Shipping policy

How much will my postage cost?

When planning a purchase, it's always helpful to know the total cart cost so to help make finding that info as easy as possible, I've added a quick shipping calculator at the shopping cart stage. This saves you having to enter all of your address details through the checkout stage, and you can simply select your destination country and postal/ZIP code, and you'll be presented with the range of shipping options available for the value and weight of the goods in your cart.

I'm only human though, and sometimes there can be weird weight/size conflicts making some postage prices higher than what they would be in actuality. If you see something that appears like it's too expensive for the actual postage prices/service used, then do please feel free to drop me a message and I will look into it, double check the actual prices and handle the order manually for me. If you have any specific shipping requirements though, please feel free to drop me an e-mail and we can see what can be done! james@homeoftone.co.uk.

There is free shipping available for any UK domestic address based orders over £100. It will show as an option at the checkout only if you are based in the UK mainland, and the cart value is over £100. I will ship your order with whichever service I deem best suited at the time, generally speaking this will be something like a Tracked 48 Royal Mail economy option, but the service chosen is by my descretion. This free shipping offer is not available to anyone located outside of mainland UK. The offer only applies to those residing and having their orders shipped, within mainland UK.

Important note for international customers - International customers will also need to note that their country will process your import through customs meaning you may be charged additional import duty, VAT and handling charges. These charges aren't of my doing, and won't be covered by James' Home of Tone. These are your responsibility as the importer of the goods to your country. For more information on this, please see the dedicated pageHERE

How quickly do you dispatch your in stock orders, and do you have a cut off time?
As it's a one man band here, to help manage everything that running and managing a business entails on your own, I only ship four times a week. I continually process orders, but I dispatch in stock items on Monday, Tuesday Wednesday & Friday, with Royal Mail.

This applies to in stock items only, please see below for special order items. If an item happens to not be in stock that said it was at the time of checkout, I will get in touch ASAP.

For a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday, to be able to dispatch those in stock items on that specific day, I have an order cut off time of 14:00GMT.
For Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, there is no order cut-off time as NO orders will be shipped/dispatched on these dates. Any orders placed on these three non-dispatch days, will be processed and/or dispatched on the closest dispatch date.

I really appreciate your support and patience, it means a great deal and shifting to three times a week shipping has made a massive improvement to productivity in general which in turns improves my overall service so thank you for your understanding. 

My item is special order/out of stock, when should I expect it to arrive?
There are a range of items we offer that are special order, perhaps a custom spec Jennings Guitar for example!, so with some items being special order or not in stock, we will keep you updated with delivery estimates through every step of the order.
As a rule, most conventional items (not custom build guitars for example) we list are in stock at our distribution warehouses so aim to have your order processed and shipped within 4-5 days. For anything hand made to order, or back ordered, this is dealt with order by order and you'll be kept up to date throughout the process as well as each product description stating stock levels and/or ordering times. From an initial e-mail acknowledging the ordered item to updates along the way where possible. 
We know what it's like to be waiting by your letterbox for your mail order items! So we always aim to dispatch as quickly as we can for you :) 

Which shipping services do you offer?
Royal Mail - The services I offer are 1st Class standard, Tracked 48, Tracked 24 & Special Delivery depending on the value and total weight/size of the goods in your cart. 

Courier - I am currently exclusively offering Royal Mail services at the checkout, but if you do have specific requirements or preferences to have a courier handle your shipment. Please contact me in advance of placing an order, where I will obtain a quote in accordance to your requirements.

International - I post most International orders with Royal Mail International Tracked. If you would prefer a courier option, please get in touch and I will obtain an accurate International courier quote for you.

Shipping rates are calculated by value of goods in your cart (determining the level of insurance cover required) total weight or volumetric shipping weight, whichever is greater, and overall size of the goods. Sometimes it may miss-calculate items so if you feel the shipping price seems off the mark, it may well just be a simple error so do please feel free to drop me an e-mail and I will do a shipping quote manually for the goods.

Customer Collection
Local to me? Well I also offer the chance to collect your order from me here at the Home of Tone at a convenient time. If this is something you'd like to do, drop me a message and I'll be happy to help. Look forward to meeting!