Delivery information
Most of what we sell is either awkwardly large, hand built to order, or both, so delivery here works differently to a normal parcel. This page covers what it costs, how long it takes, how tracking works, and the two categories that have their own rules: oversized seats and pallet delivered roll cages.
UK delivery is free on orders over £100 and charged at checkout below that. Roll cages travel by pallet at £85 and can only go to a business address. Northern Ireland carries a surcharge worked out after checkout. Every delivery date we give is an estimate.
What UK delivery costs
Two services, and which one you get is decided by the product rather than by you.
Standard UK delivery
FreeOn orders over £100- Free on every UK order over £100
- Below £100 the charge is calculated at checkout
- An economy service, with the courier chosen on size and packaging
- No guaranteed delivery date
- A signature may not be taken, and the parcel may be left in a safe place under the courier’s own terms
- Courier liability is capped at £25 regardless of order value
Roll cage pallet delivery
£85UK, applied at checkout- The only way a roll cage can travel
- Charged at checkout, and excluded from the free delivery service
- Business addresses only, no exceptions
- Certain parts of the Highlands cost more
- Northern Ireland goes to port for collection unless you pay for complete transport
The free service carries basic cover for loss or damage up to £25, which is standard across most couriers and not something we can claim beyond. On a £600 seat that is not much use. Once we have proof of delivery from the courier, with or without a signature, the contract is complete and a non delivery claim cannot be processed.
If you are ordering a high value item, add the 100% damage protection service at £4.95. It covers the full value of the order, and it means we handle any claim on your behalf rather than you arguing with a courier.
Tracking your order
One app for every courier we use, which is the point of it.
Shortly after you order you get an email and an SMS with your five digit invoice number, the invoice itself and an estimated delivery time. That number is what to quote if you ring us about the order.
We use Aftership for tracking. Download the app, and every GSM parcel appears in one list with push notifications, whichever courier happens to be carrying it. It is free, it has no adverts, it detects the courier on its own, and it covers everyone we ship with.
The reason this matters here more than on most stores is that a single order can leave from three different warehouses on three different couriers. Aftership is what stops that turning into three separate tracking emails you have to keep track of yourself.
How long it takes
The honest answer is that it depends on the product, and the difference is weeks rather than days.
Stocked items
Available within a few days. If a product is showing as showroom stock or it is on our Speed+ service, it is physically in Nottinghamshire and it moves quickly.
Made to order
Several weeks. Custom trim, bespoke widths, tartan editions and anything with a colour choice is built after you order, and the factory queue is what sets the date rather than us.
Roll cages
Longest of the lot, and quoted per cage. Production times are stated on the individual product. These are fabricated to order and then palletised, so both stages add time.
If you need it by a date
Send us the product code before you buy and we will check the current lead time for that item. Every date we publish otherwise is an estimate and not a term of the contract.
Any delivery time or date given by the company is an estimate only and not a term of the contract. The company is not liable for any loss or damage in respect of a delay in delivery, however it arises. If the goods are not immediately available at the time of order, we deliver them when they become available, unless you request otherwise in writing at the time of order.
Oversized seats and large consignments
Bucket seats ship in boxes that most courier networks treat as freight.
Motorsport seats, bucket seats and anything else that needs an excessively large box travel on large consignment services rather than on a standard parcel network. Those deliveries come through Yodel, Parcel Force, TNT and Tuffnells depending on size and destination.
The practical difference is that you cannot have a timed delivery slot on these. There is no one hour window like you get from DPD on a small package. The slot available is Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm, and that is the whole slot.
If somebody has to be in, plan around a working day rather than around an hour. If that is genuinely impossible, ring us before you order and we will see what can be arranged.
Roll cages go by pallet
Roll cages are delivered by specialist pallet companies which will not, under any circumstances, deliver to a residential address. When you give us a delivery address for a cage it has to be an official registered business unit or premises.
This is not us being awkward. A pallet firm turns up with a tail lift and no way to get the pallet up a driveway, and the delivery simply fails.
Roll cage deliveries are exempt from the free delivery service because they are not carried by courier. The UK pallet rate is £85, applied at checkout. Charges vary for certain parts of the Highlands and for international destinations.
Northern Ireland cages are sent to port for collection, or you can pay an additional charge for complete transport to the door. Speak to us in advance either way.
Northern Ireland, Europe and international
Charges, taxes and delivery arrangements vary by destination. Ask for a quotation before ordering.
