**Update 5th May 2020
Still no huge changes, things are continuing to run as smoothly as can be expected under the circumstances.
Please note that as detailed below the “Warehouse Collection” option has been removed from the webshop and in its place is the option for an “Addition to Existing order”. This is only to be used to order additional items to add to an EXISTING ORDER. As this is being abused we are now automatically refunding any orders which don’t have an existing order to add the items to and applying a 5% fee. I’m afraid this is necessary due to the amount of time we have to spend creating credits at a time when we are already operating with a reduced staff, and the fact that Paypal now charge a fee for processing refunds
DO NOT SELECT THE “ADDITION TO EXISTING ORDER” OPTION UNLESS YOU HAVE AN EXISTING ORDER.
**Update 21st April 2020
The situation outlined below in most cases hasn’t changed too much.
We are still shipping most orders out same day.
However some courier services have applied a “Large Item Surcharge” especially for export orders as they try to keep the bulk of their orders moving.
At the same time, the Royal Mail are struggling with the volume at the moment with expected delivery times extending due to the sheer volume of packages. This is affecting UK and export package delivery times.
Many export packages are “stuck” in the UK export depots due to limited capacity of air freight.
Some areas are being served with road freight, which is obviously slower, but means packages are still moving.
We have removed the Royal Mail option to a few countries for the time being.
If your package is delayed we are asked by the Royal Mail to allow 14 working days before opening a claim. Most items are being delivered well before this time has passed.
We’re sure you appreciate the difficult situation for couriers and postal services at the moment, not only dealing with unprecedented amounts of packages but also trying to process them all at a time when they are working with fewer staff.
We’ll do everything we can to ship orders as quickly as humanly possible, but we can’t control what happens after it leaves us… we have faith in the services we use to do the same.
We know… your inbox is full of updates regarding the current worldwide situation. Ours is the same. We are getting a lot of enquiries though from the UK and the rest of the world so we’ve decided to make a post to address the most common couple of questions.
Yes, at the time of writing we are still “open”. Externally, it’s business as usual, all orders are being shipped and we are still receiving deliveries as normal from all our manufacturers and suppliers with very few delays.
There are delays in some areas with deliveries, either due to travel restrictions due to the spread of Covid-19, and some staffing issues for couriers and mail services due to isolation or illness. On the whole all the services we us are coping extremely well in difficult times.
Visitors… As you may already know, we closed the workshop completely last year and made the decision to concentrate on expanding the webshop. This is still going ahead with new stuff arriving all the time (we wont clutter this post up with news of those… it would seem a bit too much like ‘cashing in on a crisis’).
We also stopped any kind of counter sale service over a year ago, and all collection orders have had to be pre-ordered since then.
This means that we have reduced on site visitors to our premises already, not through any kind of foresight or planning for what’s happening at the moment I should add, I don’t think anyone could claim to have forseen the current situation, but it does mean we don’t have to take those steps to reduce face to face contact now.
*EDIT*
As of today 25th March 2020 we have removed the “Warehouse Collection” option.
Collection from our premises by the general public is no longer an option as it would not be classed as “Essential Travel”.
We have replaced it with a “Addition To Order” option for those who order and then need to add something.
When using this option, please drop us an email to let us know so we can do our best to combine the orders.
Like many businesses, we have members of staff with families ranging from the very young to the very old, and their health and needs are obviously at the top of our priorities list.
Whilst we’re not blessed with a huge amount of free space (It’s full of parts!) we do have enough to ensure working areas are far enough apart to make sure we’re not all on top of each other so in most areas we can observe the “2 metre” rule.
We’ve also discussed possibly running a “shift system” both to reduce the amount of contact we all have with each other and to help with childcare problems now the schools have closed. At the moment we don’t need to do that, but if we do it won’t have any effect on good leaving.
Another change is that we now have a barcode scanner system for order processing (we’re not quite Amazon yet though!) which means we dont have loads of different people using the computers one after another… again it’s a recent introduction we were planning anyway, and not something done in anticipation of the situation we are now in.
We are in the position that all our units are completely seperate from other businesses so we don’t have the worry of shared areas which may effect the way we operate through the coming weeks/months.
So… at the moment, we are all fit and healthy, we’re doing what we have always done, and for the forseeable future we are confident we will be able to continue to do so. We hope the same is true of all our friends, customers, and suppliers.
Obviously we will follow the advice of the relevant departments with any arrangements we need to make and changes we need to put in place, but at the moment, we’re alright
I know we’ve had a lot of comments from customers who are anticipating a year of cancelled camping trips and postponed holidays, and possibly widespread travel restrictions which for many of us who travel and use campers at every opportunity probably seems like a prison sentence hanging over us… but it won’t be forever and hopefully we’ll be well over the worst by the time the leaves start turning brown and ready for an Indian Summer to catch up on holidays 🙂
For the moment, the daffs are out and it actually feels like Spring… and there’s beer in the fridge… even if theres no Pasta or bloomin’ toilet roll in the cupboards!!
Stay safe!
