Covid-19 – operational update

We are open!

28/08/2020

Stock Arrival – September 1st – We have a container arriving with Moso Bamboo, small diameter Black Bamboo and Moso Roll Screens after this Bank Holiday weekend.

Despatch Days – Tuesday 1^st September AND Wednesday 2^nd September = Pre-ordered Screens.

Despatch Days – Thursday 3^rd September onwards = Existing orders for poles, split poles and other items.

New Orders: For customers waiting to place orders for poles and split half poles, we will release stock for sale once all the stock has been counted. Please check back on the website towards the end of next week.

Other stock: We have more Tali, Java Poles and Screens arriving from Indonesia at the end of September/beginning of October.

7/08/2020

Stock: We have stock of poles including Yellow Moso, Java Black and Beige Tali. Stock is selling fast, so you may already see some diameters unavailable. More poles and roll screens are arriving at the end of this month and more stock of Indonesian bamboo at the end of September. You can check availability on products on their specific web page.

Pre-ordering: This has been working well and we will continue to release stock for pre-order where possible.

Ordering Poles: All our poles are now sold as a 4m or 3m pole. Select the pole diameter and then choose how it is cut from the drop-down list. This helps eliminate waste and speeds up despatch of your order.

Couriers – Hermes: is experiencing delays in their network, which is affecting some parcels. Please allow an extra 2-3 days in addition to the usual 3-5 working days for your order to arrive.

DX Freight: currently has a large volume of parcels going through their network. Because of this they cannot guarantee next day delivery service or offer specified timeslots. Deliveries will normally will occur between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday. Occasionally a driver may deliver outside of these times.

Despatch Delays: Due to the current volume of orders please allow 2-3 days for us to process your order.

Cutting: We can cut bamboo boards and veneers to most sizes. The cost per cut is £5 including VAT. Please enquire via email (sales@ukbamboo.com) prior to placing your order. Unfortunately we are now unable to cut our Indonesian solid fence panels. These require careful cutting by hand and our staff do not have the time to do this currently. They can be cut using a fine tooth wood saw – let your installer know in advance. We can still cut our roll fencing to a chosen height, by prior arrangement and for a small cutting fee. Again please email us first.

21/07/20

Deliveries:
Containers are arriving on a regular basis, so please bear with us whilst we despatch all existing orders. Any remaining stock will be released onto the website as soon as possible. You can then place your order as normal.

Ordering:
Pre-ordering has been available across our screens and fence panels since the start of July. This has proved very popular and as such some items are already out of stock until August or even September. Please check back on each product page for current stock and/or an expected arrival date of fresh stock.

• Poles and half-poles are now sold only at 4m lengths (3m for 20/25mm diameter).

You can choose to have them cut as follows:
4x 1m poles/half poles
2x 2m poles/half poles
1x 3m + 1x 1m poles/half poles

It is much easier and safer to place your order online through the website. And you will have the opportunity to add any information at the Checkout page regarding delivery instructions or specific requests such as cutting.

Discount Scheme:
Customers often ask if we offer any discounts. Well there’s good news! We now have discounts available across all products on the website! See below for details:

*Discount is applied on cart value before shipping and VAT.

Social Distancing:
Please let us know in advance if you want to visit. It is important for the safety of our staff to telephone us to make an appointment before you arrive.

We are now asking that any customer visiting must wear a suitable face mask. This is in line with the latest government policy, which states the wearing of face coverings is compulsory in shops from Friday 24th July. Exemptions apply to children under the age of 11 and those with certain disabilities.

If you arrive without a suitable covering we will ask you to wait outside the warehouse whilst we prepare/fetch your order.

17/06/20

Our office is now fully manned and busy processing back orders and general enquiries. However, please be aware that we are no longer taking pre-orders via email or telephone. More stock is arriving next week, some of which will be made available to order via the website as soon as all back orders have been despatched.

