How fast will I get my order ?

Orders are usually shipped within 24 hours (M-F) and delivery made the day after that, but same day despatch is not normally guaranteed. If your order is urgent (and we're contacted before 12 noon) we can usually send it out “same day” if you request this.
Timed deliveries are available (before 10.00 or before 12.00) as are Saturday deliveries though these all attract a supplementary charge, please phone for a quote.
Most orders are sent by carrier though Royal Mail 1st class may be utilised for smaller items : see cheaper carriage by RM.
All deliveries (except small items sent RM) will require a signature and are made Monday to Friday (Saturday delivery available, at a supplement....), many customers find it more convenient to have their order delivered to their work address and that is fine. If you have given a mobile number you should get a text from the carrier with a delivery time slot but this is not guaranteed.
If anything “non-standard” is required please phone your order through.

If delivery is not made within two working days please contact us.

This is important so we can sort out any delivery problems whilst the order is still at “your end” because once the carrier (or Royal Mail) has sent it back to us additional carriage is required to send it out again. So the moral of the story is, if you haven't had your order within 2 working days :
Don't delay, phone today !

Urgent or otherwise important orders

Time-senstive and otherwise urgent deliveries should always be PHONED through!
Remember, the Internet / E Mail / Online orders can fail or get lost in the ether (err, yes they can….), critical orders should be phoned through, as should any order requiring a timed delivery. "Before 12.00" and "before 10.00" deliveries are available at a supplement, please phone for a quote.

Stock holding

Almost all stock * is held at our shop, it's not usually sent out by a third party. It's rare for us to be out of stock of anything in our range, but if you want to be sure, phone us up. If we receive an Online order and the part is out of stock we'll phone or E Mail you the same day (wherever possible) we receive the order and give you an ETA, you can then, of course, cancel if you want.

* The odd order may be sent direct from the supplier, usually because they’re too big to store at our shop or a bulk quantity of a product that is more convenient to send direct.

Spare parts

We understand people don't like binning stuff for the want of a spare part so wherever possible we will endeavour to supply spare parts for any aerial purchased from us. Normally the spares would have to be for a current production model but we do have some odds and sods for obsolete types.

Your telephone number

We only require your phone number in case there's a problem with the order, it is particularly useful to the delivery driver if he can't find the address ! It's by no means unknown for us to look at an order and think "that looks wrong, we'll phone them up to check they've got that right" *, but we can't do that if we haven't got your number or it's your home phone number and you're always at work during working hours. NOTE : we are not saying we will spot every error on every order and phone the customer to check, it's just the seemingly obvious ones (to us) that we happen to notice.......
Your phone number will not be used for marketing purposes, or passed to any third party. We can't be doing with any of that nonsense.

*We won't do this by E Mail because we need an answer straight away. If we send an E mail we might not get the reply back before we'd need to pack it in order to get it off same day. But the customer may have ordered the right stuff and need it for the following day ! Thus we'd be left in an impossible position.

Damaged in transit

To be fair to our carriers it is actually relatively rare for them to damage something, but if you sign for a package, with any carrier, you are deemed to have received it in good condition ! Whenever you sign for any parcel always examine it very closely, then, even if it looks fine from the outside, you should (as a matter of course) write “unexamined” under your signature. This (slightly…..) Increases our leverage with the carrier, but does not compensate for any time delay in telling them of a damaged delivery (see below).
If the package is damaged and/or you are in any doubt as to the condition of the goods, try and get the driver to let you look at the item inside, that will probably save everyone a lot of time if it's actually OK and it's just the box which is crushed (that is usually the case actually). Many drivers know this and will be co-operative, but if they don't allow you to examine the goods inside sign for it but write damaged under your signature or get the driver to note  that on his machine. Once you've done this you (and us....) are "covered". Remember we're on your side in any argument(s) with the carrier, but we do need some ammunition ! Alternatively refuse delivery and it will be returned to us for reshipment.

