Posted on 14th Mar 2022 @ 9:27:29 PM
1 day store closure - Friday 10th Feb
Overall status:
- Closure: Friday 10th (1 day only). No orders or support.
- Royal Mail strike action will affect delivery speeds for UK orders (see below)
- We are shipping orders daily although some international orders are being affected by customs processing in some countries (particularly the EU) which is still taking longer than pre-2020 timeframes.
- Covid-19 continues to affect all deliveries and customs clearance for International orders.
Country Specific Information: (Issues affecting delivery times)
- Ukraine: Services to western parts of Ukraine have been restored but service is patchy. Please contact us BEFORE ordering so we can check for issues.
- Russia/Belarus: Service to these territories have been suspended indefinitely.
- Ireland: New tracked parcel service is now available for faster delivery (approximately 5-6 working days)
- Canada: Spring Tracked currently delivering between 14 and 21 days.
- Greece: Most earlier issues have now been resolved.
- Italy: Spring Parcel [TS] Service is recommended. Delivery timeframe approx 10-14 working days.
- Portugal: Still experiencing delays in delivery. Delivery timeframe approx 8-10 working days.
- Slovakia: Processing delays adding 1-7 days
- USA: Processing and delivery times have improved markedly and most deliveries are taking around 7-14 working days to arrive.
Areas affected by snow are expected to see delays however.
- New Zealand: Ongoing transport delays 4-7 days more than normal (for normal postal services).
- Japan: 5-10 days additional delay due to package volume vs' transport capacity + covid restriction
- France: 5-10 working days average delivery timeframe.
- Australia: Recommend Spring Parcel for fastest service without the high expense of DHL Express/Fedex. Delivery timeframe approx 7-14 working days
European (EU/EEA Orders) (Not including the UK)
- See above for country specific delays.
- Please read our detailed information on EU/EEA orders available here
- We continue to incur surcharges with all EU shipping services. We're actively looking at alternatives for both IOSS handling and shipping.
- Please note that there some delays are still occuring due to Covid restrictions/effects so please allow extra time for your order to arrive.
International (Non-EU Orders)
- Covid continues to cause delays and processing issues for International orders.
- Asendia has been suspended following a number of issues with processing times and unforced errors.
UK Orders
- Royal Mail staff are currently back at work considering whether to take further strike action. Please see this link for more detailed news about changes to services and availability.
- All other UK courier services are currently delivering normally although we expect delays due to the parcel volumes leading up to Christmas.
Final Comments.
- We are now managing to ship orders almost every day with some rare exceptions.
- Spring orders are being shipped in batches every 1-2 days for efficiency purposes.
- Covid-19 continues to influence delivery speeds for International orders in particular.
Shipping Service Updates
You can find updates to shipping service availability, performance, etc... on this thread
Earlier Updates:
Updated Feb 9th 2023:
We were closed on Friday 10th February for one day due to staff availability.
Orders received after 1pm Thursday 9th February were shipped on Monday 13th.
Updated: Sept 19th 2022:
Bank holiday on 19th due to funeral of Queen Elizabeth II delayed dispatch for any orders from 16th to 19th. All orders dispatched as normal on Tuesday 20th.
Covid hit Martins family so support was limited and Martin was off site as a precaution. Order dispatch was not affected.
Updated: Sept 7th 2022:
Orders placed between 7th - 9th for UK free or Royal Mail delivery were held for dispatch until Monday 12th.
Updated: Aug 26 2022:
The UK Bank holiday on Monday Aug 29th will delay orders placed between 12pm Aug 26th and Aug 29th. Most* orders will ship as normal on Tuesday 30th (with possible exception of Royal Mail affected orders).
Updated: 20th July 2022:
Following the heatwave here in the UK, we're slowly returning to something akin to normal service although we have noted a number of ongoing issues caused by damage to road, rail and property where wildfires have taken hold. This is likely to affect services in the UK for the next few days.. and may well apply to other areas where extreme heat is causing similar problems.
As a sidenote we're also being made aware of potential industrial action by Royal Mail staff which is likely to affect deliveries moving forward so we'll be keeping an eye on this and updating as we receive move information.
Apologies for the inconvenience but we appreciate your patience and understanding in the interim.
See our earlier thread:
https://www.octoink.co.uk/news/516/