Santa may have nothing to deliver this year, as anxious mums and dads wait for their Christmas parcel to arrive.
Royal Mail workers have been on strike for four days so far this month, leading to reports of piles of parcels and letters building up at sorting offices, as workers deal with the backlog before the next two strike days on December 23 and 24. It has brought the last posting dates for first-class mail forward to today, and admitted there were 'delays' in a statement on its website.
"Due to the recent strike action by members of the Communication Workers Union, disruption to deliveries and our services is expected. Items posted in the run up, during and after strike days are likely to be subject to delay. We’re sorry for any inconvenience this will cause," it said.
Read more: DPD delivery delays - Full list of Newcastle and North East postcodes affected
The postal worker walkouts coincide with the busiest time of year for Royal Mail when people and businesses are sending Christmas cards and presents and the apology is cold comfort for families who have been waiting in some cases weeks for parcels ordered in good time for Christmas as the days tick by. Retailers say Christmas sales have taken a hit, as customers hold off ordering in case their gifts don't arrive on time, with bookstore Waterstones warning customers to go into stores rather than rely on online shopping if they want to get Christmas gifts on time.
The situation has been made worse by retailers such as Currys switching from Royal Mail to alternative couriers, which has caused backlogs with delivery companies such as DPD and Evri, formally Hermes. DPD has come under fire by angry shoppers, who have reported being constantly told their parcel will be delivered the next day, and it then fails to arrive. One customer said: "Every day, I received a text saying; 'Oh no, your parcel has been delayed and telling me it was held at the Hebburn depot. It eventually arrived five days later, when it was supposed to be next-day delivery - and I think I have been lucky."
And furious customers waiting for deliveries from Evri were similarly unimpressed, after the courier company, formally Hermes, admitted that reports on social media that parcels were being left outside in the rain at the company's Stanley, Co Durham, depot, were correct. Adelle Gibson, of Tanfield Lea, near Stanley, said: The depot near my home has huge piles of parcels outside in all weathers and people just aren’t getting their parcels. They have five of my parcels apparently “delayed at carrier facility” and have been since November 30. All of them are birthday or Christmas gifts from various retailers.
"Every single parcel I have sent to me via Evri is now going to “delayed at carrier facility” within a few days and isn’t turning up. I have no idea what to do now and I know I’m not the only one."
Social media has been deluged with complaints, with @starcaron suggesting: "Any company that uses Evri as their delivery service should be forced to display that info prominently on its web page so we can see it before we order. And then shop somewhere else," while @AndreasAyling hit out at DPD, saying: "Your UK customer services are horrifically useless. The chat function on the app doesn’t work and it took me 30 minutes to talk to someone today who was dismissive and utterly unhelpful. I’ve had one DPD delivery today and another that just didn’t bother. Rubbish!"
Both DP and Evri have blamed 'capacity issues' for the hold-ups, as retailers moved away from Royal Mail because of the strikes. DPD said it had earlier this week temporarily suspended next-day deliveries to around 5% of postcodes in the UK. "We are experiencing short delays to our next-day delivery service in a small number of locations, as a result of the industrial action at the Royal Mail, which has had a huge knock-on effect across the entire industry. As a result of the industrial action, we have seen an increase in demand for our services, as shippers seek alternatives to the Royal Mail in the UK. Where delays do occur, we update the parcel recipient directly where our customers have provided us with their contact details. Any delays at this time of year are hugely regrettable and while the underlying issues here are outside of our control, we would wish to reassure retailers and parcel recipients that our team is doing everything possible to minimise the impact on next-day deliveries," a spokesperson said.
Evri said: “We can confirm that due to capacity issues following higher than normal Christmas parcel volumes driven in part by the Royal Mail Strikes, in some cases our couriers are loading parcels for delivery outside. This is a temporary arrangement as our local team works hard to ensure that all parcels will arrive before Christmas. We do have arrangements in place for bad weather.
"We are sorry that some customers are experiencing short delays in receiving their parcels. We’ve invested over £60 million in our network infrastructure so our service remains strong and we are successfully delivering over 3 million parcels every day with no delays or backlogs in the majority of our network. We thank everyone for their patience and understanding.”
The chaos in delivery depots could be a win for the high street, as Andrew Goodacre, the chair of British Independent Retail Association, said that if customers want to be confident of getting their Christmas gifts on time, their best bet was to go and buy them in person. We would always say that anyway as we'd always promote a healthy vibrant High Street, but when there's so much disruption, not just with postal strikes, but rail strikes too, if customers want certainty on Christmas orders, best to order online, and collect in store."
But Mr Goodacre told the BBC that it was a difficult situation for small retailers, many of whom will be reliant on Royal Mail to make deliveries. He said retailers would have been hoping to maximise sales at Christmas time, and the strikes could make that harder.
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