If you only notice any damage to the order after signing for it, phone us up and E Mail a picture of the damaged item as soon as possible (certainly the same day), speed is of the essence here if we're to stand any chance of getting the carrier to accept responsibility.

>>> Never sign for something then leave it unopened for days in the corner of the room ! <<<

Once you've signed for it do not send the order back without our instruction to do so, because this weakens our case against the carrier.

Warranties : our attitude to them

All products come with a 12 month guarantee apart from Proception (most of the amps and external splitters), they've got a 2 year guarantee. But we want to be "good ol' boys" so if any product from us fails out of its 'official' warranty you phone us up and we'll try to help you out anyway. In addition we give a lifetime warranty on any pole or bracket we sell (excludes the cost of the carriage) provided the item is used as recommended by us for the job you're doing.

Returns policy

We will accept items back beyond any 2 week period, in fact with no time limit (provided we still stock the product ! ), subject to a 25% restocking charge [plus the carriage] provided it is in as new condition. Full value is given on products being returned for exchange [less the cost of carriage] .

Amplifiers.....
First, and most important point, read is my aerial amplifier faulty ?
The chances are that'll save us all a lot of messing about ! Having read the aforementioned article if you still think the amp is faulty please phone us. As mentioned above we will not be strict about interpreting the length of guarantee on any amp we sell. We will send out a replacement amp and you will be required to pay for that and the carriage. When we receive the amp back if the amp proves to be faulty we will reimburse the cost of the amp and cost of the carriage including the cost of your carriage to us (2nd Class Signed For). On the other hand if the amp proves to be OK only the cost of the amplifier will be reimbursed (if it is in saleable condition) but no refund on the carriage will be made. It must be said it is pretty rare for an amplifier to fail, see linked to article at the start of this section.

Standard delivery charges

ATV lose money on carriage overall..
Our standard carriage rate is for next day carrier delivery of a parcel under 1.5m in length to England, Wales and Lowland Scotland.
It is possible to get significantly cheaper delivery if the order is small enough to go by Royal Mail, but, on the other hand, supplements are chargeable on longer poles or non conveyable items and also to some locations.

Order value under £60 = £10
Order value over £60 to under £120 = £5
Order value over £120 = Free

NOTE : the non conveyable and/or location supplements are still chargeable on orders over £120, however the standard carriage will still be free, you only pay the surcharge amount.

"Before 13.00" and "before 10.30" deliveries are available at a supplement, please phone for a quote.
Orders received before 12.00 are usually sent out same day for delivery the working day after.
Also see carriage on non UK orders.

Cheaper delivery by Royal Mail

Reduced postage charges only apply to orders small enough to go Royal Mail !
(i.e. a single carton which is less than 60cm long and under 2Kg in weight)

Most of our orders go out by next day carrier and that costs us more than you'd think. We make no money from carriage, in fact, overall, we lose money on it.....
It is sometimes possible for us to send some small orders out by Royal Mail. Items small enough go by mail can be sent First or Second class according to how urgently you want the item, the cost is from £4.00 (for something small enough to go as a large letter and RM48/2nd class) but the order must be phoned through for that price. We usually spot online orders which can be sent RM and when we find those we manually refund part of the carriage, however it still won’t be down to £4.00 (like it would be if it had been phoned through) partly because of all the extra messing about we go through but also because we will send it RM24/First class by default.
Although most First Class items get there the next day that obviously isn't guaranteed, in fact, according to the RM, an item isn't considered "lost" for 15 working days!
Unfortunately Royal Mail withdrew Standard Parcels in April 2013 so nothing bigger than 24 inches (61cm) can be sent by mail, furthermore if it weighs over 2Kg sending it RM rapidly loses any price advantage....

Why don't you do free carriage on everything ?

