'Highland' surcharge: anyone live in rural England/Lake or Peak District

for example?

Every now and again I get some courier, delivery service or post office trying this on with me.

Every single time, I get out of paying it by pointing out we were only 50 miles from Glasgow, on the mainland and this charge is racist (I have two friends, one who lives in rural Lancashire about 100 miles even from a hospital and another in rural Cumbria, on a farm on a private road and they've never been dinged with this charge) so I need to speak to a supervisor.

This morning I had a delivery service try it on with me for a kids' beanbag, when I had two of them purchased from same shop and delivered by same service already sitting in front of me in the living room.

Of course, I got a call back right away saying there'd be no surcharge.

But I'm curious, do people in other areas that are in mountain settings or semi-rural get asked to pay this charge?

I can see surcharges for not being on the mainland.

I lived in the furthest southwest tippy-tip of rural Pembrokeshire and have never heard of a surcharge like that! It's ridiculous!

I never heard of it from my connections with people in the Lake District either.

I thought so!

This isn't even that far from Glasgow and it is possible to access this area by road, it's not an island.

And even if it were Ft. William or Inverness, last I checked, those places were mainland UK.

Andrew's such a sucker!  He was going to pay it.  I took the phone and proceded to open a can of whoop ass. 

It doesn't happen too frequently, but enough to piss me off when it does.

The gal said, 'But you ARE in the Highlands, aren't you?'  I said, 'Do you even know where those are, because I know where Reading is and I'm foreign born.  How about you Google whilst we're waiting for the supervisor, just type in Dunoon.   I'll vouch that you were using the net for work purposes.' 

We used to get charged that all the time when we lived in Culloden despite pointing out we were on the  mainland. Well actually, we didn't get charged it because any time it came up I cancelled what ever we were ordering and found somewhere else that didn't charge it.

My bf gets surcharges often, but of course that's because he lives in the Western Isles.  It does seem to be inconsistently applied, and the surcharges are often completely outrageous.  Maybe I'll suggest he try playing the race card next time.

Seems if they would input the POSTCODE in their computer it would tell them sumit.

We used to get charged that all the time when we lived in Culloden despite pointing out we were on the  mainland. Well actually, we didn't get charged it because any time it came up I cancelled what ever we were ordering and found somewhere else that didn't charge it.

Yeap. Last I checked it was pretty darn easy to get here on the A9 from the central belt! 
It cheeses me off to no end. Sometimes I have no choice either but to pay it 

Yeap. Last I checked it was pretty darn easy to get here on the A9 from the central belt! 
It cheeses me off to no end. Sometimes I have no choice either but to pay it 

I refuse to pay it and start going higher and higher because it is a discriminatory and racist charge.

Western Isles, Bute, Shetland, hey, like Anglessey and such - not on mainland.  I can see that.

Otherwise, the fact that it's only applied to Scotland is discriminatory and racist, and I don't hesitate to bring that up and complain in writing and refuse to play along.  Because I take that as a slight.

I refuse to pay it and start going higher and higher because it is a discriminatory and racist charge.

Western Isles, Bute, Shetland, hey, like Anglessey and such - not on mainland.  I can see that.

Otherwise, the fact that it's only applied to Scotland is discriminatory and racist, and I don't hesitate to bring that up and complain in writing and refuse to play along.  Because I take that as a slight.

That's a good point, never thought about it that way. I think I will have to rally against them now!!!

There's already been a petition about it:

http://edinburghcentrallibdems.org.uk/news/001259/kennedy_rejects_browns_do_nothing_answer_on_highland_delivery_surcharges.html

I don't think the racist argument will get very far though because the charges are usually applied to N. Ireland as well. It's geographical discrimination.

I don't think the racist argument will get very far though because the charges are usually applied to N. Ireland as well. It's geographical discrimination.

NI is not on the mainland.

And if it's a geographical discrimination, then why do sorting offices located in Glasgow charge extra for the same distance as say, a destination in rural Cumbria from a sorting office in Manchester?

It's only when it comes to Scotland that I've ever seen it applied.  Therefore, it is racist.

N. Ireland is still part of the UK! It's not like it's some remote hinterland with no transporrt links to the rest of the UK. I don't think the surcharge is fair but I don't think it's racist. Which race is being disriminated against? The Scottish? Who would that include exactly? I just think there's a big hole in this argument, that's all.  The problem here isn't racism, it's that Royal Mail and other delivery services know they have people over a barrel.

To expand this a little. In Alaska people make very good use of the US Postal Service, at no extra charge, and the Postal Service must lose millions as people have their groceries and everything else sent to them by mail and you can imagine that they mostly use aircraft to get mail to the "bush".

So there is a new term for you in Scotland. Do they think you live out in the 'bush' when they are charging you a surcharge?

N. Ireland is still part of the UK! It's not like it's some remote hinterland with no transporrt links to the rest of the UK. I don't think the surcharge is fair but I don't think it's racist. Which race is being disriminated against? The Scottish? Who would that include exactly? I just think there's a big hole in this argument, that's all.  The problem here isn't racism, it's that Royal Mail and other delivery services know they have people over a barrel.

It's not on the mainland!  Just like the Western Isles, the Hebrides, Bute, Shetland, Orkney, Anglessey.

So they charge more to get goods there because:  well, have you seen how much transport costs to those areas?

And IMO, it is racist.  Because they don't surcharge people who live in equally rural parts of England vis a vis distance from sorting offices.

It's only applied to Scottish Highlands.