Dear Anderfans,

I wanted to take a moment to address the ongoing Royal Mail strikes and the impact they are having on our delivery times. As a small business (and that is what we are - not Amazon, not Disney, just a dedicated group of people who love all things Anderson), we are doing everything we can to mitigate against these issues and ensure that your orders are delivered as quickly as possible.

However, the challenges posed by the strikes are unprecedented and have greatly affected our ability to fulfill orders in a timely manner. Currently Royal Mail are telling us that we should expect 10 working day delivery delays, so are asking customers to complete their Christmas shopping early this year - by midday on 14th December, to give us the best chance to get your items to you in a timely manner before the big day.

It's only natural that you might ask why we didn't stop using Royal Mail in the face of the strikes. Firstly our systems, warehouse and logistics are not designed to suddenly change providers. We were also told as late on as 1st December, that delays would only persist for 2-3 days. This was clearly untrue. Other courier companies are taking up the slack, and they are now suffering delays as a result. There are also huge knock-on issues that we are seeing in terms of manufacturing, delivery and movement of stock etc. These issues are likely invisible to you, but they're causing our team additional delays every day.

There is no easy way to get around the delays. It's extremely frustrating, and is a challenging time for the entire team.

We understand that delays can be frustrating, but please remember that our support team is made up of real, hard-working people who are doing their best to assist you. I've been shocked and saddened to see a very small minority of customers sending aggressive and borderline abusive notes to our brilliant, kind and dedicated customer support team. So let me be absolutely clear: We will not tolerate abusive messages and ask that you please be understanding and patient as we work through this difficult situation. The vast majority of you are brilliant, patient, kind and understanding - and we appreciate that enormously.

We've got some absolutely wonderful stuff lined up for 2023, and look forward to making you smile, feel warm, fuzzy and nostalgic, through the New Year and beyond.

We appreciate your continued support and understanding during this time.

With all best wishes for Christmas and the New Year,

Jamie Anderson
Managing Director of Anderson Entertainment and proud son of Gerry Anderson