Isle of Man Post Office is advising customers to post early to ensure their festive cards and gifts arrive with loved ones before Christmas Day, as the last posting dates are announced.
Malcolm MacPherson, Mails Managing Director, of Isle of Man Post Office said: “Last year the snow and ice caused severe disruption to postal services throughout the British Isles in the lead up to Christmas. We don’t know whether we’ll face the same again this year, but why take the risk? It’s our busiest time of the year and I strongly advise our customers to post in good time just in case we do have severe weather again.”
Airmail bound to Asia, Australia, Far East (including Japan) and New Zealand should be sent no later than December 5 while mail destined for South and Central America, Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East should be posted by December 7. Mail for Eastern Europe, USA and Canada must be sent by December 10 and to Western Europe before December 12.
For friends and family of HM Forces personnel, mail must be sent by December 3 for operational BFPOs and no later than December 14 for static BFPOs. Don’t forget friends and family can continue to send letters and parcels up to 2kg free of charge to any BFPO address.
The last posting date for sending letters, large letters and packets to the UK and for using Parcelforce48 is December 20. The final day for using Special Delivery next-day guaranteed service for both UK and local delivery (including the Saturday guarantee service) and Parcelforce next-day is December 21.While customers have up until December 22 to send Christmas mail (letters and parcels) for local delivery in time for Christmas.
Our newly constructed Customer Services Centre at Postal Headquarters will be officially open from December 3 and to assist customers during this very busy period it will be open to post and collect parcels from 07.00 to 20.30 Monday to Friday until December 21 and 07:00 to 12:30 Saturdays. However, items need to be posted before 18:45 to ensure despatch to the UK and overseas that evening. Any items posted after this time will be despatched the following day. On December 22 the Customer Services Centre will be open from 07.00 till 12.30. Customers should also note the retail counter will close at 12.30pm on Christmas Eve but parcels can be collected up until 18.00. To ensure your parcel is ready for collection, customers are advised to wait until after 18:00 hours before visiting to collect their item during the Christmas period.
The new Customer Services Centre will house a self-service Pay & Post kiosk so customers can avoid the queues for wanting to weigh stamp, and pay for letters and packages, buy postage and pay electricity, gas, phone bills as well as Government rates through the machines. Postal kiosks can also be found in other locations around the Island.
The retail network will be open as normal in the lead up to Christmas with the exception of Christmas Eve when post offices will close at 12.30 and 16.00 on New Year’s Eve. All post offices and operational sites will be closed on Christmas Day (December 25) through till December 27 inclusive and January 1, 2013.
Any business customers who would like to discuss their collections (including private boxes) and deliveries during the Christmas period are invited to call the Business Development Team on 698444.
During the Christmas period the Department of Social Care has agreed to the early encashment of pensions and allowances for the convenience of customers – please see information below:
Due date:
Monday 24th December - Encashable from Monday 17th December
Tuesday 25th December - Encashable from Tuesday 18th December
Wednesday 26th December - Encashable from Wednesday 19th December
Friday 28th December - Encashable from Friday 21st December
Tuesday 1st January - Encashable from Friday 28th December
Finally, you can help us this Christmas by making sure you address your mail correctly by ensuring the postcode is included – this makes a real difference to how quickly we can process your mail and by posting as early as possible. Please also include a return address on any pieces of mail, especially items which include a gift.
Information about last posting dates, addressing standards, advice on wrapping and packing can be found on the Christmas page of our website www.iompost.com/christmas.
The Post Shop at Regent Street is the ideal place to visit all for your packing materials in the run up to Christmas as well as fabulous gift ideas. The Post Shop is open Monday to Friday 9am to 5.30pm (open from 9.30am on a Tuesday) and 9am to 12.30pm on Saturday. This year’s Christmas stamps feature the work of Island based artist Michael Starkey. The images depict Christmas scenes from a bygone era and each stamp tells it very own story. Meanwhile the Isle of Man Post Office Yearbook, a packed compendium of all 2012 stamp issues with accompanying text along with all the stamps, is now on sale.
