Update 02/11/2020

On the 31st October, it was announced that the UK will go back into lockdown from Thursday 5th November until Wednesday 2nd December.
As an essential service, we will be remaining open throughout this period, and as the new rules state that you can travel for 'visiting venues that are open', we are not expecting any issues for customers travelling to us for work on their vehicles. Hotels should be remaining open, but we will need further clarification on that.

We will still be shipping orders out as normal and do not expect any interruption to that service.

Our inbound phone lines will remain off for the foreseeable future.

If you need to contact us urgently, please send us a message with your contact details and a brief description of your issue and we will ensure the correct person gets back to you as soon as possible.

Our workshop and tuning departments are still fully operational and we are taking bookings. The Tuning department are currently booked up until Mid-February 2020, but we are working with customers who are able to leave their vehicles for a longer period to fit them in sooner than this.

Update 16/06/2020

We are still currently working on reduced staff due to the Corona Virus, and our inbound phone lines will remain off for the foreseeable future.

If you need to contact us urgently, please send us a message with your contact details and a brief description of your issue and we will ensure the correct person gets back to you as soon as possible.

Our workshop and tuning departments are now operational and we are taking bookings. The Tuning department are currently booked up until Mid-August.

Update 06/05/2020

We are still currently working on reduced staff due to the Corona Virus, and our inbound phone lines will remain off for the foreseeable future.

If you need to contact us urgently, please send us a message with your contact details and a brief description of your issue and we will ensure the correct person gets back to you as soon as possible.

We are still not offering collection of parts, but UK customers can use the code FREESHIPUK for next day delivery.

Royal Mail delivery times seem to have increased dramatically over the last few weeks. Their 48hr service is a guide not a guarantee. If you require a part urgently, we suggest Special Delivery or DHL.

Update 21/04/2020

We are currently working on reduced staff due to the Corona Virus.

Yesterday afternoon, we made the decision to switch our phone system off to incoming calls. This is because a large number of customers were making unnecessary calls, mainly asking for advice on diagnosis of non-urgent issues (such as their air conditioning temperature sensor being faulty) or asking to collect parts, despite being told via email that we are not offering collections. This is taking away valuable time from our staff members who are working hard to keep things going for all our customers worldwide.

We are still sending all orders out as normal, and all emails will be answered very quickly, usually within a few hours during the day.

If anyone needs to contact us urgently, and they believe it cannot be done via email, please send us a message with your contact details and a brief description of your issue and we will ensure the correct person gets back to you as soon as possible.

Remember that we are not offering collection of parts, but UK customers can use the code FREESHIPUK for next day delivery.

Thanks for helping us during this difficult time.

Update 16/04/2020

The UK government today has announced a further 3 weeks of social distancing and reduced operation in the country. As they have not increased any measures, we are still operating as we have been for the last 3 weeks, so all orders are being dispatched as normal.

We have had an increasing number of emails, messages and phone calls asking for status of orders that have just been placed or are looking to place. This is putting unnecessary strain on our resources. If you order is not urgent, please place it as normal and we will contact you at the end of the day should there be any delays. If the order is urgent and you want to check stock first, please send us 1 email and await the response. Contacting us via several methods simultaneously is increasing the amount of work we have to do, especially considering our teams are working separately from home where possible.
Thanks to all our customers supporting us during this unprecedented situation we all find ourselves in. I would also like to thank our hardworking team members who are going above and beyond to ensure our service levels remain high even when the situation is much more difficult for them.

Update 09/04/2020

This year we've decided that all the Darkside Team have earned a well deserved break over the Easter Weekend.

Don't worry we'll be back in on Tuesday 14th April to pack up your Easter orders!

Good Friday 10th April - CLOSED
Saturday 11th April - CLOSED
Sunday 12th April - CLOSED
Easter Monday 13th April - CLOSED
Tuesday 14th April - 08:00 – 17:00
(Back to usual business hours)

Our team are still sending all orders out, most within a few hours of them being placed.

If you are going to require the parts urgently, please check stock with us BEFORE placing the order to save us all time and hassle with refunds if we cannot get the parts to you in time.

Again, we thank everyone for working with us during this difficult time.

Update 03/04/2020

We are still sending all orders out, most within a few hours of them being placed.

Powerflex are re-opening as of Monday. We have been able to dispatch all but 2 orders from our current stock but will be back to normal from mid next week.
Vibra-Technics have closed for 3 weeks as of Monday 30th March without any notification to us. We still have stock of their products, but there will be delays in dispatching once those stocks run out. Any affected orders will be emailed at the time. If you are going to require the parts urgently, please check stock with us BEFORE placing the order to save us all time and hassle with refunds if we cannot get the parts to you in time.

If anything is not clear or you need further assistance, you can Contact Us via email. Please avoid calling where possible as we are on a reduced staff level.

Update 31/03/2020

We are still continuing to operate as normal from an online ordering perspective. Whilst we are working with a reduced level of staff, we have been able to dispatch all orders within a reasonable timeframe due to the hard work of our team.

