Free delivery

Which websites are these? I have never found a free delivery offer that wasn't, though you might have to untick the express delivery option to get the free one a couple of days later.
If there are post code exceptions are they far flung places?

I've not come across this postcode lottery for free delivery either, although some companies won't deliver to the Channel Islands. Do you live in a particularly remote part of Scotland, Tizliz?

Yes some sites will charge for remoter areas in Scotland

Yes, although I live in London I also have noticed the remote areas in Scotland not being catered for or being charged so much for delivery that it cannot be worth it.

Yes, I live in the wilds - the map is marked 'here be dragons '. ?

But I get free delivery from major sites like Amazon, Hotter, M&S. it was Zooplus that upset me today. I do expect to pay for delivery but I was annoyed that it was only when I got to the pay page that the delivery was added and it still said at the top of the page that delivery was free

Over charging is a different matter. Some companies just don't want to deliver here so make the delivery charge ridiculous eg £30. Just trying to remember which company this was. Royal Mail don't charge any more and here they are very efficient.

Sometimes on Amazon a third party seller, I think it's called Amazon Marketplace, can be tricky. I live in Northern Ireland and often it says Free UK Delivery, no notation of any delivery charges, but there is a charge at the end for N.I. Honestly, we are part of the UK.
Or, free UK delivery, but won't deliver to NI.

I've tried to argue it out with the seller but Amazon and the seller each blame each other.

Well, at least they will deliver!
I organised a present to be delivered for a special birthday present in plenty of time for the occasion and then I received a phone call from the company the day before the delivery date to tell me they couldn't deliver it to that particular island as they "couldn't guarantee what state it would be in when it arrived and so wouldn't take the risk". To say I was disgusted is an understatement! I demanded and got a refund. Some businesses are clearly creaming off the more lucrative end of the delivery business to the detriment of the Royal Mail who have always managed to deliver anything and everything in years past and now find themselves priced out of most markets by cut throat and unfair competition. It is quite extraordinary that many companies are not sufficiently competent to deliver things in this day and age and this makes living on an island an even more expensive and inconvenient business than it needs to be!
Rant over!

Lots of sites charge outwith central best of Scotland. I live in Aberdeenshire and I am treated as Highlands.
I found when ordering from 'Not on the High Street' that the website blamed the traders and traders blamed the website for the extra charges bring levied.
I lived less than 16 miles from Aberdeen at the time.

If, when I get to the checkout, the delivery charge is more than I want to pay I delete the whole sale.

However, many sites offer free deliver or 'click and collect'. Many Amazon goods can be collected at Argos or a Post Office or other sites. M and S do 'C&C' and Tesco's do 'Delivery Saver' for a fee and then free deliveries. Other firms such as Next or Phase Eight offer free returns. Martin Lewis of the Moneyfacts website reminds us that adding a small item to an order just under £20 on Amazon triggers free delivery.

We have a small family business that is an on line retailer and we charge for delivery to cover the actual costs, and we use Royal Mail as it's the only courier that offers the same price service anywhere in the UK, which seems fairer. They're usually very good too - except yesterday and we're still dealing with the fall out!!!

We recently moved to Pembrokeshire, and while ordering a new headboard found that we didn't qualify for free delivery. I was astonished, but in the small print there were quite a few postcodes that didn't qualify including ours, so it cost me £35.00! Shame was that I couldn't get this particular style elsewhere, and so it was a case of 'take it or leave it', but I guess we are a long way out, and fuel costs money, though it did come as a shock when we've been used to living in the busy, built up South.

My DIL has a good scheme when it comes to buying Christmas or Birthday presents. Near Christmas, like about now, she takes a free trial of 'Prime', orders all her presents on-line gift wrapped. She then has what she buys delivered straight to the recipient free of charge. When the 'Prime' trial is up she cancels it.

I never order anything before I press the 'free delivery' button. I chose whatever I want at the price I would get it in the shop. ie no delivery charge.

Nothing is free these days Ladies
apart from the weather.
Someone somewhere is paying for the delivery,
if only in part.

What annoys me is when you don't have an option. I recently bought some furniture and was told that the delivery charge was £50. I said that, as my son has a large van, I would arrange collection but they told me that was not possible !! Surely we shouldn't be charged delivery unless we specifically ask for the goods to be delivered

The sites which don't reveal the delivery charge, for certain areas, until the last minute obviously hope that the customer will be reluctant to abandon an order after spending time on it.

My bugbear is Iceland - they don't do on-line deliveries where I live but if I go into town & spend £25 they will deliver - why?

Tesco do on-line deliveries & are very reasonable if you pick your delivery time a week or two in advance, I usually start an order about 3 weeks before I want it, get delivery slot then add to order up to night before delivery.

I have noticed that a lot of the catalogue companies charge for delivery & returns now - restricts my buying options.

I don't live in the "wilds" - free delivery on orders over £?? varies & sometimes I don't want to spend so much money so it's off to the shops, as I'm only about 12 miles from Exeter it's worth the trip if there's several shops I want to visit.

You should try living in Ireland! Some companies won't deliver here at all, including m and s in uk, although they do deliver to many, many other countries. We have to buy from their Irish on line store which is more expensive and has less choice.

I recently visited a Branch of a nationwide company supplying bedd, mattresses etc, and chose two single beds with mattresses and when i got a printed copy of the order, i was charged £39 delivery for EACH bed and £29 per bed for " assembly". I cancelled the order! A week later I visited a different branch of the same chain, placed the same order and was told delivery charge would be £39 TOTAL! I asked if there was an assembly charge and was told no, that was included in the delivery charge! Pays to shop around!

I received an email recently from a company from which I buy quite a lot of stuff online. Thy told me that because I was such a good customer I would hitherto get free delivery for life. They then said that this offer was for a limited period only.
I wrote back to them asking if they knew something I didn't; had they perhaps been in private communication with my doctor?
Happily, it seems, the free delivery will last as long as I do.

Tizliq I suppose the packages come by Royal Mail because it is the only service which is obliged by law to deliver to all areas. It's hard for Royal Mail to compete when there is no level playing field and I believe there are murmurings that it will be contested at some point (which should be a concern to anyone living in a more remote area).

Nona4ever