A lager firm that calls itself “Scotland’s favourite” has been criticised for punishing north customers with exorbitant delivery charges.
Tennents is charging £7.50 for delivery for items such as a pair of novelty socks and Christmas baubles to places in Moray and the Highlands – while delivering a crate of lager to England costs only £4.95.
Moray MSP Richard Lochhead has been campaigning against excess delivery costs for years.
Last night, he urged Tennents to review the “shocking” policy that has penalised north customers.
Mr Lochhead said: “This is just another example where there appears to be no rhyme nor reason in terms of the delivery surcharges some companies are charging and why we need to see real action from the UK Government to address these unfair surcharges.
“Most people will find it shocking that a company that brews its lager in Glasgow will deliver cheaper to London than they do to Lossiemouth.
“For a company that boasts it is ‘Scotland’s favourite pint’, I think they’ll find that once their customers hear about this it will leave a bitter taste in huge swathes of the country.”
He added: “I’m sure that a popular and iconic Scottish brand like Tennents won’t want to discriminate against customers in the north of Scotland and I’d urge them to review their policy as many other companies have done.”
‘Unfair’
A frustrated customer, who made the discovery while Christmas shopping online, added: “I couldn’t believe it when I realised that I was paying less in postage fees to have a crate of lager delivered to England than I would be to send some novelty socks to the Highlands.
“At a time when people are being forced to do their shopping online in a lot of cases, it felt really unfair.”
Yesterday a spokesman for the Glasgow-based-brewery said the charges were applied by a courier firm but pledged to look into the matter.
He said: “We would obviously prefer not to charge extra for shipping to the Highlands and islands but we do not set these delivery charges.
“The postage prices for our online store are set by the third party couriers that we use.
“We constantly review our approach and if there is a way that we can reduce delivery costs, while maintaining our service, this is definitely something we would look at.”