Christmas Info 2022

New Year & 2023 Update (27/12/22):

There are no further strikes planned for January with the CWU having to reballot for anymore strike action. Even still, there is significant backlog across the domestic mail network that we don't expect to clear until the first few weeks of January. What people seem to forget is that, even though there are a few 'working days' over this week, they won't be as effective as normal working days alongside going directly into further public holidays meaning super slow movement is still expected.

During this period as well (since 24.12.22 till 3.1.23), our printers will not be producing or fulfilling orders given they're all deservedly taking holidays. Please be aware that any orders placed from right before Christmas until very early January will only begin shipping towards around the 5th or 6th of January.

We're still here over this period answering emails, pushing orders for production and producing embroidery but are also having to deal with private courier delays that are further restricting our operations alongside, as ever, trying to take somewhat of a break as well given it's the sole time of the year we're almost able to.

Have an awesome NY and we'll see you in 2023 for even more Fresh 🙂

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Final Xmas Shipping Update + Current Delays (17/12/22):

The continued Royal Mail strikes that have occurred this month have critically slowed the infrastructure of our domestic mail network to a point never before seen in history. Royal Mail higher ups are grossly underplaying the situation in a weird attempt to lie to consumers about how it's being handled.

It's f**ked, there's no other way to put it. At worst, we've seen parcels take a month, at best a week (and that's via RM24 Tracked, the best service next to Special Delivery). We continue to apologise on behalf of RM for these extended waits but can only do our best to get orders out on time. We've been working alongside our printers to upgrade shipping methods behind the scenes and hopefully this has ensured a lot more deliveries than would've been the case otherwise.

Our estimate is that any orders placed within the past week will be lucky to see arrival in 2022. Anything placed this coming week prior to Christmas will definitely see delivery in early (and potentially mid) January. If you aren't happy with this, please don't order, it's as simple as that.

We can't change this, we're not switching couriers and we're working day and night to create + fulfil your orders alongside providing detailed CS responses. If for any reason your order hasn't arrived in time for Christmas and you ordered it late, we will not accept any sort of emails berating us for that fact - we couldn't have made this situation clearer, it's national news and our website has messaging throughout stating this.

If you have reached out to us in the past few weeks and have had the patience to wait, we owe you our endless thanks and appreciation. You're a golden human being and are keeping us sane throughout this really bad situation (for everyone involved - excluding the RM heads). Please continue that patience if you're a new customer and we thank you in advance for your understanding.

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Royal Mail Strike + Delay Update (2/11/22):

Royal Mail are currently set to strike on the 9th, 11th, 14th, 15th, 23rd and 24th of this month on top of the strikes that already occurred back to back on 24/11 + 25/11 and 30/11 + 1/12. These strikes are expected to massively delay standard delivery aims and will almost certainly affect any and all orders we, alongside other companies, dispatch to you. The effect of the strikes that have already happened are becoming apparent and it's not looking great, with a combination of BFCM, people ordering early for Christmas and 2x 48 hour periods of zero mail sorting + delivery, things are moving really slowly.

We ask for your patience please in this situation as it's one that we completely sympathise with from the perspective of the Royal Mail workers who deserve better pay amongst a company raking in a lot right now. There is no other service like RM in this country and we've been using them for mail delivery since we opened, something we have no intention of changing right now. Our only other option margin wise would be to switch to Evri/Hermes and as I'm sure you agree, this would not benefit anyone.

If you're ever concerned about arrival time prior to ordering, please reach out. Equally, if you've ordered and are worried your order will be caught up in this, it will, it's almost guaranteed. Please be patient and understanding of us and the RM workers, we're all working as fast as we can to ensure your order gets to you but this will take longer right now.

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This year is different than any before as we solely use Royal Mail to deliver our parcels and they are planning strikes throughout November with the potential for that to continue into December. We are in full support of the postal workers holding these strikes however, they are having a detrimental effect on parcel delivery times, backlogged mail and an increase in lost post. Therefore, we cannot stress enough to order early and so early it seems absurd.

We never guarantee delivery by any date and hopefully that's made very clear across our site but please, please, please, don't wait until the last minute. There's not going to be anymore sales, special deals or benefits to waiting, you'll only risk taking the L the longer you wait.

That being said, we still have specific dates that act simply as guidance where, if ordered after, it's more unlikely that your order will arrive in time. These dates are either quoted by our printers or deduced by us based off Royal Mail's own official dates alongside our estimated processing times. We will state the dates below for all the different categories of items we sell but we can't stress enough, these are just guides and nothing is guaranteed.

• Our official advised cut off date for print t-shirt delivery in time for Christmas is the  DECEMBER 8th.
• Our official advised cut off date for print hoodie/sweatshirt delivery in time for Christmas is DECEMBER 6th.
• Our official advised cut off date for poster delivery in time for Christmas is DECEMBER 11th.
  
• Our official advised cut off date for domestic embroidery delivery in time for Christmas is DECEMBER 8th.
  
• Our official advised cut off date for international embroidery delivery in time for Christmas is NOVEMBER 21st.
• Our official advised cut off date for International Tracked delivery in time for Christmas is DECEMBER 7th.
• International Standard orders placed in December are UNLIKELY TO ARRIVE IN TIME.

One final time for the people in the back, the above dates are NOT GUARANTEES. Of course it's totally possible that orders placed after this date will arrive in time but, it's simply not worth the risk.

Royal Mail are striking on the two final delivery dates prior to Christmas - this makes things even more severe and means delivery in time for Christmas this year is going to be a game of luck essentially, especially if 48/2nd Class services are used.

We won't take kindly to order notes along the lines of "please delivery before Christmas" nor will we appreciate emails asking why an order hasn't arrived yet if you've left it late. We price our items affordably (+ totally free domestic shipping) with near non-existent margins on most products and the massive majority of our customers understand, appreciate and respect this, our business model and our production + shipping times. Don't be a grinch, be kind to us if you have any issues or questions, we're humans too and sometimes mistakes happen.

On that, our policy for items that are lost in transit by the courier is that we will not issue refunds and will instead, reprint + resend the item free of charge. This is not free of charge to us and 90% of the time leaves us in a massive deficit - again, please be understanding if this situation occurs with your order and allow us to rectify an issue that wasn't our fault. It sucks when things get lost but there's nothing we can do about it apart from fix it. Due to the strikes, there is an increase in lost mail and it's yet another reason we encourage you to order well in advance so, in the unlikely even this happens, it allows us to resolve this for you in time.

Finally, sorry as ever for the attitude, Christmas brings a lot of new faces to the store and sometimes you have to be firm (and repetitive) to get the message across. We truly love each and every one of you that buys from us but are very overwhelmed at this time of the year alongside navigating these extremely tough postal conditions. If everyone works together and plays by the advice, things should be as smooth as heck!

Okay enough, enjoy the holidays, thank you for yet another epic year and here's to another year of fresh deals, fresh clothes and fresh people

TFS xox