Carriage Chages

Krackerjack

OK, firstly at the moment I will not mention any company name as I am giving them the opportunity to either answer my query and /or rectify a situation.

I ordered on line an item that solved a particular problem for me and at the time, couldn't find from any other place other than this supplier.

The goods were in the region of £65 with a standard delivery charge of around £6.00. I went through the checkout and found that once I entered my post code, the carriage charge had doubled to around £12.00, I'm keeping things simple and just rounding up to the nearest pound. Now, in one way, I'll take responsibility here because I had hit the confirm button etc before I spotted the doubling of the charge. I have now queried the company in question several times about this charge, actually looking for no more than a polite answer to my polite question, why?

I live in the Central belt of Scotland which, despite myth, legend and some rather strange perceptions, is actually a buzzing metropolis stretching across central Scotland from the East coast to the West coast, The access to the Central belt from the South is via some of the best roads in the UK and a mere 350 miles from this company's location.

Their initial response to my query was that, if you are unhappy with the charge we will cancel the order, (like it or lump it!!), I e mailed them stating that such an action was really not doing any of us any favours and all I was asking was why the doubling of the carriage charge. The second response was that the charges were entirely up to their courier, well, actually that's not the case. My contract from point of order to delivery is with the company and not their courier, if there is a query on any additional/premium charges or indeed any other matter then the company with whom I placed the order have sole responsibility to provide answers, in other words, if queried, they should be the ones asking why, on their customer's behalf, not a particularly difficult concept for any company that have been trading on line since 1999 to grasp you would think.

As a retired Procurement officer of many years experience I have at the least a light grasp of how the supply chain works and where responsibilities lie.

A little bit more investigation reveals that the £6.00 charge is applied to UK Mainland (their term). So a delivery to Carlisle for example would cost the standard £6.00. However, request a delivery to Gretna, some 10 miles Northwards and incidentally crossing the Scottish-English border, then the £12.00 charge comes into play and the description of the charge, rather than being UK Mainland, becomes Scotland!! Now, as far as I know, certainly geography has never been my strong point, Scotland remains part of the UK Mainland, that is of course unless some mighty chasm has opened up across the border overnight that I am not aware of. :eek: Also best not to get overly political here but despite some people's perceptions that I have heard, there is no case of "you lot all want to split the UK up" anyway.

I know that delivery charges to some of the further reaches of the UK, primarily North of Inverness and the Islands has been making headlines recently but to the Central Belt, never.

In some 15 years of using the net for home shopping, (disability often prevents me from getting out to the shops proper) and many years working in Procurement for a multi national business, I have never ever seen a premium applied to normal run of the mill parcels to this area. To put some perspective to it, in the past few weeks, I had two rather large boxes, approx 1000 x 700 x 700 with a total weight of approx 40 kg delivered to me from Bracknell, cost, £40 and incidentally by the self same courier that delivered this rather small, light item from the company in question.

I have lodged a complaint with their MD, (who incidentally has appeared on this forum in the past defending/apologising for his business' actions). The initial response is quite defensive and not satisfactory at all, I have e mailed them again stating thus and also mentioning that I will be making a post relating to these charges and essentially warning people to be on their guard not only for the charges but for the dreadful attitude of their "customer services Adviser" their spelling, not mine.

vuvuzela

Krackerjack wrote: »

Their initial response to my query was that, if you are unhappy with the charge we will cancel the order, (like it or lump it!!), I e mailed them stating that such an action was really not doing any of us any favours and all I was asking was why the doubling of the carriage charge. The second response was that the charges were entirely up to their courier, well, actually that's not the case. My contract from point of order to delivery is with the company and not their courier, if there is a query on any additional/premium charges or indeed any other matter then the company with whom I placed the order have sole responsibility to provide answers, in other words, if queried, they should be the ones asking why, on their customer's behalf, not a particularly difficult concept for any company that have been trading on line since 1999 to grasp you would think.

