Update 29/12/2022
We heard from Royal Mail today that for international orders the tracking will only start working once the parcels clear customs in the destination country. Therefore, if your parcel tracking says “We’re expecting it” and you asked for shipping outside of the UK then your order is in transit, but hasn’t cleared customs yet
The majority of our parcels in 2022 are currently sent using Royal Mail, who've provided us with a great service for the last couple of years. Unfortunately towards the end of the year they've had a number of strikes, which due to the timing coinciding with the busiest time of the year for parcel deliveries has led to quite severe delays to people receiving their ropes.
Tracking problems
These delays mean not all parcels are being scanned by Royal Mail, which is why you see the note "We're expecting it" when you check your tracking. The wording makes it sound like they're still waiting on us to give them your parcel but this isnt' the case: if your order from us has a tracking number then we've given the parcel to the carrier, either on the day the tracking was created or the day after.
The delays are affecting orders sent towards the very end of November and start of December. We knew strikes were likely this year, which is why we set our last posting date for Christmas to 20 November 2022 this year (usually our last posting date is closer to mid-December). To the best of our knowledge everyone who ordered before 20 November has received their order.
Can't you use a different carrier if Royal Mail are on strike?
The other carrier we have a contract with is Parcelforce, who have the same union as Royal Mail and so they've also been affected. Changing shipping companies is quite involved due to differing restrictions, and isn't something a small business can do in a few days. We are currently negotiating a contract with a new carrier to use in the future.
