e-commerce

We have received more than 300 responses to our survey. Thanks for all your comments. If you still want to report your experiences with excessive delivery charges to the Highlands, you have until 31 January. We will publish a summary of the main findings as soon as we can.

Those of us who live and work in the ‘Scottish Highlands’ will be familiar with the additional costs and delays when ordering goods online and there is a widespread feeling that the Highlands are not being treated fairly by some online retailers.  For example, some retailers claim to offer Free UK delivery when in fact hidden surcharges apply to certain areas usually including the Highlands & Islands.  Such 'FREE' claims are likely to be illegal. The Highland Council has a duty to enforce consumer protection laws surrounding internet sales and the Trading Standards Service has embarked on a project to trace and tackle those businesses that fall foul of internet trading law.

We want consumers and business owners who have experienced unfair or misleading delivery charges online to contact us and give our officers the details so that we can investigate any substantive issues.  We have set up this webpage and simple form in order to collect details of possible bad practice online.  We are committed to improve the way Highland residents are treated by internet retailers and we really need this information to focus our efforts on the worst offenders.  I would encourage Highland consumers and businesses to complete the form.  The minimum information we require is the name of the business, its website address along with the approximate date of the transaction and an outline of the issues.  If you want us to contact you about the particular transaction then you can fill out the rest of the contact details - it really is very straightforward.