Delivery & Returns

Fulfilment By GUSTATORY (United Kingdom)

If you are a subscriber to GUSTATORY's speciality coffee subscriptions, all deliveries are made direct from GUSTATORY, based in the United Kingdom, in which we curate and manage all our subscriber's packages in-house to ensure package quality, variety and organisation. All coffee box subscriptions are dispatched across several days within the same dispatch period, taking place from each month's first Monday and/or 1st-2nd whichever best fits given each month's changing dates. We operate this consistency to ensure coffee freshness from all our UK and international coffee roasters in which all subscribers are consolidated into the same dispatch period irrespective of individual payment cycles. Subscribing at some point in the middle of the month will mean you'll be allocated to this next dispatch period.

Subscription Packaging

Creative and colourful packaging comes at a cost and we're humble about ours. Printed packaging is a regularly overlooked, detrimental factor when consumer brands consider their environmental impact. Using recycled material is one thing, but that's not everything. We work with an abundance of brands and with our team all consumers ourselves, together, are well aware of branding / packaging options. Despite this, we dispatch all our parcels within very humble, minimally branded boxes. Why?

1  Towards the environment, unlike almost all other subscription services across every product type imaginable, we choose not to use overly-printed / branded packaging - not even featuring a tiny logo - to eliminate our requirement for ink on postal boxes altogether. Each box we deliver is made from recycled cardboard, our tape from recycled kraft paper and our insert cards from recycled fibres.

2  Towards cost, we price all our subscriptions according to the true value of the actual coffee you're receiving and not include the pointless cost of some packaging you'll no doubt dispose or recycle of 20 seconds later after opening. Sure, we agree that creative packaging designs are fun and nice to receive, however, it's what's on the inside that counts, right? We let the speciality coffees inside our humble packaging do all the talking. Read more about our humble packaging.

Shipping Costs

International delivery starts from just £7.00 - what next? Your very own complimentary live-in barista too?

Manage My Subscription

For you to easily manage your subscription's deliveries, you have access to Manage My Subscription. From within here, you have complete control over your subscriptions, and should you ever wish to amend, pause or cancel the package you are subscribed to, you may easily do so. With the ability to also see your payment schedule in a calendar format, as well as easily amend your payment method, we hope subscribing is as easy as receiving your next subscription package through your door.

Lost Post & Delays

Even though 99.9% of our Royal Mail, DHL and FedEx deliveries occur within the correct timescales, there are sometimes the odd occasion when delays or 'lost post' occur. We send thousands of parcels out every month and only ever see a small handful affected in some way for whatever reason, and thereby, consider our chosen methods of delivery to be very good. If you think your parcel is facing delivery delays or might be 'lost post', please contact our customer service team or speak to us on Live Chat and we'll be able to look into this for you. If yours is affected, we are always confident that your parcel will still arrive albeit at a later date as all our 'lost post' seem to always do, however, we do operate an honest subscription service with our own expectations on acceptable delivery timeframes and will always look to remedy delivery issues for those affected.

Failed Payments

Should one of your recurring subscription payments unfortunately fail, GUSTATORY will attempt to take re-payment from the nominated card after a few days grace, and should this fail again, our customer service team will be in touch with you to help resolve the issue. Please note that no service to which you are subscribed will be fulfilled on your behalf until a payment is successful, and if 5 consecutive payment attempts fail, our system will automatically unsubscribe you.

Deliveries For EU Residents

For EU resident subscribers, effective of 1st July 2021, there is now no 'low value threshold' within the EU and as such, every parcel entering into and travelling between EU countries will be subject to payable customs at the point of entering your EU country of residency. Prior to the new laws, parcels declared under a certain value were able to pass through customs without any fees to pay, however, these new laws have been created in order for EU governments to collect tax from multinational companies, in turn, affecting every EU resident in any EU country ordering a 'distance sale' (online purchase) from any EU and non-EU ecommerce website. Needing to pay customs is not related to UK leaving the EU under Brexit, and such law changes should not be confused with EU's free trade / single market for businesses, which still exists. For more information, please visit Europa (EU Official Website) or RSM (Tax Accountants).

As such, subscription deliveries may/will likely incur local country customs fees in order for the parcel to enter the country of your EU residency, and such fees would be payable whether you're ordering from us in the UK or from an ecommerce website from within the EU. If you've experience of receiving a different parcel without any customs fees to pay, your parcel will have either passed through your customs unchecked due to a lack of strict administration, or that the sender has paid your customs for you in advance, in which such customs fees will have been accounted for indirectly within that orders' checkout payment. From experience since the date of these new laws, we have found that some EU countries' customs check every parcel, whilst others do not have the person-power to do so, and thereby, many parcels continue through without any fees being charged. GUSTATORY cannot guarantee if your delivery will be one that is checked, nor can we be responsible for paying your own customs fees or accept refunds on any subscriptions should you wish to refuse your customs fees and the parcel be returned.

Briefly as context, GUSTATORY has a working relationship with hundreds of brands and online companies within the industry we serve and within others, and we are aware of a very large number that no longer permits EU residents to make a 'distance sale' (online purchase) from their webstores, with EU countries now not an option at their checkouts. GUSTATORY continues to offer it's subscription service considering the number of EU resident subscribers we continue to have, as well as the implication being just that import fees on the declared value of the goods are now chargeable. We thank you for your understanding.

Deliveries For Non-EU Residents

For non-EU residents, the likelihood of being charged customs is very low given the value of the contents of your package and that the above customs laws do not exist for you, however, please reference your local customs office for an estimate of the potential charge if in doubt. As rule of thumb examples, orders declared under $800 destined for USA, under $35 for Thailand, under $400 for Australia, can all be imported without any issue, and thereby your subscription delivery won't be checked nor any additional import fees payable. Please speak to our Live Chat if you require further clarification.

Order Cancellations

If you change your mind after placing an order with GUSTATORY, you may cancel it at any time before the item(s) are dispatched. Please contact our customer service team immediately to help us make suitable arrangements, letting us know your name, address details and order number to cancel your order. Unfortunately, orders cannot be cancelled if dispatch has already occurred, and therefore, letting us know as soon as you can is in your best interest.

Returns Policy

For consumable goods, whilst our absolute priority is for our customers to receive and enjoy their quality beverage everytime, due to the nature of such a product type being consumable and perishable with a set shelf-life, GUSTATORY can only accept returns and process refunds on purchases which have been either damaged in some way or are not in accordance with our description. You are entitled to a cooling-off period of 28 days after dispatch within which you are eligible to return your item(s) for a full refund should your purchase(s) fall into any one of these two categories. Due to consumer hygiene reasons, we cannot accept returns and issue refunds on unwanted consumable items that are non-faulty and as described.

For all returns and refunds, you have a duty to keep them in your possession and to take reasonable care until they are returned. All items must be returned in their original packaging, complete with any branding material or promotional products which may have also been supplied in order for the return to be successfully processed. Should your purchase(s) be eligible for a return and refund, to begin the process, please contact our customer service team, and hopefully, we can make the returns process as hassle-free as possible. Please note that all items that are non-faulty will need to be returned at your own cost and GUSTATORY cannot offer any return-postage contributions. If you are seeking a replacement for faulty items, the replacement item(s) will be shipped to you at no additional cost. We recommend that you return any item(s) via Royal Mail and that if the item(s) are of considerable value, that you choose a postage method with sufficient insurance cover. GUSTATORY cannot accept liability for items lost or damaged in return-post. Upon being returned, we will undertake a returns assessment.