HIGHLAND Council has won a better deal for local consumers over delivery surcharges levied by internet trading companies.
Trading standards officers have persuaded more than 20 firms to comply with the law and either scrap or publicise properly excess delivery charges.
Furious customers inundated the council with complaints after being charged extra for already paid-for goods,despite ‘free delivery to mainland UK’ advertising.
The outcry prompted a months-long trading standards probe using evidence from Citizens Advice Scotland,Consumer Focus Scotland and the Office of Fair Trading.
The investigation into a large number of individual businesses is ongoing but successes continue,TEC services committee councillors were told.
Dabs.com,the internet trading platform for BT Store,are to apply a ‘flat fee’ delivery charge and will no longer surcharge Highlands,islands or Northern Ireland customers.
And eBay,which ships goods for small traders,is to correct a flaw in their systems that miscoded many mainland postcodes as off-shore islands,which saw many people being incorrectly refused delivery by some businesses.
For more news from the West Highlands see The Oban Times every Thursday,also on line at www.obantimes.co.uk/digital
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