WWYD about misleading advertising?

[Hannah]

"Always free shopping" only applies to the USA.

 

There is an online homeschool store that in its website header advertises "Always Free Shipping". Further down on the opening page it promises... "Never spend a dime on shipping! Shop at the XXXX where the shipping is always FREE! "

I was extremely excited to place an order and it went through the whole checkout process and no shipping charge was added. In fact it stated "always free" as the shipping cost.

 

Yesterday I got a mail from the company advising me that free shipping only applies to US orders and that I could still get the item if I payed the shipping fee.

I cancelled the order and suggested that the website header and checkout process on the site be changed to make it clear that "Always" is only for the USA.

 

I've not had a reply to this suggestion and there has been no change to the site.

 

I believe the advertising on the site is misleading. Is there a advertising authority or onbutsman where this can be reported?

[Jen500]

Is there anyplace on the website with more specific shipping details? I've bought from businesses in other countries, and I always assume there's a different shipping cost for my order than if I was in the country of the business.

[Haiku]

I think you did what you could by sending them an email. I wouldn't worry about it anymore. I visit lots of websites that say "Free shipping on orders over $50" but then explain that shipping to other countries is not free.

 

Tara

[Hannah]

I think you did what you could by sending them an email.

I guess you're right. I did think, "Wow, that's generous" and then when the checkout allowed me to go through the whole process, inclduing payment, I thought they really meant it.

Websites like Rainbow Resource and Sonlight from whom I've bought in the past are clear with the disclaimer and their checkouts are setup for shipping calculations.

[ConnieB]

Overstock.com is infamous for their misleading "free shipping" ads......it took almost a year of complaining to them and to my state's attorney general (who handles consumer complaints about misleading fraud) before they finally changed their ads and now in tiny tiny little print it says something along the lines of "expect if your order consists only of books" (I think music and movies are also excluded, but since I don't buy it I can't remember for sure, lol). You could certainly find out what state the company in question is physically located and file a complaint with the Attorney General there....but be forewarned....my experience is that it takes numerous complaints before the AG will act.

 

In their defense.........I think some companies, especially smaller companies of which most homeschool companies would fit, don't really realize that they have an international audience. It does sound like this company thought it's customers were only US based or perhaps didn't think of it at all. It was certainly their error, and I hope that they add a disclaimer....but on the other hand, I have to agree with the previous poster......when I've ordered items from a store that I knew was not in the United States I never assumed that any free or very low shipping would apply to my out-of-country order. THe reality is that shipping outside of ANY country is quite expensive. Even within Europe shipping country to country is rather prohibitive. For that matter, I've also seen US companies who have disclaimers that shipping is higher to Alaska and Hawaii....sometimes referred to as not "within the 48 contiguous states".

 

I would guess that South Africa doesn't have a lot of homeschool stores, so you may have no other choice but to pay for shipping. If that's the case....I'd probably check around to find the company that has as many of the items I wanted as possible, because larger orders tend to be cheaper to ship than several small ones. I tend to do this even though I am in the US, just to save on shipping as well. RainbowResource.com seems to carry the largest selection, though by no means everything I want....and I just looked and they do ship foreign...this is what their website says:

 

Purchase Order Shipping Rates:

Minimum - $3.75

$25 - $49.99 15%

$50 - $99.99 12%

$100 - $199.99 10%

$200 - $299.99 8%

$300 - $499.99 6%

$500 and over 4%

Canadian and Foreign Shipping Rates:

• Canada Air Mail - 2 times the Purchase Order shipping rate.

• Foreign Air Mail - 5 times the Purchase Order shipping rate.

Please note that due to a change by the U.S. Postal Service, we can no longer ship Foreign Surface. However, we are currently looking into alternatives.

 

So it appears that if you place a very large order the shipping could be relatively decent. Are there other homeschoolers in your area that you could join together to get a large order? Here in the US Rainbow Resource ships $150 or higher orders for free, so I simply advertise on my homeschool support group mail list that I want to place an order and almost always we're able to come up with others to make it free shipping. I have it come to my house and then take the other orders to the next group event or they come pick it up at my house.

 

Something we did when we lived in Asia....we'd have the items shipped to my MIL who then would mail them to me. Now this was several years ago so you'd want to do the math, but for whatever reason it was cheaper to do this "double" shipping than what the mail order company (this was before Internet shopping was so huge) charged for foreign mailing, if they would even do it which was rare back then (I often suspected that those who would ship foreign priced it high enough to make you reconsider so they didn't have to do the extra work, lol). Perhaps you have a friend here in the States that could accept the order and forward it on to you?

 

I wish that more companies would go the ebook route, though it is increasing it's still not as widespread as one would think it could be.....not only is it instant gratification, lol...there is so much paper to be saved. We have many items that we use that are ebooks and we simply bring them up on the laptop in the schoolroom to view them, so we don't have to print all the pages out either. Though my peeve with ebooks is they are often the same price as in-hand books (or only a dollar or two cheaper), yet I'm going to have to use my ink/paper to print it out, thereby the ebook is more expensive to me. As I said above, we combat that by reading it online when possible, but not all books are possible. Yet the cost for the seller is extremely less.....as they have no investment in stock that may not sell, or that they've paid for already but sits for months because they had to buy a minimum, etc. Yes, I do believe the authors still deserve to be paid for their creation, but the cost of manufacturing a book is several times more than creating a file. So with that in mind it would seem that book sellers would want more ebooks because their profit margin is much much higher, so I don't understand why more aren't available. Ok, rant over....for now, lol.

 

I hope that you're able to get the books you want/need. We didn't really homeschool when we lived abroad as the kids were toddlers (or not even born yet), but there were many things that we couldn't get over there that I wanted and had to mail order and double ship. I can't imagine trying to homeschool and not having access to local shops! I guess I'd utilize more of the online curriculums in that case.