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Well.... Thats a bit frustrating.

Lobster

Lobster

Enthusiast
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1,197
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Lancashire
Apologies to those who saw this on my fb first of all. For the rest of you, a tale of why you should always just go and pick stuff up rather than relying on couriers.

So.....

As you may or may not know, I've been after a back door for my F6 for years. They are somewhat akin to hens teeth it seems. Last month one popped up on French eBay. So I messaged the seller who was prepared to ship it to the UK for a very reasonable €65.

At this point I wondered if I should go and collect it - he was only near Lille which isn't that far from Lancashire but in the end I decided that mainly due to a lack of time he could send me the pristine, brand new back door I had been searching for.

A few days later, as I was out and about a parcel arrived and after a long working day I decided to treat myself to opening the object of my desires.

Oh.

r4 door.jpg

Yep, as we can see its not meant to look like that at all. Bodyshop reckon its not repairable though they might be able to chop my existing door and this door into two halves and make a good one. Maybe.

So, after a refund from the seller my search continues.

Let me know if you come across a good one anywhere and I'll go and pick it up...
 
Ohh what a disappointment after anticipating the arrival of a new door and as you say they are like hen's teeth, i've cut the bottom of the two i have refurbished and welded a new panel across bottom because i could'nt find a one, i will keep looking as i've another F6 to do, and i agree i always collect anything i buy as i don't trust couriers with fragile goods.
 
Gutted. How disappointing. Glad you got refund, but still frustrating.

Hope you can do something with it, or have better luck next time.
 
Lobster, Are you aware of any breakers in the Nord Pas de Calais area which have one? I live close to Dover and plan to pay another day trip in the forceable future. You make some enquiries and I'll bring it back.
 
Delivery from France is always unreliable even if, ostensibly, it is done by "La Poste" (their equivalent of Royal Mail).

I have had a couple of packages via eBay which were posted La Poste in France but then transferred to couriers when they arrived in the UK. One arrived damaged, the other was returned to sender undelivered (I live a bit out of the way). Since then I've had French purchases delivered to my French-resident brother, where they have been received without problems.

I'd advise against using couriers anywhere, UK or otherwise, if a more trustworthy alternative such as Royal Mail is available. In my area Hermes, for example, are absolutely useless. The French courier firm "Mondial Relay" uses Hermes for UK deliveries. If rare car parts are concerned, it is simply not worth the risk. Possibly La Poste would be OK so long as one is prepared to pay for tracked, signed delivery. Royal Mail is in my experience 100%.

As a general point regarding France, which for obvious reasons concerns us all, my instinct from a couple of recent visits (and my brother concurs with this) is that the country is in a bad way and progressively getting worse. Not necessarily as regards outward appearances, but there is a sense of slow demoralisation and moral/logistical decline. One doesn't wish to "diss" the French but, speaking personally, I treat all dealings with French sellers with somewhat more caution than I used to (say) five years ago.
 
That is really shame........i would be on edge to get someones collar (at least)

god luck in finding another one
 
To answer a few points...

Door was damaged in transport. It was packed in cardboard which just wasn't really strong enough and looks like something very heavy hit it.

On the subject of postage, we send a lot of parcels to France via Royal Mail / La Poste and very, very rarely have issues. As for couriers, UPS and DPD are usually very good. Get quite a bit from a supplier in France which comes via UPS with no problem.

Scrapyards seem to draw a blank. Had a look in a few bug I think if I could find one in the south of France there's a chance it wouldn't be rusty. It's just finding one.

Benchseat - Hermes are always to be avoided along with Yodel. The problem is in the race to the bottom price wise for couriers some have only managed to get to be very cheap by offering a generally inferior service. As far as France goes, I love the place. Things have definitely got harder over recent months but then the same applies here and perhaps more so.
 
I don't normally get into extended exchanges on blog sites but there are some interesting points in Lobster's reply.