From the 1st July we will be introducing pre-ordering through the website across a number of our products. This will allow you to easily select the items you want to purchase and make an order in advance. You will be able to see the amount of stock available* and an estimated arrival date at our premises.

As with all shipments from overseas, containers are subject to delays that are out of our control. The shipping industry is still recovering from the effects of the pandemic and as such there are often shortages of available vessels and containers.

Our carriers have been continuing to operate within the 2-5 day time frame, however we have noticed some delays with Hermes parcels, so please allow a little longer for these to arrive. The larger item couriers, DX and Tuffnells, have been experiencing some staff shortages with this affecting driver availability to certain areas. We will continue to monitor this and report any major changes as and when they occur. Please check our Facebook page for updates.

*stock can change whilst you are shopping on the site, as there may be other customers completing their order before you.

22/05/20

Orders are being processed as quickly as possible with our reduced team. We ask you to please bear with us as some items must be cut to size before wrapping. Due to the volume of orders we are currently unable to hand select individual poles and bespoke jobs are taking longer to complete.

Stock is arriving from China and Indonesia next month. Delays are likely at Southampton port and we will keep customers updated if there are any significant changes. Information on stock arrival is written in green text on most product pages and some items have red banners with approximate timescales. Please read these first before contacting us.

Deliveries via our usual carriers are running relatively smoothly at this current time. Occasionally items may be mis-routed and delayed by a day or so, but most orders are being delivered within 2-4 days, with many reports of next day delivery occurring as was previously the case before the pandemic.

As the weather continues to offer us more time in the garden many of our customers have been asking for advice on how to use our bamboo poles and fencing to fresh-up their outdoor spaces. We have been working hard to answer all your enquiries as quickly as we can. If you have more complex questions it may take us a little longer to respond whilst we deal with existing orders and delivery queries.

In the meantime, why not read our Blog, which has information on how to use bamboo. We hope to have more questions answered for you on each product page of the website and in our FAQ’s section very soon!

1/05/20

We have continued to process customer orders throughout April. The workshop remains open and able to fulfil your orders and provide advice regarding all your bamboo projects. As we continue to operate with minimal staff, we kindly ask that you email us with your enquiries, as staff manning the telephone will be assisting with picking, packing and despatching orders for part of their day.

Stock of much of our fencing will be back in by the end of May (roll screens) and mid-June (panel fences). We advise reserving your required screening, for which we would ask for a 50% deposit, in order to secure the stock. We can create an order easily for part payment via PayPal. Please email caroline@ukbamboo.com with your chosen screening. Please provide your name, address and contact details and she will contact you back. Please note: for smaller orders we reserve the right to request payment in full.

31/03/20

Thank you to all our customers for contacting us via email as much as possible last week. We have continued to fulfil orders and to help customers with their enquiries this past week.

Now that it looks like the lockdown will continue for some more weeks yet, we have been forced to scale back our operations further. This means that our sales and customer service tasks will fall to one or two members of staff only. We therefore ask that you bear with us as response times may be much slower than you are accustomed to.

We hope that by all working together, that our families, friends and neighbours will once again be able to get back to normality very soon. Stay safe, stay home!

25/03/20

Since the government announced further measures to stop the spread of the Coronavirus on Monday night, we have taken the decision to allow all our office staff to work from home. We are currently operating with a skeleton staff in the warehouse, who are able to pick-up urgent enquiries by telephone. However, we urge you to contact us via email, so that our sales team can allow warehouse staff to continue their day-to-day tasks of picking, preparing and packing orders. For general enquiries, further information or quotes please email lauren@ukbamboo.com who will assist you directly or pass your enquiry on to the relevant member of staff.

Our couriers are still collecting from us and delivering orders to our customers. We will continue to process orders, albeit with a limited staff on site, for as long as is safely possible or until the government instruct us otherwise.

We also kindly ask that you DO NOT visit our premises until further notice.

We wish you all well and thank you for your continued support. Stay safe and stay at home where you are able!

Further updates will be posted as and when necessary.

UK Bamboo Supplies