Postal strikes - severe delays in orders arriving with customers.

I know we are all in the same boat but how are you dealing with customers who are complaing that orders are not arriving in the usual 3 days please. Some are just not willing to wait that extra. Where do we stand on this?

Comments

  • 14 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Hi Kath,

    This is a message we sent earlier this week to a customer in The Netherlands. They didn't get back to us to challenge it, but there's not much more we can do. We've sent out similar messages to UK customers too.

    We've had a couple where the (UK) orders haven't arrived after three weeks, so we ended up refunding the customer and putting a claim in with Royal Mail.

    Rich


    --------------------------------------

    Thank you for your message.

    Even though your order was posted on 2nd December, due to the postal strikes that have been happening in the UK for several months (and are continuing through December) there is a huge backlog of mail that has built up and it's taking a while for this to get processed. This means that although mail to Europe would normally take 5-7 days, it is currently taking up to 28 days.

    Apologies for this, but these delays are out of our hands. If your order hasn't arrived by the New Year please get back in touch with us and we will work something out with you.

    Many thanks,

    Rich - Brickadoon

    -----------------------------------------------
  • Also, if we've had any large orders to send, we've been using the 'Tracked 48' option (and taking a hit on the extra postage).

    It's supposed to take 2 days, but usually takes 3-4 but you do get tracking to show where it is. That's helped a couple of times with customer requests.
  • I have only had one customer query where their package was and they were in the US. It was from the first round of strike action so a few weeks back. Luckily once I'd explained the situation they were understanding and we agreed on a provisional deadline. It still hadn't arrived by then, but subsequently arrived a couple of days later.

    All in it was about three weeks late, but they also had a late package from another country that had a similar delay so I took some small comfort from that.
  • I have been warning customers about delays and giving them the option to cancel. No-one has cancelled on me yet. Its UK customers are complaing the orders are not arriving.
    Where as I do agree with Postal Stike (no-one should be forced into working on Sundays) , I have to say this is getting a bit of a pain now.
    I had one customer who waited for over 3 weeks for her order to arrive but thankfully she has ordered from me many times and understood what was happening but I am having a couple that are asking for refund after 7 days which I feel with the current situation is not fair when there is a good chance their order will turn up soon.
    I have now started warning people that their orders could take up to 2 weeks to arrive - but ridiculous but I need to cover myself now.
  • As of yesterday (Friday) I was waiting for 17 parcels from UK Sellers, 5 turned up yesterday, leaving us waiting for 12. Some of theses parcels are now 3 weeks old. I know where the problem is, but cannot do anything about it! Mail for Basingstoke is sorted at Swindon and they have a big big backlog which happens every year! With the strike action it's just worse! Be interesting to see what turns up in the mail today!
  • I have been warning customers about delays and giving them the option to cancel. No-one has cancelled on me yet. Its UK customers are complaing the orders are not arriving.
    Where as I do agree with Postal Stike (no-one should be forced into working on Sundays) , I have to say this is getting a bit of a pain now.
    I had one customer who waited for over 3 weeks for her order to arrive but thankfully she has ordered from me many times and understood what was happening but I am having a couple that are asking for refund after 7 days which I feel with the current situation is not fair when there is a good chance their order will turn up soon.
  • @ SimplyBrickshope your not waiting for one from me then :D
  • LOL No Kath, but I'm down to waiting for 7 orders, oldest 3 weeks!
    Mike
  • I have been warning customers about delays and giving them the option to cancel. No-one has cancelled on me yet. Its UK customers are complaing the orders are not arriving.
    Where as I do agree with Postal Stike (no-one should be forced into working on Sundays) , I have to say this is getting a bit of a pain now.
    I had one customer who waited for over 3 weeks for her order to arrive but thankfully she has ordered from me many times and understood what was happening but I am having a couple that are asking for refund after 7 days which I feel with the current situation is not fair when there is a good chance their order will turn up soon.
  • With your postal service on strike, asking for a refund after 7 days sounds far from fair to me... they should give it several weeks at the minimum IMHO.

    My daughter and her best friends were actually visiting London and Dublin for the first time, just before the holidays (they flew back to the US on 12/23). Apparently the rail services were also striking, which made for lots of challenges for tourists in London - I can't imagine how hard it was for folks who live there to get to work and other places day-to-day during that!
  • edited December 2022 Vote Up0Vote Down
    :(
  • My suggestion is to quit selling to anywhere in Europe....Problem solved!!
  • @drchaz
    Unnecessary comment about a common problem. And not very service minded for buyers outside of America.
    I am sad that you think that it is the only option for your store, to completely shot down for Europe.

    Instead of like others here in the topic, writing about how we can help the awesome people who buy from us, like notice them of longer shipping times, and hoping that wont drive away business.
  • @Malnaborg This was my suggestion because I myself have had nothing but trouble. Postal delays, complaints upon complaints. Then they don't want to send back the wrong part or color that was part of the issue, all they want is money for nothing. So, I quit selling to people overseas.
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