I recently made an online purchase from Hammacher Schlemmer  (hammacher.com).   This is a specialty retailer headquartered in the United States with a large mail order service as well as stores.  Their catalog indicates they provide exceptional service to Canada.  Hmmm, I wonder.

Order Confirmation

The order confirmation indicated what the cost of the purchases, the shipping services and shipping surcharge (presumably because this was a Canadian order) plus Canadian goods and services tax would be.     The shipping and handling was quoted in the online confirmation as $32.90.   Though not explicitly stated I found out when billed all the costs were in US $. (Not really unexpected so no problem)

Foundation for a Class Action Suite

Now it gets interesting.  When the items were shipped I was billed.  The amount charged in US$ for the items themselves and the taxes matched the online confirmation I received when I made the purchase.  Surprisingly the shipping and handling was charged as $44.09 US.   Interestingly the difference between $44.09 and $32.90  is at a rate of 1.34 which is what the US/CDN buy rate of exchange was at the time.

Customer Service?

So I wrote an e-mail to the customer service department asking the very simple question, why was the online confirmation for shipping, handling, service surcharge for $32.90 US and the actual charge was $ 44.09 US.

The first reply talked about what I had bought and what it cost and how it was being delivered.   Given this was not the question, I wrote back asking the same question again.  Reply number 2 said the difference was was due to the exchange.  Ah ha, I thought and quickly wrote back saying the quote was in US and the charge was in US so the difference was not the exchange, unless they converted shipping and handling to Canadian and then charged that in US$, clearly what would be an overcharge.  (If this is systemic I really see a class action opportunity.)

Anyway the third e-mail reply in the stream blathered on about questions I had not asked and things I already knew leading me to a final blunt reply – please answer the question or refer it to a supervisor who can.  The answer back was, I can’t help you via e-mail please call our customer service line to resolve this.

Calling Customer Service

I explained the circumstances to the representative who answered the phone.  When I offered to send another copy of e-mail confirmation so he could confirm the quoted amount he suggested I submit my complaint to customer service on-line to which I noted I had done so four times and finally the online representative had told me to call.  Ultimately, my call to customer service resulted in the difference being reversed; However, the cause was never revealed.

Canadian Customers, beware of Hammacher overcharging the exchange.

Note:  I sent a copy of the link to this post to Hammacher customer service so they could have the opportunity to comment/ respond to my allegations and explain the difference, which frankly I would really like to know.