Delivery

At Caswell’s Strings we not only understand the need to get your goods to you as efficiently as possible but also the importance of informing our customers of what to expect prior to placing an order.

Shipping Charges

Where multiple items are ordered the charge is calculated based on the combined weight/volumetric weight of the items purchased. The total shipping charge is clearly stated at checkout prior to a proceeding to payment.

Due to the complex nature of parcel delivery and the multiple tiers the Royal Mail now has, Caswell’s Strings reserve the right to charge extra shipping if it is found that the quoted price is totally inappropriate.

UK Mainland Delivery

(NB: DPD Parcels may appear to be coming from ORN CLOTHING – please accept the parcel, we share an account with them and it is your goods from Caswell’s Strings!)

The postage charge is worked out on a combination of weights of the items and charged accordingly. We aim to ship all of our orders within 24 hours of receipt (excluding weekends) but please see peak season proviso below. Orders placed on a Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holiday will be shipped the next working day. An e-mail will be sent as soon as you order is ‘picked up’ and then again on dispatch.

You will be notified as soon as possible when we’re unable to fulfil all items ordered immediately, and what the expected delay will be. ‘Back-order’ means we do not currently have stock of the item but it is expected to be in stock soon.

Smaller parcels and strings are sent via Royal Mail which generally arrives within 1-3 working days but please make allowance for peak periods especially the start of school terms and Christmas time. Due to the high occurrence of parcels ‘not arriving’ we now send all parcels worth over £30 by tracked delivery.

Larger items are sent by Carrier (We use Parcelforce, UPS, TNT and DPD as appropriate) and we aim to have orders dispatched within 3 days of ordering. Orders placed after 12 midday are processed in the next days orders. If ordering an instrument please allow time for setting up – we do not just ship ‘boxes’ – instruments need to all go through the workshop to be set up properly and at certain times of the year, there is a queue. During the peak season – September to December – instrument orders can take up to 7 days to deliver due to the volume going through the workshop. We will do all we can to ship as soon as we can but please don’t book lessons until you have a shipping notification.

DPD will email/text you with a one hour delivery slot. If you are not in when they attempt delivery they will leave a card to arrange the delivery for another day. Alternatively, you can arrange to collect this from your local depot. They will make three attempts before returning the parcel to us. If this is the case we will have to charge you for a re-delivery.

Items which cannot go by carrier for example a double bass we will quote and arrange on a case by case basis.

Delivery times stated are not unfortunately guaranteed – we are human and things do sometimes go wrong but we certainly strive to meet it and regularly exceed our 90% target.

Offshore/Channel Islands, Scottish Highlands and Northern Ireland

Our website cannot, unfortunately, distinguish when a UK postcode is located in Northern Ireland, in the Scottish Highlands or one of the offshore/Channel islands. Postage by Royal Mail to these areas is unaffected but Caswell’s Strings reserve the right to request payment of further carriage charges for large items where we are charged a surcharge by our suppliers to these areas.

International Delivery

We have now enabled this website to accept international orders. Given the diverse sizes and weight of 5000 products and the incredibly complicated workings of carriers, there may be occasions when the carriage quoted on our website is insufficient and we reserve the right to request further payment. If, on the other hand, we find we can ship a lot cheaper than actually paid, we will, of course, refund the difference.

Please note there may be duty and taxes to pay when the goods enter the destination country – this is different for every country so please establish this before ordering as we do not cover these charges.