Delivery, return, contact and other information

Postage and Payment - UK common prices - USA & Austalasia have no import duty on low value parcels - EUmay not be good value 
Returns
About the Vegan Shoes
About us - tools - ethics  - why vegan shoes

Postage & Payment

£3.20 in the UK is the most common postage rate.

Stripe do ask for a billing address postcode on their own part of the form, so you probably have to enter the same postcode twice. Stripe payments takes most kinds of card and charges in pounds. If you are the first to try with an unusual card, we may be able to turn it on. 

 USA & Australasia have no import duties on low value parcels 

That makes it easy to guess the price: the shopping cart will add Royal Mail postage to your order and you will be able to see a price in pounds to pay with a bank card. Some banks charge a little more for using pounds than your local currency, but the price is close. Postage will be expensive, though.

The order form works after you press "save" so that it knows what country you are in and quotes a price. 
European and World postage prices are much higher, but based on what Royal Mail charge us. They see the world as zones with prices rising per quarter kilo to each. We may use the couriers on Transglobalexpress or Parcel2go for exports.

We we can turn-on part of the shopping cart software that lets you order and reserve your veggie shoes till the payment arrives. Our paypal account name is the same as our email address. We can send you  a link to pay by Wise (or Paypal) in your own currency. You can also pay-in cash at a UK Santander or Co-Op branch.

EU deliveries may not be good value: 

We don't know a good way of paying VAT before you get the parcel with a bill from the post office, so if you order from a European country we'll get back in touch for ideas and refund your payment if there's no good way to deliver. The same applies to a lot of other countries, but used to be no problem for the EU.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/sw148bp-2 is our ebay seller address and if something here is not on there we can put it there. The process is increasingly automated.

Ebay have the same problem but might be ahead of us because they are larger. All our stock is probably on ebay 

So far, one customer has agreed to buy through Ebay who have their own way of charging VAT. We've also had a quote from a broker to send by DHL with about £20 added to the price for delivering duty-paid. Some of the larger retailers have had lower quotes for systems like that, and can deliver without hassle, and we hope the system will cope with small retailers soon.

Returns

You pay

• Return delivery: just ask for the cheapest postage at a post office. They give you free proof of posting.
• Please enclose a note asking for a refund or replacement size.
• Please return shoes in a condition you would accept yourself if buying new.
• Please add a CN22 customs sticker with "returns - no tariff due" on it if returning from outside the UK.
• There is no fixed deadline nor rule about the condition of the box, but we try to re-use them.

We pay

• refund of the original price - usually back onto your card which takes about 5 days.
• outbound postage of the replacement, if available, at the cheapest rate
• Airmail replacements to Australasia and the Americas are a special case.
  Most people prefer to pay £10 to upgrade to airmail.
  Some are happy with cheap green 12 or 8-week surface mail which we pay for.

Outbound postage refunds and other payment methods

• For a month after Xmas, we pay return postage. We also have to pay it if we sent the wrong thing.
  Unfortunately, Stripe payments won't refund more than the amount first charged, so we need another payment method. It is possible to email a Hermes or Royal Mail label but they have rather short time limits before they expire, so refunding you the cost of cheapest postage from a post office is easiest.
  
  
• Paypal and Wise Money Transfer are good alternatives to Stripe; we can also pay and receive from a Santander account in the UK, or post a cheque.

We have to say the usual things that are written on receipts

• Who bears the cost of returning goods.
  It's you, because we sell mainly European-made products on quite low margins, so that's part of the deal.
• Return address:
  2 Avenue Gardens, London, SW14 8BP. There's no need to contact us first
• There's a paper receipt with the order that lists what you bought and postage.
• Usually your shoes come with a chit that says
  "please return with a note for refund or replacement" and the address in large letters
  American and Australian customers get a reminder about the cost of airmail replacements, and a request to write "returns - no tariff due" or such on the customs sticker to avoid tariffs on parcels valued over £18.
• Legal rights: Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 are online and suggest standard wording for your legal rights and a for requesting a return although we don't require that. 
• If business picks-up we might get an account with Rebound or Zigzag, who organize this kind of thing, but for now you have to organize your own postage label payment. Sometimes we can email a paid address label, but they expire quickly.
  
  

Lost post - how long to wait? - see royalmail.com/receiving-mail/redelivery

• UK Royal Mail tracking confirms delivery, and it's very rare for anything to be lost. Unfortunately, cheap postage has no tracking for the stages before delivery.
  If you get a red card through your letter box headed "Something for you" you are in luck because it allows you to collect the parcel from a sorting office or tells you which neighbour it was left with. You can also email veganline to ask if there's any note of delivery on the web.
• If you can guess the details on the card, you can still request a re-delivery online even if you haven't got it.
• Royal Mail sorting offices and phone staff don't help unless you have a card.
• 14 days after postage, Veganline can claim for lost mail. The figure is 10 working days in Royal Mail's terms, so about 14.
  In order to be sure that our claim will work, we ask you for a note to state that the item wasn't delivered. There is no fixed format but a one line letter with a signature and description like "vegan shoe parcel" should be enough. Sometimes we email you proof of posting, partly for re-assurance, and partly so that the customer can print it out, write your note on the same sheet, and send it back to us. Scan and email is the cheapest method.
• Some of our 1kg slippers and vegan court shoes might be sent by Hermes which has a similar system but different in detail. We have customers who's deliveries are made by Australia Post, New Zealand Post, or USPS in the USA. The waiting time is a little longer before a claim can be made, and unfortunately no tracking information is sent-back to us, even if it exists in the system. You will know better than us whether it is worth asking at the local post office or sorting office or giving them a ring.
  
