Online shoppers on Skye have been left with round trips of up to 50 miles to collect their own parcels because of a shortage of courier drivers.
Amid the frustration, the biggest delivery firm is offering a £2,000 bonus to new recruits.
Many islanders are reliant on home deliveries for much of their shopping.
They say the last thing they want is to resort to collecting their shopping from distant hubs set up by courier giant Evri.
Stuart Wilson, who owns The Tables guest house at Dunvegan said: “We got an email from Evri to say to us ‘thank you for choosing for your parcel to be sent to one of our local collection hubs’, which wasn’t an option for us. It’s what they have unilaterally chosen to do.
“It’s a bit annoying when you’ve chosen and paid for home delivery. When you phone the company that you’ve bought the goods from they think you’re getting home delivery and don’t really understand what the issue is.”
He added: “There have been instances where people on Skye have had their parcels sent to the Isle of Raasay which is a ferry ride for them.
“Yes, the ferry is regular intervals during the day but they still have to pay for that ferry ride across tor Raasay to pick their parcels up.”
For more than a week, many parcels for Skye have been diverted to Post Offices at seven locations – Armadale, Isleornsay, Broadford, Raasay, Portree, Glendale and Struan – which is hugely inconvenient for disabled people and those dependent on rare public transport.
Glendale shopkeeper Nancy Bell said: “We’ve got a backlog of parcels coming through.
STV News“There are three or four weeks of parcels that Evri have known was up and coming and I had hoped it would have happened more quickly than it has. I’m hoping that once this backlog has gone through that we’ll be able to manage going forward. But in the meantime we’re struggling a wee bit.”
Evri, the UK’s biggest dedicated parcel firm, has offered customers an apology, saying a previous home delivery provider had ceased operating “for personal reasons”.
The company has launched a recruitment campaign hoping to entice self-employed couriers with a £2,000 incentive to join up.
A spokesperson for Evri said: “We are urgently seeking self-employed couriers to join and serve the local community. The role offers great flexibility and competitive earnings with a bonus to join.
“As a temporary measure we have diverted parcels to ParcelShops and post offices for collection but we are sorry to those who have been impacted.”
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