Caithness takes a lead in unfair delivery charges campaign
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CAITHNESS is set to lead the campaign against unfair delivery charges for customers based in the Highlands and Islands.
The manager of Caithness Citizens Advice Bureau is to meet with senior officials in Edinburgh after over 3000 complaints from customers based in rural Scotland were received, with a large percentage coming from the Far North.
Jill Smith has been invited to talk with senior CAB officials to discuss the charity's next step in its plan to secure customers in isolated areas fairer delivery charges.
Miss Smith said that the charity has never experienced such a huge response to any of its campaigns before, particularly from the Far North.
She said that the campaign to get offending companies to change their ways is only just beginning.
"The public response to this campaign has been extraordinary," she told the John O'Groat Journal.
"In November, we asked people to report instances where they had been charged unfairly or refused delivery altogether, and 900 people responded in just a few weeks.
"We then published those results and reopened the survey for a month and 2200 people responded by the time we closed it this week.
"Responses have come from across Scotland, but I can say that the feedback from Caithness was particularly huge and constituted a fair chunk of the national survey."
The survey has revealed that many online companies state that they offer free delivery, but then charge substantial fees for people in rural areas.
Some companies also refuse to deliver at all to certain areas they class as too remote, or use expensive couriers for all their deliveries.
Customers in Caithness have also complained about falling victim to having a Kirkwall postcode – they are charged additional shipping costs which would be required to send items to Orkney.
Responses to the survey are now in the process of being analysed and the final results will be published in April. With the evidence they have gathered, CAB officials plan to lobby for change and confront companies, which charge extra to deliver to isolated communities, with their findings.
Citizens Advice Scotland's head of policy, Susan McPhee, said she has taken into account the high strength of feeling in Caithness towards the issue and has asked Miss Smith to give further input into the charity's next course of action.
"We've reached a stage in the campaign when we need to take stock of the huge bank of evidence we've now got, and consider how to use that to secure change," she said.
"I want to hear from local communities on this, and that's why I'm particularly keen to talk to staff in our rural CAB offices.
"So I have invited Jill to talk to us about how the campaign can best meet the needs of people in Caithness."
She added: "When we first opened this survey in November we knew this was an important issue, but frankly we've been taken aback by the scale of the response, and the intensity of the feeling.
"We want to get change, and secure a fair deal for consumers in Caithness and across rural Scotland."
The Citizens Advice Bureau is still keen to hear from customers who have been affected by high delivery prices and has asked them to visit www.cas.org.uk to record their experiences.
One example of unfair charges was highlighted by Wick couple Dane and Jo Sutherland.
As reported in November, they were asked to pay an extra £12.50 to have a package delivered from Inverness in addition to the £4.99 it cost to have the item transported from the Halfords' depot in Worcestershire to the Highland capital.
They blamed the KW postcode and said they were ripped off.
