The £37.99 delivery fee ... for plant costing £6!
A GARDEN centre is the latest retailer being accused of ‘daylight robbery’ delivery fees – for trying to charge a Scot nearly £40 to post a £6 plant.
Jackson’s Nurseries insisted the customer’s mainland address was ‘rural’ and so applied a hefty surcharge of £37.99.
The shopper wanted to purchase a plant costing £5.99 from the Staffordshire firm’s website and was horrified when the ‘excessive’ delivery fee was added.
After refusing to go ahead with the sale the customer, from Glenlivet, Moray, contacted their MSP, Nationalist Richard Lochhead, who has been campaigning to end what he calls ‘rip-off delivery surcharges’.
The Scottish Daily Mail has been backing these efforts and has highlighted a number of cases of shoppers paying additional delivery fees when buying online – even when they live in major towns and cities.
Such charges cost Scots customers an additional £36million a year.
Yesterday, Mr Lochhead said: ‘Time and time again companies charge customers in Moray and rural Scotland unfair and excessive parcel delivery costs.
‘I continue to be inundated with cases where consumers in Moray are charged more for delivery than elsewhere in the UK. But a £37.99 delivery charge for a £5.99 plant beggars belief.
‘I have written to the company to ask that they review their policy and bring delivery charges into line with what they charge shoppers in the rest of the UK mainland. ‘If companies like this one are passing on extra charges from their couriers, then they should challenge their courier or use another that won’t penalise shoppers.’ Mr Lochhead added: ‘It is high time the UK Government acted to curb this daylight robbery.’ Jackson’s Nurseries’ website states that for mainland UK customers, the delivery charge is £9.99 for orders of more than £9.99, and £11.99 for orders costing less than £9.99. But for ‘Highland and Island locations’ any deliveries will ‘attract a surcharge from our courier’. This includes postcodes in mid-Scotland and Fife. Jackson’s was not available to comment last night. The row comes days after Small Business Minister Kelly Tolhurst rejected the idea of legislation to end rip-off fees. She told a Westminster Hall debate that firms must take responsibility and be upfront about charges, and not have extra fees for rural customers. In March, the Mail revealed furniture firm Wayfair – whose TV adverts feature Scots star Lorraine Kelly – had scrapped delivery fees of up to £40 in heavily populated parts of Scotland after we exposed the charges.