BIG deliveries update for March/April deliveries - Yep it's the BIG one! - EDITED 1:30am Friday 7th April
EDITED 1:30am Friday 7th April
All deliveries are now planned out for April, and my next job is to email all 320 of you to book your delivery dates/collection dates. I’ll reply to any other emails after all the delkiveries are booked. Obviously this is going to take a little while, and cause chaos in my inbox with 320 replies etc. Please wait for your delivery email, and when booking reply to the email I’ve sent you so I don’t miss your booking, because I can sort my inbox by email title, and cross them off my list as I go.
If you can’t take the date offered let me know and I’ll put you on a standby list for spare slots. I’ve pretty heavily loaded the packing days, as front heavy as possible for when stock can be allocated to your order, so any alternative date will be after the date offered rather than before.
I’ll try to get all 320 emails sent out by Saturday morning.
Replies to other emails and messages
Over the next few days I have to send around 530 emails out, that’s roughly 20 hours of paperwork and typing, going through the replies and booking the deliveries will take about another 12 hours of typing. That is on top of my 60 hours or so of routine day to day jobs, and about 30 hours of prepping boxes and packing orders, plus a few other jobs, which is about a 120-130 hour working week. This doesn’t leave much time left as there are only 168 hours in a week. These jobs have to take priority, so any other emails/messages etc I’ll try to reply to next weekend in any time left after doing all this stuff. If anyone doesn’t want to wait for me to email them just let me know and I’ll refund your orders instead for you.
NEW! - FREE delivery on all orders!
(Minimum order value £60).
We only deliver to mainland England, Wales & Scotland. We do deliver to the Highlands, but, not to any islands including Northern Ireland.
Delivery is now FREE on all orders, but, we now have a minimum order value of £60. Please allow 7-28 days for delivery (any items on more than 28 days delivery are clearly marked).
You can also collect from store at IP28 7AS, the same lead times apply and we will email you when your order is ready for collection. Please allow 7-28 days for your order to be ready (any items on more than 28 days wait time are clearly marked).
We will email you when your order is ready for delivery or collection. Please avoid emailing us unless it’s essential to do so, as replying to emails uses up a lot of time and may delay your order.
We only open by appointment for collection of online orders. No entry to the general public except by special arrangement. No in store purchases possible.
James - Salty Revolution
Worryingly I only had to stretch this image by 20% lol.
EDIT: Last updated 00:30 Monday 27th March2023.
BIG deliveries update for March/April deliveries!
Yep it's the BIG one!
What’s in this update?
This contains:
Information on ordering and delivery.
How to know when your order is ready.
Information on part deliveries.
Orders for collection.
How to change your order from collection to delivery.
Updates on all current orders in sections by order number.
Progress on orders since last month's update.
NEW!
A new section giving more detailed lead times by species/product. Which items are in stock, which are arriving soon, and which have delays and why.
Express/VIP delivery.
Information on express/VIP delivery.
How we pack your order
As well as a detailed look at how we pack orders, and procedures that vary to cope with different weather conditions.
It's quite a long read because there's a lot of information in here, but, it does give details on all current and future orders, and on lead times on different species/products. Please do read this as they take a long time to write (over 8 hours each time), and they contain a lot of information about your orders.
Unpacking your box
Advice on unpacking your box.
Cancelling your order
If you decide you want to cancel your order here is how to do that, and information about refunds.
New format
Following feedback from all of you guys I’ve changed the format of this update, so hopefully it’s a bit easier to follow and gives a bit more detail.
When is my order coming?
So when your order is ready for delivery or collection we will email you to let you know, and offer you the first available date. To book that delivery slot you need to reply to the booking email by the cut off point in it. We try to give as much notice as we can, but, sometimes spare packing slots become available at short notice. If you haven’t seen or been able to reply to the email in time, then don’t worry just let us know you couldn’t reply in time and we will then offer you the next available date. Often we already know the next available date and can offer you another date usually the following week. For large orders, or particularly delicate species, we may prefer to hand deliver your order ourselves, this may mean waiting until the next hand delivery run to your area, so we may have to let you know the next available date nearer the time.
Is everything coming?
Generally we try to wait until all your items are in stock, but, if you’ve ordered quite a few types of things and more than half of them are in stock, rather than wait until everything is in stock we may send you what is already here and ready to go. For new customers this can seem a strange way of doing things, but, there are two main reasons why we do this:
1- We don’t want your whole order being held up waiting for everything to arrive. We know you’d like your things as quickly as possible, so we want to get as many of them as we can to you as quickly as possible.
2- We need the space. It’s not so bad with inverts and corals, but, large numbers of fish being here uses up a lot of space. We have 4 fish systems and each batch of fish are placed into their own system for quarantine. So if 2 or 3 of the systems are filled up with stuff waiting to go out it starts reducing how many shipments we can get in as we don’t have enough empty systems to quarantine things.
How will I know what is coming?
Once we have packed your box we will email you and let you know either what is coming, or, what is not coming. We try to send these emails out on the day we pack and before your box arrives, but, sometimes we email the next day instead if there are a lot of emails to send. The reason we wait until we’ve packed your box is because then we know exactly what is in it.
When will any remaining items come?
Just as with your first delivery, we will email you when all or most of your items are ready to go, and the procedure is the same as with your first delivery. If we split your delivery into several chunks like this we don’t charge extra for the extra deliveries.
