Ordering from Anything Left-Handed
We have provided helpful products to left-handers all around the
world for more than 40 years, including despatching more than
40,000 orders from our website over the past 3 years. Nearly half
of our customers are outside the UK and last year we sent
left-handed products to 117 different countries.
We have tried to make using our website as simple and quick as
possible and the notes below give you a brief guide to getting
information and placing your order using our web site and being
sure that you are completely safe while doing so.
If you are ordering from outside the United Kingdom, click here for further information
Who am I ordering from / is it safe?
Anything Left-Handed Limited is a UK registered company that has
been trading since 1968. It has been owned and run by the Milsom
family for more than 25 years and we trade from our offices and warehouse in Surrey and Oxford. See full company details
We can give you our guarantee that:
- Your personal and payment details are completely secure and
safe and will not be given to ANYONE else for ANY reason.
- We will despatch your order promptly and make the whole process
as simple for you as possible.
- You will be delighted with the items you purchase or we will
refund your full purchase price.
We have many thousands of satisfied customers all around the
world and a lot of them have written to us to say how delighted
they are with the products and our customer service. We want to
make sure that YOU are added to that list.
The rest is just the small print to prove it!
What do others say about the company?
|

UK Online for business |
Anything Left-Handed hav ebeen winners
of the UK E-Commerce Awards (London Region, Micro Business
category)
DTI Awards website
ALH information on the award |
 |
Yahoo's human editors have reviewed our site and
business and rate us as the NUMBER ONE web site worldwide for the
term "left handed" and "left handed shop" and "left handed information" |
 |
Google's automated robots and web ranking algorithms think the
same"
"left handed" and so do most other search
engines and directories worldwide. |
 |
Internet Magazine made us their Site of the Week |
| Features and articles |
We have had hundreds of articles and features about our business
and products included in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV shows
all round the world and many hundreds of other websites link to us
as the authority on left-handedness and left-handed products.
Rather than us being selective, just type "Anything Left-Handed" into your favourite search engine and see for yourself. |
| What our customers say |
It is easy to be selective with customer
testimonials, but we DO get a lot of emails from people saying how
happy they are with the products and how good our customer service
is. You can see a selection of comments here |
Our guarantee and returns policy
We know you will get real benefits from our
products so we want you to try our left-handed items for yourself
and see how good they are. We guarantee your satisfaction and
that we will give a full refund of the purchase price of the products if you are not completely satisfied.
All of our products come with a full 'no questions asked'
guarantee for 30 days after the items are delivered to you. If you
or the person you bought them for are not completely satisfied with
your left-handed items for any reason whatsoever, just follow the return instructions on our despatch document and we will refund the purchase price in full or replace or exchange the items as you require.
We are only able to refund postage costs if there was a mistake that was our fault or if the goods arrive damaged in some way.
You do not have to tell us why you are returning the goods for a
refund, although clearly we would like to know if you don't mind
telling us so we can improve the products in future.
The legal stuff
Our guarantee exceeds your legal rights, but we
need to state them here for the record anyway...
- Under the UK Distance Selling Regulations you have a
cooling-off period of 7 working days from the day after receipt of
the goods in which you can cancel your order for any reason and you
can do this by sending us an email to enquiries@anythingleft-handed.co.uk
- All monies paid by you to us relating to the cancelled order
will be returned
- Where goods are being returned, they must be returned within a
reasonable period of the cancellation
- Where a refund is required for a cancelled order, the payment
will be made within 30 days of the cancellation
We cannot be held responsible for any third-party loss or
consequential loss arising directly or indirectly from the use of
our products.
If goods are in any way faulty we will replace them at our cost,
including the postage of any faulty goods returned to us. This does
not affect your statutory rights as a consumer.
How to use our web site
If you are just having a look around, you do not need to
register. If you want us to remember you or to place an order,
please click on "New visitor" or "Sign in" at the top of the page
so you can set up your personal details.
Either way, we suggest that you join the free Left-handers Club
so we can let you know more by email about left-handedness in
general and inform you when we obtain new products or make special
offers to members.
The menus down the left of the page show our product range
organised into categories.
