Customer complaints over late Royal Mail deliveries lead to LBC Radio appearance
Dean Morris has spoken up for all businesses relying on the postal service with an appearance on LBC Radio’s James O’Brien show following customer complaints that its greeting card orders aren’t arriving on time.
Despite all the media coverage on the postal strikes and Royal Mail bringing forward guaranteed Christmas delivery dates to Monday, 12 December, for second class and today, 16 December, for first class, Dean had an email on Tuesday, 13 December, saying: “Yes, I did see that my order was despatched on 2 December. Why then have I still not received the damn thing? I know there has been a postal strike but not for two bloody weeks! Please advise as to status.”
And another one said: “I would like my order as soon as possible as it’s Christmas cards – I am receiving all my usual post and orders so it’s not Royal Mail. If it’s been dispatched, may I ask how?”
After sharing the issue on social media, industry pals including retailers Caroline and Jon Ranwell, of Hugs & Kisses, and publishers Emma Ball, Rush Designs’ Ian and Lorraine Bradley, and Sarah Hopkins, from Holy Mackerel, were among those who confirmed they’ve been having similar problems with rude customers refusing to understand a business has no control once the order has been handed to Royal Mail.
Dean told PG Buzz: “All my friends in the industry are having the same problems and it just got my back up so I needed to vent – to about 1.3million listeners, thanks to James O’Brien doing a phone in on the subject on LBC. Think I sounded okay once I remembered to breathe!”
And Dean – who has a further media appearance arranged with BBC Midlands scheduled to visit on Tuesday, 20 December – was the first to call in to the LBC Radio phone-in, telling the host that “I do support the strikes, everyone deserves a decent living wage” but pointing out this is the busiest time of year for Dean Morris Cards and other publishers, while the low value of cards means they don’t have the luxury of using more-expensive courier firms so are reliant on Royal Mail – and other later callers reiterated the same issues.
He added: “I’m getting nasty emails from customers, basically expecting me to go to the sorting office and find where their order is. I do my best, I put it out in the post bag on the day that you order, then it goes into the system. And like eight days later, they still haven’t had their order – and I’ve ruined people’s Christmases.”
James responded: “You’re the first call today and you’ve already thrown up something that hadn’t occurred to me, this is actually an opportunity for all of us to recognise the reality of your plight, not just the impact on the trade unions, but the anger of customers with people like you who are powerless to influence the events that seen the standard of service you would like to provide be compromised.
“Hopefully some people listening will be a bit nicer now to the Dean in their life, when they’re inquiring about where their package has gone.”
James also admitted that he’d posted his own mum’s birthday card 10 days in advance of the big day only for it to arrive nine days late due to the strikes.
Dean said: “I do take my word, my business, and my responsibility to customers very importantly. I’m really trying for it not to spoil my resolve but I almost want to just turn my website off now and say no more sales because I can’t deal with that and also spend the time replying to everyone’s ‘where’s my order’ emails. It’s a bit of a stock answer because there’s only so much you can give – people think there’s a strike one day, and the next day, everything’s back to normal.”
Having been allowed to give a business shout-out on air, Dean had to admit to James that his stock-in-trade is rude cards and gifts – which led to another appearance in the media today with the Daily Mirror’s coverage of minor TV and radio celebrity Jamie East’s retweeting of a mum’s complaint about the publisher’s rude badges by the till at Scribbler’s Waterloo Station outlet.
With various comments both supporting the complaint and defending the retailer as a store well known for adult humour, Scribbler replied to Jamie’s tweet: “Due to the adult nature of a lot of our products we expect parents to shop with their children at their own discretion. We use PG warnings and try to keep our rude items away from windows but understand this is tricky in smaller shops and regrettably some may still find offence.”
However, the Mirror reported that a Scribbler spokesperson told the newspaper: “We always try to make sure that our product is positioned appropriately, and with enough information for our customers. We have been informed of some concerns expressed by customers recently, in relation to the badges. We never want to cause offence, and have decided to remove them from our display, while we have an internal review.”
Top: Dean Morris hopes all customers have a very merry Christmas – and his orders arrive
