• You can reach us by telephone on 01353 624100*.
• If your question is not covered on this page, you can fill out our Contact form here.
• You can reach us by snail mail at: Calico Crafts Ltd, PO Box 292, ELY, CB7 5HG

*PLEASE NOTE:  During busy periods all members of staff will be picking orders.  If we are unable to take your call, please leave a message on our answer phone and we will call you back within a maximum of 24 hours (excluding weekends, bank holidays, seasonal closures etc).

There is no minimum order value for products.

Do you have a brochure or printed catalogue?

As we stock tens of thousands of products from manufacturers and companies located all over the world, there is no possibility of a printed brochure or catalogue.  

We also have new products arriving on a regular basis, plus special offers and sale items, so a printed catalogue would be out of date within a couple of weeks which would make the whole thing pointless. 

We do not sell at trade prices on craft products as we are a retailer, not a distributor.  Where we buy in bulk to achieve a better price break, these prices are immediately passed on to you in our retail prices and we don't think we can get much fairer than that.  

We frequently run promotions  and special offers and we regularly have sale clear outs - don't miss out - join our mailing list to ensure you always receive news of the latest updates and offers.  

Although we aim to keep our website as up to date as possible, with our continued product developments we always have something new that is waiting to be added.  All you need to do is contact us us and we will be more than happy to help you.  

Our retail shop closed in November 2009 and we are now 100% internet retail only again.  This means that we can no longer accommodate personal visitors.  

As we are continually updating our site and adding new products, sometimes pages or products do get moved around.  We have tried to set the site out in the most logical fashion providing as many links throughout the pages to make surfing the site easier.

Occasionally, we may remove a product - our web space is very valuable (and our bandwidth bills very large!) so if we feel that a product is not productive to our business we will cease to stock it.  However, this has the benefit of freeing up space for new products.  Of course, sometimes a supplier will cease supplying certain product lines or a manufacturer may discontinue a product line, in which case any existing stock will be sold on a "once it's gone, it's gone" basis.

We do not offer samples as we have found it to be a pointless exercise in futility.  The vast majority of the products on our website are self explanatory and we try to give as much information as possible to ensure you know what you are buying.  Also see question regarding returns below. 

Sorry, we cannot split packs.  Where we can buy products and sell them singly, these will be shown as such on the website.  If products are only available as mixed packs, we would rather offer customers the option of buying those packs than not offering the item for sale at all.

Although we aim to ensure that the product images, descriptions and measurements given on the website are as clear as possible, we understand that occasionally you may wish to return a product for a refund or credit towards a future order. 

Simply contact us for a Returns Form and send the goods back within 30 days of purchase. All goods and packaging must be in resalable condition. We will be able to refund you for the value of any resalable goods returned to us and this will be actioned within 30 days of receiving the return.  P&P costs are not refundable.

Please note that we can only offer refunds for CD-ROMs if they are returned to us unopened and unused.

If you have received damaged goods or the incorrect items in your order, we will either offer you a full refund or a replacement.  If the error was ours, we will refund any reasonable postage costs you incur in returning the items to us (definition of reasonable: If on your original order you opted for second class post, it would be reasonable for us to refund the cost of your returning goods to us by second class post.  If you choose to return goods by first class, recorded or special delivery it would be unreasonable to expect us to refund this additional cost.)  Damaged or faulty items must be reported within 7 days of receipt.

Under the terms of the distance selling regulations, you also have a 7 day cooling off period from the day you receive your order. During this time you can change your mind and cancel your entire order with us. You must contact us inside the 7 day period, in writing (email is fine) to let us know that you want to cancel your order. When we receive all the goods back in resalable condition, we will be able to issue you with a refund for the goods returned.  P&P costs are not refundable.

The EU Distance Selling Directive does not apply to B2B (Business to Business) transactions - even if you are only making small orders for resale from your home, such as greetings cards.  Please ensure you are ordering correctly - you have every opportunity to enquire about any product we offer for sale through our enquiry form, by email or by telephone prior to placing your order to ensure the product(s) you are  ordering are suitable and correct for your needs.   

As our postage and packaging charges are heavily subsidised, we cannot offer an exchange service.  If you have ordered a product in error, you can return the item(s) by following our returns procedure (see question above) and re-ordering the correct item.  This will be considered a new order and p&p will be chargeable.  You will be issued with a credit for the returned item(s) and this will be deducted from your new order total.