01Northern Ireland
Surcharges apply and are calculated after checkout rather than during it, so speak to us in advance. Since January 2021 we ship from the UK to the EU under DAP incoterms, which makes the recipient responsible for the import declaration and for import taxes. You can handle that yourself or hand it to a local customs agent.
02Europe
Selected products carry free European delivery, so ask about the specific item. All European orders are sold without VAT and you pay your own local rate, which the courier will notify you of on delivery. A handful of European brands also carry an inbound surcharge on UK orders, see below.
03Rest of the world
Contact us for a bespoke delivery quotation. International orders go through Kuehne and Nagel. At collection and dispatch you get a copy of the label and a tracking link with your dispatch notes so you can follow it. Our quotation covers postage and packaging to your destination and does not cover import customs charges at the other end.
Leaving the EU in January 2021 changed the cost of importing stock. We have had to add shipping costs on UK orders for a range of European products, specifically Mirco, Bimarco and Stern Performance. Those are calculated at checkout rather than buried in the product price.
Receiving your sports seat order
What you do in the first five minutes at the door decides whether a courier damage claim can be made at all.
Seats, harnesses and anything else with fabric or trim on it are delicate goods travelling through a general freight network. The damage they pick up is rarely a flattened box. It is a small split, a scuff or a pulled seam, and it is easy to miss and easy to cause. Because of that, couriers hold claims on fabric and trimmed items to a much stricter standard of evidence than they do on a hard boxed part, and so do we.
If the four steps below are not followed we may not be able to put a claim in at all. Five minutes at the door is what protects a £600 seat.
Check the box before the driver leaves
Look over the outer carton for crushing, holes, punctures, tears or damp. If you find anything at all, photograph it there and then and make the driver aware of it so the damage goes on record against the delivery. Damage on a box that was accepted as clean is far harder to claim, and a claim cannot be made at all more than five days after delivery.
Never open the box with a knife or a blade
On most seats the trim sits directly against the inside of the carton. We see it several times a year: the blade catches the fabric and leaves a very sharp, very clean cut. A cut made opening the box is not a warranty, return or exchange matter, and no courier will cover it either. Take the tape off by hand, or use a retractable safety cutter with the blade set to a few millimetres, which is enough to part the tape and not enough to reach what is underneath. Due care here saves the seat.
Photograph anything you find as you unpack
If there are any signs of damage inside, photograph them before you move anything: the outer box, the inner packaging, the wrapping and the seat itself where it lies. We may ask for all of it. Photographs taken after the packaging has gone in the bin carry almost no weight with a courier, and the packaging is usually the thing that proves what happened.
Report it to us within five days
Email Sales@GSMPerformance.co.uk with the order number and the photographs. Do not fit or use the product in the meantime. Depending on what the photographs show, we may ask for the item back so it can be inspected before the claim goes in.
What we can claim for
- Crushing, holes or punctures to the outer carton, photographed on arrival
- Splits, tears or punctures in the trim found as the seat comes out of the box
- Pulled or burst seams and failed stitching
- Cracks, chips or deep scuffs to a shell, reported before the seat is fitted
- Anything recorded with the driver at the door, or photographed and reported to us within five days
What we cannot claim for
- Clean, straight cuts made by a knife or a blade opening the box
- Anything reported more than five days after delivery
- Damage reported once the packaging has been thrown away, with no photographs of it
- Marks or damage found after the seat has been fitted, sat in or used
- Damage that appears after a trial fit, since fitting counts as acceptance
A blade cut against a transit tear
The three pictures below are illustrations, not photographs of a real order. They are drawn from forensic textile damage analysis and they show the difference our trimmers look for.
Our trimmers work with this material every day and can identify what caused a mark almost immediately. A blade leaves a clean straight edge with the fibres cut square. A puncture or a transit tear leaves ragged edges with the fibres stretched and pulled around it. A seam that has failed shows broken thread and no cut to the cloth at all.
That is why we ask for photographs of the packaging and not only of the seat. The box shows where the force went, and the two together usually settle the question in a couple of minutes rather than turning into a long argument with a courier.
The full policy on damaged and faulty goods, including what happens next and who pays for what, is on the returns and exchanges page.
Real damage, and how it was photographed
These three are our own photographs, from claims and inspections we have handled.
Damage in transit
Couriers damage things. Not often, but a fibreglass shell in a big light box is exactly the sort of parcel that gets stood on end and dropped, and the free service will only ever pay £25 towards it.
