Wild As The Wind Essential Oils

Pure Natural Skincare & Essential Oils

Delivery Services Adversely Affected 2022

Final 2022 Update

The postal strike on the 14 and 15 December will possibly mean that parcels sent out in the run-up to these dates may not arrive before Christmas. My deepest apologies for this.

Wild As The Wind send all parcels out using the postal service, as we don’t hold an account with a courier. This is something that will be reviewed in early 2023.

Wild As The Wind will not post out any orders received after 15 December until the new year.

This is because Rachel Wild and Wild As The Wind have got to move very soon, and, as yet, have not found a new rental house to move into. Rachel needs to give her landlords vacant possession of her current home, and place of work, by 16 January.

If you are still awaiting delivery of a parcel, please read and follow the advice provided in Missing Parcel?

Delivery Services Adversely Affected 2022

Please be aware that postal deliveries are always adversely affected in November and December each year owing to Black Friday, and Cyber Monday sales. These sales are beginning to creep further, and further, beyond the bounds of the two specified sale days, with businesses trying to outmanoeuvre their competition.

Unfortunately, these online events create chaos on and offline, and place an inordinate burden on postal delivery services. Wild As The Wind does not participate in these events, partly due to this outcome.

The Christmas period is also generally a period of high volume for postal delivery services, so please expect delays, particularly in the second half of November and throughout December.

2022 is also being very negatively impacted by industrial action. To see the full list of 2022 dates affected by strike action please click here.

Christmas Posting Dates

The final dates for second class post in 2022 have been set exceedingly early this year owing to the onging industrial action at the post office.

Wild As The Wind send all parcels via second class post in an effort to keep costs down for you.

The final date for second class post in 2022 is the Monday 12th December.

The final date for first class post in 2022 is the Friday 16th December.

In This Article

All of the items in this list are clickable, so please click the item you wish to read about.

Delivery Services Adversely Affected 2022

Sadly, we are living in uncertain times. Gone are the days when we can rely on dependable delivery timescales. And, as of 2022, we, unfortunately, can’t even rely on delivery costs remaining relatively unchanged.

However, Wild As The Wind is committed to keeping delivery charges as low as possible. We have no intention of revising the way in which your orders are possessed and costed internally.

This means that you will not be charged for any of the following:

  • The time it takes to fulfil your orders
  • The materials used, such as jiffy bags, void packaging and labels etc
  • The cost of delivering parcels to the post office

Sadly, we have less control over the way in which ongoing disruptions and market forces are affecting the way in which deliveries are handled by the Royal Mail.

But, hopefully this document will go some way towards clarifying the current situation for those who are concerned, or who have been personally affected by the these disruptions.

Delivery Timescales

Delivery timescales are one of the things that have been most adversely affected by events since the beginning of 2020. Lockdowns and coronavirus regulations impacted deliveries considerably. But, instead of improving with time, the problems have grown progressively worse. This is particularly true of recent months…

Several parcels took a considerable amount of time to be delivered in early 2022, with one, astonishingly, taking nearly six weeks! This was partly due to high volumes of parcels over this period. But, it was most certainly exacerbated by the ongoing coronavirus situation, with the Royal Mail and courier companies finding themselves hopelessly under-staffed owing to self-isolation rules and sickness leave.

However, delivery standards have continued to decline further, since the lifting of coronavirus regulations, owing to the rise in infection rates and subsequent staff shortages.

*This is not a criticism of the decision to lift the restrictions and regulations. It is simply a statement of the facts of the matter.

Brexit and supply chain issues have also presented us with many problems.

Temperature Issues

Unprecedented temperatures in the UK in 2022 have also been an issue. Oils will spoil at sustained high levels of heat. This is certainly true if the oils are being transited in hot vehicles.

When temperatures rise to potentially harmful levels, Wild As The Wind will hold on to your items until it is safe to send them again.

Postal Strike Action In 2022

  • Friday 26 August
  • Wednesday 31 August
  • Thursday 8 September
  • Friday 9 September
  • Friday 30 September
  • Saturday 1 October
  • Thursday 13 October
  • Thursday 20 October
  • Tuesday 25 October
  • Thursday 24 November
  • Friday 25 November
  • Wednesday 30 November
  • Thursday 1 December
  • Wednesday 14 December
  • Thursday 15 December

For details of strike action affecting deliveries, please visit the Royal Mail website: https://www.royalmail.com/latest-news

Delays In November

Some parcels may be delayed in the first part of November. Many parcels will be unaffected.

Rachel Wild is in Bulgaria buying oils in the first part of November 2022. Many items have been pre-made and will be dispatched on a weekly basis by Michele, up until the 18th November, 2022. However, as Wild As The Wind carries nearly 1,000 products, not all items can be made in advance.

