Good news Book Depository customers - your Christmas orders
"absolutely should'' arrive before the big day.
About 12,000 orders from the popular overseas online
bookseller arrived at Auckland Airport yesterday after
customers waited months for their deliveries to arrive.
Orders usually take about two weeks to be delivered, however
customers told the Herald orders they had placed in October
were still to arrive.
The Book Depository posted a message apologising to New Zealand customers this
morning on Twitter and Facebook.
The statement was also sent to customers inquiring about the
delays.
"Following a joint investigation with our air freight
partners and New Zealand Post, a backlog of approximately
12,000 items was discovered at Auckland Airport and these
have now been processed by NZ Post who have advised
deliveries will be arriving into homes over the next few days
and everything will be delivered by Saturday 22nd December.
We sincerely hope you can accept our apologies for the
frustrations this delay has caused.''
A spokesperson for New Zealand Post, Michael Tull, said the
delays did not occur in New Zealand, rather prior to the
deliveries arriving in the country.
"There was no backlog of packages found at Auckland Airport
... [The Book Depository has] chosen their words poorly. A
backlog from overseas arrived at Auckland Airport yesterday
and is being processed through by New Zealand Post and will
now be on its way out to people,'' Mr Tull said.
"But it's just an unfortunate choice of words because it
sounds like a backlog or a big pile of books sitting at
Auckland Airport - that is not the case.''
Mr Tull said the deliveries which arrived in New Zealand
"absolutely should'' be delivered to customers prior to
Christmas.
"But I can't speak as to whether there are any other
consignments, whether [yesterday's arrival] was all of it or
whether there are other Book Depository products which have
not yet arrived.''
Mr Tull said he was not in a position to comment on who was
responsible for the delay.
He said New Zealand Post mail centres are well staffed to
deal with the increased volumes of deliveries ahead of
Christmas.
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