Turnaround Times

There are a multitude of turnaround times, usually denoted on our site using a shorthand:

Web
4-Day
2-Day
Same-Day

If no turnaround is selectable, then the product is an approximate turnaround product, and the turnaround will be stated on your quote or on the Product Description. This document is intended to give you more information on turnaround times and how they impact on your work scheduling, what guarantees we offer, and so forth.

Please note that in all cases the word “day” refers to a business day i.e. Monday through Friday. Any orders placed after the cut-off point or over a weekend will be printed the following business day.

Web Turnaround

The web turnaround is only available when ordering online. It may not be available on all products. It represents the lowest cost and should be used when you are in no rush for your print work. There is no guarantee on the return time which can be up to 10 days, however generally despatch is within 5-7 working days and can be lower. Couriers can take up to 2 working days to deliver your products.

4-Day Turnaround

The 4-day turnaround takes 3-4 days, after which goods are despatched to arrive with you on Day 5, or put more simply, “order by Monday, get it by Friday”! You will usually receive the goods on the Thursday or Day 4, but we use this to build in a days’ grace. If you need delivery on a specific date, please see below. This is a non-guaranteed service as occasionally goods can take 5 days to produce.

2-Day Turnaround

The 2-day turnaround generally takes 1-2 days to produce. Its a good choice if you need your goods fast, but not that fast. Normally the goods are despatched within 1 day, and sometimes 2. Very occasionally this turnaround may take 3 days to produce. If this is the case, then a credit is generally issue to cover the difference between the 2 and 4 day service. This is at our discretion and is contingent on your compliance with the order terms, see below.

Same-Day Turnaround

For orders placed by 8am, we will despatch the goods that same day. They will arrive with you the following day. This service is not available to all UK postcodes, but to the majority it is fine. Sometimes there are known issues with postcodes that prevent us being able to book overnight jobs onto the system, in which case the job may take 2 days. In any other case, the service is guaranteed; failure to deliver the following day will cause a credit for the difference between 1-day and 2-day service to be applied to your account. For more information on why delivery issues can sometimes be outwith our control, please see below for the basics, or see our delivery info page.

Approximate (Fixed) Turnaround

If products only have a fixed turnaround, for example mouse mats state 5 working days for standard, and 10 working days for tyre mouse mats, this is an approximate turnaround time based on our current production loadings. For promotional, gift, and larger quantity items the products will take several days to produce and finish. Therefore during a quiet time, you might find your 5-day approximate turnaround item would arrive in 3-4, and in busier times such as the run-up to Christmas, over bank holidays, Easter holidays, the Festival season and the run-up to the end of the financial year, these items can take substantially longer. 10 working days represents 2 weeks and can often be a little over this, especially for complex items such as brochures, CDs, mouse mats and USB pens where we are having to carefully prepare artwork, glass masters, films and/or double-check the products in the background. Therefore if you place an order online for an item with a single fixed turnaround, it is implied that you agree the turnaround is not a guarantee. You should allow plenty of time for such products. You can always talk to us if there is a deadline to hit, but please note that we cannot provide any firm guarantee until we have the complete order; artwork, invoice and delivery address, telephone number, and any other materials, in hand and the order is paid for. Any estimate provided on a date in the future will be based on our average loadings and these can change substantially. Especially you should note that if we agree for example a 4-day turnaround on a brochure, and you then supply the material a day late, this will not necessarily result in only a 1-day delay as we may have other commitments which will now mean we cannot start your job for several more days. In this case, the original approximate turnaround would become immediately applicable again.

Large Quantities

Large quantities (over 15,000) may take an extra day or two in shipping. Usually this is built into the turnaround range. Obviously for 2-day and same-day orders this can mean the job takes MUCH longer than anticipated; if you want to order a large amount of goods very fast, please call us rather than using the website so we can evaluate your best options.

Additional Deliveries

Additional deliveries will incur a further day for up to 10, or 2 days for over 10, delivery splits. This time will not always be incurred but you must build it in to your publicity plans.

Turnaround Guarantees

All work placed with SkyBlue DesignWorks is subject to our terms and conditions of trading, which can be read here.

Our basic terms for a turnaround guarantee are as follows:

  • Our contract with the client is to print the goods within the turnaround specified.
  • After this we supply the goods to a courier firm of our choosing. Following this the job is out of our hands and we are unable to be held liable for courier errors. See our delivery info page for more on this.
  • To be eligible for our turnaround guarantees, your job must satisfy the conditions of order.
  • All turnaround guarantees are provided at our discretion and are a courtesy only.
  • We do not accept any responsibility for third-party or consequential loss, whether our fault or the couriers.

 

Third Party/Consequential Loss

This implies that a loss has been occasioned to a third party, or due to late delivery of your goods, you the client, have incurred losses, for example if distribution was booked for the job and you have missed the slot, or there was a publicity drive and a day was missed, and you believe this has cost your company a certain amount of money.

Its not within our terms of trading that SkyBlue would accept liability for such losses. By placing a job with us you agree to this and to indemnify us from any costs to you whether due to our failure, a courier error or an error or misunderstanding by you, the client.

If you have a time-critical project, its suggested that you choose one of our higher speed turnarounds which are guaranteed to arrive within a set timeframe. Please note this does not provide a 3rd party/consequential guarantee, simply a guarantee that should the turnaround not be accomplished, you would receive a credit for the difference.

While these are worst case scenarios and rarely happen, it must be understood that printing can be subject to delays such as a press or vehicle breakdown, failure in QC or simply a courier delay due to weather or mistake. Its understood that when placing a print order you agree that such errors, delays and Acts of God are limited to their actual value (refund, credit or reprint) and do not carry any additional consequential value.

Conditions of Order

To qualify for your turnaround start time to be the day of order, you must meet the following conditions of order:

File Supply Time

  • Web Turnaround: order placed by midnight, turnaround starts following day
  • 4-day turnaround: order placed by midday, turnaround starts that day
  • 2-day turnaround: order placed by 5pm, turnaround starts the following day
  • 1-day / Same-Day turnaround: order placed by 10am, turnaround starts the following day

File Suitability

  • Files are supplied as JPEGs, TIFs, PDFs, EPS files. InDesign or Quark files may incur a further day in processing.
  • Files are supplied compliant to our requirements; with CMYK images at 300dpi and at least 3mm bleed, set up correctly. Failure to do so may mean a day in studio alterations, or files being rejected and the job stopped.
  • Files are supplied compliant to our pagination requirements. Failure to do so and for us to have to assemble the files, may incur a day or more in studio alteration time.
  • Files are supplied without crop marks and at the correct size. Failure to do so may incur additional charges, additional studio time for free removal, alteration and reproofing if necessary, or the clock being stopped on the job while new files are requested.

Order Completion

Orders must be supplied to us complete, i.e.

  • Payment made in full. Credit accounts may be provided at our discretion and accounts must be up to date or jobs may not be processed until payment is made within terms.
  • Invoice and delivery address (if different) provided.
  • Client contact details; name, email address and telephone number provided.
  • File provided as per above.
  • Terms and conditions agreed to.