To ask what businesses can realistically be expected to do about Royal Mail delays?!

[TheySayHurray]

Run a small business. We've had an overwhelming amount of orders this Christmas for Christmas gifts which I'm very thankful for.

We have sent all out in good time, all for next day delivery. However, there are some delays at the moment. A few of the ND deliverys have taken over 5 days to actually reach the customer.

Despite providing tracking information every time I am getting hounded day and night asking for help, where people's orders are, can I do anything, it's a Christmas gift and so on.

Even one today where the tracking says it's been delivered this morning but the customer is saying it hasn't.

I don't know what I'm realistically expected to do other than contact royal mail (who take at least 30 days to respond to any claims).

I put very clearly on my website that I would in no way guarantee Christmas delivery for orders made after X date but no one seems to have bothered reading it!

I've even been pressured into remaking and sending items out in the hope at least one of them gets to the customer in time.

[quote Pinkflipflop85]@amusedbush Matalan have been absolutely shocking! They've been sending clothes to people with security tags still on them or sending them completely different items to the ones they have ordered![/quote]
I was so annoyed. I ordered it in mid-November with a 20% discount code and free click and collect delivery. Matalan said that it was lost but they couldn’t reissue it so if I had wanted to order it again, I would have had to pay full price plus £5 express shipping to get it for Christmas.

I voted with my feet!

It’s unfortunate but DH is working three hours of mandatory overtime every day

That’s his choice, not mandatory I’ve been there 15 years and nobody makes you do overtime if you don’t want it. The managers will try but just say no thanks ☝🏼

If I was a small business I wouldn’t ship my stuff with Royal Mail,

As a small business all you can do is make every effort to dispatch it as quickly as you can. I'd be annoyed if I ordered on the 12th and you dispatched on the 22nd but if you've dispatched quickly there's literally nothing you can do. People should have ordered more quickly. For customer relations though an empathetic response is probably best.

I ordered something on eBay on 1st Dec, which was dispatched the following morning via the 48hour 'service' and arrived two weeks later. Trying to use the tracking system on the RM website, it just effectively said 'don't bother us and go away'.

I technically lied in the eBay feedback and said that it had indeed arrived by the estimated delivery time, because in no way would it be fair for the seller to be punished/sanctioned/downlisted through something entirely beyond their control.

Everybody knows the 'issues' with using Amazon, but their customer service and delivery are exemplary. I placed about a dozen orders over the last month - all standard free delivery - and every single one arrived significantly before the already-quick estimated delivery day. All fully trackable as well, updated in real time on their website, to the extent that I was able to see online when the delivery man had just parked his van outside our house and be waiting for him at the door to avoid holding him up.

Royal Mail have been struggling for quite some time now. Sadly, I can see them going for good before long. Fair enough if they offered the Megabus equivalent of letter and parcel delivery - not the quickest or most predictable, but a very cheap budget option - but they actually cost more than other couriers that seemed to have coped throughout.

Can't you use a courier company instead? Hermes are good round my area and dpd do tracking. Just give it as an option at check out as people can choose to pay extra for a faster delivery.
I have bought a lot of Etsy this Christmas and 3 parcels have not arrived from RM yet after weeks.

Customers will get annoyed as your contract is with RM. Use a different company and stop saying there is nothing you can do because there is .. don't use RM!

Mind you, yesterday I ordered something from a firm who use Royal Mail and said they could do special delivery and get it there (100 miles) by 8 pm tomorrow. It only went and arrived half an hour ago.

If I ordered from a business, and my order failed to arrive in a reasonable time, I would expect an immediate full refund, and for the small business to make a claim from their carriers. It's what the law expects too. The failure of your chosen carrier is entirely your responsibility, and not the responsibility of your customers to sort out. All part and parcel of running a business, I'm afraid.

Our mail here is terrible, sent something to Wales last Monday 48 hour tracked...still not delivered. Our Hermes delivery driver put a post on FB saying she is really overwhelmed with parcels but you will grt them. It's so annoying when customers blame you, it's not your fault!

