key (£10 not £8) in the first place I wouldn’t have given it a second thought. Then to suggest that a key is going to be courier out? This is a specific “key replacement” service they offer, yet they can’t offer a fair P&P to go with it?

It’s not world ending I agree, just very disappointing

Nah, bollocks to them – another example of companies just not giving a toss about end customers. I’d be changing to a different brand tbh

Just use a local locksmith / key cutting service?

We charge for local deliveries that have a small value less than £25 as the margins make it pointless.

Some companies just taking you for all they can.

Just bought a piece of 1/2mm alloy 150mmx200mm to be used as a shim for a very loose headset cup.

Cost £5.30. Postage included.

It arrived cling filmed onto a thick piece of cardboard in a proper jiffy bag, not one of those cheap bubblewrap versions

No small part surcharge or anything like that, just a flat £5.30

It would never occur to me to order a key online unless Graham at the local cobblers was adamant that he couldn’t produce one.

I’d go on ebay if I needed one delivered – there are locksmiths on there. (eg. tjplockandkey)

Funny how an AliExpress seller in china can ship me something already cheap for very little, but small items bought from a UK shop more than double with the postage.

Bought a CD off Rough Trade the other day and postage was like a fiver, postal costs have gone nuts

Surely you just go to Timpsons to get a key cut.

Remember they are key workers 🙂

thought this thread was going to be about sainsburys putting their meal deal up again already :negative:

Funny how an AliExpress seller in china can ship me something already cheap for very little, but small items bought from a UK shop more than double with the postage.

Some of that will be due to the International Postal Treaty (or something like that)

if they’d included the small item charge on the key (£10 not £8) in the first place I wouldn’t have given it a second thought

its a small order surcharge, not a small item surcharge. its just like lots of shops having shipping being free on orders over £25

thought this thread was going to be about sainsburys putting their meal deal up again already

I thought it was going to be about the olive oil that I used to pay £7/L for now costing £14.50/L

We’ve been spoiled by “free postage” from the likes of Amazon, it shouldn’t be unreasonable to expect to be charged for shipping.

But over ten quid P&P to pop a key in an envelope is a pisstake.  HTH.

Funny how an AliExpress seller in china can ship me something already cheap for very little, but small items bought from a UK shop more than double with the postage.

tell me you don’t understand the Chinese postal scam, without telling me you don’t understand the Chinese postal scam 🙂

Just go on eBay and order one.

As per my original post..

I’ll go see if the local key cutter wants to do for me

For some reason I thought there might be a restriction on who can supply them, hence ordering online.. I was wrong, local timpson’s had it cut in under 30 seconds

We charge for local deliveries that have a small value less than £25 as the margins make it pointless.

That’s absolutely fine I understand that, as long as you say that up front, advertising a key for £8 then charging £19 at the till is a different matter.

Some companies just taking you for all they can.

Yep, squire is amongst them

Timpsons is always the first port of call for me, mainly because they are a great company run by a top bloke.

advertising a key for £8 then charging £19 at the till is a different matter

I’m all for clear up front pricing… but the issue here is that the cost is £19 because it’s the only thing you were looking to buy, yes? It’s only when you come to check out that their site knows you’re not placing a bigger order.

Timpsons the right answer.

I’m finding it hard to get excited about this one. I suspect that what they doing is covering the cost to them of the service plus a reasonable margin

I can see why they use DPD couriers and require a signature. Would you want the key to something you value sat around in a sorting office with your address on it and no tracking?

According to this they made £240,000 on a turnover of £9,000,000

https://pomanda.com/company/00088907/henry-squire-%26-sons-limited

Now maybe they just pay themselves huge salaries, but that’s about 3% profit

Or have i read it wrong?

Total opposite to Hope.

Contacted them just to ask if they sold spare bolts, and if not what size it was, it was a weird shape. New one arrived two days later free of charge. Top service.  However, it does work. Yes, they will have lost maybe a tenner on that transaction and someone’s admin time but it’s little things like that which means I keep buying Hope stuff…

Anyway, yea, keys. If you have something to copy go to Timpsons. If you’ve lost it and need a new one from the serial number maybe not

Some keys can be problematic, because they’re more of a security feature. Somewhere I’ve got a StreetCuff ™ © ®, a bike lock which is really a pair of handcuffs, the key for which is a cylinder with semicircular notches around the open end. A replacement key for those was  NOT cheap! Somewhere north of £20, I think. Not something that Timpsons could handle.

If your squire key is just a regular cylinder key, we’d cut a new one for a fiver, provided we have the correct blank. It’s probably a 500 mile drive and a ferry crossing to get here though ? ?️