Deliveries to Northern Ireland

[WilsonMilson]

Just a rant really.

Getting a bit fed up with companies who’ve decided to stop (temporarily or permanently - who knows) delivery to Northern Ireland, or who have limited the things they can deliver to NI.

Since the Brexit deal, so far this week I cannot order from M&S, Debenhams have stopped NI delivery and now Amazon won’t sell alcohol, perfumes or aftershaves for delivery in NI. And I cannot get a home office chair for love nor money to be delivered from any bloody where.

This is all I’ve seen so far. I’m sure there must be more as I’ve not really shopped much. It’s incredibly frustrating to be so disadvantaged comparing to the mainland.

And if we do purchase via Ireland we have to pay a conversion rate. Great

Get yourself a revolut and hold a EU balance on it. No conversion rates then.

Goodness me. I despair at this thread. I'm from NI and now live in England. You are not being great ambassadors for our wee country here. It's not helpful for the stereotype, squabbling amongst yourselves while the rest of the thread looks on in wonder.

Ps, OP YANBU re deliveries

@Apollo3

If you don't buy from English companies, then what on earth are you outraged about?

fuck me, you really have no concept about caring about things that don't only affect you, do you? Could you be any more self absorbed?
Newsflash: other people care about lots of things other than themselves and their own needs. Try it some time

Well when people shout at me for no good reason, I'm afraid any interest I may have had in their predicament wanes very rapidly.

@Bookishnerd

Goodness me. I despair at this thread. I'm from NI and now live in England. You are not being great ambassadors for our wee country here. It's not helpful for the stereotype, squabbling amongst yourselves while the rest of the thread looks on in wonder.

Ps, OP YANBU re deliveries

Well said. I think people tune out when they perceive aggression. Arlene Foster hasn't fostered much sympathy from me over the years as she has a certain attitude or way of communicating similar to that displayed on this thread.

Well when people shout at me for no good reason, I'm afraid any interest I may have had in their predicament wanes very rapidly

How can you wane from nothing? You had no interest in the predicament, you didn't even know it existed

And you can't be shouted at in text, sensitive as you may be.

Also, I'm not from NI.

I had sympathy for the OP until you rode in all guns blazing Apollo3

Really? Me showing your ignorance took your sympathy away for someone completely different....and another million people?

That doesn't reflect well on you, at all.

@Apollo3

So no one - absolutely no one - has any experience of what is needed, and how to implement it. It really is an unknown unknown, as they say in planning

There's been four years to plan for it, and nothing at all was done.

From what I've seen any planning for Brexit took about four hours.

And my point stands. It was impossible to plan for a situation which has never existed in the entire recorded history of mankinds political undertakings. You try it.

Brexit has caused the UK to have to create an international border inside it's own geographical territory. It really is impossible to imagine the implications of that until that border starts being crossed.

Maybe the Vatican City is the best closest we can imagine. But that isn't administered by Italy, whereas NI is administered by Westminster.

the sympathy you had aquired moments earlier was removed just as quickly by me. Ooh, what a loss.

OP, I know that Irish people had a way of getting deliveries from UK companies who didn't deliver to Republic as I have relatives there and sent them something once. I think it was done via a NI address which you paid a small fee for. Of course that won't help now if they're not even delivering to NI. I'd say it's just a temporary glitch that the government might push companies to address asap.

I think DHL and DPD were talking about cancelling parcel delivery to drop boxes at the border, not all deliveries if that's any consolation.

What about Argos for an office chair? Any Argos in Sainsbury's is still open for click and collect I think.

There was a big company at Edenderry that the civil service got orthopedic chairs from when I worked for them, they must sell to local companies.

And my point stands. It was impossible to plan for a situation which has never existed in the entire recorded history of mankinds political undertakings. You try it

No it wasn't. Lot's of political situations have never been done before, until they are. You work out what is likely to happen, what is possible, and you put plans in place to work it out.
It was far from impossible, some very clever people pointed out precisely what was needed, but the buffoons in charge ignored them all in favour of bluster and sticking their head in the sand.

OP, I know that Irish people had a way of getting deliveries from UK companies who didn't deliver to Republic as I have relatives there and sent them something once. I think it was done via a NI address which you paid a small fee for.

That was possible because they both in the EU. All have been cancelled/suspended.

I think we’ve become a bit derailed here, which is a shame.

This thread was only intended to be about deliveries and lack thereof, thus disadvantaging those of us who happen to live in Northern Ireland, irrespective of our political views, cultural and religious heritage.

Well I don't think that M&S or TKMaxx are exactly the 'buffoons in charge'. If there is good demand, those companies won't want to lose their market share in NI.