If you order an item that hasn’t been pre-made, Rachel Wild will fulfil your order on her return to the UK, on the 18th November, 2022.

Those on the Wild As The Wind mailing list were given prior warning of this situation via email. They were also given a final order date to ensure a speedy delivery of items prior to Rachel’s departure for Bulgaria.

If you wish to be warned of any disruption in service, or you would like to know about special promotions, seasonal sales and new product announcements, please join the mailing list by filling out the ‘opt-in’ pop-up box.

How Have These Issues Affected Wild As The Wind?

There has been an increase in missing parcels in recent times, and there has been increased difficulty in obtaining reliable information about why parcels are being delayed.

It is very difficult to contact the Royal Mail via phone these days due to staff shortages, and tracking information is regularly not being supplied.

For example, several parcels have taken two weeks to arrive since February 2022, with no information forthcoming from the Royal Mail as to why this is the case.

This has meant the online tracking service has been a lot less useful than usual. In all cases within this period it has reported the following:

An update will only be provided when we attempt to deliver your item.

We have been advised that the following is the reason behind these issues:

  • There are no replacement postal delivery workers to cover for the ones who are on sick leave.
  • Post simply builds up at the depot until staff members return to work.
  • Absenteeism is likely the reason there are no online updates within the tracking service also.
  • The backlog of post needs to be worked through, leading to horrendously long delays for deliveries.

What Can We Do?

The best thing we can do to try and ascertain why parcels are delayed is to pay attention to the new patterns that are emerging. Unfortunately, this means that Wild As the Wind is less able to be helpful in these situations, as it is the order recipients that are in a position to anticipate the potential problems…

One customer, who was awaiting a Wild As The Wind delivery in January, realised that she hadn’t received any post since Christmas, which was very unusual for her. She has a very busy household and a day rarely goes by without the need for a mail delivery, so it was easy to determine that something was amiss with her postal delivery person.

Obviously, an observation like this would be impossible for Wild As The Wind to make.

However, if you only receive post once or twice a week, with some weeks passing by with no post at all, it is more difficult to determine if something is awry with your postal delivery worker.

The most effective means of resolving delivery issues has been to leave a note for postal delivery workers. Notes have been stuck to the letterbox asking postal delivery staff to knock on the door to discuss delayed and missing parcels. In all instances where this has been done the issues have been resolved relatively quickly.

For example, regular postal workers have remembered leaving parcels with a neighbour, or they have been able to track down parcels at the sorting office etc. Once your postal delivery person is aware there’s a problem, they can go about resolving it. This has certainly proven to be the case so far.

The Silver Lining

However, despite these isolated, and somewhat unbelievable, examples of what has been going wrong in the world of deliveries, the reality is that the service continues as normal for most customers, where no sick leave or quarantine has been required by postal staff in their area.

I’m afraid coronavirus has given a whole new meaning to the term ‘postcode lottery’!

But, perhaps the best news is that not a single delayed parcel has gone missing, with the exception of one! (We must be thankful for small mercies, it seems!)

Resolving Issues Collaboratively

Exceptional times call for exceptional measures. The fact that there is a greater emphasis on customers to reverse-engineer what may have happened to their missing parcels is regrettable, but sadly necessary.

But it works! In every case of missing parcels in 2022, resolution has come in the form of customers rigorously following up with their postal delivery person once they have put in an appearance.

Customers have followed the advice given in the Missing Parcel FAQ, either leaving a note for their postie or intercepting them on the doorstep. I’m very glad to say that this effort has really paid off, but I’m frustrated and disheartened that this seems to be the only thing which has been helpful.

When all is said and done, even though the situation is clearly out of my control, I am aware that it still reflects badly on Wild As The Wind. This doesn’t feel good at all! But neither did banging my head against a brick wall…

Phoning sorting offices has been a waste of time owing to the fact ‘no attempted delivery’ has been made in so many of the cases of missing parcels this year. And, due to understaffing levels, calling the sorting office is often unsuccessful.

Sadly, with the best will in the world, I have been unable to intercept your postal delivery person for you… or check whether you have made a typo when writing out your postcode or email address as part of the order process… I also can’t ask your neighbours if they are holding a parcel for you etc… these are things you must do for yourself… sometimes more than once!

(One customer had to speak with her postie about four times before he realised it was going to be easier to resolve the issue ASAP rather than suffer daily harassments, which ultimately slowed him down!)

Obviously, I feel deeply frustrated by situations like these, but I am very grateful to customers for their efforts to make sense of these nonsensical situations. And heartened. It is awful to lose control over matters that impact Wild As The Wind so profoundly. I am profoundly grateful to customers who are being so stalwart on the frontline. I just wish I was there with you, getting to the bottom of everything, so I could rest a little easier at night!

