• Special Offers

Webcam view down Borrowdale valley
Current view up Borrowdale
Click for more Lakes Weather

Postage & Delivery Schedule

The first part of this page deals with deliveries to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK), ie England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, excepting the Channel Islands.

Please scroll down for information on deliveries to the Channel Islands, Europe, BFPO, and the Rest of the World.

 
UK Deliveries: If it is not possible to dispatch your order to you reasonably speedily we will contact you by email (telephone for Priority Orders) to see what you want to do before proceeding. Please, when replying to emails from us, include all the previous email correspondence in your reply - it helps us enormously in tracing your order and dealing with your query promptly.
 
UK Postage Costs
England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Island and the Isle of Man (but not the Channel Islands).
Up to and including £30.00
£2.00
with Priority Service*
£3.50
Above £30.00 and up to £250
Free
with Priority Service*
£3.50
For orders over £250, Priority Service* is free and is added automatically to your order.
NB Phone Orders: The above prices are for orders made via the internet only. Orders phoned through to the shop will be charged at a flat rate of £3.50 regardless of the size of the order. This is because they take up far more staff time.
Free postage on orders over £30 is for the initial postage only. If you order goods and are not in to sign for them then you will be left a card asking you to contact the depot/sorting office to arrange a time for delivery when you will be there to sign for them. If you don't/won't/can't do this then the goods will be returned to us - we will charge you postage at cost on the subsequent delivery.

Shipping notes such as "Please send via the Post Office as it's easier for me to collect" on an order that we would normally send by Carrier will lead to you being charged the difference in cost without us contacting them for approval - they will then speedily discover why we use a carrier for heavier items and not the Post Office. Likewise, if you write comments such as "must arrive by Friday" when you only ordered it on Tuesday you will be deemed to have requested Priority Service and be charged accordingly.

* Priority Service (UK only) is for urgent orders. This means that your order is put to the head of the queue (and there can be over a 100 orders awaiting packing at any given moment), and that it will be posted either by Private Carrier, Special Delivery, 1st Class Recorded, or 1st Class. This should mean that you receive it within 1 to 3 working days maximum, but bear in mind that most of these postal services do not deliver on Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holidays. If we do not have the item in stock we will contact you immediately to advise you of this. Please note - this is not a guaranteed next day delivery, just we'll do our best to get things to you even quicker than normal. We regret that due to the high cost of speedy carriage to far-flung and offshore parts of the United Kingdom we cannot offer a Priority Service to these places, which would include all the Scottish Isles, Isle of Man, Scilly Isles, The Channel Islands etc. If customers from any these areas need extra fast delivery we would be happy to get a quote from the Post Office (it will be expensive!).

Priority orders will normally be sent out on the day after you order it (or even the same day if you order early enough) provided it is in stock, though there will be a delay at weekends as the Post Office and Carriers don't work Saturdays, Sundays, or Bank Holidays, unless you pay them a king's ransom. It may take several days to post standard orders, depending on how long the order queue is. If an item you have ordered is out of stock and the wholesale suppliers have it available then it can take anything from 3 days to 2 weeks to reach us depending on how efficient that supplier is, whereupon we will post it on to you as soon as we can. If the suppliers do not have it, then it can take months.
 
UK Shipment: Goods are shipped, dependent on the size, weight, and value of the parcel via one of the following methods.

Under £85 value at retail, under 1kg and will fit through letter box.
1st Class Post. Goods will not need signing for. This is not a guaranteed next day delivery service, but Royal Mail say it "aims to deliver your letter or packet the next working day, including Saturday".
Under £85 value at retail, under 1kg and will not fit through letter box.
1st Class Recorded Delivery. Goods will need signing for. This is not a guaranteed next day delivery service, but Royal Mail say it "aims to deliver your letter or packet the next working day, including Saturday". Priority Orders go to the head of the queue and we will ring rather than email if there is a problem.

Over £85 value at retail, and under 100g in total weight.

Special Delivery. Goods will need signing for. This is a next day delivery service in theory.Priority Orders go to the head of the queue and we will ring rather than email if there is a problem.
Over £85 in value and over 100g or under £85 but over 1kg in total weight. UK Mainland (nearly all of it).

For UK Mainland: private carrier (check their website to see where your nearest depot is). Goods will need signing for - it is worth including a trusted neighbour's details where goods can be left (in the special instructions), or having them sent to your workplace, as getting goods sent by carrier redirected is very expensive - it will cost you an extra £8 - £15! Two attempts at delivery are included in your free post. Any extra attempts will be charged at £2.99 per attempt. This is a next day delivery service in theory.Priority Orders go to the head of the queue and we will ring rather than email if there is a problem.

