Delays at North West Distribution Centre

[Ducky]

I have parcels I ordered on the 6th that were supposed to arrive on the 11th that only arrived at the North West Distribution Centre on the 15th and are still there apparently.

What I don't understand is why? The weather in the North West hasn't been that bad, apart from a bad day last Friday and a bad day a couple of weeks back there hasn't been an issue. And its generally always been traversable.

I'm only in Manchester so it's beyond me whats holding it up.

[fishtank]

It is sheer logistics.
On a normal day we handle approx 70million items.
During Christmas that can rise to well over 100million.
If we have only one day of disruption that means that up to 100million items are choked in a pipeline that is already running at 150%...unfortunately because our processing side has been cut to the bone over the last few years we do not have the capacity to instantly deal with that backlog so it is moved to the side and chipped away at until it becomes manageable.
That is why some things are passing straight through the system and some which were posted earlier appear to be stuck.

[poppycat]

Broxi 51

That sounds hopeful thank you for the update!!

Another present arrived today which I ordered a few days ago and some bills but still not the Amazon parcel unfortunately...

[poppycat]

thank you for the explanation fishtank.

I understand the reasoning behind what you are saying, it is better to have one batch of delayed post rather than 3 or 4 etc. However, if you all could look out for my Amazon order coming to Bournemouth it would be most appreciated

[Baz1986]

I'm in the same situation as a lot of you. I placed an order on 7th December, Amazon dispatched and it arrived at Gourock Inverclyde 12th Decemeber. 15th Decemeber it arrived at the north west distribution centre and has been stuck there ever since, going by the tracking status on Amazon.

Each time I go the royal mail website and enter my 13 character number (FJ183071331GB), it just says it arrived on the 15th and they are currently processing it.

I have lost all hope and I don't think I'll get my parcel before xmas or even this year. Possibly early Jan/Feb time due to the huge backlog.

[ruth1]

Hi I am another customer who is waiting for a package to be delivered from amazon. It is my 6 year old daughters xmas present so cant really say that it is stuck in the Northwest Distribution Centre. It was scanned in on the 18th december however when i track the package with royal mail it just says being processed. It like so many others seems to have come from Scotland so shouldnt posting it around the North West be the easy bit. Does anybody know if I can go the distribution centre??

[slohcin]

I am another who is waiting for a parcel of books ordered from Amazon on the 12th and have dissapeared into the abyss known as the North Weast Dstribution Centre.
According to the tracking info, they left Gourock on the 12th and arrived at NWDC at 9:40am on the 16th, 4 days to do 100/150 miles! Now they seem to have taken up residence there, its now 6 days with no movement.
There are going to be four unhappy children on Christmas Day, when Uncle Pete and Auntie Von arrive empty handed. Tales of Santa being stuck in the snow will not go down well!
Lets hope that there will be a miracle at Christmas, and they do arrive in the next two days.
Pete

[Jim57]

...unfortunately because our processing side has been cut to the bone over the last few years we do not have the capacity to instantly deal with that backlog so it is moved to the side and chipped away at until it becomes manageable.
That is why some things are passing straight through the system and some which were posted earlier appear to be stuck.

Are things done that way due to the assumption by Royal Mail that once an item has been delayed, the recipient will already be disgruntled so they have nothing to lose by delaying it further?

Instead of upsetting even more customers by backing them up behind those that are already waiting, they allow items sent later to leapfrog over those that are backlogged. I suppose it makes their statistics look better when it comes to showing how many items were delivered within their timeframe.

[poppycat]

tbh Jim57 if I was running the depot I would probably adopt the same strategy which unfortunately doesn't help with my delivery

[poppycat]

My item tracking info has changed to;


'We received item .... at Bournemouth DO on the 2010-12-23. The item is now ready for delivery'

Hopefully when I get back from work it will be here -

[Jim57]

Despite Amazon still saying it is in the distribution centre, the package was on my doorstep this morning. As mentioned earlier in the thread, check the Royal Mail website for tracking info, as that shows correctly, for me, that the item has been delivered.

I hope everyone else receives their packages today or tomorrow, especially if you are waiting for young children's presents for Christmas to be delivered.