Are we nearly there yet?
When it is ready we will let you know. Up until that point it’s impossible to pin down exact dates. Sometimes shipments get delayed or cancelled. Sometimes items that are expected to be in that delivery aren’t in there. Sometimes we get more of something than we were expecting, or, the person ahead of you in the queue may change their mind and want to swap what they ordered for something else, so it’s almost impossible to be certain. However, what is certain is that when it is ready to go, or most of it is ready to go we will let you know. If you do not want to wait until we email you then let us know, and we will cancel and refund your order. We are happy to do this at any point from when you order up until the day before we pack your items, as obviously we can’t cancel it if it’s already left the building. Please note the UK banking system whilst very good at taking money out of your bank instantly, are nowhere near as quick at putting it back again. If you paid by Lloyds or Barclays debit cards refunds typically take 7 days, but, can be longer. All other banks, especially smaller ones, and all credit cards take longer. Whilst the money leaves our account the day you request a refund, it can take up to 28 days for your bank to assign it to your account. This is due to how the UK banking system works and not something we have any control over.
I haven’t had an email yet to arrange my delivery?
First of all check the email address on your order is correct, and also check your spam and junk folders. If your email address is correct, and we haven’t emailed you yet then your order isn’t ready yet, but, we will let you know when it is ready. Rest assured we will let you know when it is ready, so there is no need to email us to check. If at any point you decide it’s taking too long let us know and we’ll cancel and refund it for you. We want to spend as much of our time as possible looking after the animals and packing and sending out orders, not spending it replying to emails asking if it’s ready yet. If it is ready we let you know, and if we haven’t let you know then no it’s not ready. Replying to emails is very time consuming (typically it takes me 2-8 hours of typing per day just replying to emails alone). After doing some research on this recently I discovered that just 10% of our customers account for over 50% of the time used up replying to emails. As this is using up a lot of my time, and slowing up getting out orders to the 90% of people that are happy to wait patiently. This isn’t a good use of my time, and is very unfair on the 90% of people that are happy to wait patiently. To solve this problem this is the system we are trialling:
1- When your order is ready we will email you to let you know.
2- If we haven’t emailed you yet, then it’s not ready yet.
3- If at any point you decide you’re not happy to wait let us know and we will cancel and refund it for you.
4- If at any point we decide you’re not happy to wait we will cancel and refund it for you. This may seem harsh, but, I’m not prepared to let the 2% least patient people cause delays in getting out the orders to the other 98% of people, it’s a huge waste of time replying to multiple “is my order ready yet?/when will my order be ready?” emails, and not fair on everyone else.
I’m collecting!
The same procedure applies to collections. when it’s ready we’ll let you know and arrange when you can pop in to pick it up.
My order says collecting, but, I want it delivered!
If your order says collection, but, you want it delivered, if your order is over £60 we will do this for free. If your order is under £60 there is a £12 fee, email us for details. If it is under £60 and only dry goods (eg Coral Food 99 etc) then we can post that free. It’s only orders under £60 with fish, inverts or corals on them that there is a delivery charge.
EDITED: 6pm Wednesday 29th March 2023
There is now a minimum order value of £60, and free delivery on all orders!*
*only applies to orders placed on 29th March 2023 or after.
New orders from 20th March onwards - orders 10856+
The vast majority of orders from 20th March onwards will be delivered within 14-28 days from when the order was placed. There are two items available online on 14-60, and 30-60 day lead times, but, it is clearly marked in the title of the item.
March orders from 1st March to 19th March - orders 10700 to 10855
Total orders: 156
Completed: 72 (46% completed)
Part completed: 31 (20% part completed)
Awaiting delivery: 53 (34% awaiting delivery) the overwhelming majority of these will be within 14-28 days from time of order.
If you are one of the 53 orders within this category, you will likely get an email this coming week to arrange delivery, and if not the weekend after. The only exceptions could be with queued items, see queued items below.
Feb orders from 1st Feb to 28th Feb - orders 10500 to 10699
Total orders: 200
Completed: 101 (51% completed)
Part completed: 63 (32% part completed)
Awaiting delivery: 36 (18% awaiting delivery)
A lot of the orders in this category where quoted 14-60 days for delivery to give us some breathing space to catch up. If you order was on 14-60 days delivery it will say so on your invoice. If you are one of the 36 orders within this category, you will likely get an email this coming week to arrange delivery, and if not the weekend after. The only exceptions could be with queued items, see queued items below.
Dec/Jan orders from 1st Dec to 31st Jan - orders 8817 to 10499
Total orders: 1,683
Completed: 1,236 (73% completed).
Part completed: 308 (18% part completed)
Awaiting delivery: 139 (8% awaiting delivery)
Since the last update 247 more Dec/Jan orders moved to completed, and the number of orders that had not had at least a part delivery fell from 277 to 139, with almost all of those 139 only awaiting 1 or 2 items.
These orders are long overdue, mostly due to queued items (see queued items below). If you are waiting for queued items and your order number is between 8817 and 10499 then you should be near the front of the queue.
The 9 veterans (orders 8816 or before)
There are also 9 people with items outstanding from before then they are:
Louis W/Ashley N, Haroon H, Alex L, Neil C, Kim H, Ricardo N, Gordon W, Frederico S, Clynton S.
