???.....FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS.....???

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General Questions

Internet Ordering   

Pricing/Postage Charges

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.  This would be totally unmanageable as not only would it be bigger than a telephone directory, it would also be a very expensive overhead that would need to be passed on to the customer. 

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have new products arriving on a regular basis, plus special offers and sale items, so a printed catalogue would be out of date within a couple of weeks which would make the whole thing pointless.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

This applies to many other products throughout our on-line shop but it's up to you to balance stock choice, price and customer service factors into making your own buying decision.

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

This is an opt-in list - you have to make the request to join as without your direct consent, we do not send any promotional material in any form and your details are never passed to a third party (except for your name and address on your parcel!).

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.  We will "special order" any item for you where possible if it's not part of our standard stock.

Our retail shop has now closed and we have gone back to being an internet retailer only, which has been our business mainstay for over 10 years.  Unfortunately this means that we can no longer accommodate personal visitors.  You may still find products you order on-line have their old shop price tickets still attached.  As we no longer have to price stock up for shop display, until this stock has purged through some prices may be different to what is shown on-line.  Please rest assured that the prices charged on-line are correct at all times.

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 off on a "once it's gone it's gone" basis.

Unfortunately this is a service we cannot offer.  As we stock tens of thousands of product lines, it would not be possible to offer samples.  Also, many of our product lines come in sealed packages which we are unable to split.  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. 

You can find full information about our returns policy on our Terms & Conditions page by clicking here  and you can also action a returns form which contains instructions for returning goods by emailing (please give your name, postcode, date of receipt of order and order number). 

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 note for the returned item(s) and this will be deducted from your total.

This is simply a subtle watermark imposed over the image to prevent copyright theft.  We invest a great deal of time and money ensuring that the images you see on our website match the product you would like to purchase.

Many manufacturers and wholesalers provide no (or very bad!) images of their products, so we have to invest in the equipment and technology to provide the best images we can to ensure you are seeing as close to the "real thing" as possible.  

Because of the high quality of our images, these have been copied (i.e. stolen) many times by some of our competitors for use on their own websites.  To ensure that this no longer happens, many images now have our watermark.  

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

We try our best to get your order to you as soon as humanly possible.  Please allow at least 5 working days for dispatch (this excludes weekends, Bank Holidays, seasonal closures etc).  If any item you have ordered is out of stock but due in within a couple of days, we will hold your order until it arrives.

Although the majority of parcels are delivered promptly, please allow 15 working days (Monday to Friday) following the date of dispatch before chasing your order unless you have elected to pay extra for a guaranteed service. 

We are bound by Royal Mail regulations in that a parcel is not considered lost until this period of time has passed.   If your parcel has not been delivered after 15 working days, we  will refund your money in full or resend the goods to you, whichever you would prefer. 

If you do not wish to pay for a guaranteed delivery service and are not prepared to wait for 15 working days (which is extremely rare in any event), please do not place your order.

Turn around and delivery times are given in good faith and we do try to make sure that you receive your goods in the shortest time possible.  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 guaranteed delivery assistance.  Despite our best attempts, we are not psychic and cannot guess if you have a deadline and do not tell us.

Before chasing your order, please follow these steps:

1. 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!).

2. Check with your neighbours to ensure that they haven't taken delivery for you.

3. Check with your local Post Office that they are not holding the parcel for you.

If your parcel will not fit through your letterbox and has been left with a neighbour or returned to your local Post Office/sorting office or DHL depot for collection/redelivery, a card should be put through your door (although we cannot be held responsible for the omissions of individuals).   It does frequently occur that customers inadvertently discard these with junk mail so do not think that a delivery has been attempted and we do sometimes receive parcels back marked "not called for" because the customer has not checked.

Before chasing your order please ensure you have checked with your local post office/sorting office to ensure they are not holding your parcel for you - parcels returned as not called for will be subject to a restocking fee if you then cancel the order. To resend the order will incur a £5 administration charge plus the actual cost of postage.

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

We are bound by Royal Mail regulations in that a parcel is not considered lost until 15 working days have passed.   If your parcel has not been delivered after 15 working days, we  will refund your money in full or resend the goods to you, whichever you would prefer. 

If you do not wish to pay for a guaranteed delivery service and are not prepared to wait for 15 working days (which is extremely rare in any event), please do not place your order.

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

As we run a very busy internet site, occasionally an item may have sold out by the time we pick your order, even though it was available at the time your order was placed.  No website can offer 100% real time stock control.  If your order is dependant on a particular item being available, please contact us first to confirm stock availability.

We will only ship what is available at the time your order is picked.  Your total will be adjusted before your payment is processed. 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.

As an ecommerce 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.  We cannot accept payments by any other method which might slow down our service to the vast majority of customers who are happy to pay by these methods.

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:  Since closing our retail shop, we are often away from the office during the day picking orders at our warehouse.  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).

For full instructions on how to place an order please click below:

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.  

ABOUT COOKIES

In the broadest sense, a cookie allows a site to temporarily store and remember order information on your computer. The cookie contains a unique ID for your order and lets the site keep track of you as you add/remove different things to your shopping basket. Each item you add to your shopping basket is stored in the site's database along with your ID value. When you check out, the site knows what is in your basket by retrieving all of your selections from the database. It would be impossible to implement a shopping mechanism without cookies (they are not always the sinister "spying" devices that some would have you believe!).

To use our secure shopping cart your computer must be set up to accept cookies. For information on how to accept cookies follow our step by step instructions below:

1. Click on Tools at the top of the screen.
2. Click on Internet Options.
3. Click the Security tab.
4. Click Internet.
5. Click the Custom Level button.
6. Scroll down to Cookies.
7. Click on Enable.
Full details can be found here:

We ship to the following international destinations: Austria - Belgium - Cyprus - Denmark - Finland - France - Germany - Gibraltar - Greece - Eire/Ireland - Italy - Luxembourg - Netherlands - Norway - Portugal - Spain - Sweden - Switzerland - Channel Islands. 

If it's not on the list, we do not ship there - this can be for various reasons including insurance purposes or fraud prevention and we apologise for any inconvenience if your country is not included.

If you are exempt from VAT, this will be deducted at the point when your order and payment is processed - we cannot offer this as a click box on check out for those customers to which it applies, because then everybody clicks it thinking they can avoid VAT (and as we all know, you cannot avoid death or taxes!).

For full details on how to order from the international locations we do ship to,  please click here:

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.  If you wish to amend you order in any way, you can do so up to the point that your order is being packed.  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 for any reason you have a problem with on-line ordering it is usually a minor glitch which can be rectified very quickly once we are aware of it.  Security is in no way affected. 

Our website is either working or it's not - it does not pick and chose who it will allow to complete orders on-line.  We are immediately notified of any problems with the website and would know straight away if there was a problem with orders coming through (for instance, if we didn't get an order for more than half an hour, we would know something was up and would investigate).

As there are now so many different computers with so many unique configurations, programmes, firewalls, anti virus settings etc, the usual reason for not being able to complete your order on-line is purely down to the settings on your computer.

1.  Firstly ensure you have cookies enabled (see explanation above: About Cookies).  If you can add products to your basket, then you have cookies enabled.

2. If you can add to basket, but cannot get through check out this is usually because you have a conflicting firewall problem.  Known problems exist when you have your Windows firewall switched on, but are also using another firewall.

3. If you still cannot get through check out, click on the "View Basket" button.  On your browser, click on file>send this page by email.  This will open up your email and create a copy of your order - send this email to

Please ensure you give your telephone contact details and a member of staff will call you to take your payment over the telephone.

Pricing/Postage Charges

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 (sometimes, 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.

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.