MAIL ORDER

HOW POSTAGE IS CALCULATED

Every item we sell has been weighed, the webshop has details of the weight of each item.

As you add items to your basket the webshop automatically calculates the weight of the package, then when you check out this weight is referred to a list of postage rates per weight and desitination.

Depending on the weight of your package and the desitination the services offered will either be;

  • Royal mail
  • UPS

For Export orders there will be various other shipping options from the Royal Mail and other International Courier services.

You can get a shipping quote without commiting to buy by starting the check out process.

 

DROP SHIPPING

Drop shipping is a process where once you have ordered the goods you may be sent your items directly from the wholesaler, manufacturer or UK agent.

There are a few reasons for this process.

  • It’s cheaper, rather than us pay postage (increasing the cost) to our warehouse, the postage charged is for one journey, from them to you.
  • Postal rates from the wholesaler/manufacturer/agent will be better than ours as they deal in much larger quantities.
  • It’s better for the environment as your parts have to travel less road miles, cutting down on road traffic and exhaust emissions.

Please note, at least one of each of the items listed on the website as “drop shipped”  is usually kept at one of our premises, for local collection (please ring and arrange first), for workshop use, or emergency supply when manufacturer/wholesaler/agent does not have stock.

By offering drop shipping we are keeping the prices down to you.

 

WHEN TO EXPECT DELIVERY

Mail order is processed daily, on a morning.

All orders are to be placed online using the webshop. If you wish to collect from our premises please order online but use the “COLLECTION ONLY” shipping method, this way you will not be charged shipping and your order should be ready for you to collect upon arrival saving you time. Please do not come to collect parts before you have been notified that the order is “Complete”

In the morning, usually around 9pm the website is checked and orders that have been paid for are upgraded to “Printed, being packed” this means we have read the order and printed your invoice and picking slip and we are picking the parts and boxing them up.

Once the order is boxed the order will be marked as “Complete” and a shipping label generated, the parts will leave that evening.

We aim to ship all orders that are on the system shipped in the same day wherever possible. It doesnt always happen this way, but thats what we aim for.
Orders generally leave early afternoon. Once we have processed the orders from the morning we will then go back and process any orders that have come in since we processed the first batch that morning.

Obviously we cant keep sending packages out all day as our courier vans arrive anywhere from 14:30 onwards so we have to have a cut off time of 2pm to get a delivery out of the door same day.

If we can get them out the same day, we will.

e.g. Order placed Monday night.

Order printed and picked Tuesday morning.
Order shipped Tuesday lunch time.
Depending on weight and service selected, and your local post office the item should turn up anywhere from Wednesday onwards.

Expect 1-2 days from being sent for Royal Mail Tracked 24 within the UK
Expect 1-2 days from being sent for UPS within the UK

 

NOTES ABOUT SHIPPING OPTIONS.

On checkout you’ll be presented with a few different postage and shipping options depending on your location and the weight of your order.
Its likely there will be a Royal Mail option and a UPS option.
Generally for larger items the Royal Mail options will be much more expensive than UPS.
This is the Royal Mails pricing structure, you might be mistaken for believing that the Royal Mail option would be quicker because its more expensive.
This isn’t always the case, and generally the UPS option would be the quickest 99% of the time.

After 2kg then it usually becomes more cost effective to use UPS.

A further guide to shipping services can be found here.

Not all options will be available for all areas. And if you live on an Island, in the Highlands of Scotland, or in any remote area, there may not be a next day option at all.

For UPS we need to have collection labelled and ready for around Midday to get next day delivery, so any orders for next day delivery must be in before Midday as we need time to pick and pack your items before we miss the collection. Orders that come after this we’ll do our best, but get it in early if you’re in a hurry.

Remember this is next WORKING day, so there are no Saturday deliveries, orders placed after Midday on Fridays won’t be packed and sent before Monday, for a Tuesday delivery.

UPS Delivery, whilst described as “Next Day” is not a guaranteed service. In fairness, probably 99% of our UPS parcels are delivered next working day, but we have no control what happens after it leaves.

 

ADDITIONAL NOTES DURING CHECKOUT

During the checkout process you have the chance to add notes to be read by whoever picks your order. We find a lot of people saying “leave parcel behind the bin” and things like that. We will never print these onto the package!

We use Royal Mail, we have very few problems with them, we don’t have packages going missing, it just doesn’t happen.

By ordering from us we have entered into a contract, we have to supply you parts that you have paid for, by printing notes like “leave parcel in shed” we as a company are leaving ourselves open for mistakes and losses, which we simply cannot afford.

Yes, it may be an inconvenience for you to go to the Post Office to collect your parts but you will get them, if parts are to be left where you ask them to be left they could be lost/stolen and neither us nor you want that.

So, what we are saying is don’t bother writing notes like that as you are just wasting your time, you have the ability to select a different shipping and billing address, you would be better getting your orders sent to work or a friend’s etc. as it is easier all around and less likely to be open to abuse.
In addition to this, if we did add these comments and the parcel was lost or stolen we will be unable to claim from the shipping insurance provided by UPS.