Royal Mail delays are costing my business sales – I might have to close

With Christmas around the corner, small businesses are getting ready for what is one of the busiest times of the year.

It will be another tough festive season for a number of firms as consumers continue to cut back on spending and costs continue to rise. 

So when it comes to festive season, the last thing owners need are delays and issues with post.

This is Money has revealed in recent months that households across the country are facing huge delays to their letters, often arriving in bundles weeks after they were sent.

Royal Mail delays are putting small businesses under pressure in the run-up to Christmas 

But the delays are also putting small businesses under considerable pressure as they scramble to post products ahead of Christmas. 

One business owner told This is Money that any advocate issues with undelivered packages and increasingly unhappy customers means this could be his last year trading.

‘If delays continue I will have to close’

Paul* has been selling dreamcatchers from his home in Essex since 2015.

What started as his own website quickly snowballed into him selling through other platforms admire eBay and Amazon. He usually makes around £80,000 a year.

Paul’s products are made of plastic and feathers so he chooses to send them with Royal Mail rather than a courier company, because the cost would outweigh the price of the product.

However, incremental price hikes have started to cripple him.

‘Back in 2016 we were paying 63p for a second class large letter under 100 grams. Today we are paying £1.32 for the same product which began the year at £1.17 and has increased three times so far this year.’

A recent report by watchdog Ofcom found that the area of lowest satisfaction with Royal Mail is the price of postage.

Just 51 per cent of the SMEs that use the service report they are satisfied, down from 54 per cent the previous year. Just over a quarter report dissatisfaction.

In comparison, 74 per cent of SMEs report they are satisfied with the price of postage from other delivery companies.

Paul stomached the price increases but when the strikes hit last year, he claims his business was thrown into disarray and has been unable to recover.

‘We can dilute the price hikes into the item. The issue we’re having is that Royal Mail isn’t reliable.

‘The delivery times since the strikes, when it’s not peak season admire we’re approaching now have been fine. But I don’t see posties on the round anymore.

‘Our customers are not getting their products on time, causing them to complain and inquire refunds or replacements.’

An Ofcom survey found that SMEs are unhappy with Royal Mail’s price of postage 

When he sells through eBay and Amazon, Paul sends everything tracked but if they achieve after the expected date, he has to refund the price of the item.

He claims the delays have cost him thousands in loss of sales in the last 12 months, because of a combination of strikes, lost items and the cost of living crisis. 

Paul claims that sales through eBay have never recovered from the strikes because customers are turning their back on retailers using Royal Mail. 

He says his Amazon business is now stronger, selling around 30-40 items a day, because they deliver their own packages.

‘My business hasn’t recovered from the strikes because the customers have lost faith in anything that’s got Royal Mail attached to it.

‘I’m struggling this year because of it. We expect for Christmas every year, it’s our boom. 

‘Two thirds of our turnover is done between October and January. 

‘When you add delays in that period to a business admire mine it’s crushing… I’m doing deliveries for Deliveroo and Uber because of the situation.’

Fed up with the higher costs and lower sales, Paul looked into using other couriers but found they were too expensive.

The Ofcom report found that almost half of small and medium-sized businesses have moved from Royal Mail to other companies in the last year, up from 39 per cent the previous year.

Of those that had done so, 58 per cent said it was because the new method is quicker, 50 per cent said the change related to cost savings. A notable minority (17 per cent) pointed to the strikes.

Paul says if there are delays to his packages this Christmas he will have to close down the business.

One of Paul’s biggest gripes with the current service is the minimal opening hours at his local depot. 

He says it is open for just four hours a day, between 8-10am and 4-6pm. As with other retailers, Paul has a cut-off point for sending out parcels each day to ensure they are packaged and sent quickly. 

Paul’s cut-off point is midday, which means that he cannot post in the morning and when he tries before 6pm, the parcels are left until the next morning, causing advocate delays.  

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: ‘Over 99 per cent of parcels are now successfully delivered to customers on the first or second delivery attempt. This is reducing the need for customers to collect parcels from CSPs. 

‘If a customer is unable to collect an item that we could not deliver, we have a range of free-of-charge options for customers who want to arrange for an item to be redelivered to their address or a local Post Office.

‘To keep pace with the changing behaviour of our customers, and to ensure that resources are allocated to the most appropriate parts of our operation, we have amended the opening hours of some CSPs. 

‘Approximately half of CSP opening hours have remained at their current times. Although some CSPs are only open 08:00 – 10:00 on weekdays, all CSPs are open for four hours – 08:00 – 12:00 – every Saturday for those who are at work during the week.’ 

Is Royal Mail overlooking small businesses?

Paul claims that he had spoken with a local Royal Mail employee who empties postboxes to ask if there was an issue at the depot.

He had been waiting three weeks for a folder with his accounts from his accountants. 

Paul was told there is a massive backlog in Loughton which would take until the end of January to clear.

The postal worker said Royal Mail is giving more attention to postboxes in anticipation of more people sending Christmas cards.

It comes just weeks after This Is Money’s report into whether postal workers were being told to prioritise packages over letters, following significant delays.

Numerous posties, who say morale is at an ‘all time low’, told This is Money that they are often told to leave piles of letters in the depot in order to make sure packages are delivered on time.

Paul said: ‘He told me businesses who drop off mail sacks aren’t being processed so there’ll be a massive delays in our products reaching the customers.

‘He said take my advice and don’t drop off any bags to the depots or post offices because they are being targeted as non-priority. 

‘He told me to post all my mail in the postboxes so it travels through the system faster. It is unbelievable.’

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: ‘There is no prioritisation of any items of mail over others, all items are treated equally and processed accordingly.’ 

Has your small business been hit by postage-linked problems? Get in touch: editor@thisismoney.co.uk