It’s December, so it’s hardly surprising that there has been some bad weather in the UK. Even a little bit of snow, cold and ice can easily cause difficulties for the national networks of motorways, railways and delivery infrastructure.
And the level to which even a small flurry of frozen water can cause enormous disruption is a national embarrassment. I say that as someone from the South of England… you may well have had a decent number of inches up your way. Not so much down here.
But having spent several winters visiting Germany, where they do get very much more than a flurry, I know that over there that they cope with much more significant snowfalls without missing a beat. See also Canada, for instance, and Scandinavia. They must surely chuckle at what brings parts of the UK to a standstill.
And this year a lot of schools have been closed too as the snow fell. All of the above are business problems. Not least because when the schools are out, your staff can’t make it into work, because they’re back at home looking after the kids.
And, obviously, depending where you are in the country, the story will be different. It’s not unusual, after all, to experience significant snowfall in Scotland and not see it reported at all in the media.
That said, this year we have seen quite a bit of snow and low temperatures in the Midlands and North of England that is quite unusual.
Three questions:
Has your experience of bad weather matched up to the media reports of snow related problems down your way? Do let us know where you are.
Have you heard from delivery companies and couriers who have claimed to have been negatively impacted by the bad weather?
Will your Christmas seasonal selling be negatively impacted by the weather?
Have you experienced significant problems with delivery? And, more importantly, have you had any problem customers related to the same?
4 Responses
Nah its great, customers staying at home! Plenty of time to deliver still…
as your onbuy customer help desk alluded to
power cuts causing internet down time have been our main irritation
No Royal Mail deliveries to us since the weekend.
Roads are clear, no snow, bins have been emptied, couriers are coming and going.
But Royal Mail apparently will not deliver to our location on the edge of our town in mid wales and nobody can explain why.
The mail is at the depot a mile away, but they won’t even let us go and collect it.
The one postie who did come past was apparently only collecting and didn’t know why the mail was not going out.
Have been told there is a backlog and they’re not willing to pay overtime to clear it, as they need to save £400 million for shareholders dividends.
No Royal Mail collections or deliveries for us either – we are in Worcestershire.
Couriers are racing about as per usual – but the posties are nowhere to be seen. Took our mail and parcels to the local Royal Mail depot on Monday, only to find that it was closed and all the vans were parked up. Dropped off at the post office (which was open and fully functioning) to be told they wouldn’t be collected that day.
No collections on Tuesday either – despite the roads being largely fine.
Fingers crossed the business collections resume today.
Not looking forward to the inevitable ‘my item hasn’t arrived’ deluge of messages from ebay customers – who are not famed for their patience at the best of times.
Roll on 2 weeks of issuing refunds for ‘missing’ deliveries….