Agreed that UPS and DPD are good and that Hermes and Yodel are useless. If when making a purchase from France one can specify the actual courier used, that would probably be fine: the difficulty with (e.g.) eBay is that the method of delivery is generally specified as "other courier" which leaves the seller free to use the cheapest option, with predictable results. In one case I paid for "La Poste" but a cheap courier was used. Leaving negative Feedback is fair enough but it does not mend the damaged irreplaceable item.

Firms like Hermes have the wrong business model for success, as you suggest. Drivers have to provide their own vehicles and are paid so little for each delivery that they have to deliver an impossible number of packages per hour to make any sort of income — which means that in sparsely populated areas they cannot survive unless they refuse to deliver except to the easiest-to-find addresses. I suspect (this is with my Accountant's hat on) that if they added up all the costs including depreciation of the vehicle many would find that they are actually losing money. The Hermes-type operation essentially depends on an infinite supply of mugs who think they are going to make a living out of being a self-employed courier. And a "mug" is by definition less likely to be conscientious.

I don't agree about the UK experiencing the same difficulties as France. My brother informs me that he (as a generic Brit, although bilingual) is now an object of envy among his French neighbours as a result of the Scottish independence vote, the Brexit vote and Rio 2016 — not to mention the existence of 22 miles of sea to deter boarders. 444-3 doesn't do any harm either. My own view, which doubtless everyone else will dissent with, is that almost by accident we now have a Prime Minister and team who command some genuine respect — unlike the liars (Blair), manipulators (Brown) and flâneurs (Cameron and Osborne) with whom we have been plagued for the last nineteen years. And this seems to be feeding into respect within the wider international community.

Of course, envy can breed dislike. Which brings me back to my original point : these days, treat the French with a modicum of caution when it comes to commercial transactions, especially in the grey area which eBay inhabits, between the genuinely commercial and the quasi-informal.
 
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That's a really heartbreaking picture. Having watched some couriers at work, I am sadly not surprised. absolutely no respect for the goods they are handling. It's a great shame that that F6 that had a collision a few years ago disappeared into the hands of the insurance company as a write off. It would have been a great source of spare parts.

However, if you do manage to locate a door in a scrap heap, can you include the door latch please. The one on my Spanish F6 is so worn from the rattling it gets going up to my finca, that I cannot keep the door shut for very long when on uneven surfaces. I have actually returned the worn catch to the UK to see if I can repair it, or even build a new one. A reasonable second hand one would be the best solution though. Happy to contibute with costs.
 
Try calling/emailing my renault-guy here in Denmark, he might help. He has bought a lot of spares from dífferent dealers around europe.
If you need anything else he has a lot of cheap, original spares (about 2000 sq metres of parts, floor to rooftop).
http://www.renaultdele.dk/10-kontakt_os.htm
 
I went by the dealer (Steen/Stony) as a actually didnt need to change a wheel bearing but a balljoint for a steering arm instead AND asked him if he had rear doors for a F6 or F4. He actually has one F6 rear door that he really wants to get sold because theres no F6 vans i Denmark and it takes up a lot of space.
 
If you are going to Denmark then:

Number 1: Plan to be there some time, as he has a lot of stories to tell and A LOT of nice old cars and motorcycles to watch :)

Number 2: He lives near the town of Christiansfeld which is famous for its Honey-Cakes - http://www.visitkolding.dk/sites/de...ansfeld/christiansfeld-honningkage-montre.jpg

Number 3: He has his storage where he lives on an old farm, with a gigantic Irish Wolfhound: https://www.google.dk/maps/@55.3434224,9.3589999,10z?hl=en

If you actually don't want to go all the way to Denmark, he ships the parts with Blue Water Shipping :)

For a price on the rear-door call on: 45-74560662 (say hello from me).

IF you suddenly find yourself in DK, give me a call: 45-50904798 (I live around where HC Andersen lived some 200 years ago)

Niels
 
A complete barnfind R4 F6 has just come on sale over here at 2500 kr (280 £) ;)
 
very bad luck lobster..i´m sorry another one pays for about delivery companies. each time we order some car part it´s good idea to explain the seller that he/she should pack it really good ...headaches are on everiwhere...
 
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