Company demanding extra for postage after order and delivery confirmed

logger

Hi

Recently order something online in the Scotland, wont mention company or product as I don't want to give the company any publicity, Received an order confirmation, International postage calculated to be £10.

Then 2 days later received a demand for an extra £30 for postage, before they could release the order.

When I queried this I was told that if I had looked in help section on their website I could have clearly seen what their postage charges are, and that they always apply a surcharge.

My argument is that I did not troll through their entire site before making the purchase, I agreed to their terms and conditions which makes no mention of the possibility of an extra surcharge. The company confirmed my order, and I would argue that the company have entered an agreement to deliver me the good at the agreed price. Every time I contact them via email they say I should have read their terms of delivery. Again if they were going to charge me extra then this should have been flagged up at time of purchasing however it was not. Or alternatively they could have sent me an email stating that they would send me a confirmation as soon as they had calculated postage. Basically their arguments don't wash with me, and I feel I am within my rights to refuse to pay the surcharge and expect delivery of goods.

I am having no joy with this outfit, they are not prepared to admit that there is a flaw with their ordering system. I have ordered same product else where on a site where the possibility of an extra surcharge on postage was clearly flagged which I have no problem paying, and it is about half the total cost that the other company were trying to charge.

However now I want to make a complaint to who ever regulates on-line trading, sending them emails and correspondence so they can pursue the company if they are in the wrong and force them to fix their procedures if necessary.

Am I off my head with this, has anyone else has similar issues ?

Any opinions on what the correct procedures are in this regard ? I think similar to many ebay sales, this company just want to get clearance from their credit card handling company for the lesser amount, and then pile on the extra charges without having to pay commission on it.

Any ideas who I should get in touch with to make a formal complaint?

Selling company located in Scotland
I am located in republic of Ireland.

Thanks

Logger

Nody

Did they deduct money from your card (not reserve but deduct)?

logger

I am not sure however I am guessing not, as I did not agree to the surcharge. I would not have expected to have credit card charged until they were shipping.

Why do you ask ?

Nody

Because until you have paid (i.e. the credit card is charged and money left your account) you have no contract with them; until then it is invitation to treat.

To give you a brick and mortar version instead, you see a add in the window saying you can buy a 40" TV for 100 EUR. You go in, take the TV and go to the cashier and the cashier says actually it's 500 EUR. You have no come back to get it for 100 EUR in the store as you have no contract, all the store has done is invite you to make an offer for the item which the store can reject.

me_right_one

Nody wrote: »

To give you a brick and mortar version instead, you see a add in the window saying you can buy a 40" TV for 100 EUR. You go in, take the TV and go to the cashier and the cashier says actually it's 500 EUR. You have no come back to get it for 100 EUR in the store as you have no contract, all the store has done is invite you to make an offer for the item which the store can reject.

Would that not be false advertising? Especially if it says the price on the add actually IS 100 EUR, not just one of those "from" 100 EUR ads?

Overheal

Just reverse the order and dont deal with the cnuts.

Whatever it is, its shady. Dont give money to cnuts like that. If theyll do that to get your money I can only imagine what state the end product will be in when its finally shipped to you. Whatever it is, I am sure you can find it elsewhere.

You could go blind on paperwork and search wikipedia under false advertising and be full of material to read for hours, but in the end its a waste of time and plays into these people.

If it goes south, your credit card/banking company will help you with a Chargeback/Stop Payment, or if you bought through ebay there is the Paypal remedies to follow up on. However they should know to just let you go when you ask to simply cancel the order altogether.

jor el

Do what Overheal says, cancel the order and don't deal with them. There's nothing you can do unless payment was already made.

me_right_one wrote: »

Would that not be false advertising? Especially if it says the price on the add actually IS 100 EUR, not just one of those "from" 100 EUR ads?

Only if they don't correct the price once it's known to be wrong. False advertising allows for honest mistakes.

logger

Thanks lads for all the feedback, you read all the terms and conditions and it would seem like you have a contract when they confirm your order at a certain price. However what I seem to be getting from this is that they then have the ability to renegotiate before they take payment.

Yeah had already taken my business else where away from the company, and saved over half the cost on postage that they were trying to charge me.

Just pissed off about the way they do things and thought someone should be able to enforce some sorts of standards of fair trading, however I guess I will put the issue to bed now, as I have already wasted enough energy email them to no avail.

Thanks again for putting things into perspective for me.

rubadub

logger wrote: »

International postage calculated to be £10.

So it did specifically say international? on most of these sites it will presume to be the native country and then you click a box and upcomes another box and up goes the postage. Was the postage within the UK also £10? if so that would set off alarm bells to me. I always double check stuff like this to avoid confusion and delays & hassle.

logger

Yes it did say international, and as it happens UK delivery would have been the same however, I had not entered in a UK address to check this before completing the purchase.