Shipping disappointments

Has something gone awry in the courier world?

We have accounts with Lighting Source for our imprints Bridge House, Chapeltown and The Red Telephone. We offer our authors a discount of 25% on our recommended retail price (RRP) and free shipping on orders of five or more books. If the author can’t get free shipping, shipping costs on fewer than five books will push the price over the RRP. At this point the author is better off ordering from Amazon. We can offer this free shipping if we can use the economy offer though sometimes, especially for orders abroad, the tracked shipping is just as cheap and we still make a small profit so can still offer a small royalty. Generally, the orders using the economy untracked shipping have arrived within a few days, taking only a little longer than tracked system. We have been trading since 2008 without any problems.   

Not so this time, however:

·         One order to the Republic of Ireland never arrived at all

·         Another order to the Republic of Ireland was badly damaged

·         The re-order for the above has still not been delivered.

·         We are out of pocket as we have replaced these two orders

·         All other customers have reported exceptionally slow delivery

In addition, I am waiting for a delivery from an Amazon seller. Okay, so the delivery should be between 12 January and 2 February, but more often than not in the past the parcels have arrived sooner rather than later and often earlier that the date stated. I really could do with that book!

Yes, and a few months back a computer we ordered for our son never arrived.

What is going on?

Is it to do with the recent floods? Was there a mini-boom at Christmas and there was the backlog like the ones we used to have in the “good” old days? Are there redundancies and disillusionment in the courier world?  

It’s a serious issue for us and we may have to reconsider how we operate unless someone can reassure us that this is only a blip.