  

About the vegan shoes

• All vegan, to reasonable standards of guesswork, and often made for us directly.
• Mainly made in democratic welfare states like the UK. With luck that makes them feel better to wear - better than wearing leather from China with an advertised brand on it. Although Cauldron Sausages sold better when the firm took the word "vegetarian" off the label or put it in small print! We have now put much less about the word "vegan" on the front page.
• There's detail on each shoe page about the mid-sole, the fit, and why your foot might want to go and live in it including a human rights record for the country where the shoe was made.
  
  

About us: the blog posts or back pages

Veganline.com started in 1998 when the web was new and UK footwear manufacturing had nearly expired because of UK government monetary policies and neglect that continues. The name was meant to suit people who had just heard of the internet and searched for "vegan shoes online". If the internet didn't catch-on, the idea was to have a telephone order line called Veganline as well. Press Button 6 for size 6. That sort of thing. Luckily our Pagemill software that came free with a toner cartridge worked quite well and there was no need for a robot telephone order line.

Pagemill software didn't have a system for writing blog posts, but it hosted a lot of them anyway, in answer to points of view that seemed important at the time; there was no distinction between the back pages of the shop and quickly-written blog posts. One of them is called Rant. Another was written just after the London riots, relabelling the T shirts we sold at the time as Veganline.com/info/riotstopper-t-shirts . Another page is from the Adbusters magazine in Canada which decided to sell shoes, with this Rethink the Cool message enclosed with each pair. Veganline.com/info/brand is about the Tredair bouncing brand: Tredair vegan boots  Tredair vegan mens shoes ; strong chunky Tredair vegan womens brogue shoes and one or two types of womens sandal.

The firm has never made a full-time living, and the expensive postcode is a fluke of luck and history. It is a house with wooden floors that don't suit hydraulic machines unfortunately, because they're the usual choice for cutting uppers and stretching them over lasts. The posh postcode might have lured others into bad business decisions by suggesting huge profits to be made from shoes. People think "If that makes a living; I can do better". Like mermaids luring sailors onto the rocks. 

Tools for UK belt manufacturing or shoe manufacturing, set-up or stored

We make belts by cutting sheets of microfibre and attaching buckles.

Shoe tools are tricky because:

We don't have hydraulic machines because they weigh a tonne and might fall through the floor. This makes shoes tricky because they often need stretching of material over a last with a hydraulic machine, or else moulding of a plastic sole with high sides that needs a heavy injection moulding machine. There's a notorious fiddly-ness about making shoes because of all the sizes and different parts, and sewing machine or whatever attaches different parts. This does not have to weigh a tonne and we have a couple of never-used sewing machines.

We have a collection of lasts knives and soles bought whenever cheap, so anyone who knows how little money there is to be made from shoes is welcome to hire them or some other arrangement like that, like making shoes for us in small batches. The knives were made for the Haynes and Cann tropical pilot boot, and one the soles are PVC Tredair, that some factories can weld to welts once sewn onto the upper and sculpt to shape. Anyone who wants to encourage UK manufacturing is welcome to get in touch and scrape our heads for ideas.

We have bought batches of made-to-order shoes from factories over the years as well, and might be able to get something made for you.

Ethics - ethical policy

Veganline.com/info/ethics scores us against Ethical Consumer Magazine's checklist. At one point were were an Ethical Consumer Best Buy, but the magazine now charges for assessment so we have marked out own homework and still score well.

Veganline.com/info/why-made-in and the "made in" pages list where products are made and some quick facts that you can check yourself for each country like a score for human rights, democracy, health and education spending, and something about their social security system: nearly all our shoes come from countries with social security systems like pensions and unemployment pay. The exception is belt buckles from India, a democracy with next to no social security. With luck, other shops will write similar pages and better ones. 

Some ethics pages make more sense with explanation so they're hidden-away a bit.

In 2005-2016 an odd thing happened. A covert Department for International Development scheme, like Girl Effect but less useful. It promoted goods from countries that are poor and over-populated for lack of a welfare state, and warned against buying European products or British products on ethical grounds. The scheme presented itself as a trade association and pants company, sharing a government-funded office in East London. 
veganline.com/info/ethical-fashion-forum , veganline.com/info/fair-fashion http://veganline.com/info/eff-made-in-britain , veganline.com/info/rant are pages debunking and rebutting.

The pants company was closed by creditors and the attempt at a trade association closed soon after their lease ran-out.

Why Vegan Shoes 

Our page lists some vegan recipe sites as well as a list of reasons to boycott cruelty, CO2 or Methane release, or land waste. They are recipes on animal rights organizations' sites, just to encourage them as they do a lot of campaigning, and because their facts are probably more up-to-date and check-able. There's also quote from the start of Livestock's Long Shadow, from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.