Updates

At the time of writing, we are currently on day one of the first of two 48-hour strikes by Royal Mail workers. In total, four days were announced:

• Thursday, November 24th
• Friday, November 25th
• Wednesday, November 30th
• Thursday, December 1st

Yesterday, we received an email from the Royal Mail confirming that there would be no collections on any of these days. This means that we won't be able to dispatch anything until Monday - that's every order that came in after roughly 12pm on Wednesday. Next week (Mon 28/11/22 - Sun 04/12/22), we won't be able to dispatch anything on Wednesday or Thursday.

These are national strikes, so each strike day will also see the Royal Mail network, for the most part, come to a stop. No deliveries, and no movement. Delays will be significant. Whether weekend delivery is offered seems to vary across the country, so for most, there are very few days over the next week and a half where orders are likely to be delivered. Please be patient.

The CWU has also published further intended strike days throughout December, specifically:

• Friday, December 9th
• Sunday, December 11th
• Wednesday, December 14th
• Thursday, December 15th
• Friday, December 23rd
• Saturday, December 24th

According to the Royal Mail, they have not yet turned in formal notice for these strike days, so they cannot legally go ahead yet. If these strikes are formalised, I will then issue another update.

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Jeremy, Sue and Chris

So, for specific details of strikes, right now we have 4 confirmed dates - Thu 13/10/22, Thu 20/10/22, Tue 25/10/22 and Mon 28/11/22.

The next two weeks, dispatches will be on Mon, Tue, Wed and Fri. Because the strikes fall on Thu, it is unlikely orders dispatched on Wed will get far within the week - they'll stop completely on Thu, and get only 1 working day before slowing down for the weekend.

For the week of the third strike (24-30/10/22), we will be dispatching on Mon, Wed, Thu and Fri. Deliveries should be unimpeded for the rest of the week, though they will be delayed.

After that, the next confirmed strike is on November 28th - a Monday. Dispatches that week will be Tue, Wed, Thu and Fri. This strike may also impact dispatches on Tue, as we will have 3 days' worth of orders to book - everything between 3pm Fri and 12pm Tue.

Though I do not currently have solid confirmation these will go ahead, the CWU also seems to be planning targeted strikes on the following dates:

Wed 02/11/22 - Thu 03/11/22 - Fri 04/11/22

Tue 08/11/22 - Wed 09/11/22 - Thu 10/11/22

Mon 14/11/22 - Tue 15/11/22 - Wed 16/11/22

Wed 23/11/22 - Thu 24/11/22 - Fri 25/11/22

Wed 30/11/22 - Thu 01/12/22 - Fri 02/12/22

These additional dates are marked as "functional action" - targeted strikes, as mentioned, by specific departments rather than the entire Royal Mail network. This hopefully means collections will be preserved on most dates.

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Jeremy, Sue and Chris

Unfortunately, due to the recent introduction on July 1st 2021 of IOSS (Import One-Stop Shop) numbers in shipping to the EU, we have had to disable all international shipping. To briefly explain:

• The rules changed so that items under 22 euros in value are no longer exempt from VAT, which means a customer in the destination country has to pay their local VAT rate as an import charge. This obviously leads to delays, returns, customer complaints. The IOSS number circumvents this, and takes the payment from the exporter, not the customer. Problem is, we don't have one. Until we get one or the rules change again, we effectively ship to the EU at our own peril.

We will continue shipping internationally on eBay - seller name old-timer40. As a third-party marketplace, they have their own IOSS number, which means it's a non-issue there. We're very sorry for the inconvenience.

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Jeremy, Sue and Chris