Baker Wicked Cookies cites Royal Mail tracking gaps in parcel delays

Sally Rees, owner of Wicked Cookies in Nuneaton, said 20% of her parcels are stuck in the Royal Mail system.

Rees runs Wicked Cookies and the retail outlet Snickerwoodles in Leamington Spa. Both businesses sell regular and themed cookies through a mail-order service. She stated that while 80% of deliveries arrive on time, the failure rate has risen over the last three months.

Rees uses the Tracked 24 service, which promises next working day delivery. She noted that in the last three days, her parcels were collected but tracking data showed they never reached the local depot. "In the last three days we've had our post collected, our parcels collected, but the tracking system shows that they haven't even made it to the depot and been checked in," she said.

The company has used other couriers, but Rees said the issue with Royal Mail is compounded by its size. She has an account manager but said that person lacks the authority to resolve specific tracking errors. "Yes, you have an account manager, but honestly, they can't do anything," Rees said.

When orders do not arrive within two days, Rees re-bakes the cookies at her own expense. She said the claim process for perished goods is inefficient compared to items with a fixed retail value. "When you're talking about ingredients like flour, eggs and butter and sugar, and the time it takes me to go online and fill in one of the claim forms, it doesn't allow for the cost of the packaging, the box, all the time we've spent baking them and all the rest of it; it's not covered," she explained.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said the firm offers compensation for the cost price of lost items plus postage. Regarding tracking, the company stated that website updates occur only when a business confirms a parcel is on its way, when it enters the network, and upon delivery. "We know how important it is that customers receive their parcels when expected," the spokesperson said.

Martin Saxby in Rugby reported similar service gaps for standard letter mail. He said deliveries recently paused for over two weeks before a large volume of mail arrived in a single week. Saxby said he filed a complaint with no response and now doubts the reliability of the service for sending Christmas cards.