Nothing you can do, but keep in touch with customers and be as helpful as you can.

Most businesses seem to have used couriers instead of royal mail, so everything I have ordered turned up pretty much on time. I was very impressed.

I have no idea why royal mail did not plan any better when other companies somehow managed. Still not your own fault though, it's not what I meant!

I’m in e-commerce. I’m done with Christmas. I don’t blame you at all. Have a copy and paste reply ready, full of apologies and that you’ll get in touch with RM. then after Christmas (new year?) chase what needs chasing.

The mail has been awful the past few weeks. I sell a lot of CDs on eBay - this past week I have had numerous enquiries as to why the CDs have not arrived. All posted as soon as the payment was received, all costing no more than £4 including postage and people giving me a hard time for something that is obviously not my fault. I point them in the direction of the news sites that are reporting the delays - COVID and Christmas are the blame, but I feel like a punch bag at the moment!

No point in using couriers either as my items will only cost £1.40 to post - no courier is going to be able to be that cheap and no customer is going to want to pay more for a CD.

I'm not sure it's entirely RM's fault - I think they probably have to process a lot more mail than most of the other delivery firms!

@HerdyGerdy

Also wouldn’t be so bad but in my area they no longer deliver daily - three days a week we’re down to.

Yes it's the same here, although I don't think it's official, and I did see a Royal Mail van down the road today but that could have been for a special delivery they had to do and couldn't leave until tomorrow.

OP I would just say that everyone has to wait the allotted time, I think Amazon says 10 days after the predicted date for RM items. If it hasn't arrived then you can raise a complaint with RM and refund the customer. You'll probably find it arrives at some point. Even last year there were a few problems, I ordered a calendar in early December and it arrived in early January. Sometimes things just take ages.

Its hell isnt it

It might be worth using a courier next year or offering it as an option at least? I've had DPD and Hermes deliveries as expected no problem, whereas Royal Mail has been incredibly delayed.

For the immediate issue, could you put together a PDF gift certificate that basically says something like "something special is on its way to you from [small business] but due to the postal delays it's a little delayed" - so that the gift buyers can email it to the recipients at Christmas in place of the gift.

And generally an apologetic and friendly response will go a long way, hopefully most people will understand there is nothing you can do at the moment but you can reassure them you'll of course help if the parcel doesn't turn up at all.

Not much you can do about the delays, and I agree a huge message on your website + standard email response (with lots of empathy) is the best you can do on that front!

For the ones that said they have been delivered, and customer is telling you they haven't - they are emailing you because they are expecting you to offer to send a replacement, as this is what bigger shops are doing...

I know because this has happened to me twice this year already, and to many of my neighbours In my case, two packages with tracking information that said they were delivered - one with myHermes, the photo evidence they took of delivery was not my house! And one Royal Mail, no photo evidence provided but we were inside the entire day they said they delivered, we have a Ring doorbell, I can guarantee no one came near our house that day. In both cases, I contacted the retailer (medium-sized stores) who sent replacements no questions asked, they know it's shit show this year and that people who say their packages never arrived are likely telling the truth.

I appreciate it's hard for you to wear the cost as a small business, but that's what people are expecting you to do :(

I do t think anyone would be critical of individual posties; ours has been good, as was the one we had last year.

However, RM must know that this time of year is busy and that the circumstances this year have made it more so. People have been encouraged to shop more online and so they have. RM could have planned for this in spring, taking into account the restrictions they would face, in terms of distancing and isolating. Other organisations seem to have dealt with deliveries more effectively.

Personally I would have used a courier company and charged a bit more for delivery as RM have been struggling for a while and havent hired seasonal staff. Unfortunately people are twits and will probably hound you forever and a day and then give you shitty reviews! Hope it works out though, good luck

For the immediate issue, could you put together a PDF gift certificate that basically says something like "something special is on its way to you from [small business] but due to the postal delays it's a little delayed" - so that the gift buyers can email it to the recipients at Christmas in place of the gift.

