Free delivery - looking for the catch! (Online shopping - Comments & Tips)

Member Name: islander13957

Product:	Online shopping - Comments & Tips
Date:	12/12/00 (42 review reads)
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Free delivery - looking for the catch!

It took me some time to pluck up the courage to buy anything over the Net. You hear all these scare stories about insecure servers and people stealing your credit card number, right? But, for me, one of the biggest incentives of buying online is the offer of free delivery that you often find on a website. "So what?" I hear you ask, "delivery's not that expensive". Well, no, it isn't if you live on the mainland. I don't. I live on an offshore island and that thirty miles of open sea between me and the mainland can be an insurmountable problem when it comes to delivery.

I have been seduced by the promises of glossy websites offering excellent prices and promising 'free delivery' but, when I check out the actual TERMS of delivery, there are the hated words 'UK mainland only'. Usually the website slaps on an astronomical delivery cost for my order because it comes under the heading 'Highlands and Islands'. One website was going to charge me £25.00 plus VAT to deliver an item that was only worth £30.00....... I ask you! Considering the savings of running a web retail operation over maintaining an expensive 'bricks and mortar'establishment, you'd think that more websites would be happy to offer free delivery on web orders, wouldn't you?

It's interesting to note that this kind of caveat normally only applies to websites that use carriers to deliver their goods. The good old Royal Mail treats our island just like part of the UK mainland, we have a mainland postcode and it costs exactly the same to post a package to us as it does to anyone in the UK. So, I can order from Amazon, for example, and pay just the same for delivery as any UK mainland resident because Amazon use the Royal mail to deliver their stuff. But some websites manage to use carriers and STILL not charge for delivery, so it is possible. Perhaps the others just aren
't trying.....

I use Dabs, Simply, Jungle and GB.Buy.com for my hardware and software purchases because these are the only four computer suppliers I know of that offer free delivery.... and free really means free - even to an offshore island! Last Christmas, I ordered a 17" colour monitor for my teenage son's big present and Simply delivered it to the door, via carrier, in three days flat free of charge. I shudder to think how much some other websites would have charged for such a huge heavy box.... Recently, a USB scanner, a USB zip drive and a USB steering wheel (yes, we're really into USB in this household!) have arrived at our house - all free delivery from some of the above named firms. Now, I may only be one purchaser but I wonder how many orders the 'Highlands and Islands' delivery charge merchants are actually missing out on.

Compared with the somewhat limited shopping opportunities offered on an island with no more than 1600 inhabitants, the Net spreads a vast shopping centre across my computer screen. I can purchase all sorts of items without even having to leave the island and pay by credit card. I see no reason why I should have to pay exhorbitant delivery fees just because I don't reside on the UK mainland. Free delivery is an extra bonus... the cherry on top of the cake, you might say!

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