Orders to Northern Ireland

[pgn]

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?

[Cleoriff]

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

[MI5]

Ohh joy 

[madasaf1sh]

@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.....

[pgn]

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@madasaf1sh wrote:
@pgn

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

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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! 

[pgn]

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... 

[pgn]

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.

[pgn]

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/

[TheresaV]

Hi @pgn 

Thanks for raising this with us.

Let's see what we can find out for you  

[TheresaV]

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!