Sellers refusing to post to the Scottish Highlands

[graymee1234]

Recently I have tried to purchase a few items from businesses but the listing shows Doesn't post to Scottish Highlands. I have contacted individuall businesses and they have ammended their listing to allow me to purchase their goods, others haven't bothered or couldn't work out how to sort this problem and have lost the sale.

Postage to me means using the Royal Mail to send items and as the Royal Mail is mandated by law to charge the same ammount for anywhere in mainland UK the sellers can't say postage is more expensive.

If they dispatch goods via a carrier other than Royal Mail then perhaps they incur higher deliver costs so their argument perhaps has some validity. This does not ring true however for an item I recently tried to purchase. The seller was based in the Newcastle area. They would not post to Scottish Highlands. If this was based on increased delivery cost why is there no restriction on posting to Cornwall? Using Truro as an example, it is 450 miles from the seller and only 280 miles to me. Ebay should clamp down on what is discrimination based on location and also potentially amend the listing template to more accurately say delivery rather than postage.

[f130dt]

Are you trying to say you need more than the road network to get to the Highlands ?

[mahpetsupplies]

Sellers absolutely can split out higher cost areas.. using postage rate tables. 

[lewismacdonald]

And if they say they are delivering by Royal Mail they shouldn't be able to discriminate against any part of the UK 

[kd-appliances]

I'm in the process of blocking Highlands and Islands on my account, you are wrong about charges on parcels, uk domestic for my parcels is £8.55 and highlands is £19 , that extra £11 has to be covered by me under eBay's free postage policy, couple that together with the amount of refusals by customers due to the time taken to deliver & any warranty claims is having to pick up costs both ways & my business can no longer stand it any more... two sides to every story on this one. 

[graymee1234]

Lets get real about this! Yes, it might cost more for "carriage" to remote areas but don't say "postage" as it costs the same to "post" something to anywhere in the UK! I am willing to pay more for carriage to my location if the seller is incurring more cost but I doubt that is always the problem. One seller wouldn't send items to me from the Newcastle are but would to Cornwall. I have real doubts that it costs significantly more to send stuff north than it does to somewhere 1 1/2 times further away to the south west!

[f130dt]

That's the point I've tried to make ,so many times ,the rogue traders that do this don't deserve the business .simple .

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[cassiej1234]

I recently had 2 parcels that would normally go by Evri but as 1nwas going to Highlands and the other to Isle Of White the charges jumped from £2.94 to £5.65. That was not an issue as I changed them postage options in Ebay and sent them via Royal Mail who do not charge any extra.

It did cost me an extra 39p x 2, but that to me is worth having a happy customer, I'm would never cancel.an order or refuse to post to certain areas.

[f130dt]

Good on you . To be honest I don't know why anyone would willingly use evri ,they are terrible. I absolutely try now to only buy from sellers using R/M ,much faster and way more reliable .

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[lotnumber73]

Hi
It simply depends on what the item is. If its a letter or small packet then Royal Mail wins. Once you start looking at parcels then its a battlefield trying to find the best price and a service which is reliable, has some tracking/proof of shipping/insurance

If I need to send something the size of a DVD player to a remote area of Scotland then the costs are 2-3 times the cost of sending to other parts of the UK. It's not simply about the number of miles. It's the remoteness which makes it less cost-effective for them to run a service without charging more.  The problem that creates is that we are not able to separate Scotland and provide a separate scale of shipping/postage fees, so for larger bulkier items which are low value, the postage charge can exceed the price of the item. Sellers will cover small differences but it isn't sustainable to actually lose money on an item

[graymee1234]

OK, I appreciate there might be extra cost involved if you use a service other than Royal Mail but as it says "Post and Packing" and not "packing and Delivery" it implies Royal Mail which, by mandate, dictates that it is the same price to send an item anywhere in the Great Britain if not the whole of the UK. Perhaps Ebay should change "Post and Packing" to "packing and Delivery" so it is more accurate. I wonder if the Trades Description act covers this?

In regard to remoteness, near Inverness is not remote. It has a main line railway connection and there are no ferries involved yet it often falls under the "Does not deliver to Highlands and islands" banner. In an example I gave earlier about a seller in Newcastle, I am far closer to Newcastle than Cornwall and no more remote!

[f130dt]

You're absolutely spot on .what gets my back up is you can send something from let's say Inverness (as you've mentioned it )one of the best connected cities ,by air ,road rail,bus etc. It doesn't make any sense to assume remoteness if I was to send a parcel to the south of England, say Cornwall ,it costs less than it would to send from Cornwall to Inverness !!! And sellers will try to make you believe that it's the local couriers that deliver for the likes of DPD EVRI DHL etc that's adding the cost ,it's not .I now have the attitude that if it's royal mail its fine and anyone that is including the highlands as the mainland UK it's fine . Anyone else loses out .I simply don't buy from them .their loss.

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[wsaxw14]

My hopeful workaround re posting to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland via a courier is I’ve added a note on my profile stating if anyone from the Highlands and islands wants to buy something send me a message and I’ll temporarily lift the block and apply Royal Mail postage instead, I’m hoping that works. I agree it’s absolutely ridiculous what the couriers charge for posting to the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. If I run into any issues in future I’ll just go back to using Royal Mail 

[wsaxw14]

Update. I’ve actually decided to remove courier delivery completely and just sticking to Royal Mail. The Highlands shouldn’t be affected at all by courier Services but the Islands could be affected. Maybe there should be a separate choice for the Islands (allowing options of Royal Mail, mainland courier and island courier prices). Aware also that Paisley in central Scotland near Glasgow May also be affected as they have a PA postcode. Unsure if that’s changed. 
far easier just using Royal Mail 

[f130dt]

Well done ,they've been getting away with it way too long ,I hope other sellers follow suit .

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