Posted from the workshop, duty already paid

There is no UK or US warehouse. The flowers are made in my father’s workshop in Shantou and posted to you from there.

A local warehouse would knock time off delivery. It would also mean holding stock I have not sold yet, in quantities I cannot fund, of colours I would have to guess at. I would rather be slower and carry the whole range than be fast and carry six best-sellers.

The trade is real and I am not going to dress it up: you wait longer here than you would at a British or American retailer. What you get for the wait is the full range rather than whatever fitted in a container.

This is the part that goes wrong for people who order from overseas. A parcel arrives, and the courier wants an import charge or handling fee before they will hand it over. You only find out when the parcel is already at your door.

That does not happen here. The price you see at checkout is the price you pay, with no separate import charge collected when the parcel arrives.

If a courier ever does ask you for money on delivery, pay it, send me the receipt, and I will refund it the same day. That is my mistake to fix, not yours to absorb.

Every order is tracked. You will get a number by email, and it will show movement inside the UK or US for the last leg of the journey.

What it will not show is the beginning. The number starts reporting once the parcel reaches the courier, so the leg before that — inside China, on its way out of the workshop — does not appear on it. For the first few days after you order, the tracking page will be empty or will say very little.

That is normal, it is the most common email I get, and it does not change the window: the 7–12 working days are counted from your order, not from the first scan. More of this kind of thing is on the FAQ.

Larger UK orders go out on a different courier service, because the line I normally use will not carry parcels declared above that value.

Nothing changes for you. Same delivery window, same free shipping, and still nothing to pay on arrival. It is a routing decision on my side and the only reason it is mentioned here is that I would rather you read it from me than work it out from a tracking page.

Twelve working days is the outside of the normal range, not a guarantee. Customs holds things occasionally and I cannot make that faster.

If nothing has moved for a week, or you are past the window, email hello@lifelikebloom.com and I will chase it. If a parcel is genuinely lost, you get a replacement or your money back — your choice, and I do not need you to prove anything first.

Damaged in transit is handled the same way. Send a photograph and nothing has to go back to China, which is set out in full on the returns page.