International Shipping

As someone who's online business relies heavily on international buyers, international shipping since the last week in November has been a complete nightmare. I try and ship within 24 hours of receiving an order, always convo the buyer to thank them for their purchase and give an idea of ETA.

However thanks in part to the adverse weather in the UK throughout November and December and the increased security of incoming parcels into the USA, shipping has been taking up to 4 weeks from the UK to USA and in some cases ever longer.

And understandably buyers are getting increasingly frustrated and annoyed that they are having to wait this length of time. Also, there is the very real possibility that some of these delayed parcels have got lost in the system somewhere.

So I'm wondering, what do you do if you have an upset customer who is worrying about their order? When do you decide that you should refund or replace? And what to you tell someone who is contacting you regularly for updates?

All thought welcome