For anyone thats missed it, the Royal Mail are going on strike again during October, dates listed so far are 5th, 8th and then a series of rolling strikes from the 15th October onwards.
After it causing such misery and problems for my business I have had enough with their dire service and the fact that they think it's perfectly ok to destroy as many small businesses as possible just as we go into the Christmas shopping season.
I have moved what business I currently can away from them to SecureDX, which so far has been excellent, it's a £3.50 flat rate fee for up to 1kg on a next day delivery service within the UK, using secure, tamper proof envelopes, which I just drop into the nearest DX collection point (for me both are solicitors offices) they can also arrange collections if you have a lot of daily post to go out. As I send a fair chunk of items by special delivery anyway this works out cheaper, it has meant that I've had to increase the postage price previously offered on small value orders, but hopefully that won't make much difference.
If anyone wants to make the move then now would be a good time, before the strike hits. Web address is www.thedx.co.uk. Or contact ukbf member Steve - username ssb101 and get him to get you set up!
Now if I can just find a means to deal with my overseas & Irish orders & heavier orders then I'll be totally sorted
Boho, when I saw this news I cried. October is the busiest time of year for us as a party store, (think Halloween) these strikes will virtually destroy our business this year and we will be left with £10,000s of stock which was ordered months ago and can't be shifted till next year.
The worst part is that customers just don't understand at all. The public are very badly informed regarding what is happending during these strikes.
We shift thousands of parcels during October so I suspect your DX solution would not be suitable for us. I'm thinking everything must go by courier but in order to make this less of a financial disaster we may have to impose a minimum order.
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They'll shoot themselves in the foot, just like last time (many years ago).
A company I was working with had to start delivery their own mail internally on trucks, found out it actually worked pretty well, and never went back to Royal Mail since they saved 1000's every week.
I never understand strikes. Nobodies a slave in this country, if you don't think you're getting a good deal, go find a better one.
For anyone thats missed it, the Royal Mail are going on strike again during October, dates listed so far are 5th, 8th and then a series of rolling strikes from the 15th October onwards.
After it causing such misery and problems for my business I have had enough with their dire service and the fact that they think it's perfectly ok to destroy as many small businesses as possible just as we go into the Christmas shopping season.
I have moved what business I currently can away from them to SecureDX, which so far has been excellent, it's a £3.50 flat rate fee for up to 1kg on a next day delivery service within the UK, using secure, tamper proof envelopes, which I just drop into the nearest DX collection point (for me both are solicitors offices) they can also arrange collections if you have a lot of daily post to go out. As I send a fair chunk of items by special delivery anyway this works out cheaper, it has meant that I've had to increase the postage price previously offered on small value orders, but hopefully that won't make much difference.
If anyone wants to make the move then now would be a good time, before the strike hits. Web address is www.thedx.co.uk. Or contact ukbf member Steve - username ssb101 and get him to get you set up!
Now if I can just find a means to deal with my overseas & Irish orders & heavier orders then I'll be totally sorted
Silly Jokes, I was thinking of you when I posted it, as I know like me you suffered last time, and you're right customers don't understand at all. If it's feasible for you to go the dx route (I would guess perhaps a largish chunk of your stuff would weigh under 1kg?) then definitely do it, with your kinds of volumes then I'm sure Steve would be able to pull the rabbit out of the hat and get it all picked up for you daily .
The only reason I can't go that route is that I never know how many items I'll have to go out on anyone day, because of the made-to-order side of things there is a delay between order and despatch, and so for now I couldn't guarantee a consistent daily need for collections, it doesn't sound like you'd have that problem though.
Royal Mail are a nightmare! I cannot see how they can justify their actions and I don't think anyone will sympathise with their workers for causing such misery to the small businesses they will affect and do harm to right before Christmas, and even worse still for those that have Halloween to consider.
swsw the last strike wasn't years ago, it was a couple of months ago, and it caused chaos to people like Silly Jokes and myself, and did a lot of destruction to my business as it was right in the middle of peak wedding season and it meant customers were worried that items wouldn't arrive in time for their big day and a lot went elsewhere on the high street instead, also meant trying to deal with lots of frustrated customers when goods didn't arrive or were very late. With this repeat decision to allow random strikes, in different locations on different days there is not even any way of being able to predict and give a more reliable guestimate of when things might arrive.
Royal Mail should have the word Royal stripped from them...they are barely mail, let alone anything regal, the only royal they are is a right royal pain in the @rse!
The way Royal Mail has been going, I would not be suprised if the people in charge of its future had shares in rival companies!
They are out for money, at the expense of a service, more people are looking elsewhere for alternatives. This will probably mean they lose money, and have to push up prices, or introduce more stupidness, such as their recent 'does it fit through a certain size slot' sillyness, causing more people to move away to rivals, further pushing the downward spiral towards self-destruction.
When will firms learn, its not always a good move to squeeze every last ounce out of customers? To much greed kills in the long term.
Out of interest do DX delivery packages up to 2 kilo's if so whats the rate?
Lol, I think if I worked for Royal Mail I would have shares in the rivals! Their union has a lot to answer for, talking to post office staff most don't even seem to have a desire to go out on strike or any real support of the situation at all.
Unfortunately the maximum weight for securedx is 1kg. I think there would be a massive increase in business if they were able to open it up to packages up to a couple of kg though.
Boho, when I saw this news I cried. October is the busiest time of year for us as a party store, (think Halloween) these strikes will virtually destroy our business this year and we will be left with £10,000s of stock which was ordered months ago and can't be shifted till next year.
The worst part is that customers just don't understand at all. The public are very badly informed regarding what is happending during these strikes.
While you work on an alternative shipping solution, have you thought about suing the Post Office for the extra shipping costs? Make it a very visible lawsuit, contacting various papers to explain how you're doing this to help your customers to receive their Christmas packages on time - despite the despicable behaviour of union scrooges. You might win some public support, but mostly it would be a unique way of informing your customers of the real situation - so they'll still turn to you in the future. Maybe one of the legal eagles at these forums would help you free of charge; just think of all the free publicity they'd get.
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