New Feature!

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further information

What does the ‘Consolidate my order’ tool do?

How long does it take you to dispatch after I place an order?

What delivery method do you use?

How long will it take for my order to arrive?

How will I know you have dispatched my order?

What is the best way to place my order?

I want to add more than one of an item but the shopping cart keeps reverting to x1

Do you have a minimum order value?

What payment methods will you accept?

Do you accept a payment via Bank Transfer?

Do you accept payments via Bank Transfer from non UK customers?

I want a guaranteed next day delivery but this isn’t an option when I checkout

We have our own courier account – can we use it?

I have placed an order via your website but want to add to it – what shall I do?

Can I see my order history with Modelfixings?

I have placed an order but have not received a confirmation e mail

Why doesn’t the shopping cart remember my details when I return?

My payment was not completed and now the 'cart' says it is empty  - do I have to start again?

What are your shipping charges?

I have received my order but there’s a problem – what should I do

An item I have received is not what I ordered. What should I do next?

I have made an error and ordered an item that is not correct for my application – what should I do?

I’m confused over the various screw thread types!

I’m trying to match a screw or nut I have but I’m struggling to identify it

What does ‘UNC’ and ‘UNF’ mean?

Are your metric screws all coarse thread?

Do you stock any left hand thread screws?

If you order multiple packs of the same items (such as fixings) we can add the quantities together and send in one larger pack. This saves packaging materials. More details are available here.

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We aim to dispatch all orders same day if the order is placed before 4.00pm on a working day, however on particularly busy days this may not be possible so we would recommend you place your order before 3.30pm to ensure same day dispatch. Orders placed on weekends or public holidays will be dispatched on the next working day.

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What delivery method do you use?

The majority of orders to UK destinations are dispatched by first class Royal Mail which should be delivered on the next working day or the day after. Higher value UK orders are usually sent by first class recorded post. Orders to non-domestic addresses are always sent by 1st class recorded post (assuming the correct shipping destination type has been selected).
For overseas destinations we use standard Airmail for small orders, or tracked Airmail for higher value orders.
For some high value orders we may choose to use a courier such as UPS.
The method of delivery will be shown on the dispatch confirmation e mail.

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For UK destinations, first class post should be delivered on the next working day or the day after.
For overseas destinations we use standard Airmail for small orders, or tracked Airmail for higher value orders. Delivery times vary depending upon destination. European destinations are usually delivered in 2-5 working days. Non European destinations can take 5-7 working days.
For some high value orders we may choose to use a courier such as UPS who usually deliver worldwide in 2-3 days

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How will I know you have dispatched my order?

Once your order has left us you will be sent a dispatch confirmation e mail. This will include tracking information if a tracked method has been used. Please note that this does rely on you supplying a correct e mail address when you place your order.

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What is the best way to place my order?

The most efficient (and therefore quickest) way for us to deal with your order is if you place it via our website. However if you prefer to not make payment over the internet, we can take card details over the telephone – but it is still quicker for us to deal with your order if you place the order via our website and select the ‘pay by phone option’
If you prefer to place your order entirely by phone then this is perfectly ok – we’re always happy to talk to our customers.

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I want to add more than one of an item but the shopping cart keeps reverting to x1

If you want to increase the quantity of an item on the shopping cart you can do this by simply typing the new figure in the quantity box. You must then recalculate the order value before continuing shopping. You can recalculate each individual line on the order by using the blue curved arrows, or re-calculate the entire order using the button lower down the order page. If you do not recalculate before returning to the main website, the quantity will default to 1.

A handy tip – if you intend to order a number of items with multiple amounts of some, it’s often quicker to add one of each item to an order and then update the quantities on the order page in one go at the end. But remember to click on the ‘recalculate’ button before proceeding to the payment section.

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Do you have a minimum order value?

Due to the costs of taking on-line payments, we do have a minimum order value but it is only £4.00 plus shipping.

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What payment methods do you accept?

When you reach the payment stage of our order system, you will offered a number of payment options.
1. Pay by card – card details are taken via a secure encrypted system and processed via Opayo (formerly  SagePay).
2. Pay by PayPal – you will be directed to PayPal where you can make the payment using an existing account balance, or by use of a credit or debit card. We do no accept PayPal e checks.
3. Pay by cheque (UK orders only)
4. Pay by telephone – please call us with card details

We do not accept crossed postal orders and please do not send cash through the post.

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Do you accept payments via Bank Transfer?

Some of our UK commercial customers prefer to make payment by BACS. Please contact us for details if this is your preferred payment method however please note that this does usually result in delayed dispatch until funds have cleared. BACS payments are also subject to a minimum order value of £50 plus shipping due to bank charges and admin costs.

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Do you accept payments via Bank Transfer from non UK customers?

