Extra fees lurk behind deliveries of web purchases, Hong Kong's consumer watchdog warns

Shoppers should scrutinise the terms, conditions and charging methods offered by mainland-based mass delivery services before making their online purchases, the consumer watchdog has advised.

Hongkongers received the heads-up from the Consumer Council in the wake of a 26 per cent rise in complaints it recorded about non-local courier services in the first five months of the year compared with the same period a year before.

Overall, the total number of complaints on the subject rose 52 per cent from 94 in 2013 to 143 last year, according to the latest issue of the council's Choice magazine.

The delivery services in question, known as package consolidation, involve combining multiple parcels into single shipments to save on time and logistics.

This has become popular among people who buy from mainland e-commerce websites.

The council highlighted a tendency for courier service providers to charge package consolidation fees not based on the "actual weight" of a parcel but on "volumetric weight", which took into account the parcel's dimensions.

Since it is common practice in the industry to calculate fees using the heavier weight, a parcel may incur a charge that is almost double what it could have been, based on its actual weight.