Legal to take payment from credit card without knowing full amount to pay?

aris

Is it legal for an online retailer to not presenting the full amount to pay before debiting your card? For instance, they have a price for goods, then say that the postage will be calculated after you give your CC details and added to the total without confirming with you.

I'm wondering if this is legal?

Halloway

Whether or not it's legal, you would be daft to proceed with the transaction without knowing the precise cost of the transaction. What's the website, please?

DVardysShadow

aris wrote: »

Is it legal for an online retailer to not presenting the full amount to pay before debiting your card? For instance, they have a price for goods, then say that the postage will be calculated after you give your CC details and added to the total without confirming with you.

I'm wondering if this is legal?

You wonder whether 'it is legal'. I just look at it as incompetent, thoroughly incompetent web design and wonder whether I would want to deal with such an outfit.

RadoJo

I suppose it depends whether the delivery cost will be affected by the address the delivery is made to? It's a bit of a ham-fisted way of going about things, as they could ask for the delivery address before payment info is given and calculate it at that point rather than charge an unspecifed amount after payment details are given. Are you sure you don't get a chance to change/cancel your order once the full price is displayed?

aris

site is https://www.namrick.co.uk

Yes, very daft site, I needed some special bolts. I needed these special sized bolts, and when I queried why I was not told the full amount before taking my credit card details, I got a rude e-mail back saying it was not possible due to the number of products they have.

I'm wondering if this is actually legal or at the very least within their credit card merchant agreement.

They do state that shipping for products up to 1kg cost from 2.00 to 5.00. They charged me 2.61 for shipping of some bolts which cost a total of 1.88. (61p for the shipping, and 2 quid for the jiffy bag, invoicing, label, and credit card charges).

I don't have a big problem with that - they had what I wanted and shipped it quickly - but what I do have a problem with is this not being shown fully up front.

RadoJo

I suppose I can kind of understand that until they have picked the order and weighed it out they don't know how much it will cost, how big a jiffy bag they would need etc. Being generous, I can imagine that the technology to estimate the weight and size of any given combination of parts might be beyond them, and in some ways I sympathise because they must have plenty of orders for small volumes of products and even smaller overall value to them, so picking, packing and despatching must be the most time consuming aspect of their business which would necessitate a relatively hefty charge for it.

However, there are other companies out there doing similar things and I'm pretty sure they don't rely on their customers not minding that they have no idea how much it costs to post so there must be a way round it! I suppose in the end, you agreed to an 'unknown' shopping cost when you placed the order, and the total was within their stated price range, so I'm not sure if you have recourse to pursue the matter through the card issuer, but it might be worth an e-mail to the company to point out that it's not great practice.

Hintza

It's called trust. You either trust them or you don't. If you don't then don't deal with them.

It seems they have charged you a fair amount so what is the problem? If it is a problem then complain but never deal with them again.

aris

There is no problem - I was just wondering if it was legal.

Hintza

aris wrote: »

There is no problem - I was just wondering if it was legal.

I imagine the problem is that they are running a website on a shoe string and to have every item amd combination of items weights tally at the end would be a nightmare.

It would be easier for them to apply standard P+P across the board but I think it would cost small buyers like yourself considerably more.

I think this way you will be getting the best deal.

Of course they could be a bunch of sharks and rip you off that's why I said it's a bit of trust.