With strikes causing chaos, is there any point in sending Christmas cards this ... trends now
For an online retailer like Hannah’s Games, the run-up to Christmas should be the busiest and best of times.
But the reality is that this year it is fast turning into a ‘catastrophe’.
‘It is an absolute nightmare,’ says Hannah Daragon, the founder of the Plymouth-based party games business. She estimates that strikes by postal workers have already cost her £20,000 in lost business – 10 per cent of her annual revenue.
‘This time of year should be our annual peak,’ the 41-year-old says. ‘But the last posting date for Christmas is earlier than ever and a game that cost £5 a month ago is now £7.99 because I am having to pay for tracking.
Hannah Daragon, the founder of the Plymouth-based party games business said she's been receiving customer complaints due to delays
More strikes are planned for tomorrow and on Wednesday and Thursday next week, followed by two further days ahead of Christmas
‘Royal Mail has still not cleared the backlog from late November. The workers are not motivated to clear it because, rightly or wrongly, their aim is to cause chaos. They are at war with Royal Mail and I am caught in the crossfire.
‘I am being deluged with customer complaints. They blame me and are angry with me but I am powerless to do anything about it.’
The real worry is that things are only going to get a lot worse.
After strikes last week, more than 100,000 Royal Mail employees once again walked out yesterday.
More strikes are planned for tomorrow and on Wednesday and Thursday next week, followed by two further days ahead of Christmas.
With the increasingly bitter dispute over pay and conditions showing no signs of resolution, the latest industrial action has been timed to coincide with the Royal Mail’s busiest period. But, as Hannah knows only too well, even before the latest strikes, the postal system was bursting at the seams.
This week photographs emerged of sorting offices piled high with sacks of undelivered post. While Royal Mail insists that it is always a busy time of year, postmen and women have told the Daily Mail there are already lengthy delays in clearing backlogs.
‘The offices are so busy they are running out of room to store stuff,’ said one postman. ‘I have seen trolleys of mail and parcels left in canteens, outside and in corridors.’
Postal workers on strike meet in a pub yesterday before heading to Parliament Square to join with the demonstration. Strikes are expected to cause significant disruption in the coming weeks, which is typically Royal Mail's busiest period
The CWU has refused to accept a deal offered by Royal Mail. It says the company wants to force through thousands of redundancies and enact changes that would see the Royal Mail transformed into an Uber-style gig economy parcel courier
The Royal Mail has offered postal workers a pay deal of 9 per cent over 18 months. A female postal worker from Essex described the situation: ‘It’s like being the child in the midst of a bitter divorce of two parents. The stress is next level'
Another added: ‘We are only clearing about a third of what there is each day.’
They say they have been instructed to prioritise getting parcels out ahead of letters.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents postal workers, claims that this is because parcels represent the most profitable side of the business for Royal Mail.
While the privately owned company insists all mail is treated equally, it does admit that in order to free up space after strikes, sometimes it is necessary to clear parcels first.
Which may in part explain the experience of a growing number of customers who say they have not received vital letters for NHS appointments, or have been left waiting for days or weeks for replacement bank cards or other important documents.
Even those who have attempted to sidestep the chaos and use other courier companies are having little luck.
Evri, previously known as Hermes, one of the UK’s largest courier firms, has been hit by delays too.
Exasperated customers have resorted to going to its depots to track down their packages.
