So pleased I made the decision to shut up shop early, just seen this in the papers: Royal Mail meltdown, sorry cannot put a link as in the Mail app.
I haven’t seen anything like that in the news I read, but it’s almost definitely an over exaggeration. The Royal Mail melts down twice a year when covid isn’t a thing; it was always going to struggle more than usual this time of year with more staff off sick/isolating due to covid, especially as most people are doing their Christmas shopping online. It’s definitely slower than I remember it being in previous Decembers, but my local post offices are still working as well as can be expected. The post’s not completely stopped.
If a customer decides to buy something now and gets grumpy that it doesn’t arrive within 3 working days so they can get it wrapped for Christmas Eve or suchlike, then they’ve been living under a rock… and I don’t want their custom, they can pop off to Amazon Prime and get a box chucked over their hedge within 24 hours instead.
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Our post has been bad for weeks and only get normal post on Tuesday & Friday. Parcels on Wednesday. Delays in receipt of approx 21 days now. So definitely a meltdown for us lucky if you live where no problems.
It’s not problem-free but it’s okay given the circumstances. I’m in a very big town/small city though, and the sorting office is very local, so I think the infrastructure is better than in other places. Has the post been Tuesday and Friday since the pandemic or was that a thing anyway?
Rural deliveries have been a bit intermittent all year for me, so it’s kind of expected. However, it was a surprise to find a first class, signed for large envelope take almost a fortnight last month. That was the slowest I’ve ever had, presumably down to posting to an area in tier four.
I closed my online shops last night for this very reason. I’m still waiting for one of my parcels from the 30th to be delivered so I just don’t want the worry of answering stressed e-mails about late parcels closer to Christmas I just hope all the ones that I posted in the last few days arrive in good time or I may be answering stressed e-mails anyway…lol! I did have a disclaimer about postage in my announcement section but I’m not sure everyone reads that before ordering. I did send all my really expensive parcels by tracked delivery most recently for peace of mind.
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Mainly due to the pandemic used to be Thursday delivery but that stopped in the last few months. I know they only delivery parcels not letters on Wednesday as they have to share the van round the villages they could,d not get the money to buy another van. We are in the middle of nowhere.
Thank you Ali, could not post the link as kept defaulting to the Mail app.
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I think if you’re in, as you say, ‘the middle of nowhere’, it’s natural that they’re going to cut back and share resources even pre-pandemic. It’s just an unfortunate combination of gradual cutbacks on Royal Mail’s part, plus November lockdown, plus general rise of online shopping, plus general rise of the ‘Karens’ of the world who need their bespoke order shipped within 35 minutes and tantrum when they don’t get it… I hope things will even out in new year, and Royal Mail might (let’s not hold our breath though) even consider changing their systems to manage busy times/crises better.
Could your local community work on a system to pool your resources and get mail delivered more efficiently? It’s not your job to fundraise them a van or anything, but there might be something you can do in conjunction with your local post office? I feel like if you’re frustrated, your neighbours probably are too. There might be a way to improve things if you get together and contact the post office about potentially adapting to local needs.
I haven’t had any problems with the Royal Mail fortunately at the moment, fingers crossed. It seems that most of my order’s have arrived 1 to 3 days later than normal.
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today there were THREE Amazon vans in our road and it is less than 300 yards long !!!
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I haven’t had any complaints yet. I assume packages arrive in good time or customers know there are delays.
I am hoping people would support the high street and small businesses, but it looks like convenience and quantity of goods are winners. And the large companies as always!
I haven’t closed my shop yet , I was planning on staying open til the 18 th, but I may close sooner . I haven’t had any complaints of late parcels …yet but there is always one !
I live in South London and the post has been absolutely terrible for months. Sporadic piles turn up with missing ones about once or twice a week. 3 parcels turned up on Thursday after about 7 weeks and stank to high heaven - have no idea where they could have been stored , but two of them I can’t use because of the smell 
. Shambles !
It looks like anything sent ‘2nd class’ is arriving even later than expected. Sort of like the RM are relying on the in built delay as an excuse.
Standard parcels are going the same way, which is a real worry for smaller items this time of the year.
I have some non Folksy customers who I have kindly asked to either collect from me if close enough or I travel to for delivery.
There are some repeat customers who I can work with to split costs for more reliable package delivery.
Special Delivery is just not happening at the moment, I sent one the previous Wednesday morning for delivery by Saturday for a wedding, it didnt arrive until the Monday, 5 days later and late! so had to do a full refund, luckily the customer was understanding, plus I have seen loads of posts and heard from people the same about special delivery, yet they are still taking peoples money for the premium service which they cant fulfil…
I think there are huge regional variations.
I’m in South Wales, and while I have noticed definite delays with second class parcels, first class seem to be okay.
I have had a couple of customers ask where their items are but found they have arrived a couple of days later. I recently had a large first class letter package take 8 days instead of one or two days. I have put an announcement on my page that final Christmas orders were on Friday because of it. I have moved all my Christmas items off the first page of my shop and was thinking of hiding them. I have lots of non Christmas items, so will probably keep my shop open over Christmas but extend my shipping times.
My sister-in-law sent a parcel to me from Norfolk last weekend. Posted Saturday morning second class and it arrived here in Derbyshire Monday morning. Royal Mail must have been working flat out on Sunday!
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