That's a great suggestion @viccat

If I ordered from a business, and my order failed to arrive in a reasonable time, I would expect an immediate full refund

I appreciate this but when there is a huge update on the home page of my website saying I cannot guarantee Christmas delivery for anything ordered after the 1st December, when does a bit of personal responsibility kick in?

The items I make take a long time unfortunately, they are made by hand and are detailed and not something I can shove in the post as soon as an order comes through (often personalised etc...). The timescales I take to make these is very clear on my site along with the update that I can't guarantee Christmas delivery due to Covid and delays to the post.

There's not really much more I could have done to prepare people for the fact that they might not get it in time if they chose to order it after the date on my site. It's very clear, it literally pops up as soon as you go on the website saying IMPORTANT CHRISTMAS UPDATE.

Obviously if things genuinely don't turn up I'll refund or make another but I can't do that between now and Christmas which is what people are wanting.

I'll look into another courier next year, before Christmas I never had a problem with RM and as my items are small, they seem to be better for sending them with (Hermes is appalling in our area I wouldn't want to send anything with them personally).

I'm obviously replying as friendly and as helpfully as I can and I'll submit claims as soon as I can (they aren't letting you until items are at least 5 working days delayed at the moment).

I run a small business and use Fedex and they have also been overwhelmed. They seem to have mainly sorted it out now but for a few weeks in late Nov/early December parcels were going missing or being dropped at the wrong addresses on a daily basis. It was a nightmare to deal with - we did end up refunding customers for shipping and claimed it all back off Fedex but it took a lot of arguing. This year is just a nightmare for it. My sons main xmas present is somewhere between Milan and London on a DHL lorry so is unlikely to arrive on time. What can you do? I have found most customers have been very understanding luckily!

I wouldn't expect a refund on a handmade to order item from a small business, that's cheeky AF

I don't know the ins and outs of how they do it, but it looks like Amazon offer Marketplace sellers the option of having them store and dispatch orders on their behalf. No good for you, of course, OP, as you handmake personalised items to order, but that clearly works for a lot of small sellers offering standard manufactured/crafted goods. I'll bet Amazon charge quite a premium for it, though.

@amusedbush

DH is a postie and he says it depends on which sorting centres the mail is going through. I ordered something that stated 3 day delivery but took over a week to arrive, then something that was posted after the first item arrived within 2 days. DH’s office is pretty clear so it seems to be certain centres that are experiencing backlogs - it depends where in the UK the item is coming from.

It’s unfortunate but DH is working three hours of mandatory overtime every day and has so many parcels every morning he can barely close the van doors. People need to be a bit more understanding.

That’s interesting. I ordered something on Saturday (expecting it to arrive sometime over the Christmas break), it was despatched yesterday and arrived today. I was so surprised, given what I had heard about (understandable) Royal Mail delivery delays.

I've just updated my Etsy shop(s) to say that I can't post abroad at the moment as the borders have closed and the Post Office won't take them. I've offered the 2 orders from yesterday a full refund and the offer to reserve the items for a month for them to re-purchase if they want to. I'll reserve any item for up to a month. A PITA as I'll be taking things off from sale.

In November I had a UK parcel take days longer to arrive than the one in the US posted the same day and also subject to delays. I've been asking people for patience until the end of the week they contact me, when I'll refund them in full. Luckily they've all been happy to do that, and all items arrived in that time. A week ago I extended my preparation and estimated delivery time so nothing was guaranteed before Christmas. I might have lost customers but what else can you do?

I have to keep reminding myself that this is the job I want to be doing!

@Amummyatlast

Yeah, I ordered glasses online and they took AGES to fit the lenses due to a backlog of orders so I was expecting another long wait after they’d been posted. They shipped them with RM on Thursday afternoon and I received them on Saturday morning so I was pleasantly surprised!

RM are also prioritising parcels over letters though - I didn’t get any letters for over a week and Christmas cards/a voucher I’d ordered were very delayed.