A wild-goose chase with Outdoor and Country

Whilst flicking through the Outdoor & Country catalogue I fell in love with an adorable jumper that would be perfect for my niece. I immediately made a mental note to buy it for her birthday next month. The “Free Delivery” dot whack on the right-hand side of the page did its job in further persuading me that this was a good buy. However, a closer look at the free delivery offer revealed that “conditions apply”.

Okay, where can I find out what the conditions are? Nothing on the front or back covers pointed to a free p&p offer, the welcome letter on page 2 also made no mention of such a deal. Even the terms and conditions form at the back was no help. In very fine print on the order form I noted that full terms and conditions regarding delivery are available online. So I headed online. Happily, each spread carries the web address at the bottom on the page so at least I didn’t have to look too hard for that.

Nothing about free delivery on the home page. The link to “Delivery” takes me to a page about Christmas ordering and the returns process, but nothing about free shipping. The help page was a bit more help, but only told me of standard shipping rates, not about any offers.

I then decided to search for the product and see whether by adding it to my basket, the checkout process will work out charges for me. No such luck, the jumper is out of stock in all sizes.

After all that effort I still don’t know what the deal is, and even more disappointed to learn that it’s out of stock anyway. Cataloguers take note—don’t make the consumer work so hard. If free delivery has conditions, specify what they are within the catalogue. Not everyone will be sat by a computer when browsing your catalogue, and even if they are, they shouldn’t be expected to hunt for something made so prominent on a product page.—MT