There was 29 people on this list in the last update so I am making good progress on clearing up these oldest orders. Yellow sea cucumbers are now finally on their way, the frags holding up some of these are in next week, and if all goes to plan then within the next 14 days there should only be 1 or 2 left on this list.
Queued items
In total we run 3,800 product lines, and some of those have up to 20 or more variants (options) on them). in total we have over 30,000 product lines, which is actually more than Tesco, so as you can imagine managing all those can be tricky!
At any one time usually 1,000 to 3,000 of those products lines are active, with the rest switched off or hidden. Currently there are 663 live orders (as of 7:22pm Sunday 26th March), this is down from around 987 live orders on the same check about 28 days ago, so we are chewing through the backlog at a fair rate.
Obviously new orders arrive all the time adding to that, but, in the last 3 weeks we have fully completed over 500 live orders, so although 663 might seem a lot, around have of those have had some or most of the items delivered, and around 100 of those are orders less than 14 days old. Over the next 14 days we expect to fully complete 150-300 of those 663 orders, and part complete another 100+. So apart from those items with long queues (see below) around half of you will get an email to arrange delivery this week or next.
Please bear with us and wait for us to email you, as replying to emails seriously reduces how many boxes can go out, and emailing us with non-essential enquiries delays everyone’s boxes going out, often including your own box.
Queued items by item type
Ok so here is the big list of queue times on all outstanding items.
Items currently on order
In total out of more than 30,000 product lines there are orders for 290 types of items.
First in the queue
Out of those 290 item types 107 of those items only have 1 person waiting for them. Most of these are in stock, or arrive most weeks. There should be no significant delays on any of these 107 item types.
2nd or 3rd in the queue
Out of the remaining 183 item types there are 63 items with only either 2 or 3 orders waiting for them. nearly 50% of these items are in stock, just awaiting a packing slot. Most of the rest of these items arrive regularly enough, and usually in batches of more than 3 at a time, that pretty much everything in this category should not face significant delays, and is likely be to be ready for delivery within the next 14 days, or at most 21 days.
Items with queues of 4 or more people.
That leaves 120 items with queues of 4 people or more.
In stock
Of those 120 item types 19 are in stock with plenty of surplus stock, and a further 21 item types we have some in stock, probably enough to cover most or all outstanding orders, and if not they arrive regularly pretty much every week, so if there isn’t enough already in stock, there will be this week or next.
Next batch in
Of the remaining 80 item types there are 34 types of item that we have either none in stock, or the amount of stock is not enough to cover all orders. But, because they arrive regularly, and in large batches we just need one more delivery of them and it will clear all outstanding orders.
These are items where the next delivery is due within 14 days and should clear all outstanding orders.
Dragonsoul Torch, Blue Mandarin, Chromis, Coral Food 99, ECO top up packs Sexy shrimps, ECOSYSTEM pack H - Hermit core pack. Pod Boost, El Presidente’s mini zoa gardens, Gem tang, Halloween hermit crabs, revolution, Lucky dip Indo SPS frags, XL - Frag bulk saver packs of assorted Zoas, Coral Poppers, Purple queen anthias, Royal dottybacks, Snake Pipefish, SOFT130 Premiun grade Toadstool, SOFT150 Super rare Sarcophyton two tone, SPS001 Assorted SPS colonies small, SPS020 Seiatopora green, SPS800 Millipora Pastel pink & baby blue, SR033 Toadstool white - long polyps, SR0253 Yellow polyps frag, SR503 Red dwarf holly, Tubeworms assorted Med/large, Tubeworms Purple & gold, ULTIMATE TORCH PACK, VZ42 Radioactive dragoneyes, VZ63 Whammin Watermelons, Water Clear, Winter sale -Chalice corals, YUMA300 Yellow yuma.
All of these are due within 14 days in enough numbers to clear all current order with some to spare. the odd item might take 21 days to complete all orders, but, no major delays likely.
Items that may have delays.
This leaves 42 items that may not have enough arrive within the next 14 days to clear all outstanding orders. This does not mean that orders may be late, because although we may be waiting for more than 1 batch, 2 batches may arrive within the original quoted lead times. But, these are items where delays may be possible, or are likely.
Items where the next batch to arrive will clear most orders, but, it may take a 2nd batch to clear all orders.
Azure damsels, Green coral gobies, Purple tangs, Sexy shrimps, SPS910 Purple Smoothskin Acro, Strawberry dottyback, Yellow coris wrasse.
We are expecting enough within the next 14 days to clear all orders for these items, and if a 2nd batch is required, then both batches are now due within 21 days.
Items where we will need 2 batches to clear all orders.
I have included in brackets the number of people waiting for each of these items, so you can see how big or small the queue is.
Anemone crabs (12), Black hole angelfish (5), Black leopard wrasse (4), Cleaner shrimp in XL (12, medium and small are in stock), Clownfish (43, up to 80 arrive at a time), Copperband butterfly (14), Coral beauty (30, up to 24 arrive at a time), ECOSYSTEM pack L - Crab core pack (4), ECOSYSTEM Pack R - Filter feeder core pack (4), Firefish (69, these typically arrive in batches of 100-200 at a time), Melanurus wrasse (4), Singapore angel (15), SPS Monti plating Apple green (4), SPS 330 Monti plating, Red (6), Tomini tang (5), Torch corals - Green (19) - Hulk (18) - NY Knicks (11), Yanoi shrimp goby (20), Yellow coral goby (44, the last batch was 81 Yellow coral gobies so 1 batch will probably clear it), Yellow sea cucumbers (5, two of these are arriving this week).