The 100% damage protection service covers the full value of the order. If something arrives broken we replace it and cover the cost, and we deal with the courier rather than you having to.
If a parcel does arrive damaged, tell us within five days of delivery, do not use the product, and put it in writing by email. The returns and exchanges page sets out exactly what happens next.
Christmas and other holiday periods
Worth reading in October, not in December.
Factory queues lengthen from the start of November. Delivery times extend by several weeks when a seat is not in stock, and orders placed from around 2 December onwards may not be available until after Christmas. The same applies to other major holiday periods. If you need something for a date, ring us before you order.
FIA seats and harnesses carry a manufacture date and their competition life runs from it. Anything FIA dated ordered after 1 December is reversed and allocated for dispatch in January, so that you get a full run out of the homologation rather than losing a year of it before you have even fitted the seat. We do not dispatch these during December unless you specifically ask us to.
If you do ask for one in December, be aware that FIA dated products ordered after 2 December carry a 20% returns fee. That covers the loss of a year of dating, which takes the seat from six years of competition use down to five and means it cannot be sold on at full price.
Where your order actually ships from
We work with warehouses and hubs across the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Italy. That is how a business our size can offer the range it does without holding every line on a shelf in Nottinghamshire, and it is why a single order can arrive in more than one parcel.
If you would rather have something that is physically here and can go out today, look at the Speed+ service or the eBay store, both of which list what is actually in the building.
To protect you against fraud, in accordance with PayPal selling regulations and in line with FCA requirements on credit applications, we can only deliver to the address specified at the point of checkout. We cannot change that address after payment has completed and the card or credit security checks have passed. Check your order and make sure the delivery address is right before you pay.
Common questions about delivery
How long will delivery take?▾
It depends entirely on the product. A stocked seat or harness is usually a few days. Anything hand built to order, which includes most trim colour choices and every roll cage, runs to several weeks. Send us the product code before you buy and we will give you a realistic date for that specific item rather than a range.
Is UK delivery free?▾
Free on UK orders over £100. Below that the charge is worked out at checkout. Roll cages are excluded from free delivery because they travel by pallet rather than by courier.
How do I track my order?▾
You get an email and an SMS shortly after ordering with your five digit invoice number, the invoice and an estimated delivery time. We use Aftership for tracking, so you can follow every parcel in one place regardless of which courier is carrying it.
Can I change my delivery address after ordering?▾
No. In line with PayPal selling regulations and with FCA requirements on credit applications, we can only deliver to the address given at checkout, and it cannot be changed once payment and the card or credit security checks have gone through. Check the address before you pay.
Why is my roll cage quoted separately?▾
Roll cages go out on a pallet, not with a courier, so they sit outside the free delivery service. The UK pallet rate is £85 and it is applied at checkout. They can only be delivered to business addresses, because the pallet firms will not deliver to residential ones under any circumstances.
Do you deliver to Northern Ireland?▾
Yes, with a surcharge that is calculated after checkout rather than during it. Speak to us in advance so there are no surprises. Roll cages to Northern Ireland go to port for collection, or you can pay extra for complete transport.
Do you ship to Europe and further afield?▾
Yes. European orders are sold without VAT and you pay your own local rate on import. For anywhere outside the UK, ask us for a bespoke delivery quotation. International orders go through Kuehne and Nagel and you get the label and a tracking link with your dispatch notes.
Where does my order actually ship from?▾
One of a number of warehouses across the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Italy. That is how we can hold the range we do without sitting on all of it. If you specifically want something that is physically in Nottinghamshire, look at our Speed+ service or the eBay store.
My seat arrived damaged. What do I have to do?▾
Photograph it before you move anything, and email us within five days of delivery. We need pictures of the outer box, the inner packaging and the seat itself, taken where it lies rather than after it has been unwrapped and moved. Do not fit or use it. The full checklist is in the section on receiving your order above. One thing that catches people out: never open a seat box with a knife, because the trim sits against the inside of the carton and a blade cut is not something we or the courier can cover.
Is the delivery date I was given guaranteed?▾
No. Any delivery date or time we give is an estimate and not a term of the contract. We are not liable for loss or damage caused by a delay. If an item is not available when you order, we deliver it when it becomes available unless you asked otherwise in writing at the time of order.
Ask before you order, not after
Send us the product code and we will check the current lead time. On anything built to order that can be the difference between a fortnight and two months.
Call 0115 9893488Message usReturns and exchanges