I have replied to freefromsmoking by email but felt a reply on here might help to explain how we
arrive at our shipping costs. I have also refunded some of the postage cost as that was an error
on our part as explained below.
Also, to clarify the question of concentrates; the 'That's Nice' range of concentrates on the FlavourArt UK site
were all created by myself using genuine FlavourArt (Italy) flavourings. I do not (and would not) use any other
brand than FlavourArt as we have a long-standing partnership and I am entrusted as UK Distributor for FA.
We are phasing out UK bottling in favour of centralising production in Italy and this will include 'That's Nice' flavours.
The first batch will be in production very soon and more will follow as we build up stock in the UK. Some of these
might later be offered on the FA Italy website but at the moment they are only available on FAUK.
Massimiliano is the real genius behind the flavourings, I just blend them
Now for the postage issue: we try to charge as low a rate as possible for shipping. The prices were
updated when Royal Mail increased their prices in April and all of those price changes, along with the
changes in the weight matrices and sizes of small/medium parcels, had to be integrated into an already
complex ecommerce system that calculates shipping cost automatically by weight.
Unfortunately, the system cannot take into account the physical sizes of bottles, which causes a conflict
when sending 10ml and 30ml bottles; 4 x 10ml bottles can be sent for stamps to the value of £0.90, for
which we would charge £1.20 to the customer as we have to pay VAT on delivery charges even though there
is no VAT on the stamps we buy, so from £1.20 we receive £1 which covers the stamps and the cost
of a padded envelope and plastic bag. 1 x 30ml bottle costs £3 in stamps as it exceeds the size limit
for a Large Letter and is classed as a Small Parcel; we were charging £3.20 to the customer which meant
we were losing £0.33 plus the cost of packaging on every 30ml order. We have lost far more on postage
costs than we have made.
Our ecommerce system does not have the facility to allow for the difference in sizes between bottles which
makes it almost impossible to set weights for all options. We are now moving away from 30ml bottles, partly
for this reason but also because all production is being moved to FA Italy; they now have two automated production
lines each with a capacity of 50,000 10ml bottles per day and a third line with a capacity of 12,000 10mls per day.
We will still be offering reduced prices for 30ml quantities but customers will receive 3 x 10ml bottles, which will be better all round.
We don’t aim to make a profit on shipping and freefromsmoking's postage charge was because the weight had not been
set to the right figure; there are several hundred lines of figures for all of the shipping options we offer and
it was human error in this case. I have already refunded £2 of the £3.20 so that freefromsmoking has only paid the £1.20 he expected.
I have however adjusted the matrix for UK shipping to try and reflect the true cost of shipping, so if you ordered
the same product now, the postage cost to you would be £1.60 which is broken down as follows; £1.20 for stamps,
£0.32 for VAT, £0.08 to cover envelope and plastic bag, which I think is pretty fair.
I hope that offers some clarification and thanks to everyone for their custom. I don't spend much time here as I have so many demands
on my time but I do see you a lot of you on UKV.
Best wishes
John
I’m sorry you were overcharged but that has now been rectified.