Many of the orders for these items will be completed within the next 14 days, almsot all of these should be completed within 21 days, a few orders on a few items may take 28 days from now, but, these are mostly not likely to now be a major problem.
That leaves 10 items where there are issues:
Items with delays or issues
There are 10 item types with issues, I’ll go through each of these one by one.
Number 10 - Valentini dwarf puffer - 4 orders affected
We have 4 people waiting for Valentini dwarf puffers. whilst that is not many people the supply chain has been limited, erratic, and variable on quality. - I will be contacting all orders for Valentini dwarf puffers and offering either a refund of the amount paid, or a credit note for double the amount paid, to resolve all current orders for them.
Please wait for me to email you regarding this so I can do in a structured way and ensure no one gets missed out etc.
Number 9 - SPS480 Montipora digitata Forest fire - 7 orders affected
Due in within 28 days, and should be enough to cover all orders. Delays caused by our usual supplier being out of stock, so we have some being farmed for us we are just waiting for the first frag harvest.
Number 8- Pyramid butterflies - 7 orders affected
Although it is only 7 orders, some of these orders are for 4 or 6. These fish aren’t always available, often when they are available we don’t then get them. But, when they do arrive they usually arrive in large batches of up to 20 at a time. This is very hard to predict. There could be enough arrive in 14 days to clear all orders, it could take far far longer, we simply can’t predict this reliably at the moment. I would recommend waiting because they are a spectacular fish and well worth the wait.
Number 7 - Black ray shrimp gobies - 11 orders affected
Similar issues to Valentini dwarf puffers above. I will be contacting all orders for these and offering either a refund of the amount paid, or a credit note for double the amount paid, to resolve all current orders for them.
Please wait for me to email you regarding this so I can do in a structured way and ensure no one gets missed out etc.
Number 6- Candy cane Trimma gobies - 11 orders affected
Just proving impossible to get for no obvious reason. I will be contacting all orders for these and offering either a refund of the amount paid, or a credit note for double the amount paid, to resolve all current orders for them.
Please wait for me to email you regarding this so I can do in a structured way and ensure no one gets missed out etc.
Number 5 - Blood shrimps - 18 orders affected
These are arriving several times a month 2-10 at a time. we are working through the queue, but, delays are likely on orders for XL size.
Number 4 - Assorted shrimp goby and Pistol shrimp pairs - 34 orders affected
These have an erratic supply chain. Sometimes 50+ pairs arrive at once, sometimes we don’t get any for 3 weeks at a time. It’s possible we will get enough to fulfill all orders within the next 14-21 days, but, it’s likely to be longer on some orders. We are now quoting 30-60 days for new orders on these.
Number 3 - Clams - 39 orders affected
One batch should clear all orders, we are slowly getting nearer a solution, and it’s worth hanging in and waiting.
Number 2 - Pea green coral gobies - 51 Orders affected
We did have over 120 orders for more than 500 of these guys. Some have arrived, some people cancelled or reselected to other types of coral gobies, etc. To resolve all current orders of them I shall be emailing each order and offering the following 3 options:
1- Reselect to one of these 4 choices: Yellow coral gobies, Green coral gobies, Assorted coral gobies, or Assorted gobies.
2- Refund of the amount paid.
3- Credit note for double the amount paid.
Please wait for me to email you regarding this so I can do in a structured way and ensure no one gets missed out etc.
Number 1 - Flame angels - 57 orders affected
This has been the biggest thorn in my side for 3 months now. There was 120 orders affected, but, over half of them either; reselected, took a credit note, cancelled, or had their order cancelled by me due to inappropriate behaviour (see Oh dear below).
We originally had a very reliable source for Flame angels with over 100 in stock in Europe. Unfortunately we faced huge legal and logistical issues due to the person that was going to get them becoming ill and rendering that plan no longer viable. We then put in place B, but, then had the same issue again.
I have tried to source these far and wide, with little to no success, as hardly anyone else seems to have any at all, and those that do have 10-20 occasionally, with many hurdles in our way to getting even them. Delays on these are already long, and that’s not likely to change soon. So what do we do?
It’s pointless having so many orders for something proving so difficult to get. So I’m going to email all 57 orders and offer them these options:
1- Reselect to the Dwarf angel triple pack.
2- Receive a credit note for the amount you paid and receive a free Coral beauty.
3- Receive a credit note for the amount you paid plus £20.
4- Receive a refund of the amount you paid.
Please wait for me to email you regarding this so I can do in a structured way and ensure no one gets missed out etc.
If enough people take one of these options to drop the number of orders to less than 20, then I’ll let the remaining orders continue to wait if they wish to do so.
I would expect that most people will happily take one of the options above reducing the queue to less than 20. If it doesn’t then orders 21+ in the queue will be cancelled and refunded.
It’s not an ideal solution, but, I think it’s fair to say that the Flame angel promo has been a complete disaster from the start, and I messed up badly on this one.
