First of all although i have had to complain to Axminster on 2 occasions in the past (1 sorted to my satisfaction, the other more recently was not) i still think that compared to a lot of other companies there service is very good. Most of the products they sell is of good quality and no matter how far away from them you live (within the UK) 9 out of 10 times i have got free (over £45) next day delivery.
The only trouble is, Axminster like a lot of other big companies can sometimes fall flat on their face when it comes to personal customer service.
We all know that as a company gets bigger and bigger they often lose the personal touch, until you are just a membership number or post code. But it is not always the company itself that is at fault. A lot of the time it is the luck of the draw and the actual the member of staff who serves you.
Take Mikes problem for instance. (1) He had already placed an order and these items were just additions. (2) The postage that he was being asked to pay was nearly double the cost of the items. (3) Over the years he has become a good customer. So any good staff member would have at the very least reduced the pxp, if not have wiped it altogether.
Now look at my case with the very same company. I had placed an order the day before, and at the time i knew that i had forgotten something, but it wasn't until the next day that i realised that it was a collet for my router. I phoned to order this other part and just happened to mention what i had done. The next thing i knew this person said that because i had only just placed the order she would try and add the collet to that order so that i wouldn't have to pay another delivery charge. In the end the parcel had already gone but she still waved the postage costs.
So as you can see rather then the company being at fault, it can SOMETIMES be a staff member who is the problem.
But even then in the case of small items, which Axminster often send as a letter (NOT a parcel), to be delivered by your ordinary postman, you should be charged by post office rates (46p in Mikes case) and not parcel rates.
I have found that if you have a problem like this it pays to ask to speak to a manager, who will often sort the problem out.
"Edit", i wrote this without seeing Noel's post. So as you can see it really is down to who serves you.
Regards
Woody