Northern Ireland and all UK Islands.
If you live in the Isle of Man or any of the other UK Islands, then we will use Post or Standard Parcel Service or (Parcel Force), as FedEx is too expensive. Goods may need signing for and they will be insured. This is not a guaranteed next day delivery service and a may take up to a week, longer if they lose it. Priority Orders go to the head of the queue and we will ring rather than email if there is a problem.
UK Shipment Notes
Where we have put above "next day delivery", this is what the carrier claims the service to be. Generally they are correct in this, but in our experience the more urgent a consignment is the more chance there is of it it being misdirected or lost in transit. Every effort will be made to have your order with you as soon as possible but Needle Sports cannot accept responsibility for late or non-delivery spoiling a mountaineering trip or anything else.
For super urgent items it is possible to get guaranteed next day delivery before 9am etc using such services as 9am Special Delivery, Parcel Force Next Day am Delivery, and FedEx Priority. Needless to say such services don't come cheap, but we can quote for them for those who have really left it until the last minute. If it's really that urgent it's best to ring rather than email, as we don't check the emails all the time.
Most orders will need signing for, so if you are not likely to be at home, please consider having it delivered to your workplace, or add instuctions when you check out such as "Can be left at neighour's house at number 42". The carrier's depot may be a long way from where you live so it is important that there is some-one available to sign for it or it may involve you in an expensive and time-wasting journey - please check where your nearest depot is. If you request that a parcel be left anywhere where it will not be signed for (eg in your garage) and the carrier claims that they followed your instructions but the parcel has disappeared then that is your loss, not ours. Finally if you request that the parcel be left somewhere where it can be signed for by someone else and the carrier does this but you can't then find the parcel then this again is your loss. In other words you are responsible for your instructions, not us if we have followed them correctly.
Receipts will be sent with the goods unless you specify that the order is a gift during the check-out procedure, in which case the receipt will be retained at the shop. If you wish to have the receipt sent to an alternative address please send a stamped self addressed envelope together with your request within one week of placing the order. We regret that requests for receipts received much after this date will not be met, due to all the paperwork being filed away in the attic.

 

Overseas Deliveries: (including the Channel Isles) will be charged as below. To see the cost of shipping please follow the order procedure until it appears. At this point you can cancel the order if you wish. If it is not possible to dispatch your order to you reasonably speedily we will contact you by email to see what you want to do before proceeding. Please, when replying to emails from us, include all the previous email correspondence in your reply - it helps us enormously in tracing your order and dealing with your query promptly.
 

BFPO: British Forces Post Office will only need to pay our stardard UK postage charge if the goods are posted to a BFPO address. Items will be sent by Royal Mail or by Parcelforce. The BFPO weight limit is 30kg. There are exceptions though: Ships BFPO 200 to 499 have a weight limit of 11kgs and Op Herrick and Op Kipion and supporting ships - sorry there is no parcel service. This information is current as of October 2012 but may change without notice - in fact we won't be notified so please let us know if you think it has changed and we will verify it. NB When ordering, if your parcel should go to a BFPO address in the UK, do not then select your country as Afghanistan, Iraq etc or your goods will be posted to those countries and take ages to reach you (if ever), plus you will get charged for postage overseas!

 
Overseas Postage Costs
Smaller Parcels up to 2Kg go or (insured but not trackable).
Larger Parcels go by (trackable). NB Regular and Long Clipsticks incur higher postal charges due to their shape.
   
Kg
Channel Islands
Western Europe
Rest of World
Up to 0.49
£3.00
£10.00
£15.00
0.50 - 1.99
£6.00
£20.00
£30.00
2.00- 3.49
£12.00
£32.00
£60.00
3.50 - 4.99
£15.00
£34.00
£75.00
5.00 - 6.49
£17.00
£36.00
£90.00
6.50 - 7.99
£20.00
£38.00
£115.00
8.00 - 9.49
£20.00
£40.00
£130.00
9.5 - 10.99
£25.00
£42.00
£140.00
11.00 - 12.49
£32.00
£44.00
£150.00
12.50 - 13.99
£32.00
£46.00
£160.00
14.00 - 15.49
£32.00
£48.00
£170.00
15.50 - 16.99
£32.00
£50.00
£180.00
17.00 - 18.49
£32.00
£52.00
£190.00
18.50 - 19.99
£32.00
£54.00
£200.00
20Kg+
Price to be notified
Price to be notified
Price to be notified
Countries of Europe near to the UK (Western Europe) - EU Members have to pay VAT

Albania
Andorra
Austria (EU)
Azores (Portugal EU)
Balearic Isles (Spain EU)
Belarus
Belgium (EU)
Bosnia Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Canary Isles (Spain EU)
Corsica (France EU)
Croatia
Cyprus (Greek area EU)
Czech Republic
Denmark (EU)
Estonia (EU)
Faroe Isles
Finland (EU)
France (EU)
Germany (EU)
Greece (EU)
Hungary (EU)
Iceland
Irish Republic (EU)
Italy (EU)
Kosovo
Latvia (EU)
Liechtenstein
Lithuania (EU)
Luxembourg (EU)
Macedonia
Monaco (EU)
Montenegro
Netherlands (EU)
Norway
Poland (EU)
Portugal (EU)
Romania (EU)
San Marino
Serbia
Slovakia (EU)
Slovenia (EU)
Spain (EU)
Sweden (EU)
Switzerland
Vatican City State
Overseas Delivery Schedule: International orders can take a long time (several weeks) to be delivered unless you are willing to pay FedEx Priority.