Honesty about the products: no hype
We only sell products that we would buy ourselves. Indeed, we try to sample as many of our products as we can afford to. We never exaggerate about our products, and explain things in a matter of fact manner. We reject faddish, trendy products in favour of things that have been tried and tested and actually work.
We will also discontinue any product if it has been clearly superseded by a superior alternative at the same price. We are harsh to the products, to be fair to you!
We hope that you will therefore appreciate the difference: that our site actually reads like a source of truthful, useful information, rather than just a load of sales spiel.
Honesty about customer service
If we make a mistake, we will not try to fib our way out of trouble. We feel that this is pointless, and only makes things worse! We're frank about absolutely everything, which makes life easier for everyone in the long run.
If for some reason there is a delay in despatching your order (over the normal 3-4 days), we will contact you with a personally-written email. We will also take your complaint seriously if there is a problem with any of our products or an error on our website.
Honesty about delivery times
We don't make exaggerated claims about delivery times. In most cases, we will despatch the item between 3-4 days after ordering. If your order is likely to take longer, we will email you.
You can read more about delivery on our delivery page.
Honesty about stock levels
Few online retailers hold stock of everything that they sell. Instead, most use a system called "back-ordering", whereby they hold a small amount of stock, and order the rest in on demand from their suppliers. This is what we do too. One should be very wary of online retailers who claim that everything is "in stock", but give no guarantees regarding delivery times. We give a guideline (3-4 days at present) but no guarantees, because we do not keep everything in stock.
We are very efficient at back-ordering, and will always inform you if there is a delay in back-ordering from any of our suppliers.
No meaningless logos or accreditation schemes
Many companies display "safe shopping" logos on their website, to lead consumers into confidence about their website. However, these logos are not a meaningful indicator of the credibility of a shopping site. All of the "safe shopping" schemes that we know about are paid for by the retailers, and unfortunately this leads to a conflict of interest. We know of retailers with very poor customer service, who still display lots of logos and awards.
The only accreditation systems that we consider worthwhile are the ones run by not-for-profit organisations such as the Soil Association or the Trading Standards Institute.
No fake testimonials
We don't believe in hand-picking testimonials from customers to put on our webpages. Instead, we allow any customer to comment on any page, with no censorship. Simply click on the link on the right of any page to make a comment. You can also use the comments systems to ask questions to us, which we will answer. |