We usually deliver to NI but the timing of the transition and the last minute decisions by politicians have left us as a retailer totally in the dark.

It's hard enough returning from Christmas to catch up and get our orders out the door but to have taken orders not knowing how well our automated systems would handle delivies would be irresponsible.

Once we know we can handle the new customs declarations efficiently we will start selling to NI again.

Frustrating but it's better than taking money and then letting customers down.

For us it isn't as simple as just printing a customers declaration, the info has to be passed digitally to our couriers and we have been unable to test it yet.

@Apollo3

And my point stands. It was impossible to plan for a situation which has never existed in the entire recorded history of mankinds political undertakings. You try it

No it wasn't. Lot's of political situations have never been done before, until they are. You work out what is likely to happen, what is possible, and you put plans in place to work it out.
It was far from impossible, some very clever people pointed out precisely what was needed, but the buffoons in charge ignored them all in favour of bluster and sticking their head in the sand.

I can only report what I've seen. If any planning was done, it certainly wasn't made public at any stage. And there really is nothing in anything legal scholars have access to that even hints at what might lie ahead. We have arrived at the destination, but not yet worked out the journey we need to take to get here.

In order to answer the OP, because companies - especially proper ones - are liable under the law for their actions, then they are all going to be extremely cautious until they are 100% sure that they aren't risking a legal action. That will involve very specialist lawyers that have only just started reading the treaty that will cover them.

I know a lot of insurance policies are being reviewed as I type.

This is a nightmare if turns out to be permanent - even if temporary what's the betting that deliveries from GB to NI will suddenly incur higher postage? I could never understand how I could order from someone in England for standard / free delivery whereas ordering from an ROI company literally a few miles away would incur international postage fees. Going forward I imagine we'll be hit with international post cost either way - just great!! Also, a parcel posted in Wales on 10th Dec with Royal Mail has still not arrived here in NI but not sure if that's linked....

@ObliviouslyIgnorant

Well I don't think that M&S or TKMaxx are exactly the 'buffoons in charge'. If there is good demand, those companies won't want to lose their market share in NI.

It depends whether the cost of servicing that share exceeds it's value. If it does then you are straying into policy decisions by the board that need to be acceptable to shareholders. Basically are they prepared to subsidise that part of the business ? Which is a purely commercial decision, unless there is something that changes the situation - maybe a government incentive.

Of course that would be "state aid" and not at all likely. Or desirable.

As I say, in a 1000+ page document, there is a lot of reading to do. And re-reading. And treble checking. Just because lawyers can't be sued for bad advice, doesn't mean they like to make it a selling point.

Crikey, this thread has gone a bit bonkers. Anyway, OP, YANBU re: deliveries, it's incredibly annoying. I have to say though as a non-NIer living in NI I also avoid saying "the mainland" - it really is incredibly offensive to an awful lot of people and it's easy to avoid.

Ni is politically part of the UK but thanks to Boris's move to trade an NI border (NI, obviously, despite the fervent wishes of the DUP, doesn't count as a proper part of the whole to people on the next-door island who think of the eastern island as a "mainland" and therefore superior and more authentically British) for getting the rest of the UK away from having to answer to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

So now NI is under the EU's jurisdiction for manufactured goods (which is basically everything not food). The Protocol was published a year ago, the problem is that everybody has had to read it and get to grips with it at the same time while knowing that if there is a deal it might all change so how much time do you need/can you afford to update your systems and be ready for one eventuality which might be superseded by another?

So as of tomorrow everything that moves from GB into NI is considered imported into NI. ROI is - and remains - a separate country and part of the EU, so buying from ROI is no less expensive than it always was, and for some things like medicines ROI has their own licensing regime that is different to the UK so many meds can't be sold cross-border.

The Protocol was published a year ago, and the problem isn't that it hasn't been in the public domain - the problem is that everybody has had to read it and get to grips with it at the same time while knowing that if there is a deal it might all change. How much time do you need/can you afford to update your systems and be ready for one eventuality which might be superseded by another? It's like trying to run alongside two moving trains and not knowing which way to jump, but if you get it wrong you lose, and if you don't jump you lose.

Oh no, my formatting has gone bonkers and it looks like I've repeated myself in places - sorry, that must be quite unreadable!

Am I right in thinking that any goods sent from England/ Wales / Scotland to NI (and the rest of the world) will now have to accompanied by a customs declaration? And this is due to Boris having negotiated a customs border down the middle of the Irish Sea as part of Brexit. Will the receivers of these goods also have to complete paperwork?