[byaru]

Originally Posted by jimworcs

If I buy a product from any company, I expect them to be upfront about all charges related to the delivery of that product.

Exactly. This is what I would have expected. Because if I had known about those charges, I would never have used the "service" !

I often buy items from the US online, and always a pop up box appears telling me of additional costs and possible customs charges. Emirates is an international airline.. and he was effectively buying the item, using his miles. He has been effectively charged double. It renders the whole concept of spending his miles pointless.

That is correct!
1. I 'bought' an item using the miles. The cost of the item is normally about 120USD.
2. I lost those miles.
3. I ended up paying a total of 137 USD (duties, handling an "documentation" charges) :-( !!

The airline is the supplier, the delivery company is the contracted to the airline. It is not beyond their wit to advise customers of what the charges are and respectible companies such as Amazon.com do so. Why is it unreasonable to ask an airline to behave in the same manner?

And this is my major gripe.
I raised the issue on the emirates website feedback form and they replied, saying they are "investigating".

I honestly feel very, very cheated.
Lost the miles and ended up paying slightly more than what I would have paid for the iPod anyway had I bought it from any other store!!

/e