Oh dear
We’ve had a few issues over the last 2 months, a lot of which was caused by accidentally attracting a class of customer that we don’t normally deal with. I think it’s not unfair to label them as “mostly shouty, often drunk, scumbags”, I think that’s a fairly accurate assessment, and nothing seemed to attract them more than Flame angels.
Obviously this doesn’t apply to all people that ordered Flame angels by any means, but, for some reason if you’ve just finished shouting at the other half, polished off your 12th can of Lidl own brand lager, and given up trying to remove your ankle tag yourself, then seeing “Flame angels £79” appearing on the screen of your (presumably stolen) iPhone must have seemed like having their new benefits approved, and hearing the police had dropped all charges, all in one day! I don’t know what it was about this fish, but, it was like the Chav Holy Grail or something.
I have done my best to identify and cancel all orders from them, because quite frankly I’ve got better things to do than read emails threatening to “sort me out” if I “dont sned my fish quicklie!!!”. With a normal shop security staff would have escorted them out as soon as they entered, but, with an online store we currently have no easy way to filter them out.
We are working on possible solutions, such as renaming Flame angels to things such as “Police Flame angelfish” (as they are unlikely to be attracted to anything with Police in the name of it, and other possible solutions such as adding buttons around the checkout button with catchy titles such as “How to be a better shoplifter”, “How I got rich growing plants in my attic”, "Appear on Jeremy Kyle and get paid £15 to do so”, etc, and then making those buttons redirect them to our competitors websites.
We’ve also considered things such as changing the Checkout button to being in Latin, or changing the Checkout button name to something like “Checkout now and notify all my creditors of my current address”. I’ll think of something.
We are doing as much as we can to clear up these older orders as fast as we can. I think I’ve spoken to pretty much all of you individually at some point and rest assured we are giving these orders priority for delivery spots as the items arrive. Of course if at any point you’d rather have a credit note to choose something else, or cancel your order it’s not a problem just let us know.
I’m really pleased with the things I’ve had!
If you’re happy with the items you’ve had so far then please leave us a Google review it really helps us out a lot! If you’ve had any problems with any items then email me at jamesgoodchild@live.com and we can usually sort something out for you.*
*I do try my best to resolve any problems, and generally the more polite someone is, the more generous the solution will be. I do have zero tolerance however for rudeness and threats.
More information about deliveries & collections
DELIVERIES, COLLECTIONS, ADDRESS, AND OPENING TIMES
Can I add delivery to my order?
Yes you can. if your new order is also over £60 it qualifies for free delivery anyway, and so does any order that is dry goods only, just select collection and email us to ask for it to be delivered (we tend to spot them, but, occasionally we miss one). If it’s under £60 and is livestock then select “collection” and email us with the new order number, and the order number which you’d like it attached to.
EDITED: 6pm Wednesday 29th March 2023
There is now a minimum order value of £60, and free delivery on all orders!*
*only applies to orders placed on 29th March 2023 or after.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Collections
If your order is to be collected we will email you to arrange delivery. This is typically days or a few weeks after ordering. See the lead time banner for more details. once your order is ready we will email you to arrange a time to visit store. Entry is only permitted by prearranged appointment. We do not do any in store sales.
jamesgoodchild@live.com
Or use the contact us form HERE
Address:
Salty Revolution,
94D Hampstead Avenue,
Mildenhall,
Bury Saint Edmunds,
Suffolk,
IP28 7AS
Email: jamesgoodchild@live.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaltyRevolution
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesgoodchildofficial/
Text only I get far too many calls and voicemails to answer/listen to them: 07854 514744
If using a SatNav set the address as Delmore at 94 Hampstead Avenue and we are located in the yard behind the blue and white building. If you set your SatNav to our address or postcode it may try to take you on a shortcut through the military base which U.S Military aren’t very keen on.
STANDARD DELIVERIES
If your order is for delivery, this covers the cost of a standard delivery. See the banner at the top of most pages for expected lead times on new orders. If you have already placed an order, then check the latest delivery update for more information. As soon as your order is ready to send we will contact you to arrange delivery. Please only contact us if it is essential to do so, because replying to enquiries uses up time we could spend on packing orders.
Standard deliveries on Wednesdays and Thursdays
Most Standard deliveries are sent by Royal Mail special delivery service for arrival on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Standard delivery on Tuesdays and Fridays
We can sometimes post for arrival on Tuesdays and Fridays, but, we do not post for arrival on Tuesdays and Fridays every week. If you would like a Tuesday or Friday arrival we can usually do this, but, it may mean waiting an extra week or two.
HAND DELIVERY SERVICE
Hand delivery service on any day or time
We can hand deliver orders on evenings and weekends upon request. We will then pack your order and drive to you with it at a time convenient for you. There may be an additional charge for this service, see Special Deliveries below.
SPECIAL DELIVERIES
If you would like a special delivery these can be arranged for most of the UK. Special deliveries can usually be arranged for any day of the week, and any time, of your choosing. However, this service is quite costly to cover, so additional fees are applicable compared to a standard delivery, and are priced individually. As a rough guide;
COST
For orders under £500 Special deliveries are charged at the rates below.
For orders £500 to £1,000 Special deliveries are charged at half the rates below.
For orders over £1,000 Special deliveries are done as a free service.
LOCAL
Suffolk £50, East Anglia £100, inside M25 £100.
