Beat UK Postal Strike - Order DVD This Week

Sea Kayak with Gordon Brown DVDs are expected to dispatch to customers on Thursday!

This is just some of the addressed envelopes waiting to be filled. The courier company called to confirm my address and expect to deliver to me late Wednesday.

I insisted they arrived early. I want to dispatch the DVDs in time to beat the first day of the threatened industrial dispute by Royal Mail staff. It's reported they plan a one day strike on 22nd October with more to follow. Update - attempt to do last minute deal.

So pre order before Wednesday night and your copy will be in this first batch dispatched on Thursday.

If there is to be a strike, we plan to offer alternative delivery options. We'll continue to offer free worldwide shipping, but we'll also offer you the choice of adding Royal Mail's premium services in the hope they stand a better chance of getting through. All will require a signature on delivery.

UK Customers will have two options:
Recorded Delivery (now called Sign For) at £0.75. Officially, this doesn't increase the priority of the delivery, it's still first class, but in my experience the big orange sticker does speed things along.
Registered Post (now called Special Delivery) at £4.94. This is a higher priority delivery and the option I would choose if I was ordering. In previous disputes, these packages have got through much faster than anything else, although not always in the advertised 24 hours.

Overseas Customers have one option:
International Sign For at £3.70. Like UK Sign For, this doesn't oficially increase the priority of the delivery, but I have the feeling it might help. Also there isn't an international version of Special Delivery.

Those charges are set by Royal Mail and are ontop of the regular shipping charge which we continue to pay.

Other options? Well, Internatonal Parcel Force is too expensive at £23. Courier firms are also around the same figure and, because we live in a relatively remote location, we'd have a 200 mile round trip to the nearest collection point.

After two years working on this project, imagine how delighted I am with the timing of this dispute...