Please contact us if you are not in the UK and wish to pay via this method. Please note that bank transfers from non UK accounts will usually result in extra bank charges being levied which may make the transaction much more expensive than using a credit or debit card. If you do wish to pay us from outside of the UK by bank transfer, we reserve the right to ask you to pay our bank costs as well as yours due to the high costs. 

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I'm buying from outside of the UK - what are your currency conversion rates?

All our prices are in pounds sterling and payment must be made in Pounds Sterling. If you use a credit or debit card, PayPal, or Bank Transfer, the currency conversion rate will be determined by your card company, by PayPal, or by your bank.

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I want a guaranteed next day delivery but this isn’t an option when I checkout

We did offer Royal Mail Special Delivery as a post option for UK destinations however due to instances of customers selecting this method after our cut-off time and then complaining that the goods did not arrive next morning, we had to remove it. If you do want us to use RMSD then please let us know by e mail, phone, or via a message on the order form comment section. This will usually add around £4 to £5 to UK shipping costs which we will need to charge via PayPal (we can send a PayPal request for the extra) or your card (we will need the 3 digit security number to charge to a credit the credit previously used to pay for the on-line order). RMSD is guaranteed next working day pre 1pm. Guaranteed pre 9am weekday, or guaranteed Saturday delivery is also available.

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We have our own courier account – can we use it?

We only use UPS other than Royal Mail, so if you have your own UPS account then please contact us if you want us to organise delivery an charge to your account. For overseas destinations we may need to make a small administration charge of £5.00 due to the time taken to compete commercial invoices etc. Please note that we cannot usually send by UPS on the same day unless you place your order with full courier instructions before 11am UK time.

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I have placed an order via your website but want to add to it – what shall I do?

If it is within office hours (weekdays 9am to 5pm) then you can give us a call and we’ll be happy to add items to your order. If you’ve made payment via a card using our secure system, we will need to take certain card details again over the telephone to make any additional payment. If you have used PayPal we will need to send you a PayPal invoice.

If you placed your order out of office hours then you can either wait until the next working day and call us, or you can place a second order and we’ll combine the two. We try to spot these types of orders but it’s best if you mention that you wish us to combine orders via the ‘comments’ section on the order page. Please note that our Card processor charges us a fee to refund a payment back to a card and so we can only refund the additional shipping cost minus £0.50. For instance if you place a second small order soon after a previous order, and you are charged £2.50 by the shopping cart system we can only refund £2.00 of the original shipping cost.

We will refund the shipping charged on one of the orders (less the £0.50 refund fee) if the additions are relatively small, though please note that if the additional items significantly change the shipping costs through extra weight, bulk, or value (meaning a tracked service is required)  we may not be able to refund all of the shipping charges

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Can I see my order history with Modelfixings?

When you place an order with us for the first time, a history account is automatically created based upon your e mail address. The order confirmation we send out when you place an order will contain a link which you can click on to see your current order status and details, and also your order history including the items you may have ordered previously (from January 2016). Please note that if you change your e mail address or you use  different one for a later order, then a new account will be created – however if you let us know, we can combine new and old accounts so all your history is in one place.

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I have placed an order but have not received a confirmation e mail

The usual cause of this is a typing error when entering your e mail address on the order pages of our website. Please let us know by telephone or e mail and we can correct any e mail errors and resend an order confirmation.
Another possible cause is a problem with the payment stage. If the payment is not completed, our system flags the order as unpaid and will not send an e mail confirmation. If you do have a problem at the payment stage (which can be down to an intermittent internet connection) then please let us know and we can either take a payment manually over the phone or via PayPal invoice. Unpaid orders remain on our system for a number of weeks and so we can usually resurrect these orders without you having to add products to an order again.

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Why doesn’t the shopping cart remember my details when I return?

There is a tick box on the shopping cart page that asks for your address details which when activated should auto fill the address fields etc if you visit again. If your browser is set to a particularly high security level , this feature may be blocked.

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First of all, try returning to our website and click on one of the 'Review order' buttons (there is one at the top of every product page. This may still display your order.

If this doesn't work, and you had previously reached the stage of entering card details or reached PayPal login then we will have a record of your order but it will be marked on our system as unpaid and will not be processed. We can however resurrect the order for up to 8 weeks so if the order took time to compile and you don't want to go through the process again, please let us know by telephone or e mail. All unpaid orders are deleted from our system after 8 weeks have elapsed.

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When you opt to pay by card using our secure payment system (operated by Opayo - formerly called Sagepay) your address details are passed to Opayo who will check a match with your card. When the shipping address is different to the invoice address they will check this address for fraudulent use etc. If the shipping address boxes are all blank then the invoice address is assumed as the shipping address.

This error usually occurs when a customer enters incomplete shipping details - often if just the customer name is entered and nothing else. This effectively sends blank data as the shipping address and the Opayo system will reject it.

