E-mail, Telephone and Fax Policy
An explanation of why we prefer that contact us by e-mail or mail rather than by telephone:
The Militaria business is carried out in our spare time - other work can be at irregular times of the day and week so we cannot guarantee to be at home to answer calls.
We cannot accept credit card payments by telephone or fax. The only way that we can accept credit card payments is via PayPal over the internet. Please see our 'How to Order' page.
Ian Kelly spent over 24 years in Army uniform; he has collected Military Badges since the age of 10, and still collects and deal in badges as a 'hobby gone wild'. When he has the time, he will willingly talk badges, but this business is run in our spare time and with over 13,000 collectors on our lists, he does not have the time or money to operate a telephone service.
To keep down our overhead expenditure and thus keep down the cost of your badges: please do not ask us to phone or fax you unless you are happy to accept a reverse (collect) call charge.
If you are in credit with us or are an established customer with a good track record of prompt payments, we will accept orders by E-Mail if you use a standard format such as my Order Form - including our Serial Numbers - and pay by return of post.
We do not accept orders by telephone as experience has shown that messages left with other members of our household (including Answer-phone messages transcribed by them) can end up as unusable gibberish.
We will not 'reserve' badges as experience has shown this to be an unsound business practice.
Because we do not reserve items, there is no point in asking for pro-forma invoices.
We do not publish our telephone number on our Mail Order Lists as we would prefer to limit our time and costs on the telephone. By not having the distractions of enthusiasts' (sometimes lengthy) phone calls, we can continue to provide a service to more of our fellow collectors. We also like to spend time as a family.
In summary, if you have found-out our phone number and feel that you must ring us, please observe the following 'Golden Rules':
- Think twice before ringing - we do not reserve badges or operate a telephone order line.
- Do not leave a message on my answer-phone or with other members of our household.
- If you have our number, then only ring between 9am and 5pm UK time Monday-Friday.
- Do not ask us to phone you or to fax you.
- Keep your calls short.
- Do not give our phone number to other collectors (but DO please pass-on my address).