Category

Shipping/Returns

 For all shipping queries contact Aaron!  aaron@sotabeams.co.uk

Note: we recommend not shipping to hotel addresses due to previous losses

Our products are shipped direct from our factory in Macclesfield near Manchester, England (UK).

Shipping charges are calculated automatically based on the weight and size of the items that you are ordering. For most orders, you will have several shipping options to choose from, which are described further down this page. You can select your preferred shipping option during checkout.

Before checkout, you can check shipping costs and available shipping methods for the items currently in your cart by using the "Shipping: Add info" link on the cart page.

We can ship most items worldwide. If there are restrictions on where we can ship an item, these will be stated in the product description. We aim to break even on shipping, so shipping costs include the postage and all consumables (envelopes, boxes, tape etc). UK customers have to pay VAT on all order charges - including postage.

The "same day shipping" cut-off times listed below are not guaranteed, but nearly all orders placed before those times do get sent out the same day.

We are closed during weekends and on bank holidays. Orders placed while we are closed will normally be sent out the next working day.

If our website does not show any available shipping options, or gives an error message such as "There was a problem retrieving your shipping quote. Unfortunately one or more items in your cart can't be shipped to your location", please check the following possible causes:

  • Check that your cart does not contain any items that we usually only send to the UK (liquid electrical tape, SOTAPOLES, kites).
  • For Guernsey or Jersey customers, please select "Guernsey" or "Jersey" as the country instead of "United Kingdom"

If it still does not work, please email us with details of your address and what you would like to buy and we will be happy to provide a shipping quote.

Shipping UK

For customers in Guernsey or Jersey, please select "Guernsey" or "Jersey" as the country instead of "United Kingdom". This will ensure that you are shown the correct shipping options and costs for your address, and that you do not get charged VAT at checkout.

For UK shipping we use Royal Mail, Parcelforce, Evri, or DHL. (Evri was previously known as Hermes). The options available and their costs depend on the size and weight of your order and will be calculated at checkout, please see the table below for details. Before checkout, you can see the available shipping methods and costs for the items currently in your cart by using the "Shipping: Add info" link on the cart page.

As an example of typical prices: the cheapest UK option is £1.95 for small orders up to 100g (Royal Mail 2nd class untracked), and £3.95 for larger orders up to a few kilograms (Royal Mail 2nd class tracked).

For orders where "Evri and/or Royal Mail" is selected as the shipping method, we will send any SOTAPOLEs or kites using Evri (tracked, usually takes around a week to arrive), and any other items in the order using Royal Mail.

Liquid electrical tape can only be sent by courier (either Parcelforce or DHL, but will usually be Parcelforce), and only to mainland UK. More details about that can be found in the product description.

  Typical delivery time (working days)
 Tracked? Same working day
dispatch by:
 Royal Mail 2nd Class Untracked (small orders only)
 2 - 6 ✘   2.00pm
 Royal Mail 2nd Class Tracked
 2 - 6 ✔   2.00pm
 Royal Mail 1st class Tracked
 1 - 2 ✔   2.00pm
 DHL Express usually next working day
 ✔   1.00pm
 Evri 3 - 6 ✔ N/A
 Parcelforce 1 - 3 ✔ N/A

 

The UK delivery times above are not guaranteed - no shipping cost refunds are available for slow delivery. The only exception is that we will usually be willing to refund the DHL Express cost if they fail to deliver the next working day, provided that: you order early enough on a working day, your address is in an area where DHL can do next working day delivery, and it is not an exceptionally busy time of year for deliveries. At busy times, such as near Christmas or New Year, this time will be extended to 2 working days.

Royal Mail 2nd class has a delivery aim of 2 to 3 working days, but it does sometimes take longer. Royal Mail do not consider parcels lost until around 3 weeks after posting, but in our experience nearly all 2nd class parcels arrive within about a week after posting. Some 2nd class untracked orders may be upgraded to tracked at our discretion, depending on parcel size and value.

For untracked Royal Mail parcels, there is no information available on the current location of the parcel, but we can retrieve on request a delivery confirmation number which should show whether Royal Mail claim to have delivered it yet, or if delivery was unsuccessful and it is being held somewhere for collection or redelivery. The delivery confirmation number will not give any information on the status of a parcel prior to delivery being attempted.

We are closed during weekends and on bank holidays. Orders placed while we are closed will normally be sent out on the next working day.

DHL collect and deliver on weekdays (Monday to Friday) only, they do not deliver during weekends or bank holidays.

Royal Mail deliver Monday to Saturday, they do not deliver on bank holidays and only provide a limited service on Sundays.

All Evri parcels, and some Parcelforce parcels, are collected from us on the next working day, so tracking numbers for those might not produce useful results immediately.

 

Shipping Overseas

We can ship most of our products worldwide. If there are restrictions on where we can ship an item, then these will normally be stated in the product description.

In some cases we will ship your order as more than one package, but by the same carrier. If this is a problem, please contact us before placing your order so that we can advise whether this might happen and how to avoid it. In particular, note that masts are often shipped separately from other products due to their size and shape.

When you place an order, we will estimate shipping charges based on the items ordered and the shipping option you choose.  

  Tracked? Same day dispatch by (UK time):
 International Standard Untracked (Royal Mail)
 ✘ N/A
 International Standard Tracked (Royal Mail)
 ✔ N/A
 Economy Courier
 ✔ N/A
 DHL Express ✔ 1.00pm

 

Please note that International Standard parcels may take a long time to arrive - the majority of them are delivered within a few weeks, but in rare cases they have taken up to 6 weeks. Delays to international parcels are rather unpredictable and sometimes quite long.

