exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Even though orders have gone pretty quiet these past few weeks anyway. I would suggest people do not order until mid-jan now. There is so much postage chaos going on currently that I would be surprised if things even get back to seminormal even over the next 3 weeks. Less international flights means less post moving. Less workers due to covid. Twice as much mail due to covid. Twice as much again due to Xmas. Pretty much 8x mail overload easily.

People can still order, but I may not even try to post items for the next few weeks now. Not unless the backlog starts to show signs of clearing. UK to UK post has pretty much died, so I don't hold out any hopes of overseas post even shifting for the next several weeks.

Outside of UK orders, where tracking shows "Handed to: Delivery partner", and no other information.. Package is most likely stuck in a hub somewhere and hasn't been scanned anywhere yet. It could be days or weeks before it gets scanned anywhere. Please don't bug me about it, I can't do anything about it sorry!

Orders after the 20th of december 2020 will not get posted until the new year at the earliest . Expect there may be days or weeks delay before I will resume shipping.

Hi Chris,
Is it just Royal Mail that is struggling?
I've avoided them this year for my parcels and used Parcel2go.com (other parcel resellers exist!) that lists out the options for others like Hermes, Inpost and DPD etc.
I used DPD to send a 2.9kg parcel to France and it took 3 days. Another to London took 2 days.
Also most of these have local drop off lockers so you can go anytime, scan the label and the locker door opens, marvellous :-)

I use parcel2go for some packages .. But its not possible to use for my store.. I don't know of status of main couriers either, assume they not as bad..

I use UPS as they will collect from my door.

And don't forget the chaos on the receiving post office too. My last order with my IC sockets is stuck "somewhere" at my post-office. Someone forgot to flash the packet after leaving the notice in my inbox... :x


By the way, nice Xmas skin on the forum :)

.. and for those who want to know where their package is...


It's there...

I used to work for UPS. Left about 5 years ago, but around mid November every year, the round used to go from a just manageable 120 parcels to a peak of 300. It was physically impossible. No extra workforce was brought in, and a 'just do what you can' attitude prevailed.

Im pretty sure that:

1. Its a similar story for the other postal companies and...
2. What with COVID, Xmas and leaving the EU, it now much worse! :roll:

I think Hermes and other UK delivery companies/couriers seem to be fine, just Royal Mail is struggling.
I sent two non urgent parcels on the 21st and they arrived by 24th, using their basic service.
But it does seem with Christmas, the sales and pandemic (more online orders) things seem slower around the world.

UPS are coping well, I ordered from Digikey Tues evening and it was delivered Thurs at Noon.
I tend to use them quite a bit now, they are quite reasonable for rates on larger package.

Actually, to be fair, it does look like the couriers are stepping up their game for this.

I have even seen that Royal Mail are out delivering until 9PM over Xmas. :shock: