A Skye couple were horrified to be told they must pay a £400 surcharge to have a parcel delivered to their home because they live on an island.
And music publishers Christine and Alasdair Martin were even more shocked to learn that the additional charge would be just £15 if the package was delivered to a friend’s house on the mainland – just eight miles from their home.
Mr Martin, of Taigh na Teud Music Publishers in Upper Breakish, pointed out that the extra mileage was on a direct route, on a good trunk road over a free bridge.
He explained that they ordered a parcel of 1,000 DVDs from music company Eurodiscs, which arranged for them to be shipped from Germany and delivered via the UPS international courier service.
Mr Martin said: “We just couldn’t believe it. A thousand DVDs may sound a lot, but it would just be a big box.
“We come across this problem of increased delivery charges all the time, but nothing like this.
“If it’s £20, £30 or even £40 more, depending on the value of the goods, you don’t like it but you grin and bear it, but this was such an extreme example.”
He added that they often had to make arrangements for items to be delivered to their friends at Balmacara, near Kyle, due to excessive charges for deliveries to their home.
Mr Martin said: “We’re lucky because we’re only five miles from the bridge. If we lived in the north of the island, it would mean two hours travelling and the cost of the fuel to collect it from the mainland – and we still end up paying a surcharge.”
The couple usually arrange their own couriers using a local firm, but were unable to do so in this case because the DVDs were coming from Germany.
They are now waiting for the parcel to arrive at their friends’ home in Balmacara.
Margaret Lynch, who is chief executive of Citizens Advice Scotland, described the Martins’ experience as “an extreme case”, but said it was “indicative of a very common problem”.
She pointed out that the organisation had been running a campaign on this issue for several years and, in 2012, it published a report called “The Postcode Penalty”.
This study showed that more than a million Scots were being “routinely ripped off” by unfair delivery charges because of where they lived.
UPS could not be contacted for comment this evening.