Well there is no such thing as free carriage, what that phrase actually means is the cost of carriage is included in the cost of the item. Now, that is all very well if you only order one product, but if you order multiple items, which the great majority of our customers do, you get ripped off because you are paying multiple lots of (included) carriage and the seller is laughing all the way to the bank as it usually only costs them more or less the same to send two or three as it does to send one.
QED

Carriage supplements : by location

ATV make no money on carriage overall......
All non UK (rest of the world) orders are subject to a carriage surcharge.
All deliveries by carrier to the Scottish Highlands, Offshore (including the I-of-W) and Northern Ireland are subject to a carriage supplement, please phone for this then add the amount using this button.
If we can send the order by Royal Mail there is no supplement to any UK address though there are significant size/weight restrictions (it must be smaller than 60cm and 2Kg) and the whole order has to fit in one box.
We can sometimes send medium sized orders (which can be packed in one box) to outlying areas more cheaply by using an alternative carrier (e.g. Hermes/Evri), note this often takes significantly longer to arrive.

DX Express are our main carrier and the following postcodes are classified by them as Scottish Highlands for carriage charge purposes, i.e. a significant supplement (£16 incl fuel surcharge and VAT, as at March 22) is chargeable.
Off shore addresses also attract a supplement (£39 as at March 22).

All Scottish areas requiring a supplement :

AB35-38 & AB54-56
FK18 up
HS (all)
IV (all)
KA27-28
KW (all)
PA20 up
PH17 up
ZE (all)

Scottish Highlands supplement of £16.00 :

AB35-38 & AB54-56 

FK18 up

IV (all) 

KW1-14

PA21-38

PH17 up except PH42-44

Scottish Offshore supplement of £39.00* :

HS all

KA27-28

KW15-17

PA20, PA41-49 & PA60-78

PH42-44

ZE (all)

* Also includes
Channel Islands etc

The situation regarding the Isle of Wight and Northern Ireland is somewhat different. If the order is not excessively long or heavy (and has only one part to the consignment) we can sometimes send them via a parcels agent and this often costs no more (or not that much more) then our standard rate. For larger orders (or ones with multiple parts) they must still go DX Express and there is a carriage surcharge of  £6 for the I of W and £10.00 for NI (incl fuel surcharge and VAT as at May 23).

Note that smaller (under 61cm) and lighter (under 2Kg) orders sent by Royal Mail are not subject to surcharges, in fact you may even get some of the carriage refunded !

Carriage supplements : by size

ATV lose money on carriage overall, at best we break even on some orders.
There have always been surcharges for some delivery locations but since 2015* carriers have been getting very keen on charging supplements for what they consider to be "ugly freight" or "non conveyable", i.e. boxes over 1m to 1.2m in length or anything unboxed. Anyway, this explains why we sell some poles in apparently esoteric lengths, they're the longest we can send without attracting the length supplement - £11.00 as at May 2022 [incl fuel surcharge and VAT]. In fact we have to get these “surcharge dodging” poles specially cut down so they're actually slightly more expensive than the 6ft versions ! But let's look on the bright side, at least that means the pole (being a bit shorter) is a bit stronger….. For Online orders the surcharge amount should be automatically added on to the cart, the surcharge will only go on once for each order no matter how many products you buy, this is almost always the case anyway.

* It started going downhill back in summer 2015 when TNT began charging for items over 1.6m in length. FedEx bought out TNT in 2016 and things started getting really ridiculous (for size / "non conveyable" supplements) from Jan 2019. In fact it got so bad we moved carriers in Feb 2021 having used TNT for about 12 years......
FedEx are not a company I have much time for at all, I hope they go bust, or, at the very least, they wish they'd never bought TNT and given us such significant problems !

Excess length deliveries via "freight"

From Jan 2021 TNT/FedEx introduced a massive surcharge (about £65 incl VAT and fuel surcharge ! ) for any item over 8ft/243cm long. Thus we have had to make alternative carrier arrangements and this involves having to use a freight company (DX Freight) to deliver oversize items. This is not all bad news actually : if more than one oversize item is sent as part of the same order to the same address there are no additional supplements (e.g. a 10ft pole and a 12ft pole would not attract two non conveyable surcharges).
However, the range of potential prices for the carriage is now so huge that orders for oversize items must be phoned through and we will calculate the price on an individual order basis. Below are the current prices (incl VAT and fuel surcharge) for the various items and delivery locations so you can estimate how much it will cost.

