Hazardous Goods Surcharge for buying Perfumes online?

I have just bought some candles & perfumes from Jo Malone online mainly as Christmas gifts. The delivery charge from UK to Ireland was £18 stg. Then there was an additional charge of £35 stg. for a "hazardous goods charge"!! I spoke to them and they said this is a standard charge by their courier for carrying hazardous goods i.e. perfumes - because they contain alcohol.

I have often bought perfumes online before from strawberrynet.com, estee lauder etc. and never had to pay this levy. I have never even heard of it until today. Has anybody else come across this charge?

Bought perfume a number of times online and have never heard of this. I've never bought from Jo Malones.

I've never heard of it before either - sounds very strange - kind of scammy nearly. I wouldn't mind if it was cheap, but £35 stg is a lot of money. And hard to justify for 2 small bottles of perfume (I bought other stuff as well but that certainly couldn't be "hazardous" - candles, body lotion).

you can buy Jo Malone from Brown Thomas. Ring them up and give them your credit card details and they will post it to you. Never heard of being charged a hazardous levy before.

Thanks Bgirl, didn't know you could buy from Brown Thomas by post. I will do that in future. Would like to cancel the stuff I ordered today, will ring them tomorrow and see if it's still possible. Certainly won't be ordering any more from them. So much for the Single European Market.

strawberry post registered items in hong kong and never mention hazardous goods surcharge nonsense. even promise to try and refund any duty or taxes charged on orders.

Some couriers do charge a Hazardous Goods surcharge which would be because if indeed classified by a Dangerous Goods Safety Adviser (DGSA) as hazardous, it would mean the courier would have to meet certain criteria as set down in ADR regs - ie posess a Haz-Chem license, product correctly labelled, packaged, in ADR approved vehicle and with TREM Card (Emergency Procedure Card).

I wouldn't imagine there is a large percentage of alcohol in the perfume. However, you could check by requesting a MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) from the supplier - who is obliged to provide this. If the perfume is classified as "Non Regulated for Transport", then it is not hazardous for transport purposes and you should not incur this surcharge.

This is the reply I got today from Jo Malone about the charge:

Thank you for your email. I can appreciate that this charge seems excessive, it is a large amount. However, we have to add this charge for any product, i.e. cologne, that contains alcohol that is send outside of the
UK by courier delivery. Some countries will not accept these goods at all when sent by courier and those that do impose a charge.

I could not find any other online perfume retailer in the UK that charges this hazardous goods levy to send perfume to Ireland. It seems to be down to the courier, there wouldn't be any levy if they were sent by Royal Mail - but Jo Malone don't want to use this. Strawberrynet don't even charge for their registered postage from Hong Kong.

Lorz I agree the amount of alcohol content is small, in fact it's not even concentrated perfume I'm getting it's just watered down cologne (hardly get drunk on that) - in 2 x 30 ml bottles.

I am considering requesting one of the MSDS sheets.

Rois said:

The delivery charge from UK to Ireland was £18 stg. Then there was an additional charge of £35 stg. for a "hazardous goods charge"!! I spoke to them and they said this is a standard charge by their courier for carrying hazardous goods i.e. perfumes - because they contain alcohol

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It would be interesting to see how much the perfumes would cost from BT, they would probably be cheaper if the £35 is taken into account.

If they stated on their site that the delivery charge was £18.00 then it certainly sounds like false advertising if they charged an additional £35 for their appointed courier to deliver the goods.

If you signed up for a set amount on the order and delivery and cannot get a satisfactory resolution to the charge then you should raise the issue with your credit card company if you paid by c.c. as you did not authorise this additional payment IMHO.

The Jo Malone site states that they only deliver online orders within the UK. I presume that Rois telephoned the order?

Marion

Contact Jo Malone again and request the MSDS to establish if indeed the perfume is classified under ADR regs as Hazardous.

I was ordering the goods through their website, then I was in the checkout when I read that you have to phone them for deliveries outside of the UK. I did this and gave them my order which came to £303 + £18 p&p (=£321), I gave my cc details, then the rep said they would be taking £356 from my card. I queried the £356 and it was only then that I was told about the £35 surcharge. She said it was a standard charge, especially since the airline restrictions, so I let it go ahead as I wanted the products for christmas gifts.

It was only after contacting AAM that I learnt I could have ordered the products from Brown Thomas; that nobody else seems to levy this surcharge and that it is questionable for the type of goods involved. However, having agreed to the charge when I phoned them, I would feel too embarassed to cancel the order now,but I won't use their online service again.

Cancel and tell them it is their extra £35 that has caused it. No embarrassment - when are you going to bump into these people?

Hi Rois

If you decide to cancel the order do it sooner rather than later. Under Distance selling regulations of the EU you have a "cooling off" period of 7 working days to cancel the order. This applies from the date of receiving the goods. You do not need to give a reason. Obviously, it would be preferable if the goods were not received as you will be responsible for the return postage.

Marion