So, you put your postcode in, failed to spot the delivery charge had gone up and are now complaining about this. I really fail to see why you can't believe that the price for delivery is dependent on where the item is to be delivered to. Couriers charge what they want to deliver to different locations and the business raises charges for areas because of this. They don't have to provide you with any explanation, just as you are free to select any alternative company you wish to deal with. That's the way of business

bod1467

But if people DON'T challenge such situations, where will it stop? If the Suffragettes didn't make a stand all those years ago women wouldn't have the vote. (A drastic comparison, but valid all the same).

They say Mainland UK is £6 ... the Central Belt of Scotland is Mainland UK. As such they are breaching their own terms.

For the hard of thinking ... UK = United Kingdom = The United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain = England, Scotland and Wales. Mainland UK = GB, in which case they should really say Great Britain.

p00hsticks

bod1467 wrote: »

They say Mainland UK is £6 ... the Central Belt of Scotland is Mainland UK. As such they are breaching their own terms.

I think without knowing the company involved and a link to the actual website (which the OP has said they don't want to mention at present) it's unclear to me exactly what the carraige terms are.

From what the OP says, they have had a play on the website and found that entering some (English) postcodes brings up a charge of '£6 - UK mainland' and other (Scottish) ones gives '£12 - Scotland' but unless the website specifically says something like "charges to all parts of the UK mainland £6" I don't see that it's a breach in the T&Cs - just a poor/inaccurate use of the assocatied descriptions that go with the charges.

Krackerjack

vuvuzela wrote: »

So, you put your postcode in, failed to spot the delivery charge had gone up and are now complaining about this. I really fail to see why you can't believe that the price for delivery is dependent on where the item is to be delivered to. Couriers charge what they want to deliver to different locations and the business raises charges for areas because of this. They don't have to provide you with any explanation, just as you are free to select any alternative company you wish to deal with. That's the way of business

Well, thanks for that friendly and informative insight into the world of the supply chain and procurement, and nope, it doesn't matter a jot if that is domestic or business based.

Perhaps if you take some time and read the whole of the post instead of skim reading you will see the real reason for my complaint, hell, it's only £6.00. In the real world you will find that to a certain cut off point, and certainly not ever in 15 years of personal on line buying and just as long doing so in a professional capacity in various roles in my industry has that been based on the English-Scottish border for UK based suppliers, carriage charges are all averaged out. Having been involved in assessing and awarding contracts for courier services, I know where the cut off points for delivery premiums to be applied are and anything North, or indeed South of the border dependant on your start point are not it.

As far as providing an explanation is concerned, well perhaps they don't have to provide an explanation but you know what, courtesy and good manners cost absolutely nothing and generate good will; establish good will and a reputation for being courteous and helpful to all your customers and you make yourself a business that people will want to deal with and will pass on their experiences to other colleagues, friends and family, this in turn generates, yes, that's the one, more business.

As I say, you have clearly skim read this post, the same courier company, City-Link as it happens, delivered 40kg of goods for £40 from a location further South to my home address, the goods just delivered to me with the added premium weighed less than 1kg.

Taking the !!!! out of customers with delivery charges and then being rude to them when they ask a polite question is my friend not the way of business, if it is (and rest assured it isn't in my considerable professional experience), then it is little wonder businesses fail, if they treat customers as such then they should fail.

ILW

I would suspect the higher charge is because the courier do no have any depots in the area. The couriers we use have a whole list of Scottish postcodes that carry a premium. If you are told the price before confirming the order, I really cannot see the problem.

Krackerjack

p00hsticks wrote: »

I think without knowing the company involved and a link to the actual website (which the OP has said they don't want to mention at present) it's unclear to me exactly what the carraige terms are.

From what the OP says, they have had a play on the website and found that entering some (English) postcodes brings up a charge of '£6 - UK mainland' and other (Scottish) ones gives '£12 - Scotland' but unless the website specifically says something like "charges to all parts of the UK mainland £6" I don't see that it's a breach in the T&Cs - just a poor/inaccurate use of the assocatied descriptions that go with the charges.