DHL are operating as normal in relation to deliveries to most countries around the world, with some changes to reduce contact between Couriers and customers. Some Countries will experience a 1 - 2 day delay on their packages. We are having to pay a higher shipping cost to send orders via Air Express, but have decided not to pass this on to our customers for the time being. Specific information can be found below.

Ryan Mail - Having suspended the by 1pm guarantee for a week, we can see that a later guarantee remains deliverable for our customers. We want to offer the best service possible during these difficult times. 

Update 28/03/2020

Yesterday we further reduced the number of staff working from our premises for the safety of them and their families. We have taken the decision to pay our employees 100% of their salary whilst they are at home, as an appreciation of their hard work and determination during this difficult time.
We are now operating on skeleton staff, so please allow extra time for emails and phone calls to be answered. We are still shipping all online orders, as most of our suppliers and courier partners are able to operate as normal, but our reception is closed to everyone except those with bookings.
Powerflex, one of our main suppliers, has made the decision to stop shipping orders as of yesterday. We hold a fairly large amount of stock but non-stock orders will need to be held until they reopen.

Again, we thank everyone for working with us during this unprecedented situation we all find ourselves in.

Update 26/03/2020

We are still shipping all online orders as all our suppliers and courier partners are able to operate as normal.

Update 24/03/2020

After the Prime Minister's announcement yesterday, where he has urged the country to reduce social interactions even further, we have taken the decision to close our reception, workshop and tuning departments for any new bookings until our Easter Break. All customers affected are being contacted and anyone with vehicles currently being worked on will be able to collect their vehicles once they are finished, as normal.
Vehicle workshops / Garages are currently exempt from the government measures, as are online businesses, but we need to prepare ourselves if there are any further measures put in place to restrict our business.
Until our couriers stop collecting from us, our dispatch team are working as normal (under stricter hygiene and safety processes) to get all orders out for our customers worldwide.
To help the people out in the UK who would normally want collect parts from us, we have created a free UK delivery discount code - FREESHIPUK - to be used at checkout

So to be clear, all website orders are currently being processed and dispatched as normal. Any delays will be communicated immediately to individual customers, and we can look at alternative suppliers, partially shipping the order or refunding any missing items.

Whatever happens, we have processes in place so we will still be able to offer our excellent email support throughout this situation.

Again, we thank everyone for working with us during this difficult time.

Update 23/03/2020

We have been receiving emails from customers regarding how shipments will be affected by the current Coronavirus situation.

We are aware that we are keeping your vehicles on the road by supplying parts as quickly as possible.

At the present moment we are currently still operating under normal circumstances and don't have any plans to change this, unless any of our staff start to show symptoms or the UK Government state otherwise.

We have spoken with our courier companies who have confirmed that all shipments (UK & Overseas) will proceed as normal until further notice. Please see below for specific courier advice.

Some of our deliveries from suppliers have been affected, but we will communicate those to customers who have ordered items that may be delayed.

We kindly advise that if you are showing any symptoms or have been in contact with persons who are showing symptoms or have been diagnosed with Coronavirus, not to collect parts in person and place the order online. If you have a booking with us and meet any of the above criteria, please get in touch to make alternative arrangements.

Finally, we would like to thank you for your co-operation and understanding during these difficult times and will provide you with further updates if and when this advice changes significantly.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any concern regarding your order.

Regards
Team Darkside

DHL

DHL are operating as normal in relation to deliveries to most countries around the world, with some changes to reduce contact between Couriers and customers. Some Countries will experience a 1 - 2 day delay on their packages. Specific information can be found here:

https://www.logistics.dhl/global-en/home/global-news-alerts/global-messages/coronavirus.html

Royal Mail

A message from Royal Mail regarding Special and Signed for Deliveries:

Having suspended the by 1pm guarantee for a week, we can see that a later guarantee remains deliverable for our customers. We want to offer the best service possible during these difficult times. 

We’ve reviewed our timed guarantees for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am and 1pm services and will make the following changes:

• For items posted from Tuesday 31 March 2020 onwards, our guaranteed delivery for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9.00am the next working day will change to by 12.00pm the next working day*.
• Our guaranteed delivery for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1.00pm will change to by 9.00pm the next working day*.

*existing postcode exceptions apply

All Signature services:

We’ve put in place a temporary procedure for those services where we would normally capture a recipient’s signature on delivery in the UK. For items delivered on or after Saturday 14th March 2020, our postmen and women will not request a signature but will capture the recipient’s name and will ensure they take in the item. You can still check that we have obtained confirmation of delivery and who we delivered to by tracking your parcel at www.royalmail.com/track-your-item (where you may see a special code, ‘XP1’ instead of signature). As a result, we will not consider refunds or compensation requests for not capturing a signature for items delivered on or after Saturday 14 March 2020 and until further notice.

Further Updates can be found here - https://www.royalmail.com/coronavirus

UPS

UPS have started to return customer parcels from various countries throughout the world without any warning or explanation, charging us both the initial shipping costs and the return shipping. We have taken the decision to stop sending any parcels with UPS with immediate affect. Additional information from UPS can be found here:

https://www.ups.com/gb/en/about/news/important-updates.page