During 2020 we experienced some delays with the delivery of our orders worldwide as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic. Fortunately this had largely got back to normal by the end of the year.
The United Kingdom officially left the European Union at the end of January 2020 but both sides agreed to keep many things the same until 31 December 2020, to allow enough time to agree to the terms of a new trade deal. Since the 1st January we have noticed a sharp and very significant decline in the postal service to mainland Europe. Rather than a few days, mail can now take weeks to arrive, in some cases it is returned to us undelivered without explanation and occasionally disappears without trace. We are looking at using other courier services in an attempt to speed things up but even these are nowhere near as efficient as they were. Customers in mainland Europe should also be aware that import charges may be applied by their country's customs service in the same way that we in the UK now have to pay import charges and VAT on goods from mainland Europe.
We are also aware that mail to the USA is increasingly erratic. We often rely on the Royal Mail but they hand over to USPS once it has crossed the Atlantic. Unfortunately their service is now unreliable and in some cases, very slow. Because of this we will now be utilising FedEx/TNT, UPS and other courier services more frequently which provide much faster and more reliable deliveries. Unfortunately the downside is increased costs.
If you have any questions regarding order, postal services or prices please don't hesitate to contact us. In the meantime we are pleased to announce a new stock update is being prepared and should be ready for release in a few weeks time.
STOP PRESS 1st March 2021
This is update to the above information. In light of significant losses and wth immense regret we are suspending all sales to mainland Europe with immediate effect. We can only apologise for this but it is currently impossible to provide an adequte service following Brexit. We will of course monitor the situation and hope to re-open to this market again soon.
