Thankfully, there have been very few issues with deliveries in 2023. After all of the problems experienced in the previous three years, this has been an incredibly welcome blessing.
However, we have had two extended periods of hot weather, which have delayed the dispatching of orders. Otherwise, 2023 has proven to be a relatively problem-free year where postal problems are concerned.
Temperature Excesses
Unprecedented temperatures in the UK in 2023 have delayed the posting of orders, for safety reasons. This is because carrier oils and essential oils will spoil at sustained high levels of heat exposure. This is certainly true if the oils are being transited in hot vehicles.
*Please note: When temperatures rise to potentially harmful levels, Wild As The Wind delayed posting out your parcels until it is safe to send them again.
To learn more about delayed parcels, please consult the Deliveries & Returns FAQ.
Flooding: November & December 2023
Dorset and South Somerset have experienced horrendous flooding in November and December 2023. This impedes the ability of Wild As The Wind to post out your parcels, and it also impedes the ability of the postal delivery service to process and deliver your parcel.
Once your parcel has been taken to a local post office for weighing and processing (i.e. to be issued with the correct postage), it is then collected by a postal delivery person, who will drive it to the local depot.
From there, parcels are either driven to the local train station and put on a train bound for Southampton, or they are driven all the way there.
Southampton is a major sorting centre which serves a number of southern counties.
All mail is taken to Southampton for sorting before it can be sent out, via road or rail, to your local sorting office.
At this point, all the mail is sorted again at your local sorting office and then picked up by your local postal delivery person.
The mail needs to be sorted once in Southampton, to determine which sorting office it needs to be sent to, and then sorted again by your local sorting office to allocate it to a specific postal round. At this point all the mail is put in the correct order, so that your postal delivery person can proceed around the delivery route, going from one address to the next, being able to quickly and easily locate the correct mail for each address.
Your parcel, thus, passes through a number of different people’s hands, all of whom have to get to their place of work, and many of whom also need to drive to many different locations in the course of their working day.
All it takes is for one person, in a long chain of people, to be cut off by floods, for the whole process to be thwarted.
When an area is flooded as badly as Dorset and South Somerset have been flooded, in November and early December 2023, this forces delivery services to grind to a halt very quickly.
So, not only is it imperative for you to consult the Wild As The Wind Deliveries & Returns FAQ prior to contacting us about the delivery of your parcel, you also need to pay attention to the news.
Please only contact Wild As The Wind after the timeframes mentioned in the Deliveries & Returns FAQ have elapsed, allowing even longer before contacting us in the event of flooding or other weather induced delays.
Answering your emails slows our internal systems down even more, thus further delaying the making up of your orders and ultimately slowing down the delivery of your parcels, even more.
We thank you for your collaboration, and your patience.
