I know, it’s too soon to be talking about Christmas! But Christmas is something that can be easily ruined, especially by a courier. I am going to tell you a secret now, one you may not like to hear. Are you ready? There are some courier services that will take your business (your goods that need delivering) even when they don’t have the capacity to deliver them.

2 years ago, I learned the hard way. I bought a Dora the Explorer dressing table for my eldest daughter. She loves Dora and I bought it hoping to film the joy in her eyes as she tore open the wrapping paper and saw Dora’s face. I ordered it from Amazon and they told me through their lovely automated system that we would have the dressing table on 23rd of December. Cool.

23rd of December and the table never arrived. We contact Amazon who tell us, no it’s the 24th now for delivery and not the 23rd. Ok, do we wait in? Of course we do.

And we wait.

And we wait… until 8pm, we miss the Christingle services, you know the ones that are all about Christmas and magical for the children? We missed it. We waited, and we waited some more. The nativity scene, the mini play the choir perform with local kids, we missed those too. We waited all day and the dressing table didn’t arrive. Yep, it didn’t arrive for Christmas. It arrived for New Year.

Try telling that to a 4 year old, that the present got stuck down the chimney. That Santa had left it on the roof by accident? It fell off the back of a reindeer and Santa redelivered?  She didn’t care, she didn’t have it when it mattered. I didn’t get the video I planned to get.

Is it Amazon’s fault? Possibly? Is it the courier service they used? Probably.

Why…

If you are part of a business that sees a surge of orders in late November and December, now is the time you need to be looking at your delivery options.

Christmas delivery is something that is very hard when people leave it to the last minute and then discover that late, last minute deliveries cost more. I can imagine them now, on the phone and their jaw hitting the desk. So they send it via a parcel courier anyway and hope. They hope the van hasn’t got 170 packages on the back, they hope the driver isn’t off sick or Christmas shopping, they hope and hope (then hope some more)  that the delivery van doesn’t break down.

They hope that the van delivers the present that was ordered last minute, even though they must know that some companies take on the work knowing they don’t have a snowflakes chance in hell of getting it there for Christmas.

Why do they do this? Why do they take the work when they know that they have not a chance of delivering it all on time?

Well I can’t answer that question, instead I’ll ask another – How come as a business you continue to use a courier service that doesn’t guarantee your delivery?

Ah I hear you say, with a smile… they do guarantee the delivery. Really? Then check the small print.

If you want to get something there on time for Christmas you need to send it early, the volume of parcels trebles in December.

Don’t send it last minute, it won’t get there, you are deluding yourself if you think it will. The courier will tell you anything, they want your money, they have terms and conditions that will get them off the hook, and hey – shout loud enough and they’ll refund the £10 it cost you. But they won’t give you the Christmas memories, they won’t send you an Alka Seltzer to settle your stomach acid from the stress you have experienced, you won’t get back those two days of your life.  They don’t care, they did their best but failed. The courier ruined Christmas.

When you are sitting there Christmas day, and you have the video set up, ready to catch those special moments – be grateful you had the foresight to read a blog that mentions Christmas a little too early. Better still, understand that a parcel courier will be delivering everyone else’s last minute gifts, while yours are under the tree already, they’ll still be delivering in January.

Kevin

Parcel Couriers – discount codes

Types of courier services

Distribution of your parcels