The tabs across the top of the site show menus of information
pages about all aspects of left-handedness.
The search box at the top right allows you to find whatever you
want directly.
The ordering process
This is a lot simpler and quicker to do than it is to write
down!
Select
products |
Select the products that you would like from the product
listings. Don't forget that you can always click on a small picture
of a product or on the "more" link in its description to find out
more detail about the product and see a bigger picture and, in most
cases, details about why it is left-handed and what the benefits of
the product are.
Click the yellow "Add to basket" button (change the quantity
first if you want more than 1) and you will see a red bar at the
top showing the items has been added and the basket counter at the
top right of the screen with show 1 item (note that this shows the
number of different products in your basket, not the total quantity
of items. |
View
basket |
Repeat this until you have selected all the items
you want, then click on the "View basket" item at top right to see
what is in your basket and the total value. You can change
quantities, remove items or keep browsing around and adding more
items than come back to the basket when you are ready to finish
your order. |
| Checkout |
Click the yellow "Checkout" button on the View Basket screen to
complete your order. If you have not already completed your address
and payment card details, you will be asked to provide them
now.
Select the delivery address and payment card to use for this
order, or add new ones
If you want to make any changes to your order at this stage,
click the blue "Edit order" button at the bottom and you can make
changes to your quantities, remove or add items, then Checkout
again.. |
| Confirm order |
Clicking the yellow "Continue" button will show your final order
details and ask for confirmation. Click the yellow "Confirm order" button.
There will be a short delay while your payment is processed then
you will see a confirmation screen giving your order number and
will receive an email with full order details.
If there is any problem with the payment, you will be returned
to the checkout screen so you can check or amend the card details.
You will need to re-select your delivery address and payment s card
at this stage. |
| Despatch |
We normally despatch orders on the working day
after they are placed and delivery is the usually a maximum of 3
days for UK and Europe, 7 days United States and elsewhere. |
Payment methods and security

We use HSBC Secure ePayments to process credit cards online and incorporating Verified by Visa and MasterCard® SecureCode™ for extra security. We can accept payment by any of the following cards:

We also accept payment using PayPal so you can use your PayPal account or pay using your credit card even if you do not have an account - This option allows you to pay with American Express cards as well.
If you would rather not pay with a credit card online, you can complete your order then advise us of your payment details separately.
Your Credit Card and personal details will be safe as we use HSBC Secure ePayments systems to authorise and process all card payments. When you get to the payment stage of our checkout process you will be transferred to the HSBC secure server to enter your card details and have payment confirmed. Transmission and processing are completed by HSBC and your credit card details are not seen or kept by Anything Left-Handed.
You can confirm the secure status of the HSBC payment server from the small padlock that
appears at the bottom of your browser screen when it is active and
by seeing that the URL of the website in your browser has changed
from "http://..." to "https://...". You can double-click the
padlock icon to verify the security registration. Depending on your
browser settings, you may see a pop-up window informing you that
your are entering or leaving a secure connection.
Some versions of browsers and some firewalls do not permit
communication through secure servers. If you are unable to connect
to a secure server or if you prefer not to pay online, simply
phone, fax or post your order to us.
Anything Left-Handed, PO Box 46, Witney, OX29 7HD, United Kingdom
Click here to email customer services, phone (UK) 0845 872 3272, Fax 01993 770653
If
ordering by post, you can also pay with a Sterling cheque drawn on
a UK bank or UK postal orders.
Delivery times
We normally despatch orders on the working day after they are
placed on the web and delivery is usually a maximum of 3 days for
UK and Europe, 7 days United States and elsewhere. In practice, we
get a lot of emails from customers who have been amazed how fast
things got to the other side of the world.
Parcels do sometimes get held up by customs or local post
offices so please allow a few extra days for delivery before
contacting us.
Most of our parcels are too big to fit through a letterbox so if you are not there to accept your delivery it may be returned for collection at your local post office. You should get a card left to notify you of this but it is worth checking before contacting us.
Packing and delivery charges
We try to provide a fair service at a reasonable cost to all left-handers worldwide and to break-even overall on packing and delivery costs and charges to customers.