[Broxi51]

Despite Amazon still saying it is in the distribution centre, the package was on my doorstep this morning. As mentioned earlier in the thread, check the Royal Mail website for tracking info, as that shows correctly, for me, that the item has been delivered.

I hope everyone else receives their packages today or tomorrow, especially if you are waiting for young children's presents for Christmas to be delivered.

Am glad to hear you got your package

[melissa3699]

like most of you that have already posted, i ordered 5 items from amazon on 8th december, they were dispatched on the 9th december with a delivery estimate of the 13th dec. For 9 days my tracking information was the same, that it was in transit from scotland, then on the 18th it changed to arrived at the NWDC, and my hopes were raised that it would be delivered for christmas, but sadly another 5 days have passed and no change, and it says the same thing on the royal mail tracking info. I live in swindon, so have absolutely no hopes that it will arrive in time now, fortunately none of the presents are for children and my heart goes out to anyone waiting for something for their kids, but it does mean i am am going to turn up empty handed when i visit my family on boxing day.

I think the policy of putting delayed deliveries aside is completely wrong, and in an earlier post it said that there was only disruption for one day, but how can that be true when i have seen several different dates for items arriving at the NWDC, all of which have yet to be delivered! As an extra kick in the teeth my fiance ordered something from amazon on friday and it arrived today, which made me even more annoyed that mine hasn't. You may land up with less angry customers by doing this, but those who have been affected are getting angrier by the day, to the point where i am seriously considering never ordering from Amazon again!

If this type of weather, which hasn't been as bad as everyone makes out, is to continue, something seriously needs to change, the entire british postal system can't collapse everytime we have a bit of snow! Other countries don't grind to a halt, why do we?

I'm not usually this grumpy but this has really got under my skin, i wish everyone the best of luck getting their deliveries, i know everyone working for the royal mail is doing their best - a usual it's the system thats flawed.

Merry christmas everyone!!!!!!

[makweb]

Most of my parcels arrived today after being stuck in NWD for a week, from postie posts on these forums it seems like they've been working very hard to shift the backlog and the postman looked pretty tired and even apologised for a next day package taking 4 days. So seems like things are moving, thanks for their efforts.

However I totally agree with previous post, that putting back log to one side to let other post remain on time, is pretty disgusting. people who ordered items over two weeks ago have properly planned things properly and are more reliant on the parcel arriving, rather than those who took a chance on placing an order a week before.
I know it will have something to do with targets, but it is making a mockery of the postal system.

I'm smiling now as I have the gifts, but it would be a different story if I hadn't. It is abviously been sat in a pile somewhere stuck at NWD, what makes it worse is that it was only a few days late from Amazon Scotland

merry christmas

[TeeferTiger]

I too am waiting on Xmas presents from Amazon which I ordered on 3rd December as I don't like leaving it to the last minute. Unfortunately I made a big mistake by being organised as my parcels have 'gone awry' (Amazon's words), the last message is that it is in the North West Distribution Centre. They started off in Gourock on 5th December and then 13 days later (18th) were scanned in to the North West Distribution Centre and there has been no further information. Having complained to Amazon they said they would send out replacements which they did (minus one of the items ordered for some reason??) on the 18th and on 20th the parcel moved to Kettering Northants. Amazon also sent an email saying that anything ordered after 18th is unlikely to be delivered before Xmas- so why send the replacement on the 18th? I understand the weather is bad but can anyone explain why my daughter-in-law and my son both ordered parcels each last week (on Tuesday and Wednesday) and have had all their items delivered to them- 10 miles from where I live? Now I'm in a position of waiting for 2 almost identical parcels (one with an item missing) with my partners Xmas presents and not knowing if one or the other or neither will arrive in time. I will give serious thought to ordering from Amazon again as other sellers have managed to get their parcels out to me and my family in time....

It depends what they've ordered and where they've come from I imagine. Amazon have depots all over the UK. Ones in Scotland are lucky to have had anything shift from there in a few weeks, where as the ones towards the south east haven't been too badly hit by the snow and so have been dispatching at a reasonable pace.

I hope they arrive in time :)