Shipping policy

 

Shipping & Delivery Policy

1. Delivery Area, Time Windows & Live Tracking

We provide scheduled local delivery within our designated delivery postcodes. You select your preferred delivery date and time slot at checkout.

  • Delivery Window: Due to live traffic conditions and dynamic route management, deliveries are scheduled within a window of plus or minus 10 minutes of your chosen slot time. Please ensure an authorised adult is available at the property throughout this window.

  • Live SMS Tracking: When your address is next on our delivery manifest, you will receive an automated SMS notification containing a live Google Maps tracking link to follow our vehicle’s approach in real time.

  • Unforeseen Delays: While we make every reasonable effort to arrive on schedule, severe weather, heavy seasonal traffic, or road closures may occasionally cause delays. We will contact you promptly via SMS or telephone if an unexpected delay arises.

2. Delivery Exclusivity (No Customer Collections)

All orders are fulfilled exclusively through our direct delivery service. To comply with local planning regulations, site safety guidelines, and insurance requirements, we do not operate a customer collection depot. Collections in person cannot be accommodated under any circumstances.

3. Delivery Boundary & Manual Handling

For health, safety, and public liability insurance purposes, our delivery service terminates at the external threshold of your property (the doorstep, driveway, or primary external ground-floor entrance). Our delivery staff and performers are strictly prohibited and uninsured to enter private domestic living quarters, carry trees up internal stairs, or navigate interior hallways. Our personnel will place the unnetted tree standing or safely laid down on the ground at your external entrance. The customer assumes full responsibility for lifting and carrying the tree into their home.

4. Customer Duty of Care & Property Access

To ensure the safety of our team, customers must provide safe, unobstructed access to the designated drop-off point:

  • Hazards and Pathways: Driveways, steps, and paths leading to the entrance must be clear of clutter, trip hazards, and construction materials. In frosty, icy, or snowy conditions, access routes must be cleared or gritted where possible, and adequately lit for late-afternoon or evening deliveries.

  • Domestic Animals: All dogs and other household pets must be securely confined indoors or behind an enclosed boundary before our team arrives. Animals must not have direct contact with delivery staff or the delivery area.

  • Refusal on Safety Grounds: Our personnel reserve the right to abort delivery if they encounter uncontrolled animals, an unlit or hazardous approach, or any situation posing a risk of injury or hostility. In such cases, the attempt will be treated as a customer-related failed delivery under Clause 9.

5. Recipient Age, Presentation & On-the-Spot Inspection

  • Adult Presence Required: An adult aged 18 or older must be present to receive and inspect the tree. For legal and child safeguarding reasons, our staff cannot complete handovers or engage in doorstep interactions with unaccompanied minors.

  • Unnetted Presentation: All trees are delivered fully unnetted and free of transit packaging. This allows you to immediately see, inspect, and approve the full shape, height, branch structure, and physical condition of your tree at the doorstep.

  • Inspection and Acceptance: Taking receipt of the tree from our team constitutes confirmation that you have inspected the goods and found them to be in satisfactory physical condition, free from transit breakage, and conforming to your ordered height category.

  • Transit Damage or Discrepancies: If you believe the tree delivered has sustained transit damage (e.g. a broken leader or snapped branches) or does not match your ordered size category, you must point this out directly to our delivery team at the moment of handover. We will either resolve the issue immediately or arrange a replacement. Once the tree has been inspected, accepted, and the handover completed, claims for superficial or physical damage cannot be accepted. Nothing in this clause limits your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 regarding latent, non-visible biological defects.

6. Rescheduling by Customer

You may request to reschedule your delivery slot by providing at least 72 hours' notice prior to your scheduled delivery window, subject to availability. A £10.00 administrative fee applies to customer-initiated date or time changes, plus any price differential for premium slots.

If it is less than 72 hours until your scheduled delivery window, changes to your date or time slot cannot be accommodated due to routing and vehicle scheduling. However, you may still designate an authorised safe place for drop-off at your original time slot.

7. Exceptional Out-of-Hours Slots

If you are unable to receive your delivery at the booked time and no standard slots remain available, we may, at our discretion, offer an exceptional delivery slot outside standard operational hours. A £30.00 dedicated routing and staffing fee applies to these bookings.

8. Unattended Delivery & Authorised Safe Place Terms

  • Absence at Delivery: If no adult is present when we arrive during your delivery window, our team will attempt to reach you using the telephone number supplied at checkout.

  • Customer Authorisation Required: Our drivers will never leave a tree unattended without express instructions. A tree will only be left unattended if you have provided prior written safe place instructions (via order notes at checkout or by return SMS) or explicitly instructed the driver during our phone contact.

  • Waiver of Handover & Inspection: Nominating an unattended safe place serves as an express waiver of the in-person handover and on-the-spot physical inspection.

  • Proof of Delivery & Keepsake Media: Where an authorised unattended delivery takes place, our team will take timestamped photographic and/or video evidence showing the tree safely situated in your nominated location. This media will be transmitted to you via SMS, email, or your tracking link as conclusive proof of delivery and as a festive keepsake.

  • Transfer of Risk: Once the tree is placed in your authorised safe location and photographic or video proof is captured, risk of loss, theft, damage, or weather exposure passes entirely to you, constituting full completion of delivery. Evergreen Elves accepts no liability for missing, stolen, or damaged goods following an authorised drop-off.

9. Failed Delivery, Re-Delivery Charges & Perishable Abandonment

  • Failed Attempt Criteria: If no adult (18+) is present, no safe place has been authorised, and our team cannot reach you within 10 minutes of arrival, the driver will depart to maintain schedules for subsequent deliveries. The tree will return to our holding facility.

  • Perishable Nature: Because freshly harvested Christmas trees are cut, allocated, and scheduled specifically for your order, failed deliveries are non-refundable.

  • Failed Delivery Costs: A £20.00 Failed Delivery Fee will be charged to cover the wasted transit, vehicle scheduling, and driver time.

  • Re-Delivery Scheduling: To arrange a re-delivery, you must book an available replacement slot and settle the applicable fees:

    • Standard replacement slot: A £10.00 rescheduling fee in addition to the £20.00 failed delivery fee (total payable: £30.00), plus any applicable slot price differential.

    • Exceptional out-of-hours slot: A £30.00 fee in addition to the £20.00 failed delivery fee (total payable: £50.00).

  • 48-Hour Perishable Limit: Real cut trees require ongoing care and hydration. If an alternative re-delivery slot is not confirmed and paid for within 48 hours of the failed attempt, the order will be deemed abandoned and disposed of, with no refund or replacement issued.

10. Accessibility and Reasonable Adjustments

In accordance with our duties under the Equality Act 2010, we are committed to making reasonable adjustments for customers with disabilities or mobility limitations. If you require assistance—such as placing the unnetted tree just inside an accessible ground-floor porch or threshold rather than on the external step—please specify this in your order notes at checkout or contact us at least 48 hours in advance. While our staff cannot carry trees into domestic living quarters or up internal stairs for insurance reasons, we will make every safe, practical accommodation possible.