International Standard parcels are sent through the normal postal system. This is operated by Royal Mail in the UK, and they will pass the parcel to the national postal operator in your country for delivery to you (for example, USPS in the USA, Australia Post in Australia).

Parcels sent by DHL Express arrive much quicker. DHL Express can be as fast as 2 working days, but for most destinations it takes around a week, plus or minus a few days.

Economy Courier parcels typically take a couple of weeks to arrive. These are normally sent by Parcelforce, who will pass it to a partner company in your country for delivery (usually delivered through GLS or EMS, depending on your location).

Economy Courier will usually be a better option than International Standard if:

  • the order is too heavy to go by International Standard, or
  • the order would have to be split into separate parcels for International Standard (for example, a mast and an antenna, or a mast and a multi-function guying kit), and your national postal operator is likely to charge you tax and an admin fee separately on each imported parcel.

For some countries, we list a single "Tracked courier" courier shipping option, instead of separate DHL and Economy Courier options. The courier used in this case will depend on your address. This is because for some addresses, DHL add a large 'remote area' surcharge to the normal shipping cost. We will use an alternative courier for those addresses, usually Parcelforce or DPD. Such orders typically take 1 to 2 weeks to arrive.

International delivery times are not guaranteed. We will refund or replace your order if a parcel has been missing long enough to be considered lost (detailed further down this page), but there is normally no compensation or shipping cost refund available if the parcel takes longer than the typical delivery times listed above. Some shipping companies offer some compensation for late delivery if you choose a more expensive delivery option, but we do not consider those options to be worth the extra cost so do not normally offer them.

International Standard parcels are limited to 2kg for most countries, for heavier orders our website will only show the courier shipping options.

At busy times, we prioritise dispatch of parcels where a faster shipping method was selected. This means that international DHL orders will usually be dispatched the same working day if ordered early enough, but International Standard parcels may take an extra day or so. For example, International Standard orders placed during the weekend will often be dispatched on Tuesday instead of Monday, depending on how many other orders we receive over the weekend. At other times, International Standard parcels might be dispatched the same working day.

Tracked Items

Tracked carriage is usually faster and more secure, and offers reassurance that your parcel is continuing to move towards you.

We particularly recommend choosing a tracked shipping method for international orders, since these can take some time to arrive. However we also offer untracked shipping options to some countries, if you would like to save a bit of money and are not too worried about keeping track of where your parcel is.

If you choose untracked shipping, please note that we will not have a tracking number for your parcel, and will have no information about the current location of your parcel after it is collected from us. Also note that we cannot change the shipping method of a parcel from untracked to tracked after it is collected from us, if you change your mind about whether you would like tracking.

We normally use these carriers:

For tracked international parcels sent by Royal Mail or Parcelforce, after they arrive in the destination country you may be able to get more detailed tracking information by tracking the parcel directly with the local carrier.

  • Royal Mail (International Standard) - click the "Continue tracking" button on the Royal Mail tracking page. Or go directly to your national postal operator's website and enter the tracking number. There is a list available here: https://www.royalmail.com/sending/international/overseas-postal-tracking
  • Parcelforce (Economy Courier) - check who the local carrier is, which will usually be a member company of GLS for some European countries or EMS for other countries, and track the parcel on their website. Check here: GLS or EMS

The tracking number will be sent by email once we have prepared your parcel for collection by the carrier.

People sometimes ask if we have any additional tracking information; we don't! Once an item leaves the UK the detail of the tracking information varies widely depending on the carrier and the country the goods are in. The only tracking information that we have is the same information provided by the carrier's tracking page.

Item did not arrive?

The good news is that over 99% of items arrive safely. If your item has not arrived it is usually the result of a delay rather than being lost in the post.

UK items are considered "lost" by Royal Mail after 15 working days from the date of postage. We will refund or resend after this time. If your item is taking a long while to arrive, here are some suggestions based on many years of experience:

  • check that it has not been left with neighbours or in some "safe" location near your front door;
  • check with other family members to see if they have a delivery card;
  • check with your local sorting office (bring identification and proof of address), occasionally items are returned there and no card is left.

Overseas items can take a long time to arrive. This time is not in our control. We will refund or replace after 25 working days (Europe) or 32 working days (rest of World) from the date of postage.

Note: Working days are Monday to Friday, not including UK Public holidays.

Shipping Offers

Occasionally we offer free or reduced-price shipping on certain items. If we do this we reserve the right to ship by the cheapest possible method. These offers only apply to the specific item and additional shipping charges may be applied for other items.

Returns Policy

You may return purchased items within 14 days of delivery for a full refund. We'll also pay the return shipping costs only if the return is a result of our error (you received an incorrect or defective item, etc.).

If you want to return an item, please e-mail us at support@sotabeams.co.uk with the details. Please don't return an item until after we respond to you - this is so that we know to expect the item, and can give you further instructions on returning it. You should receive an e-mail notification of your refund once we've received and processed the returned item.

You should expect to receive your refund within a few weeks of returning your package, however, in many cases you will receive a refund more quickly. The time taken to receive the refund includes the transit time for us to receive your return from the shipper (5 to 10 business days), the time it takes us to process your return once we receive it (3 to 5 business days), and the time it takes your bank to process our refund request (5 to 10 business days).