Monday, September 04, 2006

Royal Mail Special Delivery

We've decided to re-introduce the option to have your orders delivered by Royal Mail Special Delivery. The Special Delivery service offers a faster more secure delivery option for urgent orders.
Back in 2005 when we first offered this service we advertised it as "Next Day Delivery" unfortunately because of the time it took to process the orders and get them posted we were occasionally missing the deadline for delivery and understandably customers, having paid for "Next Day Delivery" were unhappy. For this reason early in 2006 we suspended the service and went back to the normal Recorded Delivery service we'd always provided.
This time round we're not making any promises on delivery time just that the item will be sent by "Special Delivery". We won't be processing these orders any differently from normal Recorded items but will still do our best to get them posted as quickly as possible.
So in summary we have not reintroduced Next Day Delivery, but are giving you the option to have your order sent by Special Delivery if needed. From experience I know how important it is knowing your order is going to arrive safely and this option will, I hope add an extra dimension of security.

With the introduction of pricing in proportion by Royal Mail in August, our postage costs have risen by a massive 35% this inflation busting increase has been justified by Royal Mail because our packages are a non standard size, and therefore take longer to process. Although we're not happy with the increase, Royal Mail's virtual monopoly on home deliveries leaves us no option but to accept it. We just hope they can use the extra revenue to ensure a better service with fewer lost and stolen items and no more postal strikes like to one in Belfast in March which crippled our business. Because of the price increases we've made a few small changes to our postage and packaging charges. For most orders the costs will remain the same, about 75% of our currently orders cost £3.50 P&P and these will remain unaffected. Our charge of £1.75 for small items such as a single bracelet or pair of earrings has gone up to £2.50 and we are no longer offering free postage for large orders, instead all postage charges will be calculated during the checkout process and you'll be able to view them before completing the order.
I honestly think our Postage and Packaging charges are still very good value for money, and when you compare the total price you are going to pay for your Bridal Jewellery to the equivalent purchased through a high street bridal shop you'll still be saving up to 70% on their prices.

No comments: