Everyone at Icons wants every one of our customers to get their order in time for Christmas. We will do everything we can to help but we wanted to explain the deadlines and why they are what they are, and try to lay this out as clearly as possible.
Icons use FedEx for 98% of our shipments. The remaining 2% is for shipments too Scotland, Northern Ireland the UK islands such as Jersey where we ship using the Royal Mail next day signed for service to keep costs down.
As such we have to go by FedEx's own delivery guidelines. Their general postage guidelines to us are as follows and importantly, days here refer to working days. Our post goes at 4pm each working day, we get all orders out that have come in over night and up to midday, but after that they then go out the next day from the office. This is why we say on the site that it takes 48 hours to dispatch. Then the FedEx timings kick in. If you order beyond midday on a Friday for instance, it isn't dispatched until Monday 4pm from London.
- Ireland, Benelux & Mainland Europe - next working day by 10am
- Non-EU and Eastern Europe and the Balkans - next working day by the end of the business day
- USA and Canada - next working day by 10.30am (to the vast majority of ZIP codes)
- The Middle East, Caribbean, Central and South America - within 2 working days
- China, Australasia and Africa - within 2-4 working days
We send out normal and deluxe packaged items direct from the UK office so you can get them within these time constraints (Dispatch times plus FedEx delivery times). Now things go wrong of course, like two years ago when the UK postal system ground to a halt when snow closed the airports, which is why we use FedEx. They allow us to send out tracking numbers to all our customers so they can see where their item is on the road. Two years ago most non-UK customers could see that their presents were stuck on airfields. We know FedEx is more expensive but we don't want to cut corners with the delivery of our items, we want to do everything we can to get them to you on time and in perfect condition.
BESPOKE FRAMED ITEMS
It takes the same 48 hours to process and order, then an overnight postage to Coventry where our framing factory is based. It takes 7 working days to have something framed. We cannot stress enough that that is working days, and does not include weekends. On our site we have the option to frame any product listed. We call this bespoke framing and up until Thursday December 6th you can get anything framed, to anywhere on the planet in time for Christmas. However, a bespoke framed item to China, Japan or Australasia needs two working days to be processed, one day to get to the framers, seven working days to be made and then 4 working days for FedEx to get it to you. Therefore an order placed on Thursday December 6th before midday, will arrive in say Australia on Christmas Eve. Hence the warning and the point of this blog and calendar.
PRE-FRAMED BEST-SELLER ITEMS
After the success last year, we are going to pre-frame a number of items again for about 25 of our best-selling shirts, boots and photos. This isn't everything on the site, just the best sellers, and there will be finite amounts of these. Because these items will be framed and ready to go we can dispatch these items with the same deadlines as the normal FedEx post. As such we can send a pre-framed Gerrard Liverpool Shirt to Japan on Monday December 19th, if the order is placed before midday UK time. We can dispatched pre-framed, deluxe and normally packaged items right up until Friday December 21st as it takes one working day to get to the UK, Ireland, mainland Europe and most major cities in USA and Canada. Obviously this leaves no margin for error on the delivery side, so if you live outside of a major city in these, or any other country, factor this into your timings.
We can dispatch an item using FedEx's Saturday delivery service to any of the countries that are within one working day. This costs more so you will have to ring or email the site and pay over the phone or through another channel. The office is on +44 020 7267 3934. Again the post comes at 4pm and we need some time to process the order, so realistically the order needs to be placed before 2pm.
CHRISTMAS EVE IS ON A MONDAY
We are working on Friday December 21st, but not Saturday 22nd or Sunday 23rd. FedEx and Royal Mail will be picking up on Friday to deliver Monday but not picking up Monday December 24th to deliver the next day of course as that's Xmas Day. Items ordered over the weekend of the 22nd/23rd unless collected or biked will not arrive for Christmas. We can bike items that day to within the M25 or you can pick up something between 9am and 5pm that day (and no later). We will have to assume any orders over that weekend that don't have an explanation email are for non-Christmas presents.
CHRISTMAS
FINAL FINAL DEADLINE
The final deadline for postage to UK, Ireland, Western Europe and major North American cities is effectively Friday December 21st before 12pm but we can't guarantee that your item will be delivered on Christmas Eve so we suggest ordering it 24 hours earlier. We can deal with biked items within the M25 and collections on Christmas Eve, but we will leave at 5pm that day and shut the office down until the Thursday.
CHRISTMAS
Of course if your item is not for a Christmas present then please, please tell us. We will assume everything is and rush around getting it sent or framed, but if it's for work, a January birthday or you don't celebrate Christmas in your country, then let us know and we can put it on a different timing schedule.
OFFICE OPENING TIMES
We are not in the office from the end of the day on Friday December 21st and will have a skeleton staff working on Monday December 24th (Christmas Eve) and we're back in again at 9am on Thursday December 27th. The days in between are all UK holidays, we will be checking the email and backend system to check if there are any disasters but we'll be on a skeleton staff rota. Tuesday January 1 is New Year's Day and a public holiday in the UK.
JANUARY SALE
The January sale always starts on Christmas Eve, so we will change the site and put up the showcased special offer products then. If you have questions about them, we will most likely respond when we're back in on the Thursday. As is the nature of January sales items that were one price before Christmas become a lower price on Christmas Day as the sales start so we won't be refunding anyone the difference.
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