Amazon has blamed limited carrier capacity for it being unable to deliver new purchases to the island before Christmas.

The head of Douglas Town Centre Management has said this is further reason to shop local this Christmas.

Our colleagues at gef.im were contacted by a reader who said they were unable to order the presents they wanted on Amazon last week as the company was only offering delivery fro after Christmas.

In a reply from the company’s customer service centre, Amazon told the customer: ‘Unfortunately due to your location, and the limited capacity of the carriers we use that service the Isle of Man, you will have seen an extension in your estimated delivery times for orders placed on amazon.co.uk

‘We are working hard to increase the carrier availability and improve the situation for all our customers on the Isle of Man, however due to circumstances outside of our control, such as industrial action taken by Royal Mail, and other courier companies also facing difficult challenges we are provided an extended delivery time during the order process.

‘The delivery dates provided are an estimate, and where possible, we will dispatch orders as quickly as possible, and many orders are arriving before the date provided at checkout. While we do not have an exact date when we expect services to return to the usual level you and we expect, please be assured that we are working hard to increase the availability of carriers to provide a better service to all our customers on the Isle of Man.’

Gef.im put this to the test and tried to order a basic Amazon Echo.

Using an address in Onchan, Amazon said delivery would be by Friday, December 30, and suggested we buy an Amazon Gift Card if we wanted something earlier.

However, when we tried to order the same device to London, Amazon offered a delivery date of today (December 13) and even when extending this to Shetland, the company was still offering a pre-Christmas delivery of December 20.

One man who did have the solution was the manager of Douglas town centre, Oliver Cheshire,

He said: ‘Now we’re at the point in the run up to Christmas when it becomes too risky to rely on your online orders arriving before the big day, you can shop with certainty in the City centre and take your purchases straight home to wrap.

You can also enjoy the various events we have coming up. This Thursday (15) we have Christmas Live (live nativity) in Villiers Square as well as a gingerbread decorating workshop in the Strand Centre. On Saturday 17 we have The Christmas Stage Show Extravaganza on Strand Street to provide a sound track to your present hunting before you try your hand at Christmas Crazy Golf in The Strand Centre.

‘Last, but not least, the one and only Father Christmas with be in The Strand Centre on Thursday, December 22, for the last late night Thursday before the big day!’

Amazon’s press office was contacted twice before this article was published but neither replied nor acknowledged gef.im’s requests for comment.