Postage FAQ CONTENTS Throughout this site "Great Britain" and "GB" refer to the mainland only. Islands are treated as a separate zone for shipping calculations.   Do you ship outside the UK? Don't use spam arrest for email You must be at home Type address carefully Shipping Rates Value Added Tax eBooks Additional Charges Minimum charge UK Islands Weekend Delivery Do you ship outside the UK? Yes, with certain restrictions. Please refer to our Sales Help FAQ page. If you use an email checking service such as "Spam Arrest" or if you use AOL you must not place an order with it because our servers will be unable to reply. If you use AOL to email us you may not receive our reply. (Some AOL user accounts lose up to 50% of messages sent to them). If necessary, get yourself a free Yahoo address and use that for your order. Take great care to type your email address correctly. (At least one person each day does not. Will it be you?) MORE INFO YOU MUST BE AT HOME! Unless you ordered something small, that will fit in a padded envelope for First Class Post, your delivery will need a signature. In many cases the delivery driver will NOT accept a neighbour's signature. This means that somebody must be at the delivery address to sign. (More notes about this on our sales help page). It is not possible to make an appointment for a delivery. WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU CHOOSE "INSURED" DELIVERY SINCE ROYAL MAIL ARE LOSING MILLIONS OF PACKAGES EACH YEAR! Shipping rates general guide. Please read this page carefully. Throughout this site "Great Britain" and "GB" refer to the mainland only. Islands are treated as a separate zone for shipping calculations. We deliver by three methods as follows. 1. "3 day" Postal delivery direct from our small Sales Warehouse in Telford. Here we keep only small items such as kits, connectors, components, remote controls, SkyLinks and some (not all) LNBs. Normally we use First Class Post so you might get your order next day (but not guaranteed). Recorded delivery or Special delivery can be requested (see our Sales Help page). 2. "2 day" Carrier delivery from one or more large warehouses around the country. We get them to deliver direct to you, based on whichever warehouse has stock of the items you want and, sometimes, which is nearest to you. Normally you'll get your order next working day (but not guaranteed). See our Sales Help Page. This system lets us give you "next working day delivery" most of the time and lets us keep our prices competitive. It would be much more expensive if we kept huge stocks of everything in our Sales warehouse. However, for larger orders, it can result in a postal delivery and one or more Carrier deliveries to you with different items during the day. As you can imagine, this takes some coordinating and you must have someone available from 8am to 6pm to take delivery. 3. Airmail or equivalent to all destinations outside mainland Great Britain. This applies to Channel Isles, Ireland, most Scottish Isles and all non-UK destinations. (The only exception is for small padded envelopes which can be sent by First Class post to Channel Isles, N. Ireland and Scottish Isles.) 4. "Cheapest". If you are outside the UK you may be able to select "cheapest" as the shipping option. This will provide a lower estimate of cost and our Sales department will contact you to confirm the true shipping cost. Note, however, that "cheapest" may be a slow method and delivery could take a lot more than the normal 2-3 days. In your "Shopping Cart" you'll find a choice of "Delivery Locations" (see below). Select the appropriate one in the "cart" when you have added your first item to the "cart" then click on "Recalculate". The "Shopping Cart" will calculate the Shipping charge for you and will update the total as you add each additional item to your cart. (As this system is not perfect it may occasionally want to overcharge or undercharge you. Please add a note to your order if you think the charge is incorrect. This will delay your order because we will have to exchange emails with you so, if you are happy with the charge, don't question it!) We will normally correct it if it's wrong anyway. Also see notes at the bottom of this page. You can use the "shopping cart" as a calculator! Don't be afraid to use it this way. You can add items to the cart and use it to calculate the cost. There is NO obligation to buy. We have no way of knowing what you add to the cart until you actually complete and send the order. (You can delete items from the cart by changing the quantity to "0" and clicking "Recalculate". There is no need to do this if you simply abandon the order). You do not need to ask us "how much will it cost to post..."! Delivery Locations: Mainland UK Offshore UK Channel Isles UK (no VAT) EU countries International (No VAT) Delivery Method: UK 3 day (often next working day but we can't guarantee that) Recorded (First Class signed for - usually next working day) Special Delivery (First Class signed for - insured, next working day) UK 2 wkg day (Carrier - usually next working day but we can't guarantee that) UK Offshore (As quick as we can get it to you by any appropriate method) EU standard (As quick as we can get it to you by any appropriate method) eBooks only (If you are ordering only eBooks and nothing else - no charge) If you select a method which is not appropriate due to your location or the size/weight of the order, the shopping cart will warn you. Value Added Tax (V.A.T.) VAT is not included in catalogue prices. We must add 17.5% to the total (except bound books and manuals). If you are in Europe but not in a EU country please Select "International" as the Shipping Destination. VAT will not be included. Please ensure that you are in a VAT exempt area before selecting this option, otherwise your order will be delayed. If you are outside Europe, please select "International" as the Shipping Destination.   eBooks Obviously there is no shipping charge for eBooks since you will download them. VAT will be added unless your credit card registered address is in a non-EU country. Whichever Delivery Location you choose, the "shipping charge" will be ZERO unless you order other items, at the same time, which need to be shipped to you. * Additional charges In some cases we may have to charge more for carriage but we will always inform you by e-mail and get your permission beforehand. Delivery of heavy or large items outside Great Britain may be very expensive or may not be feasible at all if the carrier company does not deliver to your location. If you have any questions, please send them to either Sales or to Technical before you place your order. (Most questions are already answered on our help pages - click the "FAQs" tab at the top of this page). Why is your minimum postage charge £2.50? This is surely robbery if I just want a 16p "F" connector! Postal charges changed in september 2006 so that they now depend on thickness and area as well as weight. It costs the company £2 to "raise an invoice" (whatever that means - accountant-speak - probably includes paper, ink, printer wear & tear, computer maintenance, wages, heating, lighting etc. for 2 minutes) and 20 - 50p for a "jiffy bag" plus £1 postage for a small package. So our minimum charge of £2.50 is actually very reasonable. On a small order we could even make a loss! Most other companies charge more. Why does it cost £xx to ship to Ireland/Scottish islands/Channel Isles? We are only a ferry ride away! Although Parcel Force offers low cost delivery to these places, the warehouses which ship our orders do not use this service. So, to get the order to you quickly and reliably, they use carrier services and these usually charge us a minimum of £21 for going "over water". If the package is light in weight then we can sometimes employ Royal Mail but anything over 2kg is definitely going to be expensive. The cart cannot calculate the exact shipping charge for destinations outside mainland Great Britain. You are welcome to place a PROVISIONAL ORDER to determine the postal charge. To do this, choose payment by cheque instead of credit card. On the shopping cart CHECKOUT page you should type in the NOTES window the words "PROVISIONAL - PLEASE ADVISE EXACT SHIPPING COST". Sales will then email you the exact charge and, if you wish to place the order, you can go to THIS page and enter your credit card details. Why is the "cart" trying to charge me £7.50 just to ship a lightweight aerial? This is the minimum charge for shipping items to you from a warehouse. We don't have room to stock larger items so we have to get them delivered direct to your door by whichever trade warehouse has them. The trade warehouses use carrier companies for delivery by hand and they charge £7.50. For fragile items such as dishes and aerials, it's cheaper and quicker to do it this way than to get them packed in an expensive protective crate and sent by Royal Mail.   Weekend Delivery Saturday and Sunday delivery is not an option. If your order is small (fits in a padded bag) then you can request Saturday delivery and we will use Royal Mail Special Delivery. But please note that Royal Mail do not guarantee Saturday delivery by this method so it may still turn up on Monday.