Firstly, thank you so much for shopping with us. We've loved seeing your orders coming through and all the messages of love that you are sending out to each other this (and every) Christmas.
We haven't loved seeing some of your orders get caught up in the industrial action happening within Royal Mail, and as much as we wish we had a magic wand (it's pantomime season after all, right?), we appear to be wandless. Here's what we're doing in lieu of the pixie dust:
New Orders
All new orders are now being upgraded to Tracked 24 at no extra cost to you. This service is fully trackable so you'll be able to see updates on delivery. This service would normally arrive within 24-48 hrs, but during this period we know it's taking more like a week.
If you need your order before Christmas, then we strongly recommend that you upgrade to Express Special Delivery. This would normally arrive with you the following day, but can take a little longer depending on strike action. Again, this is fully trackable and we know that Royal Mail are prioritising this service above absolutely everything else.
To make this an affordable service for more people, we've reduced the cost of this from the normal £6.95 to just £3.50. It's incredibly important to us that we do whatever we can to enable the smooth and quick delivery of your gifts!
We're NOT shifting to an external courier company. We've thought long and hard about this one, but we're hearing from the courier companies that we use for some of our larger deliveries and from all our small business friends and the volume they are dealing with means they too are missing delivery dates.
There are many areas of the UK that are not covered by couriers because they don't have a driver currently for that area, or because it is remote and not profitable for them to operate there. (As an aside, this is never the case for Royal Mail, they delivery EVERYWHERE in the UK for one price and this is one of the services under threat that the posties are striking to protect.)
Existing Orders
If you're waiting on an existing order, these were sent with Tracked48, which is our standard offering on our own website. Again, this is fully tracked so you should be able to see the progress of your order. If you have any worries though, please get in touch. You can call us on 01242 255646.
If you've come to our website because you have ordered through one of the platforms we sell through, such as Etsy or Notonthehighstreet, then our standard service on those platforms is untracked RM48 post. (Our platforms charge us commission on postage fees.) As there is no live tracking, the link to "tracking" on your order will only confirm if delivery has been attempted (and taken back to a sorting office), or achieved - popped through your letterbox. Unfortunately we won't be able to find out anything further than you can see on the same tracking link. Rest assured it is on its way. If you would like to get in touch, then please do, we can chat about the state of the world and reassure you your order has been sent.
Challenging Times!
It's another challenging Christmas! At least we're not all isolating now and can actually hug our friends and loved ones, which is surely the greatest gift of all.
