Jimmy Squarefoot on the Isle of Man

I spent most of the weekend trying to decide which new laptop I was going to buy. I finally went for an Asus, the fist time I hadn’t gone with an Acer Aspire for years.

Having finally made my choice I ordered in the early hours of Monday morning – 2am to be exact.

As tends to be the norm the price included delivery for UK mainland only while an Isle of Man delivery carried a £9.99 surplus.

I don’t begrudge paying the extra tenner especially as it said delivery would be 1 to 2 days for offshore islands as apposed to the guaranteed next day delivery the mainlanders get.

So I was a bit pissed off when I get a text at 11:05am on Tuesday informing me it was being “dispatched today.” My order would have been sat waiting for them when they got to work on Monday morning so why didn’t it go out on Monday?

I went back and double checked – the laptop is in stock and yes they are still guaranteeing next day delivery for UK mainland.

Is it a case of “well we can’t get it there by tomorrow so why rush, pressure is off” ?

At 5pm today (Tuesday) I received an email from the courier – a company called Box – telling me it will be delivered on the 5th and could I be sure someone is in to sign for it.

So in their world then the Isle of Man takes 4 days to reach!

I wouldn’t mind but Monday evening I ordered a new cordless drill from Screwfix. I waited for the free shipping to disappear after I entered the Manx post code but it didn’t. I thought it’s probably because it doesn’t recognise the post code but it did.

It arrived just after midday on Tuesday, 18 hours after I ordered it.

So does it cost considerably more for an Isle of Man delivery compared to say London to Glasgow? Do some companies swallow the cost themselves while others don’t have the margins?

Can someone tell Jimmy why one company can get a delivery here the next day at no extra cost while another charges £10 extra and takes 4 days?

Answers below please……………..rant over.