NATIONAL
Most of England and South Wales £150, except; Cornwall, Devon, or North of York £200, Scotland £250.
The Salty Revolution packing system
Hi everyone,
Just to let you all know that all 150 delivery slots for this week are now full. We have enough stuff in stock to cover about another 60 orders, but, our limiting factor this week was not stock, but, the amount of time available to pack a pol box. This is how we go about packing your orders:
Final admin before packing
On average it takes around 5 minutes of admin on checking emails in case of last minute address changes etc, allocating stock, updating the web side etc, per order.
Picking for the box
Each item we pack whether it’s a frag, or snails, etc has a predetermined bag size for that species, and a limit on how many of that species can go into 1 bag before it requires either a 2nd bag, or upgrade to a larger bag. Each bag contains a specified amount of water for that bag size to create the ideal ratio of air to water. the more experienced packers are pretty good at judging it by eye, but, that takes a lot of practice, so we also use measuring jugs to ensure the bag is between the minimum and maximum amount of water for the ideal ratio. Once the animals are in the bags they then go to the packing table. On the packing table the person that picked the order then checks they have got everything and ticks it off on the invoice. The box containing the unsealed bags then has the lid put on, and the paperwork on top and then is slid across to the person sealing the boxes. Usually each person picking has their own dedicated person sealing their boxes, unless Michael is in because when he is on sealing he can keep pace with two people picking and both handing to him to seal, although in fairness keeping pace with two pickers does make him break a sweat a bit lol.
Over to the box sealer
Once it gets to the person sealing the box the first thing they do is lift off the lid and check that each bag corresponds with what the picker had ticked as picked on the paperwork. The sealer works independently to the picker, as two people working separately are unlikely to both make the same error. We found by doing it this way it vastly reduces picking errors down to less than 1 in 200 items picked!
Once the sealer has checked the bags they then total up in their head what the weight should be for the total of all the bags of each size, and this gives them a minimum total weight for the box and a maximum total weight. the box is then weighed to check it is the expected weight. This is not just to double check the air to water ratio, but, is because a box weighing less than expected might have an item missing, eg, dry goods or something, whilst a box that is too heavy may have had an extra bag sneak in somehow, or, there may be an item in the box that should be in the box, but, wasn’t ticked on the paperwork.
Four checks so far
With the picker checking the items as they pick them, then checking again the whole box contents before giving it to the sealer, then the sealer checking again, and then a final check on the scales that the weight is the expected weight, it means that our accuracy rate on packing is usually exceptionally good.
Sealing the box
With all the animals inside the box, and having had multiple checks for their health, numbers, correct type, and the total weight of the box, it’s then time to seal it. This then varies depending on the weather.
In normal weather
Under normal conditions we then wrap a heatpack in kitchen roll, this enables even air distribution to the heat pack so it works more effectively. Instead of using the standard fish heat packs which heat to 40c, we use the ones designed for reptiles which heat to 60c. Partly because this keeps the boxes warmer for longer, but, mostly not for that reason. In testing we found that no matter what brand of fish heatpacks we bought anywhere from 1 in 100 to 5 in 100 failed early and did not maintain temperature for as long as they should do.. Now we tried solving this by adding more heat packs, but, if they’re from the same batch, especially if picked from consecutive packs then if one failed the other may well do too. But, the biggest problem is that for the heatpacks to generate heat they use air. So if too many are in the box they can use up the available air around the bags and then stop working due to a lack of air supply. The reptile ones are far more reliable with a fail rate of less than 1 in 200. Not only are the reptile ones 2-10 times less likely to fail, they rarely fail due the first half of the journey, so even though the packs are usually cooling down by the time the box gets to it’s destination, even if faulty they would still have operated at full power for most of the journey.
Next the lid is taped down, the address label added, the weight is often written on the box and the paperwork too, so if there are a lot of boxes we can do a final check before departure that the weight on the box matches the weight on the paperwork, and both addresses match. This is a good way of ensuring the wrong box label doesn’t go onto the wrong box. If the addresses don’t match, or the weights down match then, the box is opened up and checked again. Out of over 7,000 boxes sent out only twice has a box gone to the wrong address. Luckily both times the two boxes had similar postcodes and so were only a few miles apart and so it was easy to arrange a box swap to take place at destination. This is actually a lower error rate than Amazon manage with their computerised system.
Cold weather packing
In colder weather once the procedure is slightly different. Then the heatpack goes in, the lid goes on, and the label is added, but the lid is not sealed. Then just before final departure the lid is taken off and the heatpack is replaced with a fresh one just before departure, and then the lid is sealed. This is so in colder weather the heatpacks are all at full life expectancy before leaving the building, as boxes packed earlier that day may already have used 5 or more hours of their life up before leaving. This is actually done because the box will get much colder in cold weather, this is done because cold icy roads can lead to longer transportation times. For some remote locations in cold weather we also line the boxes with bubble wrap or foil insulating blankets. We also use boxes that are generally 22mm-23mm thick polystyrene rather than the usual 20mm boxes. For delicate species we use much thicker boxes with a cavity wall inside the polystyrene.
Warm weather packing
If the weather is very warm then we use lower power heat packs, or, if warm enough no heat packs at all, so as to prevent the box getting too warm during it’s journey.
Off it goes
Then off the box goes on it’s journey to you!
That’s quite a lot of things!
