The customer service pangolin (by Cyndrekit) is here to tell you things you Don't Want To Hear But Need To Know.
Quite often someone misses the post deadline and gets cross. Read this to avoid being cross!
BREXIT
If you are within the EU, or possibly also Canada, then how we exit the EU, if, and when, may affect whether you get charged duty and tax on anything you order from us. If you're in the UK it will affect prices. Now I would love to give you a clear and definitive answer on what's going on with this because a few people have asked, but so far all I can say is that any transactions sorted out by the end of January will be under the current rules. Anything after that, I'm not sure.
MADE TO ORDER
If your item is made to order, we will do our best for it to get to you in time, but in all honesty I am writing this in October and we have probably hit the deadline for most of this already. This largely affects our corsets and capes, and Rose Noir Latex.
For the latex the deadline can be pushed to around the 15th November, but do remember you have to send us the measurements!
PLAYFUL PROMISES
Please allow an extra 2 weeks for anything by PP to set off to you, just in case of warehouse or courier drama (or me doing bad data entry). That affects Wolf & Whistle, Peek & Beau, Gabi Fresh, and Bettie Page items.
STAFFING
Officially, we are CLOSED from the 24th December to the 2nd January inclusive. No postage and no customer service after the 22nd until all the national holidays are done. That's because everyone (by everyone I mean me here, the two part-time people who usually tackle the post, plus Lou who does the Making of The Things) needs a chance to see their families. Or, in my case, recovering from seeing my family.
This means also your returns will languish in boxes for a while and return requests might not get approved promptly.
PLEASE DON'T PANIC! The lack of reply to your email doesn't mean we're fraudsters out to mess you about. It just means I'm probably with family arguing about whether nut loaf is acceptable and if fruitcake is really worth it, or strategically napping. I'm not going to say you have to get everything done with 14 days when I can't. Please don't just throw stuff back at the warehouse, they have a lot of brands and it so it causes a lot of confusion if there's nothing logged on the system.
RETURNS
For any orders placed between 29th November and 24th December, we're waiving our usual 14-day returns policy.
I know that many of you will be buying for Christmas presents, and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, plus I won't be around to sort out returns anyway.
If you're unlucky and the items don't fit, or just aren't quite right, just get in touch with us before the 15th January and we'll arrange an exchange, voucher or refund for you depending on the circumstances. As usual, please be aware that we can't accept returned stockings unless they are unopened and unworn, and may refuse returns on made to order items. Outside of that period, be aware that though we can refuse returns, if you ask nicely we will often accept them as long as it's for a gift voucher and the items are fit for resale.
POST DEADLINES
Please bear in mind that we can't guarantee a delivery date for any order - we rely on national postal services, which may be disrupted without warning. These dates are only guidelines, and we do our best.
The postage guidelines Royal Mail have sent are as follows; our warehouse is open Mon-Fri, so orders placed at the weekend for in-stock items will be processed the following Monday, plus as usual anything ordered after 3pm GMT goes out the next day. I've tried to adjust for this aspect.
Order by midday on the following dates, preferably by 9am GMT.
Outside of the UK:
Friday 6th December for Africa, Middle East, Malta, Asia, Cyprus, Far East, Eastern Europe (except Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia), Caribbean, Central and South America
Wednesday 11th December for Australia, Greece, Turkey, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Canada, Italy, Poland and USA.
Friday 13th December for Germany, Finland, Sweden, Austria, Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland.
Tuesday 17th December for Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg,
Within the UK:
Friday 20th December
After that we can still dispatch but to get it there in time you will have to pay for special delivery/couriers. They won't guarantee it, either, and we will have to charge you a small fortune. Sorry.
GIFT HELP
The extremely serious guide to gift buying is here. I would say this:
Personally, I'm ok with items that arrive after the 25th if I know they were ordered some time before the 20th December. Your recipient may or may not agree, and it might depend on if it's a limited edition, handmade, or customised garment.
Fit is the biggest issue there is when gift buying. There are lots of S-XL ranges to help, or our gift section is full of things that don't need much in the way of sizing.
Seriously though, vouchers are totally a thing.
