We are
primarily an online business and so you may
interact with us via our website and email 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365
days of the year.
Our office and warehouse is normally open every
weekday as follows:
Monday-Thursday : 1000-1700
Friday : 1000-1400
We are a small web & email based family-run firm
and, as such, we are often unable to take calls. Email is always best. Send us
one to
sales@solidstatesound.co.uk. We always respond to email and if complex
advice is needed we will call you back if you include your number.
Being an online business we do not have a shop
or showroom, nor do we have a collection point. All our orders are sent out by
courier or Royal Mail.
We accept all the major debit &
credit cards online via our card processors, Paypal.
All prepayment orders must be placed online. We do
not accept cards over the phone.
We deliver worldwide and we use
the most appropriate courier service for each individual job depending on what we are
sending you and where we are sending it to.
For small-to-medium sized, low cost items
(typically sub-£150) that will fit in a postal sized padded bag, we
normally use Royal Mail. Goods sent by this method
usually arrive within 1-3 working days.
For larger packages we normally use DPD
Couriers. The majority of UK mainland
parcels sent in this way will arrive the next working day* and be fully
insured by us against loss or damage in transit.
[*Interlink provide a One-Hour Time Window
delivery service. This means you no longer have to wait in all day for a
delivery because we will email you with the tracking number for your
parcel and this will enable you to find out from their website within
which hour your parcel will be delivered.]
Our standard
delivery charges to MAINLAND UK addresses (see
exceptions below)
are as follows...
£9.95 for
purchases with a value of up to £500
FREE for
all purchases with a value of £500.01 or more
• Please remember...
Our charges include the carrier's cost
(postage or courier fee) plus insurance, as well as the cost of the
packaging materials plus the time it takes to administer, prepare and label
your package.
Note especially that all our deliveries
are insured. This is important because in our regular checks on what our
competitors charge for delivery they are often using the cheapest and least
secure methods of getting your order to you. And this can mean that if your
order goes missing (or is damaged) in transit you may not be covered and/or
the order will be delayed.
In such cases it often takes a long time
(days, sometimes weeks) to sort the problem out before you actually get the
equipment you have paid for. We know this because customers who have been
'stung' before when buying elsewhere have told us.
So, as with everything else in life, you get what
you pay for. We believe our delivery charges represent excellent value
because you get your order delivered and if it lost or
damaged we normally send you another one immediately, with no quibbles, and
then we make a claim and you don't have to do anything.
That's why our delivery services are
actually better
than our competitors.
• Deliveries by courier to UK Highlands &
Islands*: Our
website is coded to calculate the appropriate delivery charge for a mainland UK address
for any given order placed, even if you are placing the order from a UK
Highlands & Islands address. If your parcel is small enough (e.g. one single
small solid state sound recorder) then this can often be carried by Royal Mail
services at no extra cost. However, if it is a larger parcel that we can only
send by courier to a UK Highlands & Islands address, then we reserve the right
to make a surcharge for this. In such cases we will email you a
separate invoice for the appropriate amount and you may click on a link in that
invoice to make the extra payment. Once this is received we will be able to deliver.
[Summary: our UK Highlands & Islands address surcharge only applies to
courier deliveries of larger parcels. Deliveries of smaller parcels to UK
Highlands & Islands addresses by Royal Mail 1st Class and Royal Mail Special
Delivery services will cost the same as for mainland UK addresses.]
• Delivery to non-UK addresses: Our
website is coded to calculate the appropriate delivery charge for a UK address
for any given order placed, even if you are placing the order from outside the
UK. If you require your order to be delivered to a non-UK address, then we
reserve the right to make a surcharge for this. The amount will depend on where
in the world you want us to make a delivery. In such cases we will email you a
separate invoice for this amount and you may click on a link in that invoice to
make the extra payment. Once this is received we will be able to deliver.
• Please note that, in many cases, small
(lightweight) orders to many EC countries will not incur a surcharge if we send
them by Royal Mail.