Achica sneaky overcharge for delivery, can I get it refunded?

Lady_K

I feel I have been unfairly overcharged for delivery on 2 chests of drawers from Achica.com. They go by the weight of an item.

This is the delivery charge information on the website:
Delivery costs.
Delivery costs are calculated according to country of delivery and weight of the parcel.
UK Mainland:
0-2kg = £4.75. 2-5kg = £7.95. 5-20kg = £9.95. 20-35kg = £19.95. 35kg+ = £44.95.

My order was for 2 chests of drawers. Both chests weigh less than 20kg each so this puts them each into the £9.95 delivery area.

I have actually been charged £45 delivery for both of them. I have emailed them asking if they would refund the extra £25 as I thought there may have been an oversestimation on the weight of one of the drawers.

As I half expected they have emailed back to me with this:

Thank you for your enquiry.

Please be advised the weight of the Chest of 6 Drawers is 19 kgs and the weight of the weight of the Chest of 5 Drawers is 19.5 kgs as the total weight of your order is 38.5 kgs I cannot make any amendments to the delivery charge on your order.

My sincere apologies any inconvenience caused.

This feels a very unfair and crafty way of overcharging people and £25 over the real cost is a lot to overpay. If I had ordered them both separately they would have both come up at £9.95 delivery each at a cost to me of £19.90 in total.
Can they really justify charging £45 by combining the weight of both to get the higher delivery charge cost when surely they will have had to pay the lower costs themselves whether I had ordered them separately or as one due to the single weight of each, especially using two sep couriers?

They were not even shipped by the same courier company either so they were sent just as though they had been ordered separately anyway. Can I do anything about this?

There is also no phone contact for this company at all, it is all email and I really dislike that.

Should I contact them back again to try and get the £25 refunded and if so how should I approach it this time?

miduck

Did you order them on the same order? If so, their interpretation seems correct - albeit a bit of a "computer says no" situation. You would have been better to have ordered the two items separately.

Lady_K

miduck wrote: »

Did you order them on the same order? If so, their interpretation seems correct - albeit a bit of a "computer says no" situation. You would have been better to have ordered the two items separately.

Yes I did order them on the same order but I assumed that the weight guide was for each item not the weight of each item added together as it is in no way clear on that and a lot of the time will cost customers more that way. Because they come as separate parcels anyway it is even more unfair.

As mentioned above they also used different couriers for each chest of drawers so the order went out as though they were separate orders anyway so it will still have cost Achica the lower price for delivery.

£25 over is far too much of a difference. I don't know of any other company that charges delivery this way and it is a very unfair missleading way to charge customers. I feel quite cheated and untrustworthy of them now. Even if they can do it to people it really doesnt look good on them and doesnt do anything for customer satisfaction or trust.

It is definitely not morally right. how can I try to get them to put it right?

bris

Didn't you know the postage cost before you bought them, it would have been on the order form, you should have questioned it then. I do however think they are right, the weight of the order is clearly the total weight and not individual.

miduck

It is going to be down to a goodwill gesture - I agree the quote is vague, but reading it in context, it seems clear to me that it is per order as opposed to per item.

Have they got a Facebook page? A polite complaint on there may get results?

wealdroam

Lady_K wrote: »

Yes I did order them on the same order but I assumed that the weight guide was for each item not the weight of each item added together as it is in no way clear on that and a lot of the time will cost customers more that way. Because they come as separate parcels anyway it is even more unfair.

It does seem strange.

However, as you say, you made an assumption.

You would've been wise to have confirmed your thoughts before ordering, but of course you know that now.

custardy

I agree with your point
with most stores it gets relatively cheaper the larger the order!

miduck

Here is the Facebook page, however it looks like they ignore a good deal of comments!

http://www.facebook.com/ACHICA.fanpage?fref=ts

halibut2209

"Delivery costs.
Delivery costs are calculated according to country of delivery and weight of the parcel."

Bolding mine. You could argue that the charges they give are per parcel, NOT per order. Two parcels = two separate delivery charges

miduck

halibut2209 wrote: »

"Delivery costs.
Delivery costs are calculated according to country of delivery and weight of the parcel."

Bolding mine. You could argue that the charges they give are per parcel, NOT per order. Two parcels = two separate delivery charges

Given that the postage is quoted as part of the purchase process, it would be difficult to argue against the charges after the event.

I have just done a dummy order, and the way the charges accumulate does not make sense. Unfortunately, if you agree to pay them, you have little recourse afterwards.

Lady_K

bris wrote: »

Didn't you know the postage cost before you bought them, it would have been on the order form, you should have questioned it then. I do however think they are right, the weight of the order is clearly the total weight and not individual.

If it was for smaller items that would be posted in one parcel I can understand why they may charge per weight of each item because the total weight would be the one box but when its 2 chests of drawers they are clearly going to be delivered separately and in this case it has caused the £25 overcharge.

As for the delivery cost showing when I ordered; yes it did show but when I put the first smaller chest of drawers in the basket it appeared as £9.95 delivery but when I added the larger chest it shot up to £45 delivery which I was shocked at but the weight was not shown on the website for either of the chests so I thought the only reason it could be was that it must be much heavier or there was a mistake with the weight.
Another problem was this was the very last chest of drawers and I had just had to wait 30 mins twice for it to be released from someone elses basket so I had to go through with the purchase as soon as I had it in mine. If that had not been the situation I would have queried it because I was very puzzled that the bigger chest would weigh that much more to make that much difference.

I don't have a facebook account so can only use the email contact.