Hello, I realise that a lot of my customers are already members here but I wanted to post this here too so that everyone concerned can understand the issues. I sent the below to all of my members today...
Hello, first of all I want to say sorry for multiple messages over the last few days. There's nothing worse than being bombarded with unwanted emails but you know that I only send out messages when there is something new or important to send out.
A quick stock update... the Hawaiian instant and Stone is gone. The N@H Wow is still available and some of the ROH med grinds.
The most important reason for sending this is to tell you about a new policy regarding postage. Recently there have been a lot of delays with posting from Ireland and also even within the UK. This is obviously beyond our control but is immensely annoying for a business that relies on the post to be able to send out orders!
You know that in the last few months I have been working with a partner in Ireland who is able to get hold of some different kavas from myself so we are working together to provide more choice for the kava consumer in the UK and Europe. All those people who REALLY care about their anxious pets. So given the delays recently and considering that we are coming up towards Christmas my partner and I have had to come up with a new policy regarding postage.
The first change is that almost every order that I post from the UK to the UK will be sent by Hermes. The advantage of this is that it does not cost that much more than Royal Mail (although of course any extra cost is paid by me as postage is included in all UK orders), doesn't generally take much longer in time to deliver and it's trackable all the way. I will be sending on a 2 to 4 day delivery service which should be comparable with Royal Mail in this period or in fact even be better.
The second change is that we are now offering optional tracking from Ireland to the UK. This will add some cost to the kavas being sold from Ireland which we realise are not cheap in any case. We have been fighting constantly to source good kavas at a reasonable price but as many of you will already know customs, currency, shipping cost and other issues, not least of which the fact that it is not legal to import for human consumption make bringing high quality kavas into Europe very difficult.
The option is to add £10 extra to your order for postage from Ireland to the UK. In this case if the order is not delivered and is proved so by the tracking then we will replace the order free of charge. If you opt to ship without tracking then we will not be able to offer the same guarantee. Saying that all orders sent with or without tracking should eventually be delivered but we of course can't give any guarantee about how long this will take.
I have experienced delays due to Christmas in the last few years and even in the first lockdown period things weren't great but it seems recently that the post is being delayed more than usual which has made it necessary to bring in these changes. As soon as things get back to normal then we will be able to go back to the regular shipping options which are generally cheaper and faster.
I should mention that for orders going to the rest of Europe the usual charges apply and that always includes tracking.
I also want to mention that I have been shipping by Royal Mail untracked for the last 5 years and the amount of times I have had something not delivered is vanishingly small. That says a lot about Royal Mail but also possibly about the integrity of my customers so thank you to all of you for that.
I know that making changes to a service that I have provided for such a long time may not always be popular but given the increasing issues with postage delays I felt it was unavoidable that something must be done and as primarily a customer focused business I felt that doing something positive to affect a change rather than just shrugging my shoulders and pretending it wasn't my problem just wasn't an option. I hope that things will go smoothly for the next months or so until things get back to normal.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I do appreciate your understanding.
Edward
I hope that other kava vendors, particularly our new friends in Poland (more vendors is always better in the long run!) , aren't experiencing too many problems recently due to either covid poxy 19 or just plain postage delays. In any event Bula to everyone and a Merry Christmas!
Hello, first of all I want to say sorry for multiple messages over the last few days. There's nothing worse than being bombarded with unwanted emails but you know that I only send out messages when there is something new or important to send out.
A quick stock update... the Hawaiian instant and Stone is gone. The N@H Wow is still available and some of the ROH med grinds.
The most important reason for sending this is to tell you about a new policy regarding postage. Recently there have been a lot of delays with posting from Ireland and also even within the UK. This is obviously beyond our control but is immensely annoying for a business that relies on the post to be able to send out orders!
You know that in the last few months I have been working with a partner in Ireland who is able to get hold of some different kavas from myself so we are working together to provide more choice for the kava consumer in the UK and Europe. All those people who REALLY care about their anxious pets. So given the delays recently and considering that we are coming up towards Christmas my partner and I have had to come up with a new policy regarding postage.
The first change is that almost every order that I post from the UK to the UK will be sent by Hermes. The advantage of this is that it does not cost that much more than Royal Mail (although of course any extra cost is paid by me as postage is included in all UK orders), doesn't generally take much longer in time to deliver and it's trackable all the way. I will be sending on a 2 to 4 day delivery service which should be comparable with Royal Mail in this period or in fact even be better.
The second change is that we are now offering optional tracking from Ireland to the UK. This will add some cost to the kavas being sold from Ireland which we realise are not cheap in any case. We have been fighting constantly to source good kavas at a reasonable price but as many of you will already know customs, currency, shipping cost and other issues, not least of which the fact that it is not legal to import for human consumption make bringing high quality kavas into Europe very difficult.
The option is to add £10 extra to your order for postage from Ireland to the UK. In this case if the order is not delivered and is proved so by the tracking then we will replace the order free of charge. If you opt to ship without tracking then we will not be able to offer the same guarantee. Saying that all orders sent with or without tracking should eventually be delivered but we of course can't give any guarantee about how long this will take.
I have experienced delays due to Christmas in the last few years and even in the first lockdown period things weren't great but it seems recently that the post is being delayed more than usual which has made it necessary to bring in these changes. As soon as things get back to normal then we will be able to go back to the regular shipping options which are generally cheaper and faster.
I should mention that for orders going to the rest of Europe the usual charges apply and that always includes tracking.
I also want to mention that I have been shipping by Royal Mail untracked for the last 5 years and the amount of times I have had something not delivered is vanishingly small. That says a lot about Royal Mail but also possibly about the integrity of my customers so thank you to all of you for that.
I know that making changes to a service that I have provided for such a long time may not always be popular but given the increasing issues with postage delays I felt it was unavoidable that something must be done and as primarily a customer focused business I felt that doing something positive to affect a change rather than just shrugging my shoulders and pretending it wasn't my problem just wasn't an option. I hope that things will go smoothly for the next months or so until things get back to normal.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I do appreciate your understanding.
Edward
I hope that other kava vendors, particularly our new friends in Poland (more vendors is always better in the long run!) , aren't experiencing too many problems recently due to either covid poxy 19 or just plain postage delays. In any event Bula to everyone and a Merry Christmas!