A north man was left flabbergasted after being quoted more than £200m for a delivery to Inverness.
Jim Oliver stepped in to conduct a good deed for his mother-in-law who was looking for a hand chainsaw from OnBuy.com.
But after she was quoted almost £2,000 for delivery, Mr Oliver went to see if he could find a more reasonable fee.
Much to his surprise, after adding the item to his basket, he was quoted an astronomical £200,001,997 for delivery.
Quote may have brought humour, but issue remains serious
The technical glitch might have raised a smile but people in the north of Scotland have been hit by extortionate delivery charges for a long time.
Mr Oliver said: “We just ended up laughing. I didn’t realise I was going to have to organise a crowd-funder to buy a £40 garden tool!
“My mother-in-law is quite compos mentis but I just fear that if others were to go through this and just click, click, click, they might be £2,000 out of pocket.”
The P&J made our own attempts to use OnBuy.com and were hit with the same £2,000 charge for the hand chainsaw.
On other items, they are charging £15 for delivery for products costing less than £30.
Change your postcode from IV to AB – or indeed any other non-island postcode – and suddenly delivery is free again.
Mr Oliver said: “In some cases, you know there are costs involved in getting items a certain mileage or distance. You understand that, but it seems to be common on every item, regardless of size.
“For small businesses too, if they are ordering parts and get hit with surcharges, which can be high, they then have to hand that over to their customers.
“It’s costing businesses more up here just because of their location.”
Delivery fee could deliver world’s most expensive footballer – with change left over
Just to pause and put the fee into perspective.
Yes, that is two-hundred-million, one thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-seven pounds.
The world’s most expensive footballer Neymar cost a reported £198 million when he transferred from Barcelona to PSG.
Mr Oliver could match that fee and have change left over with the quote from OnBuy.
On their website, the company state that “fast and free delivery” is offered on the item.
However, this appears not to apply to the Highlands and Islands.
Figures revealed in December show that people living north of the central belt, particularly in the rural north and islands, face paying up to £44.8 million on delivery charges every year.
Moray MSP Richard Lochhead has long highlighted the issue of high delivery surcharges.
‘Is the item being delivered by spaceship?’
He said: “I’ve seen a lot of companies raking in the cash by charging crazy delivery charges. But £200m is blooming ridiculous unless it’s being delivered from a far away galaxy by spaceship.
“This example is so incredible that people will laugh.
“The serious point here is that far too many companies refuse to deliver to the north of Scotland or put such high additional charges in place to put people off buying.
“This perhaps shows that completely absurd computer software is being used to calculate charges.”
Comedian Joe Lycett, as part of his Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back television feature, visited Inverness last year where he learned of the unfair charges facing people in the north.
‘Highland buyers should not be treated unfairly’
David MacKenzie, Highland Council’s trading standards manager, says there is still much work to do.
He said: “This is a ludicrous example that illustrates the common serious issue of unfairly high surcharges.
“Highland buyers should not be treated unfairly just because of where they live.
“We prefer no delivery surcharges. But where they exist they should be modest and must reflect actual extra costs for the seller.”
OnBuy.com has been approached for comment.
Further information on your rights and where to make complaints can be explored at www.deliverylaw.uk.