Shocked pensioner stung for £760 after buying £30 fridge hinges from Amazon trader

Mr Ord, 83, bought the £30.33 hinges for the fridge in his Ducato Swift Suntour motorhome from a trader on Amazon – passing through checkout without a second thought.

But when the Portchester pensioner checked his bank balance he found he had been hit with a bill of £734.34 to ship the items from America.

Mr Ord, from Northfield Park, said: ‘When I purchased the hinges, I couldn’t see a shipping cost associated to it.

‘The item itself only cost me £30, so when I saw more than £760 missing from my account I was incredibly confused.

‘I got straight on to the bank who pointed me in Amazon’s direction – but I found them to be very unhelpful.

‘I would have been fine if it was a reasonable shipping cost, but to he charged £734.34 is absolutely ludicrous.

‘I had assumed there would be a shipping cost because it was purchased from an American company, but I would never have imagined something like that.

‘I looked it up online and the shipping cost should have been in the region of £15 – not 48 times that.’

Mr Ord said that he wasn’t able to reach anyone at Amazon about the problem.

He said: ‘All of the phone calls are automated these days, so you never actually talk to someone about the problem you’re having.

‘I sent some e-mails across as well and never received anything back from those either.’

Amazon confirmed that the charge for the order was the result of a system error, but a fix has been put in place to prevent that from happening again. The customer has also been refunded the shipping cost.

Mr Ord, who used to work in defence electronics for Marconi Space and Defence Systems before his retirement, said he is ‘delighted’ to be getting a refund.

He said: ‘I never thought I would be getting the money back.

‘I was very fortunate that Amazon eventually paid attention to what’s happened to me.’

Mr Ord won’t be getting the door hinges just yet – as they are being held by a customs office, awaiting a £21 fee he says has already been paid.