i can only speak from experience but the quality and cost of service only really come apparent once goods are actually delivered,
i recently used parcel monkey to send a parcel to france, - they quoted a 3 day service on the website, the costs seemed very good value and was said to include insurance and tracking
so i arranged a pick up from my home address- parcel was collected as agreed.... 12 days later i get a call from the recipient who says the parcel has just arrived, and its 'destroyed'
the delivery took 10 working days, i contacted parcel monkey to raise my issue, and they say you have to report any damage within 48 hrs of receipt of goods, they seem to work work this out from 3 days after the parcel was collected fro m the UK address add 48 hours and then close your claim down and refuse to have any more to do with you ... so i was screwed...
add to this they are agents for the carrier so my parcel was actually shipped and transported by a 3rd party firm who also say i need to claim with parcel monkey...
so i learnt the hard way after lots of letters and stuff to parcel monkey i am now very much the advocate of using a well known carrier ( ups , DHL ) and similar, making sure that cheap pricing does not sway my decision - cheap is not the best,
and i will never never use parcel monkey ever again, -my opinion is they couldn't look after a pot plant never mind international parcel delivery..