Postage Costs

Most of the Micron products are dispatched to U.K. addresses via 1st Class Signed-For Small Parcel with a flat fee of £5.50 (+VAT within UK = £6.60). Small, low-value orders are sent 1st Class without a signature required and the postage fee is £4.20 (+VAT within UK = £5.04). Although it seems most unfair, the HMRC rules require us to add VAT to the postage charge.

Orders which are exceptionally bulky or heavy often cost more to send than the value-derived postage charge added to the shopping cart. In this case, we contact the customer to explain the shipping options and charges. If the actual cost of shipping is more than the customer feels is justified, we are happy to cancel the order and make a complete refund.

If the actual postage cost is less than added in the checkout total, the excess will be refunded. This is done, for example, if the order will fit into a Large Letter padded bag.

TL;DR:

• Micron does not charge VAT on orders for destinations outside the U.K. The recipient is responsible for paying any VAT and duty via the local postal agent.
• The 'standard' shipping charge added during checkout may be insufficient for orders containing heavy or valuable items. We will contact you by email if the shipping cost added to your order is substantially lower than the actual cost of airmail or if insured and tracked airmail is advisable.
• Please contact us by email if you want an exact shipping cost before placing an order.

The Micron web site uses the Paypal shopping cart and this is unable to handle different shipping costs for destinations outside the UK, so the standard UK charge of £5.50 (plus VAT for UK destinations) is applied automatically. This used to work as the cost of a standard airmail lightweight small packet to most international destinations was about the same as a UK signed-for small package. However, international shipping rates have been steadily increasing, exacerbated by the low availability of passenger flights due to the Covid-19 crisis. We are no longer able to absorb the cost difference which, in some cases, amounts to an additional 20%-30%.

When the actual cost of airmail for your order is substantially greater than the amount for shipping added to the shopping cart, we will contact you by email to present the options and prices for shipping via standard airmail, tracked airmail or fully insured and tracked airmail. Please ensure that the email address registered to your Paypal account is correct. The available airmail services are:

standard airmail

this has no tracking and the insurance cover is £20.00

tracked or signed-for or tracked and signed-for airmail

the status of tracked airmail can be queried using the package reference we send when your order is scanned before dispatch; signed-for airmail has only a confirmation of delivery; all have an insurance cover of £50.00

insured airmail

this is an optional service which can be added to any of the previous airmail types; the maximum insurance cover is £250.00

For order values greater than £250.00, we will also present details of DHL, FedEx or UPS shipping when we send the email.

IOSS, a EU-wide system for handling VAT and duty on imports came into use on 1st July 2021 - IOSS = Import One Stop Shop. This allows a vendor to add VAT and duty amounts appropriate to the destination country. Our use of the simple Paypal shopping cart does not make implementation of IOSS easy but we are investigating ways in which we can use IOSS with minimal administration overhead. Until then, we do not add VAT or duty charges to international orders.

Ad Hoc Items & Shipping Costs

Use input field below when Micron have advised that a special shipping charge is required or you wish to purchase an item for which there is currently no web page. Enter the amount as advised by Micron and click on the 'Add to Cart' button.

LiPo Shipping

Information on shipping Lithium based cells and batteries (e.g. LiPo or LiIon) has moved.