On average an experienced picking team can pick and pack a small box with one bag in around 3 minutes start to finish (plus admin time). On the very largest orders 9often up to 50-60 bags in 1-3 boxes it can take a team of two up to 1 hour to pack a single delivery. That’s still pretty quick at around 1 bag per minute! Considering the number of steps involved that takes a team a lot of experience to be that quick,. With typically up to 400 different species/types of animal in stock at any one time, and some of those being in as many as 7 different size options remembering the names and locations of as many as 800 different items to choose from is pretty hard, especially as quite a few of the species, colours, and locations, change from one week to the next.
It’s a lot of work!
As you can see quite a lot of steps involving many repeat checks are made during the packing of each box. Remembering every step, and the locations and names of all the animals is a lot to learn. But, remember that’s just what’s involved in packing one box. On a typical day one packing team of two people may pack anywhere from 15-30 boxes back to back often with barely a break over a 4-6 packing session. On one of the days the week before last with 2 pickers and Michael on sealing on his own they managed to pack 72 boxes in just 6 hours. We usually pack two days a week, but, depending on weather, staffing, and hand delivery runs etc, we sometimes pack as many as 6 days a week. Even at this pace over the course of a week we can rarely pack more than 150 boxes in a week, especially if there are a lot of large orders.
(This is the point at which James starts going off topic)
From memory the most we have ever packed in one week was 212 boxes, but, that was during a large frag sale and so a lot of the boxes were only 1 or 2 frags each, under normal conditions I think the record stands at 182 boxes a week. Remember of course it isn’t the only work we have to do as there is also all the other work involved in deboxing the animals on arrival, fragging corals, caring for the animals, admin, promo, plus all the usual jobs of running a business. With just me and 4 part time people to help you can see why I’m usually working 120-140 hours a week! You can also see why sometimes we get a bit behind on emails etc, as on busy days with lots of emails back and forth booking deliveries etc like today we may have over 300 people contact us a day!
It’s pretty much 24/7 (characteristic goth whinging starts here)
You can see now why often our emails and blog posts are sent at all hours of the day and night as we pretty much work round the clock to try and do the best we can to reply to everyone, and even more importantly ensure the animals come first at all times.
Whilst I admit we don’t always get things right, we do always try to (mostly).
We’re going to be busy!
Inevitably with so many boxes going out each week there will be times when we get behind on emails etc, I know this can be frustrating waiting for a reply, but, please try to give us a little extra time.
Our first and foremost priority is animal care
(animals are always first)
Our first priority is always the animals, then after that we concentrate on packing orders, and dealing with emails and messages from people regarding the orders we are packing that day. Next we prioritise emails and messages from people with orders already booked to go out that week. After that we then deal with messages with an order number in the title of the email or first line of the message, as they clearly have pending orders and the information might be critical to the care of an animal that they already have, then we deal with remaining messages etc.
(off he goes again :D)
Some days just dealing with the animal care, order packing, and all the messages regarding deliveries that day, can keep us tied up for sometimes 12-18 hours at a time dealing with most urgent matters, which is why sometimes it can be 24 hours or more before we clear all of the most urgent message categories and then can clear all messages and emails.
If you do need to contact us then if you put your order number in the title of the email or first line of the message then you will get a reply quicker as we can see you are an existing customer and will be given priority over general enquiries.
Getting the deliveries out each week
As you can probably see our most limiting factor on how many orders we can pack and get out Monday to Thursday is time, there are only so many hours in a day, and most days during the week we are flat out 10am to 8pm just on animal care, booking deliveries and packing deliveries. After a hectic 10+ hours I then have all the other stuff to catch up on. I have very little free time Monday to Thursday. Most days I start work at 8am, and work until 6am for 4 days straight, and tbh on a Friday (unsurprisngly) I tend to be a bit less lively!
Unpacking your box
How will it arrive?
Your box will be sent by Royal Mail Special delivery before 1pm service (although it’s called before 1pm service they do sometimes run a little late). If you have any last minute problems, simply put a note on your door for the postman. If you’re doing this it’s worth mentioning it’s a Special Delivery item from Salty Revolution marked as Urgent Living Creatures (the boxes are very clearly marked).
Once your box has been packed we will then email you to update you on what items are in the box, and upgrades made, notes added, and a list of anything still to follow. We wait until the box has been packed, because then we know exactly what is in it. I try to send these emails after I’m back from the post office, but, it’s often early hours of the morning before I finish all the paperwork, and sometimes if we get tied up on animal care or other jobs I email the list the next day. Sometimes your box will arrive before the list does, but, don’t worry just wait until the email arrives, I do get to them eventually! 😊
In the unlikely event of any issues with damages or losses in transit, wait until I have emailed you with the list of what was sent and then reply to that email, that way it makes it easier for me to keep track of things. We rarely lose anything in transit, usually 99%-99.5% or more of all animals arrive just fine.
Unpacking
This is best done in a quiet and dark environment. Turn off tank lights and close curtains, animals can be spooked by sudden bright light. Avoid putting your face to close to the bags when they have just arrived as they can be frightened thinking they are about to be eaten.
Corals
Many corals like Zoas and Star polyps etc will close up in transit and look nothing like you expect, they will open up in a day or two. Mushrooms (and anemones) will shrink massively in transit so don’t worry if they look much smaller than you thought they’d be they will open to full size within a few days usually, but, sometimes it takes longer. We are very careful on sizing so I promise it will be at least the size you bought or bigger.