Thank you so much for being so amazing. x x x x

What To Do When Your Parcel Goes Missing?

I am deeply sorry if this section of this article applies to you. Hopefully you have found the information in this article very useful, and you now know how to tackle your missing parcel issues.

However, parcels go missing for other reasons, other than the strange times we now find ourselves in. Please go to the Missing Parcel advice sheet to see if one of the more ‘normal’ reasons why parcels go awry is actually applicable to you.

  1. Firstly, check your porch and any out buildings, (garage, shed, stables and barns etc), to see if your parcel has been ‘left in a safe place’. Most parcels don’t fit through the average letterbox, and this is why your postal delivery person may leave your parcel in a safe place.
  2. Check with neighbours.
  3. Check your junk mail / recycling to see if a postcard from your postal delivery person is hiding amongst the unsolicited mail.
  4. Communicate with your postal delivery person. You can do this easily by leaving a note for them on your letterbox, or intercepting them on the doorstep. You can also ring your local sorting office to discuss a missing delivery, and leave a message for your postal delivery person, alerting them to the issue of your missing parcel. Please DO NOT contact Wild As The Wind about a missing parcel until you have communicated with your postal delivery person.
  5. If your parcel is still missing, the next step is to check to see if you addressed your parcel correctly. If you mistype one character in your postcode, this will result in your parcel being delivered to the wrong address. If you have recently moved, you may be more liable to make mistakes with your address.

If your parcel is still nowhere to be seen, and you have addressed your parcel correctly, then please get in touch.

Please remember to tell us all the steps you have taken to locate your parcel, or establish why it may have gone missing. Thank you. x

Contact Wild As The Wind via email by clicking the link immediately below.

Contact Us

For more ways to contact Wild As The Wind please go to How Do I Contact Wild As The Wind?

How To Avoid Returned Parcels

  • Always address your order accurately with your full address
  • If you know you will be out when your parcel will be delivered, leave a note for your postie telling them where to leave your parcel
  • Prearrange your preferred ‘safe place’ for leaving postal items which will not fit through your letterbox in person with your postal delivery person so you don’t need to leave a note on your door, which could alert thieves where to find your latest purchases
  • Read and act on postcards from your postal delivery person

Previous Measures

It’s worth mentioning the issues that arose during previous restrictions just in case something similar occurs again… The following was written during the first lockdown…

Lockdown Measures

Please be aware parcels take longer to arrive during lockdown because the Royal Mail are processing a lot more mail, but instead of having extra staff, like they do at Christmas, they are having to cope with normal staffing levels, or substandard levels.

The Royal Mail process a lot more parcels than normal during lockdowns because people are forced to order non-essential items online, as these are not available in the few shops which remain open. Parcels are bulky and need to be processed by hand, whereas letters are processed via automated systems at high speed.

Royal Mail delivery vehicles tend to work at capacity due to the increase in size of their loads during lock-downs, and postal service workers are required to process the huge increase in physically challenging sacks of parcels, which are burdensome at every stage in the process… at collection, during sorting as well as at delivery.

And, on top of all of this, the Royal Mail are trying to operate, during lockdowns, with lower staffing numbers due to sickness and staff needing to self-isolate. This is because workers are sent home to self-isolate at the first sign of illness, or if they are known to have been in contact with anyone who has received a positive Covid test.

The Good Old Days

The following statements were made at the end of 2019…

Thankfully Missing Parcels Are Very Rare

It is very rare for parcels to go missing. In the two years of selling online, Wild As The Wind can count on one hand the number of problems with missing parcels.

When parcels have not been successfully delivered this has always been due to a problem at the customer’s end, and not a failure on the part of the postal service. Thankfully, the few parcels which have gone awry have always turned up again. Sometimes it takes a fair amount of sleuthing, but the parcels which have temporarily been missing have always been located in the end.

Why We Use Royal Mail Deliveries

Wild As The Wind use the Royal Mail for all deliveries because, in our experience, they are the best at what they do, and they provide proof of posting and traceability of packages, if necessary.

When the handful of parcels have gone missing in the past, (less than eight), you’ll be relieved to know it’s has never been the fault of the Royal Mail. The parcels have always gone missing due to some kind of error or oversight on the part of the customer, which has led to the parcel not arriving when expected. However, when parcels are perceived as missing due to slow processing and delivery times, this is, of course, is through no fault of the customer.

Whatever the case, all efforts will be made to locate the parcels which go awry, and updates will be provided.

Your assistance will also be required. It isn’t possible to determin what may have happened to your parcel without your input. This is because narrowing down what may have happened to your parcel always requires a process of elimination of all of the possible issues… some of which only you will be able to clarify or verify. Please read on for further details.

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