Either completely fill in the shipping address boxes, or leave them all blank.

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What are your shipping charges?

We make every effort to keep our shipping charges realistic and so there is a sliding sale of charges depending upon weight, bulk and destination of the package.
Unlike many websites (where you may annoyingly have to virtually complete the order process before discovering an exorbitant shipping fee), if you add items to our website shopping cart/basket, you can see the shipping costs by simply selecting your shipping zone and clicking on ‘recalculate’. You can do this before having to add any personal details at all.

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As well as our domestic customers, we supply large organisations such as companies, schools and Universities etc. As our products are mainly small items, and so are dispatched by post, we were finding that a much larger proportion of mail was going missing when sent to these large organisations. We therefore recommend you use our 'non domestic address' shipping option for these types of destination. Registered post is always used for this shipping option which means mail that goes astray can be traced. The extra costs is usually only around £1.00.

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I have received my order but there’s a problem – what should I do

We try very hard to provide a quality and accurate service but inevitably occasionally things may not quite go to plan. The first thing to do is contact us by e mail or telephone giving us some information regarding the problem and we’ll do our best to resolve the issue promptly.

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An item I have received is not what I ordered or there is a shortage. What should I do next?

If we’ve made an error with your order, first of all  please accept our apologies. Please let us know the details of the issue by telephone or e mail and we’ll work to resolve the problem promptly. Please do not send any incorrect items back without contacting us first. In most cases we’ll send out the correct items to you with a pre-paid envelope for any returns.

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I have made an error and ordered an item that is not correct for my application – what can I do?

If the goods have been delivered, as the vast majority of our goods are non-perishable and have a very long shelf life, so as long as  the item is unused and in the same condition as supplied, we usually have no problem taking an item back for exchange or refund. Please note that some adhesives do have a finite shelf life and are effected by storage conditions, so these items should be returned within 14 days of purchase and must have been stored appropriately (away from bright sunlight, or extreme heat or cold). We may not be able to accept back any specially procured items but this would be explained at the time of purchase. All returned packs of screws etc must be complete. Please note that if the value of the returned items takes your order below our minimum goods value £3.00) then you will need to return all items so we can make a full refund (less shipping).
Please note that when you make a payment via PayPal, we are charged a fee on the transaction value. If we make a full or partial refund to you PayPal do not refund the fees to us. If we refund you for returned goods where all the goods on the order have been returned (so a full refund is required), we reserve the right to deduct the PayPal transaction fees from the refund value.
Similarly our card processors also charge a fee to us for payments taken but this will not be charged to us if the transaction is cancelled on the same day (ending midnight GMT). So if your order has been delivered and you wish to return it, we reserve the right to deduct any unrecoverable card fees from the refund, particularly where the order value is high.
If you have placed an order and wish to cancel it, if you do so during business hours on the same day as your order was placed, we can usually cancel the transaction and avoid any fees.

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Please contact us by e mail or telephone if you have any questions – we’re always happy to offer assistance if we can. We have various information pages on our website – for some thread information which you may find useful please click here.

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I’m trying to match a screw or nut I have but I’m struggling to identify it

Our ‘Thread Data’ page (http://www.modelfixings.co.uk/thread_data.htm ) hopefully will help but if you’re still having difficulties then please either call us or e mail details. We can often identify male threads from an in-focus photograph by e mail so this is a good starting point. Please make sure the screw is photographed next to something like a ruler or tape measure so we can get an idea of scale.
If you can advise the origin of the fastener this will often help in determining the thread type also (i.e. approx. age and country of manufacture if known).
If all else fails you can send us a sample by post – there are details on the Thread Data page on how to best do this.

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What does ‘UNC’ and ‘UNF’ mean?

UNC is the term used to identify a Unified Coarse thread, and UNF identifies a Unified Fine thread. Both are thread forms originating in the USA.

The diameter size is notated by a 1 or 2 digit number for sizes below ¼” diameter (which comprises most of our UNC range) , such as 2 UNC, 4 UNF etc.

UNC and UNF sizes are often expressed with a hyphenated reference such as 4-40 UNC or 6-32 UNC etc. The digits before the hyphen depict the dimeter size and the digits after the hyphen describe the number of pitches per inch of thread length.

So 4-40 is a No 4 size screw with 40 threads per inch.

A 4-48 is a No 4 size screw with 48 threads per inch

The actual diameter relating to the number reference are listed on our thread data page

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Are your metric screws all coarse thread?

The vast majority of our metric screws are coarse thread yes. Fine thread metric screws can be very difficult to source but we do stock some examples of M6 grub screws and M3 cap screws in fine pitch.

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Do you stock any left hand thread screws?

Sorry no – all our threaded items are right hand thread (clockwise to tighten)

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