Yes, that is exactly what I have done, had a play on their website to establish where the "cut off" for additional charges apply. Where I am failing to grasp any logic with the hiked up charge though is why their doubling up of the charge kicks in at anything over the Scottish-English Border.

Distance wise from their base to Plymouth (for example) is on a par with the distance from their base to say Gretna, (In fact I think Plymouth is slightly further) and yet a customer in Gretna pays double the carriage. The whole Scotland, UK Mainland really doesn't matter, no matter how you view it, any part of Scotland, with the exception of the Islands, is still mainland UK.

Couriers have always worked on the basis of averaging charges out over the UK, there is no notional centre point that from which there is an incremental scale of charges based on distance from that point, as I say, trust me on that one, I've assessed tenders and awarded contracts for such services so have been privy to how they apply charges. In a broad sense there are additional charges for the Channel Islands and the Highland regions, (where the highlands start can vary from courier to courier), Inverness is a general point though and of course the Scottish Islands.

I'm not even claiming that any Ts &Cs have been breached, I have just asked a polite question of the company in question and been met with nothing but rudeness and wished of course to share an experience with people who are out to try and save some money, I understand this to by the underlying principle of this site.


bod1467 seems to understand exactly where I am coming from.

Incidentally, the geographical centre of the UK is Dunsop Bridge in Lancashire, perhaps the UK couriers should adopt an incremental scale of charges taking that point as a base, then watch the fireworks.

HalfPint

Hi,

I think the op is being fairly reasonable is asking for an explanation of the differing charge. After all, Gretna is not exactly the Highlands and Islands!

If it were me as the business owner, I would be waiving the extra 6 quid as goodwill considering how close it is to the border. In my old job there was a similar issue. we delivered large items using a pallet company, the charge almost doubled when you crossed a certain postcode region (this is in England btw). If our customer was very close to the postcode border, a quick call to our delivery agent usually confirms they can do the delivery at the lower rate, (as they are only just outside the area) and we pass this saving onto our customer. It's good business sense and keeps customers coming back.

Having said all that. I agree that the op agreed to pay the price when the order was confirmed and in reality it is ultimately down to the company's sense of goodwill and customer service as to whether they will refund this.

HP x

Krackerjack

ILW wrote: »

I would suspect the higher charge is because the courier do no have any depots in the area. The couriers we use have a whole list of Scottish postcodes that carry a premium. If you are told the price before confirming the order, I really cannot see the problem.

City - Link have at least 5 major depots in Scotland, my nearest being some 14 miles away.

I know full well that I should have reviewed the order including all carriage charges prior to confirming but, and this is what I don't understand, why can I have literally dozens of parcels from all over the UK, from as far down south as Devon and Cornwall delivered to my by CITY LINK with no premium applied.

In short, OK, I'll spell it out here I think, my view is that the company themselves are creaming off the extra carriage charge. Obviously I can't prove that but why else could I have many many, (Dozens, jeez the City- Link guy and I are on first name terms, no, really we are) of parcels delivered from every corner of the Mainland UK with standard charges only applied?

p00hsticks

Krackerjack wrote: »

I'm not even claiming that any Ts &Cs have been breached, I have just asked a polite question of the company in question and been met with nothing but rudeness and wished of course to share an experience with people who are out to try and save some money, I understand this to by the underlying principle of this site.

I understand where you're coming from, but just feel that your vent is of limited use to the wider community unless you're prepared to divulge the name of the company so that others (particularly those living in Scotland) can avoid them.

(I know that you;ve mentioned City Link in your post above , but my reading of that iis that this is just the courier that happens to be used by the company in question ,and your gripe is with them (and their customer services) rather than with City Link themselves. )

lil.smartie

Have you looked on the web site of the courier concerned to see if your postcode comes into their 'Highlands & Islands' section? I know quite a few use a large area even if not strictly in the Highlands we have to pass on the surcharge unless it's small enough to go Royal Mail who don't surcharge.

Kate