A great deal of our stock is imported and we cannot guarantee timescales when restocks will arrive.  Even though we regularly re-order all out of stock products, what we order and what we receive can be two completely different things.  Even when using UK wholesalers and importers, they themselves can often be out of stock (particularly of popular items) for extended periods as they are also importing.   

Despite explaining this to customers who ask for out of stock products to be back ordered, this can often lead to unwarranted frustration when products are delayed through no fault of our own.   If a product you wish to order is showing as out of stock, please contact us and we will hold your enquiry and let you know immediately as soon as the product is back in stock. 

This is simply a subtle watermark imposed over some images to prevent copyright theft.  

The products that you purchase from Calico Crafts obviously do not have this on the products - this is purely on some images on our website to prevent theft. 

Shopping is easy and secure at Calico Crafts. Just browse around the store and add the items you want to your shopping basket.  All pages use "one click ordering" - enter the quantity you require in the quantity box next to the product, then scroll to the bottom of the page to add any products from that page all in one go.  This saves a lot of time! 

You can view your shopping basket at any time and make changes by clicking "View Basket".  When you are ready, click on the 'Checkout' button and enter your details as requested.

Finally, choose how you would like to pay - you can pay using almost any credit or debit card either over the phone, or securely online using our card payment processor (Actinic Payments/Credit Call) or through Paypal.  You can also pay by BACs (Bank Transfer).

We will send you an email to confirm your order details, and another one when your order is packed and sent out to you. 

Normally orders are delivered within a few days of dispatch from our warehouse, however we cannot guarantee delivery times and we cannot be held responsible for delays by the courier/postal service.  Please allow 15 working days (Monday to Friday) following the date of dispatch before chasing your order unless you have elected to pay for a guaranteed service.  Please allow 28 working days for international orders.

We are bound by Royal Mail regulations in that a parcel is not considered lost until this period of time has passed.   

If you require your order by a certain deadline (such as for a project, birthday or special occasion), please allow enough time when ordering or contact us for a guaranteed delivery price.  Despite our best attempts, we are not psychic and cannot guess if you have a deadline and do not tell us.

You will receive an "order shipped" email on the day your parcel is dispatched.

Before chasing your order, please follow these steps:

• Check with other members of your household that they haven't put the parcel somewhere and not told you (it happens more often than you'd think).
• Check with your neighbours to ensure that they haven't taken delivery for you.
• Check with your local Post Office/Sorting Office that they are not holding the parcel for you.
• Double check your original order confirmation email to ensure that you've given the correct address and postcode.  You are typing your own parcel label so any errors could result in a delay to your order being delivered or the return of your parcel.

Parcels returned as not called for by Royal Mail will be refunded less an administration charge of £5 to cover our packaging costs, card handling fees and additional staff costs.   DHL will attempt delivery 3 times before returning a parcel.   Any additional charges imposed by DHL on us for returning the parcel will also be deducted from any refund.

If you have followed the above steps and your parcel has not arrived after 15 working days (which commences the day after your order is dispatched) then please contact us and we will do all we can to help you.  Please allow 28 working days for international orders.

Please ensure you allow enough time when ordering as orders are picked strictly in turn.  

If you wish to pay extra to guarantee a next day delivery following dispatch, please contact us before placing your order.

We run a very busy internet site and unfortunately no website can offer 100% real time stock control.  Occasionally an item may have sold out by the time we pick your order, even though it was showing as available at the time your order was placed.  

To briefly explain how this works:

• We may have 5 of a product showing as available, but 10 customers could have these in their baskets while they are shopping.   
• As each customer goes through check out and completes their order, the stock is allocated to those orders in turn.  
• As the website updates its stock control there may still be customers going through check out with these items in their baskets even though the website now shows an "out of stock" message.  
• When we have a sale or special offer and are flooded with orders, unfortunately some customers will not get all or the full quantity of products ordered.
• Occasionally there can be stock discrepancies.  Our stock control may show a product as being available, but it turns out that this item has been damaged or stolen when we come to pick the order.  This is becoming less and less of a problem now that our retail shop has closed and rolling stock takes catch up. 

