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Delivery Policy

Delivery Notifications

You will receive an email at the address you have specified when your order has been despatched - this email contains the tracking number (if applicable) so you can track it online right to your door. You can also choose to have a despatch confirmation sent to your mobile phone via text message.

Delivery Timescales

Royal Mail is still experiencing extended delivery delays due to local Covid-19 restrictions in some areas of the country. In some areas, we have seen normal delivery estimates extended by up to 14 working days. Read more on the Royal Mail website.

Standard Delivery
This service is sent next working day (Mon-Fri) using Royal Mail 2nd Class Recorded Delivery. You will be provided a tracking number on the day of despatch and delivery is normally within 3-5 working days.

Express Delivery
This service is sent next working day (Mon-Fri) using Royal Mail 1st Class Recorded Delivery. You will be provided a tracking number on the day of despatch and delivery is normally within 1-2 working days.

In the event of a delay in dispatch, we will contact you either by email or telephone to inform you of this.

Delivery to business addresses and multiple occupation buildings

The Curious Emporium allow delivery to alternate delivery addresses including business addresses and places of work. If you do specify a business address for delivery, please ensure that there will be someone available during normal working hours e.g. at reception who can sign for delivery on your behalf as Royal Mail deliver to the address and not necessarily to the named person.

Please note that in a multiple occupation building, anyone in the building is allowed to sign the parcel to confirm its receipt. Royal Mail and DHL consider an item as delivered once a signature at the designated address is achieved. It is your responsibility to ensure that the recipient is at the delivery address, or to obtain the delivered parcel from the signatory.

Signature upon delivery, missed deliveries and denial of receipt

Most orders shipped by The Curious Emporium require a signature upon delivery. If you miss the delivery person, a card will be left to give you instructions to either arrange a redelivery or to collect it from your local sorting office / delivery depot.

If for any reason the item is returned to us (e.g. incorrect address specified, item not called for), then The Curious Emporium will inform you immediately by email as soon as we receive the item. From this point forth, you will be given a choice whether you wish us to re despatch the item or for you to cancel the order. If further to despatch it is undelivered again, we reserve the right to charge delivery charges for subsequent deliveries. Please note that for items that were undelivered through fault of the consumer and a refund is requested, The Curious Emporium reserve the right to deduct our outwardly shipping fees from the refund total.

In the case of a parcel being signed for and a delivery confirmation being available on the courier's website, if the customer denies receiving the package, this is called a ‘Denial of Receipt’. Under these circumstances, we must contact the Royal Mail to confirm the delivery details, who will in turn contact the customer to ask for written documentation to be completed to confirm that the parcel has not been received. These circumstances must be mediated by the delivery service and we cannot take action until it has been confirmed whether or not the parcel was received by the customer.

Inspection upon delivery

When receiving your order you should inspect the packaging to ensure that it has not been tampered with in any way and is not physically damaged. If it does appear to be tampered with or is significantly damaged, you should refuse delivery.

Late deliveries or despatch

Although The Curious Emporium are able to ship almost every order in the specified delivery timescale, in rare circumstances our shipping capacity can be exceeded and cause a delay of one extra day. The Curious Emporium regret that this situation can occur occasionally, and is an unfortunate situation which is naturally associated with buying online, however this only occurs in rare situations and, should this occur, we will ensure it is despatched urgently the following working day.

The other circumstance which may cause a delay is when the delivery service itself has a problem. This, again, is a rare situation but is unfortunately beyond our control. In these situations, The Curious Emporium will do our very best to take responsibility for the situation and ensure that your order is delivered as quickly as possible.

During the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, we are seeing delivery delays in some areas of the country (currently worse in the Midlands and around Greater Manchester areas) of up to 14 days. Please visit the Royal Mail Coronavirus Page for more information and service updates that may be affecting you.

Compensation for late deliveries

The Curious Emporium do not use guaranteed delivery services and so we are unable to compensate for late delivery of items.

Lost deliveries

The Curious Emporium use the Royal Mail and/or DHL for all of our deliveries for reasons of reliability and convenience. Unfortunately, as with all delivery services, there are rare circumstances where parcels do not arrive in the agreed timescale or they are lost completely. Under these circumstances, we endeavour to ensure that the item is delivered to you as soon as possible by contacting the delivery service and attempting to locate your parcel and have it delivered. You may also contact the delivery service yourself with the tracking number supplied to you in your despatch email. In the case of lost items, we cannot refund orders or send out a replacement until the delivery is confirmed to be lost. This must be confirmed by the delivery service themselves, and the time periods at which items can be confirmed lost depends on the delivery service used, and are detailed as follows:

  • Royal Mail 1st/2nd Class - 10 working days from expected delivery date to confirm a lost parcel
  • Royal Mail 9am / Track 24 - 10 working days to confirm a lost parcel
  • DHL Express - 10 working days to confirm a lost parcel

Last Updated: January 2021