MOVES to crack down on rip-off delivery charges have been welcomed by campaigners.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is to investigate firms that advertise UK-wide delivery then hammer residents and businesses in Scotland with extra charges.
The probe follows a high-profile meeting at Holyrood last week between senior figures from the ASA and SNP MSP Richard Lochhead, who has been leading the campaign against unfair delivery charges.
News of the ASA’s involvement comes after the UK Government said it would also look at the issue.
Citizens Advice Scotland recently revealed that many customers, particularly those living in rural areas, are paying a “postcode penalty” of up to 50 per cent extra for delivery charges.
Parcel delivery charges are on average at least 30 per cent higher for the Highlands and Islands even though this includes cities such as Inverness and Aberdeen.
“I am delighted this campaign has now resulted in this action,” said Lochhead. “When I briefed the ASA chair Lord Currie and chief executive Guy Parker at Holyrood they were clearly shocked to hear about the many cases of rip-off parcel delivery charges I have come across as a result of my campaign.
“It was agreed I would send a dossier of the more extreme cases to the ASA and it is good news that the ASA is now considering pro-active action to tackle rip off parcel delivery surcharges.”
“Excessive delivery surcharges hit residents and businesses in many rural areas of Scotland and there are still far too many examples of companies excluding much of mainland Scotland from the definition of mainland UK so that they can apply excessive delivery surcharges.
“I welcome this conformation from the ASA that they are going to crackdown on this – and help start to put an end to this unjustifiable practice.”
Complaints about 11 companies that have made claims of free national delivery but have excluded parts of Scotland have been upheld by the ASA this year.“We publish rulings on these kinds of issues on a regular basis,” said ASA chief Guy Parker. “Companies are always saying ‘free delivery’ then it is only when you read the small print somewhere else that you find it doesn’t include certain parts of Scotland or Northern Ireland.”
He added that the authority was looking at tackling the issue even more thoroughly to discourage companies from slapping on higher delivery charges.
He said the proactive project to prevent companies from making misleading claims about charges would be included in a number of recommendations which the ASA will put before the Consumer Protection Partnership’s current review of the situation. The ASA is gradually switching its emphasis from case-by-case advertising regulation towards more general projects.
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