We will only ship what is available at the time your order is picked.  Your total will be adjusted before your payment is processed or a Paypal refund issued for any missing items.  However, if we know that a delivery is due within a day or two and will contain those items, we will hold your order until our delivery  arrives to ensure we can fulfill your order as close to 100% as possible.

If your order is dependant on a particular item or quantity being available, please contact us first to confirm stock availability as we have yet to perfect the ability of mind reading.

As an e-commerce business we only accept payments by credit/debit card (either through our website or by telephone), by Paypal or by bank transfer (BACS).  We do not accept payment by cheque or postal order as we cannot accept payments by any method which might slow down our service to the vast majority of customers.

If you do not wish to give your card details over the internet, you can still place your order on-line and telephone with your card details.  Your payment will be processed immediately so please ensure that you have a valid credit or debit card at the ready.  

We are happy to take telephone orders but you must have the correct product codes and descriptions.  Your payment will be processed at the time of placing your order so please ensure that you have a valid credit or debit card at the ready.

*PLEASE NOTE:  During busy periods all members of staff will be picking orders.  If we are unable to take your call, please leave a message on our answer phone and we will call you back within a maximum of 24 hours (excluding weekends, bank holidays, seasonal closures etc).

We know of no cases of credit card fraud using our shopping system over the internet.  All card transactions are processed securely by Actinic/Credit Call or Paypal depending on your choice at checkout.  We do not see your card details at all.   This system is the safest way to buy and is safer than passing your details over the phone lines and at least as safe as passing your card over a shop counter.  

We ship to the following destinations: 

• Austria
• Belgium
• Channel Islands*
• Cyprus*
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Gibraltar*
• Greece
• Eire/Ireland
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands
• Norway*
• Portugal
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland*

If it's not on the list, we do not ship there - this can be for various reasons including fraud prevention or very high postage charges which we know you won't pay, and we apologise for any inconvenience if your country is not included.  We periodically review this and will include other countries when appropriate.  Orders placed from locations not listed do not "slip through" our system - they will be picked up and deleted.

If your location is exempt from VAT (as marked by a *), this will be deducted at the point when your order payment is processed.  We cannot offer this as a click box on check out because some cheeky people think they can avoid VAT by clicking the box which then creates unnecessary work for our staff.

If paying by credit/debit card using our secure on-line payment system, your payment is pre-authorised and will not be processed until your order is packed and ready for dispatch in accordance with the EUDSD.  If you wish to amend you order in any way, you can do so up to the point that your order is being picked.  We cannot take this information by telephone, so please contact us with any amendments.  Your payment total will be adjusted at the point where your order is processed.

If paying by Paypal, your payment will be processed at the point of completing your order.  You will not be able to make adjustments to your order after this point.  This is entirely down to Paypal and is not our choice.

If you have a problem with on-line ordering it is usually something minor which can be rectified very quickly and sometimes it can quite simply be user error.

Our website is either working or it's not - it does not pick and chose who it will allow to complete orders on-line.   If you have problems ordering, please let us know and we can rectify any problem if needed or take your order by telephone if required.

We aim to bring you the best value products and great customer service!  A great many of our products we sell at far less than the recommended retail price (RRP) due to bulk buying and our prices will certainly never exceed the RRP.  We keep a watchful eye open and where we save money, we automatically pass this saving on to you.

Should a supplier increase its product prices to us, we will honour the prices shown in our online shop up until new prices are uploaded (more often than not, if the increase is small we will not increase our prices at all).

The best way to ensure you get the most savings and are informed of special offers is to join our mailing list.  Also see question above about special offers.

£2.99 for Royal Mail First Class or £1.99 for Royal Mail Second Class including VAT for all UK mainland.  

£6.99 for DHL courier for UK mainland only (excludes Highlands & Islands).  This service is trackable and guarantees a delivery between 1 to 3 days following dispatch. 

If you wish to upgrade your order to a guaranteed next day delivery for an additional charge, please contact us.

Orders to Eire or Europe are charged on a sliding scale based on order value as follows:

Yes, we do.  Just place your order in the usual way but please ensure that you enter your card registered address as your invoice address, and your BFPO address as your delivery address.  If you arrange for a guaranteed delivery service please note that this will only be trackable up to the point where delivery is made to the BFPO forwarding centre.