Royal Mail WISMO crisis as service overwhelmed

I’ve just got off the phone with a local small business who is being inundated with “Where is my order?” messages. This is so common in normal times that ‘Where is my order’ has an industry acronym – WISMO, and this year you’re likely to get more WISMO messages than ever before.

The problem is of course that despite taking on 33,000 Christmas workers to bolster their 110,000 permanent staff, Royal Mail have been working at Christmas levels since March and the deluge of online shopping hasn’t stopped for nine months. Now with Christmas coming, the normal Christmas rush is hitting on top of the pandemic online shopping and WISMO is inevitable due to delays.

We’ve already seen marketplaces extend delivery estimations with eBay telling buyers that their Royal Mail 48 could take up to five days to arrive instead of 2 days. Setting buyer’s expectations is the first way to cut down on WISMO and the second, if you use tracked services, is to make sure that your customers receive tracking information and can self serve by checking the status of their parcel themselves.

If you are a buyer and waiting to receive a parcel, our advice is to be patient and try to resist the temptation to deluge retailers, Royal Mail and other couriers with WISMO enquiries. Everyone in the ecommerce and delivery industry are working flat out and sadly all your enquiry is likely to do is take someone away from getting things moving rather than get you an immediate answer.

It’s time to accept that, for some, this Christmas there will be a missing present under the tree that’s not delivered on time. We’ve known for a long time that this would not be a normal Christmas so get yourself in the mindset of making do and accepting the inevitable. Royal Mail and other carriers are doing their utmost to deliver Christmas, and you can give yourself the best possible chance of receiving every delivery you want by shopping early – if you’ve not already done your Christmas shopping count this as a warning that now’s the time to do it, not four days before Christmas!

“Despite our best efforts, exhaustive planning and significant investment in extra resource, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards.

This is due to the exceptionally high volumes we are seeing, exacerbated by the coronavirus-related measures we have put in place in local mail centres and delivery offices.

In such cases, we always work hard to get back to providing our usual level of service as quickly as we can.”
– Royal Mail

Today, Royal Mail report that staffing issues due to self-isolating and social distancing, along with greatly increased parcel volumes, continue to have some effect at mail centres. Ten have reported not all mail was processed and despatched to delivery offices on schedule on Thursday night, and may be delivered later than expected:

• Bristol Mail Centre

  Some mail posted on Thursday from across the UK, due for delivery today to addresses in the BA, BS, GL and TA postcode areas.

• Cardiff Mail Centre

  Some mail posted on Thursday from across the UK, due for delivery today to addresses in the CF, LD and NP postcode areas.

• Chelmsford Mail Centre

  Some mail posted on Thursday from across the UK, due for delivery today to addresses in the CM, CO and SS postcode areas.

• Croydon Mail Centre

  Some mail posted on Thursday from across the UK, due for delivery today to addresses in the BR, CR, SE and SM postcode areas.

• Edinburgh Mail Centre

  Some mail posted on Thursday from across the UK, due for delivery today to addresses in the DD, EH, FK, KY, PH and TD postcode areas.

• Jubilee Mail Centre

  Some mail posted on Thursday from across the UK, due for delivery today to addresses in the GU, KT, SW and TW postcode areas.

• Medway Mail Centre

  Some mail posted on Thursday from across the UK, due for delivery today to addresses in the CT, DA, ME and TN postcode areas.

• Norwich Mail Centre

  Some mail posted on Thursday from across the UK, due for delivery today to addresses in the NR postcode area.

• Sheffield Mail Centre

  Some mail posted on Thursday from across the UK, due for delivery today to addresses in the DN, HU, LN and S postcode areas.

• Tyneside Mail Centre

  Some mail posted on Thursday from across the UK, due for delivery today to addresses in the DH, DL, NE, SR and TS postcode areas.

Additionally, due to resourcing issues, deliveries in the following areas are likely to be limited today, Friday the 11th of December, and into next week. If you need to collect an item for which Royal Mail have left a ‘Something for you’ card from the Customer Service Points at one of these offices, check royalmail.com/services-near-you for details of revised opening hours. If Royal Mail have not left a ‘Something for you card’, and you do not have alternative arrangements in place, they they apologise as sorry but your mail will not be available for collection.

• Ashington

  (NE22, NE62-NE64)

• Gillingham

  (ME7)

• South Ockendon

  (RM15)

• Tooting

  (SW17)

• Totton

  (SO40, SO43)

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