Covid-19 Operation information
Firstly, I want to start with hoping that everyone is safe and that vulnerable loved ones are also safe! Please take care and practice social distancing to help keep the loss of life as low as possible.
Penguinsbite is ran by a single person (Pen) who does every process of the business from creating artwork to admin and shipping etc. At times, Pen receives assistance from their sister (Joy) in preparing items for packaging and postage and also from their brother who will do posting if Pen is unable to. All of us take great care to make sure everything is handled with clean hands in a clean work space dedicated to preparing packing - All items for purchase are also held in storage that is only ever handled by either Pen or Joy.
I am also classified as a vulnerable person as I have respiratory conditions and this goes for both siblings too. We also live in the same household of 2 other vulnerable people over the age of 60 and therefore it is imperative to us to keep contamination risks at a minimum. At the moment there is no family and friends visiting and all postage is done carefully, with one person entering the post office at a time in non-busy periods. The UK is in soft lockdown and so we have will only be visiting the post office once a week.
There is likely to be delays receiving items and for this we apologise. We will do our best to keep things running until the moment that the UK government force a hard lockdown and until then, the store will be running to help curb some of the losses of conventions being postponed etc.
This page will be updated whenever there is more information etc.
[EDIT 09/04/20] There have been reports of delayed orders and I can only apologise for this as I have no information regarding when items will arrive. Packages that have been ordered by members of my household and myself included have been receiving items incredibly delayed and late by up to 10 days beyond expected delivery. There has been a case of a walk out by Royal Mail staff at some depots due to a second confirmed positive case of Covid-19 in their organisation and I believe that this sort of event will cause further delays. Please bear with us as we try and do our best. If you are wishing to purchase an item that is time-specific, I would advise against it. Thank you for your patience and kindness in these trying times.
[EDIT 24/04/20] Any orders that are for the following destination countries will NOT be posted but will be contacted via email in regards to whether they wish to hold the item or cancel the order. These destinations are based on recommendations from UK Royal Mail. Please be patient and if you fall under any of these countries, I highly advise against placing an order. Thank you.
[EDIT 04/08/20] There is now 2 lists below, the first will contain all countries with expected delays due to Covid-19 and I would highly advise you check your countries current protocol on post and mail etc before placing an order. The second list will be any countries on suspension and therefore can not accept mail from ourselves. I will do my best to check in with this as often as possible etc.
[EDIT 09/09/20] Shipping options have been updated to allow for only two international options - International tracked & International Economy. I hope that this is short term and that I will be able to allow for international standard again in future. For this reason, I have had to remove Free Shipping over £30.
[Edit 30/10/20] Shipping options have been updated to allow for standard shipping once again. Christmas shipping information has been created using the announcement bar. Please refer to that for any information regarding posting for Christmas 2020.
[Edit 04/01/21] Currently any orders to Spain will be put on hold until further notice from the UK government about posting to Spain. At the moment we can not post out but this may be dealt with swiftly, If it takes longer than anticipated, orders will be cancelled and customers will be refunded.
[Edit 02/02/21] Orders to Spain have since resumed though are delayed due to Covid-19 regulations being followed.
[Edit 02/03/21] Changes have been made to the list to only show countries which we can not currently mail to. We do our best to check in and update whenever possible. Another line has been added to maintain that even a country isn’t listed below can still have excessive delays for various reasons. E.G. Where the UK stopped posting mail to Spain due to changes in customs and Brexit during late December / early- January.
Thank you for your understanding,
All countries that are not listed below will still be dealing with varied levels of delays due to Covid-19 and Brexit. Please be patient and understand that estimated delivery dates are currently not reliable.
Countries on suspension / not receiving mail from UK (Orders to these locations will be cancelled and refunded as we can not post to them)
This does change so please check in to see if we can now send to your country:
Haiti
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Nicaragua
Ukraine - Crimea & Sevastopol Regions - On Long-Term Suspension
Venezuela - Long-term Suspension