It's not moving
Some fish such as wrasses and parrotfish can slow their breathing to 1 beat per 20 minutes in the dark, don’t worry just acclimate them as normal.
It might be shedding
Shrimps and crabs may be on their backs not moving, they may be shedding their old exoskeleton. If so float the bag to warm it up slowly and pierce a couple of small holes in the bag. It may take up to 8 hours to finish shedding in some species (Mantis can be many days), they are very delicate whilst shedding so do not disturb them. Crabs lay on their backs so they can climb out through their own belly, do not be tempted to turn them the right way up or they may become trapped in their old skin which can be fatal. If they don’t shed in transit they are likely to do so within a few days of arrival. The shed skins can look just like dead animals, there is an easy way to check. If you lift out the shed skin and smell it then it should smell like the sea, if it really is dead don’t worry you won’t be in any doubt the smell is horrific even from several yards away. 9 times out of 10 it’s simply a shed skin.
This will stop you eating me!
Some animals such as wrasses, fiddler crabs, and Babylonia snails will feign death to deter predators from eating them. They may even change colour a little and often will not move at all even if poked. If it is a corpse then they will usually smell pretty bad, if in any doubt pop it in the tank to be on the safe side. Once they feel safe Fiddler crabs and wrasses usually scarper pronto! Babylonia snails may lay on their backs not moving for up to 4 days before moving off. Don’t worry many snail species sit motionless for hours or days if moved.
More stuff
If you have other items to come we will email you when they are ready. If you aren’t waiting for more stuff, then get some more things on order!
Cancelling your order
If at any time up until the day before packing you decide you want to cancel your order you can. Simply email us with the order numbers and we can cancel and refund them for you. Here is some more information on refunds.
Refunds
So when you buy something on card, it checks the money is in your account to cover the payment, and your bank then removes that money from your account instantly, so you can't spend it again. However, the bank doesn't always send it to the shop/website/etc immediately. The bank takes it from your account straight away and holds it, sometimes only for minutes, sometimes for hours, but, typically for 3-5 working days before they pass it on to the person you paid. In the case of American Express they can hold the money up to 28 days before giving it to the merchant.
Now, as a shop you don't really have much choice over this if you want to take American Express, then you have to accept their rules and not get your money for 7-28 days each time you make a sale.
Some banks like PayPal will know the money is coming so actually let you use it straight away, so it looks like it appeared instantly, but, actually they are lending the shop the money while the actual payment arrives and they charge for this in their card fees.
So if you go and say buy something in your local Tesco and pay by Barclays or Lloyds debit card then Tesco get the money 3-5 working days later. they know it's coming so they're happy for you to leave with the shopping, but, they won't have got the money yet. Meanwhile your bank has taken the money from your account instantly (so you don't spend it again), but, they hold on to it for a few days before handing it over. They're permanently holding vast amounts of money like this, which they then use as collateral to lend out for loans and mortgages etc. In the case of American Express they hold it up to 28 days before handing it over.
Now when we do a card refund, it's basically the same process but in reverse, so it takes the money out of my account immediately, but, it then takes 3-28 days to be credited in to your account, in the same way that when you paid us we could see the payment immediately, but, it takes up to 7 days to arrive in our account.
Hopefully this explains why it takes time, if you work in banking etc, it's fairly common knowledge, but, if you don't (and most people don't) then it's very baffling why when they paid us it came out of their bank in minutes, so why when they want a refund is it no also there in minutes.
In fact with refunds it's usually slower than payments by a little bit because there are various ways refunds can be used to launder money, VAT scams, move currency across borders etc, so the bank does extra checks on those which adds a day or two as well.
How you can help us help you (this would actually really help)
If you do need to contact us and it’s not urgent, eg a question about an animal you are thinking of getting in a few weeks time, or, a question about delivery of something that isn’t due to arrive for a few weeks if you could save your question until the weekend, or, put NON-URGENT in the title or first line it would really help me out a lot. The more free time I have Monday to Thursday the more time I have for packing, the more orders can be sent out, and the quicker it will be your turn for delivery. I appreciate everyone likes to know what is happening with their order, but, the more time I have free Monday to Thursday to concentrate on deliveries, the faster everybody gets everything, and that’s something we all want to see happen.
We will email you
We will email you when your order is ready. Please resist the temptation to send us “Are we nearly there yet?/How long will my order be?” emails. It won’t make your order come any quicker, clogs up our inbox, takes away time we could be spending on sending out orders, etc.
1- When your order is ready we will email you to let you know.
2- If we haven’t emailed you yet, then it’s not ready yet.
3- If at any point you decide you’re not happy to wait let us know and we will cancel and refund it for you.
4- If at any point we decide you’re not happy to wait we will cancel and refund it for you. This may seem harsh, but, I’m not prepared to let the 2% least patient people cause delays in getting out the orders to the other 98% of people, it’s a huge waste of time replying to multiple “is my order ready yet?/when will my order be ready?” emails, and not fair on everyone else.
James Goodchild
Salty Revolution, the UK’s largest online marine shop (possibly also with the largest online marine shop owner looking at the graphic lol).
Viva La Revolucion!
El Presidente.