topic Re: Orders to Northern Ireland in Pay Monthly

Orders to Northern Ireland

pgn — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 19:51:10 GMT

Well now - as an avid supporter of purchasing through resellers, especially when O2's mark-up on some handsets seems to be an inflexible, immovable "pay our price or go elsewhere", I see this appearing when trying to order through my normal reseller channel for Upgrade and Contract Renewal:

This only visible when you attempt to Checkout from Mobile Phones Direct today.

The other option is a reseller who uses DPD, and I know DPD stopped handling packages to/from Northern Ireland a few days before Christmas - it may have changed by now, I have not checked.

Is O2 imposing similar barriers on orders to addresses in Northern Ireland from O2.co.uk?

Re: Orders to Northern Ireland

Cleoriff — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 20:02:57 GMT

Good old Brexit. The start of something worse to come....

Re: Orders to Northern Ireland

MI5 — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 20:22:00 GMT

Ohh joy

Re: Orders to Northern Ireland

madasaf1sh — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 20:52:16 GMT

@pgn

Shipments to NI have restarted but there are delays across all Couriers.

Brexit has a lot to answer for and this is just the start.....

Re: Orders to Northern Ireland

pgn — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 21:14:07 GMT

@madasaf1sh wrote:
@pgn

Shipments to NI have restarted but there are delays across all Couriers.

I suspect the 3-month moratorium on such shipment charges will help a little - but with so many restricted by Tier controls, things may worsen before they start to improve, only to be mired in shipping, tax, and declarations of origin paperwork once more in March.

Oh, joy!

Re: Orders to Northern Ireland

pgn — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 14:22:38 GMT

Looks like another third-party mobile reseller has decided to use the common-sense approach, move away from DPD for shipments to NI, and use Royal Mail instead - good on them, if only all online retailers in GB would consider that the BT postcode area, all of Northern Ireland, is reachable by the National Postal Carrier, Royal Mail.

Now, just wait until good old 1st and 2nd class stamps (sub-£1!) are restricted to GB only, as Northern Ireland gets to be counted as part of the EU: rates for a letter to EU from UK start at £1.58 (gone is the stamp with an "E" on it!). Don't laugh, that's Brexit for us all...

Re: Orders to Northern Ireland

pgn — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 18:31:08 GMT

Well, the shipment arrived well before 1pm the next day.
Events have conspired against my opening of the box... Might be weekend before I get to it.

Re: Orders to Northern Ireland

pgn — Sat, 09 Jan 2021 10:54:41 GMT

Any response from O2 to my Q below, @Martin-O2 or @TheresaV:

Is O2 imposing similar barriers on orders to addresses in Northern Ireland from O2.co.uk?

Worrying given DPD announcement recently, and this revealing article about haulage generally:

https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0108/1188595-tony-connelly-brexit/

Re: Orders to Northern Ireland

TheresaV — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 10:05:55 GMT

Hi @pgn

Thanks for raising this with us.

Let's see what we can find out for you

Re: Orders to Northern Ireland

TheresaV — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 10:33:07 GMT

Hello again @pgn ,

I have checked internally and O2 is not imposing any barriers on or limiting orders to Northern Ireland. However, unfortunately a lot depends on the couriers, so it's always best to check with them before you order anything

Hope this helps!

Re: Orders to Northern Ireland

pgn — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 06:36:05 GMT

Thank you, @TheresaV.
It would be good to know what courier O2 would use - I assume they have a list and check which offers the most chance of the consignment getting to its destination with the minimum of delay.
One reseller uses Royal Mail Recorded Delivery, but another reseller has stopped selling to NI as their courier has stopped accepting consignments between GB and NI at the moment.
This guy is keeping a list of those with carriage issues:
https://twitter.com/uk_domain_names/status/1348350363066372096?s=19
(if you use Twitter...)

Re: Orders to Northern Ireland

TheresaV — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 10:05:04 GMT

Anytime @pgn

I've checked back on this and our main courier is DHL, but depending on what product is ordered, some items are also delivered by Yodel and Royal Mail. However, there are no impacts on delivery to Northern Ireland outside of the current delays.

Hope this helps

Re: Orders to Northern Ireland

pgn — Fri, 07 May 2021 11:26:17 GMT

Some of the couriers are getting very inventive with their routes from outside the EU into Northern Ireland:

Judging by the timings, it is air from Memphis, TN to Stansted GB, then air to Dublin IE, then road to Carrickfergus GB (outside Belfast), then road to me up here in Derry/Londonderry GB (due in the next hour or so).

The joys of an open border