Despatch timescales

It is our aim to despatch in-stock items to you within 24 hours of receipt of your order.  Sometimes, items may be out of stock or unavailable.  If items are out of stock, we will ship them to you as soon as your order is complete or as items become available.  If you have asked that they be sent to you in more than one shipment, please be aware that by doing so, you agree to pay for the shipping charges on each separate consignment.  If items are unavailable, we will contact you to ask for an alternative or to see if you would rather cancel your order.  Please be aware that payment for your order does not get taken until the items are ready for despatch.

Delivery methods

We use a number of different methods to get your order to you and you have the option of which service to use at the time you place your order.  The cost of the shipping charges will vary according to the weight of the consignment and the delivery service used.

Here are the delivery services we use and some information to help you decide which one to use for your order:-

Your delivery options:-

Þ  Royal Mail 1^st Class post

Þ  Royal Mail Special Delivery (next day)

Þ  Next Day Courier (City Link)

Þ  Next Day Courier (TNT)

Royal Mail 1^st Class

This shipping method is available to all areas of the UK mainland, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland (not Eire) and parcels are despatched via Royal Mail.  This shipping method is not recommended for orders over £50 in value. The cost of this service varies with the weight of the package and does not guarantee next day delivery.  If you select this service and your order exceeds £50 in value, we will despatch it using Royal Mail Recorded Delivery, which requires a signature on receipt.  This does not provide monetary compensation for lost or delayed packages, but does provide tracking with a "signed for" delivery.

Royal Mail Special Delivery

This shipping method is available to all areas of the UK mainland, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland (not Eire) and parcels are despatched via Royal Mail.  This service provides a unique tracking number which you can use to trace your package.  This shipping method is recommended for orders over £50 in value. The cost of this service varies with the weight of the package and guarantees next day delivery (normally before 12 noon).  You must be available to sign for your package else it will be taken to your local Royal Mail delivery office for collection by you.  You can track your package using the link below.

Next Day Courier (City Link)

We use City Link for packages up to approximately 8kg in weight suitable for mainland delivery only. In most cases you must be available to sign for the goods upon receipt. This method of shipping is recommended for all orders over £100 and includes full transit insurance (except where a request is made by the customer to leave the parcel safe at the delivery address without signature).  The cost of this service varies with the weight of the package and guarantees next day delivery (normally before 5:30pm).  You must be available to sign for your package else it will be taken to your local City Link depot for collection by you.  If you are not in when delivery is attempted and a card is left, City Link will attempt one further delivery free of charge.  If you are again not present to accept delivery, a re-delivery charge is made to us by City Link and which we reserve the right to pass on to you.  You can track your package using the link below. 

Please note that there will be a surcharge of £15 per consignment for deliveries to any of the following destinations : Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Orkney, Shetland or any other of the Scottish Isles.  This is a charge levied by City Link for "overwater" deliveries.

Next Day Courier (TNT)

We use TNT for packages over approximately 8kg in weight suitable for mainland delivery only. In most cases you must be available to sign for the goods upon receipt. This method of shipping is recommended for all orders over £100 and includes full transit insurance (except where a request is made by the customer to leave the parcel safe at the delivery address without signature).  The cost of this service varies with the weight of the package and guarantees next day delivery (normally before 5:30pm).  You must be available to sign for your package else it will be taken to your local TNT depot for collection by you.  If you are not in when delivery is attempted and a card is left, TNT will attempt one further delivery free of charge.  If you are again not present to accept delivery, a re-delivery charge is made to us by TNT and which we reserve the right to pass on to you.  You can track your package using the link below.

Estimating delivery charges

If you want to know how much the delivery charges will be for your particular order, just put the item(s) you have selected in your shopping cart and go to the checkout page. You will be given an estimate of the delivery charges based on the items in your cart for the various delivery methods available.  If a certain delivery option is not shown, then it is unavailable.

Out of stock items

For all stock items we aim to ship within 24 hours of receipt of your order.  For out of stock items, delivery may take up to 28 days, but we will inform you by e-mail of any delays and expected delivery times so you can decide how you want to proceed.

Where an expected delivery time is shown next to an item (i.e. 7 days), this is the minimum expected delivery time for the item to reach you (but may be longer in certain circumstances).  Again, we will keep you informed of delivery timescales.

Where goods are out of stock, we will always aim to give you an estimated delivery timescale.  This timescale is generally correct, but can vary due to the stock levels at our suppliers.

Signing for your parcel

For most delivery options, you will need to sign for your parcel. It is always best to have the parcel delivered to you at a location where you will be during normal working hours.  This ensures that your parcel gets to the right person in the right place and at the right time. However, if your parcel is small and light and is less than £50 in value, you may use the Royal Mail First Class service which enables your order to be included with your normal mail.

Delivery options if you will not be able to sign for your parcel

If your parcel is being delivered to you by courier, but you know you will not be available to sign for it, you can request that the order be left elsewhere or alternatively, somewhere safe at your property. To do this, just add a message in the "Additional Information" box at the checkout stage when you confirm your order.  We will make the request with the courier company on your behalf but cannot always guarantee that it will be possible.  We will contact you if the courier company are unable to leave the parcel elsewhere and request alternative delivery instructions from you. By making this request you take full responsibility for the safety of the delivery of the parcel and we therefore accept no responsibility for its safe delivery from the point at which it is left by the courier company.

Order and parcel tracking

You can track your order once it has been despatched to you.  Tracking information is shown in the despatch detail of your order in your scoobakit account.  Apart from standard Royal Mail 1^st Class post, all methods of shipping have tracking facilities which include a tracking number. You can check the tracking and delivery status of your order by logging in to one of the websites below, depending on the service used:

Þ Royal Mail  (Recorded & Special Delivery)

click here to track your package

Þ City Link

click here to track your package

Þ TNT

click here to track your package

Lost parcels

If your order has been sent via Royal Mail 1^st Class post, but you have not received it, we must wait 14 days from the date of despatch before Royal Mail will consider the parcel lost and we can therefore make a claim. If your 1st Class Royal Mail 1^st Class delivery is overdue (not delivered within a couple of days from despatch you should try and contact your local Royal Mail delivery depot as sometimes larger items which are unable to fit through letter boxes are returned there for collection or re-delivery (sometimes a card is left notifying you of the attempted delivery).

Further information

If you have a question which is not answered here, please go to our Terms & Conditions for full details, or contact us by e-mail at shop@adventurecollege.co.uk