Basic carriage price (for products under 3.0m/10ft) = £30.00

Surcharges (to be added to the basic price) :
To a residential address = + £15.00
This can obviously be avoided by having the order delivered to a business address, i.e. one that pays business rates, this includes pubs, farms and shops. However, it does not have to be your address, it could be either your work or to a business owned by one of your mates, or just a business you use a lot and call in a favour from them. Now I know what you're thinking, that's all very well, but how do I get it home?
We do, however, need to be 100% certain that there will be someone in to receive the order because :

Redelivery cost = + £18.00
It is very rare for us to be invoiced for this, but theoretically it is chargeable, so make sure you are in !
You are supposed to get an E Mail from the carrier to confirm the delivery is due (assuming we have your E Mail address) and we can inform you of the tracking number and DX Freight's phone number. If you are out the driver will take a picture of the door to confirm the delivery has been attempted and theoretically there is a redelivery charge to bring it back again.

Length supplement (over 3m/10ft) = + £32.00
Need a pole longer than 10ft ? See extending a scaffold pole.

Timed deliveries :
AM delivery = + £10.00
Saturday AM delivery = + £52.00

Geographical supplements :
Scotland (south) = + £6.00
Grampian Scotland (AB postcodes) = + £22.00
Highland Scotland = + £56.00
Isle of Wight = + £23.00

All of the above is why we cannot just quote a basic standard price for the delivery of oversize / freight items.......

Non UK orders

We can send some orders outside the UK subject to certain length and/or weight restrictions. Non UK (rest of the world) orders ALWAYS incur a carriage surcharge, please contact us BEFORE placing the order for a carriage quote, then pay it with this button.
For most orders we have to individually quote for international delivery because of so many variables, particularly for orders of more than one item. The only exception to this is sending (just) a 1.5" pole coupler to the USA or Canada and the current surcharge is quoted on the pole coupler sales page (to be added to the basket by the customer).
Basically longer and heavier products tend to be more expensive to send and (particularly for long items) can sometimes be impossible to get a quote for.
NOTE ! ! ! : If we have to refund you we do not get the fee back from our payments processor. Thus if you order an item before getting a quote for the carriage and then you cancel (because the surcharge is higher than you expected) we will deduct the payment fee from your refund. We do not want that any more than you do, so contact us for a carriage price PRIOR to ordering !

Why we do not accept PayPal

In May 2020 we finally kicked PayPal off our online shop.
Why ?
Well they're arrogant money grabbing financial "Gods" who try to exploit what they see as their dominant position. They not only charge huge fees (up to 3 or even 4% by the time all the extras have been added on) but if a customer cancels an order PayPal have stopped refunding the retailer for the fees. To be honest we get very few customers cancelling but it doesn't take much time on this site to cotton on to the fact I'm a bit of an idealist, so it's the principle that counts for me. So, if a customer orders a £60 aerial then cancels, it still cost us about £2, or it did till we said bye bye PayPal......
You can pay securely by debit or credit card online via Stripe, or phone us up and we'll put it through our counter top PDQ machine.
Actually, Stripe (our current payments processor) also will not refund the fees on any cancelled and refunded order but their fees are significantly lower than PayPal's so it's not quite so upsetting.
As a final thought most payments processors do not refund fees on cancelled orders, so anyone who is thinking of cancelling an order (with any business) should think about that, the seller will be losing money on that order, and is that really fair ?

You can tell we're not Amazon because.....

1 - We only sell decent quality stuff.
2 - We know about our products.
3 - You can actually phone us up.
4 - We pay our taxes...