Royal Mail Strikes

#1

So next week Royal Mail are striking on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th November which for us will mean that any orders after 2pm on the Tuesday will not leave until the 7th November. eBay looks after their sellers and deals with this moving despatch by date to the 7th November, Amazon unsurprisingly still say despatch on a strike day.

I take it there is no way round this other than to put our store in to holiday mode from 12 noon on the Tuesday until 00:01 on the Friday and make 1 day despatch instead of same day :frowning: We sell a lot of small items that go via Royal Mail 48 Large Letter, if Evri was an option I still wouldn’t use them due to their shocking service.

#2

Its different departments on different days
Have a look at the rm website and see who are doing what

There are many threads on the strikes with different people doing different things

I would say forget prime and premium on those 3 days but only you can decide if you want to extend handling or put on holiday settings

#3

Handling can only be extended to two days though correct?

#4

No you can change them to whatever you want within reason
In shipping settings the max is 2 days but you can do a file upload and put them at 3+

#5

Thanks, we run via an epos software integration so I can only change via shipping settings hence only seeing 2 days :slight_smile:

#6

In that case you may need to look at other couriers or holiday settings

#7

I’m quite confused and not sure what to do. Indeed there are 3 days of strikes confirmed next week but officialy they say that only Thursday 3rd there will be no bussiness collections. As The_Little_Shop said those 3 days are for different departments. I’m a bit worried to leave everything running as I suspect that depending on the area, some depots may decide not to collect and drop staff somewhere else as they may have people missing on those days.
How do you actually do file upload to be able to extend shipping time?

#8

Download your inventory report, copy it into excel (makes it easier), download the price and quantity file, copy and paste the SKU, price & quantity then add your handling times. Save the excel as Text (tab delimited) and upload on Amazon

We are going to be extending handling times as per the other strikes although it’s only one day of no business collections, I spoke with an account manager from RM who suggested RM don’t know the impact and said they believe the idea of the strikes is to stop the network from operating as each department relies on another for smooth sailing. Which naturally worried me, lol. I hope the other suggested ones don’t get confirmed.

#9

Only in certain areas - each seller needs to confirm this with their depot

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#10

My delivery depot can’t give me an answer until on the actual day, and doesn’t know if any collections will take place at all over the 3 days, and if they do take place, some areas will not get a collection due to staff adjustments - or in other words - staff will be taken from one area to cover others etc etc etc. It’s basically a mess.

#11

I will most likely put holiday settings on

#12

On a positive note the two sides are talking at ACAS again today and they had a day of talks yesterday.

I still have some hope a solution will happen but I am still trying to work out the best thing to do for November in case they go ahead.

#13

Well one way or another it’ll come to a head…

#14

Sadly I can’t afford to shut up shop for 3 days a week every week in November :frowning:

Am thinking of extending my handling time to 3 days, I already have 2 days handling and 3-5 days shipping, but I have already seen a massive drop in sales - not sure if its down to increased handling and shipping times or the cost of living crisis or both at the moment, but none the less…

#15

No I mean just for next week when it’s the 3 days in succession
I haven’t looked further ahead yet, although my handling is already 3 days on most items

#16

Its 3 days in succession every week in November though is it not?

#17

They haven’t updated their site for the following weeks like what I’ve posted above

#18

Am hoping they sort something out, and they don’t go ahead, but time will tell…

#19

I think the unions are hoping for maximum disruption but without upsetting their members too much by calling them all out for so many days when some are already complaining about how much the strikes are costing them in lost pay.

If this next lot goes ahead I think November is going to be an absolute disaster for FBM, so I’ve already put on holiday settings. I’m bumping up my FBA to compensate. eBay continues as normal as they automatically adjust their dates to take the strikes into account and customers’ service expectations tend to be lower over there anyway.

#20

You don’t need to worry about that. The Royal Mail staff aren’t going to scab for their own strike.