We are based in the United Kingdom but we want to treat all our customers all round the world faily. To keep things simple, we charge
a fixed amount for delivery depending on your location and the value of your order as shown in the table below.
| Region |
Orders up to
£40.00 |
Orders over £40.00 |
| United Kingdom |
£4.95 |
£4.95 |
| Europe (EU) |
£5.95 |
£6.95 |
| Europe (Non-EU), North America, Australasia, Japan and all other airmail areas |
£5.95 |
£7.95 |
Countries for Courier delivery only
(see below) |
£18.95 |
£22.95 |
| Countries that we cannot deliver to |
n/a |
n/a |
The charge for
your order will be shown on your checkout screen once you have
chosen your delivery country.
Click this link for more information and to see our full list of countries in each zone
Use this link for a full alphabetic list of countries and the delivery zones they are in
Courier delivery only
There are some countries where the local postal delivery service does not seem reliable and in our experience most parcels do not arrive with the customer if sent by standard airmail. We are happy to deliver to these countries but will only do so using a tracked courier service with UPS, which costs more but does guarantee your parcel will arrive.
For countries where UPS do not provide a delivery service, unfortunately we will not be able to accept your order.
The thinking behind our delivery charges
Our delivery charge is an averaged amount to cover the cost of
our packing the order, the padded envelope or other packing
materials and the postage cost. It may seem like a lot if you only
order a single ruler, but it is very good value of you order heavy
products like, books, knives or folders!
Our charges compare favourably with other web businesses and avoid lots of complications:
- We could charge a fixed price and then so much extra per item, like Amazon, but often people order a number of small items like pens and sharpeners and this would give an unfairly high charge.
- If we charged by weight, we would be undercharging for items like writing mats that are light but very large
- The UK post office now charge not just by weight but by size and packet thickness as well which adds more complexity
Overall, we hope we have got the balance right and that the simplicity of a fixed charge is better than the other option of calculating individual order delivery charges based on weight of products and geographical location.
We are not able to calculate special reduced postage charges for
individual orders that happen to be for lightweight items and we
will not try to charge you extra if you only order heavy
things!
Out of stock items / backorders
We maintain a large stock of all our products in our warehouse
and it is very rare for us to be out of stock. If there is a
particularly unusual demand for a certain item or we have
manufacturing problems we can normally re-stock very quickly.
If any item on your order is going to be out of stock for more
than 2 days, we will email you to advise you how long it is likely
to be and give you the following options:
- Hold you whole order until the out of stock item is
available
- Send the rest of your items and then send a separate parcel
when the out of stock item becomes available (we will pay for any
additional postage costs incurred)
- Cancel the out of stock item on your order, send the rest and
reduce the charge
- Cancel the whole order.
Duty and import regulations
If you are purchasing from outside the UK, you may be subject to
import duties or other taxes levied by your customs authorities.
You will be responsible for any additional charges as we have no
control over these charges and cannot predict what they will be.
Customs policies vary widely from country to country and you should
contact your local customs office for further information.
Additionally, you are considered the importer and must comply with
all law and regulations of the country in which you are receiving
the goods
Cancelling your order
You can cancel your order with us at any time up until it is
despatched by advising us by email, telephone, fax or letter.
However, you should be aware that we generally aim to despatch
orders on the day after they are placed.
If you are not able to cancel before despatch, we will have fufilled your order in good faith and will not be able to refund it.
If goods are faulty in any way we will replace them at our cost,
including the postage of any faulty goods returned to us.
Contacting us - questions, complaints and praise :)
If you have any questions regarding the products featured on our
web site or any ordering or customer service issues, the best way
to contact us is by email to:
Click here to email customer services
If your question is regarding an order, it would help if you
could quote the order number from your confirmation email.
Alternatively, you can telephone our customer service staff at 0845 872 3272 at the following times (UK time)
Monday to Friday between 08:30 and 8:30pm
Saturday from 9:00am to 6:00pm
Sunday from 10:00amto 4:00pm
Outside of those hours you can leave a message
on our voicemail and we will respond as soon as possible. Normal
phone charges will apply.
Our fax number is 01993 770653 and it is on 24 hours a day
every day.
We are very proud of our business and do our best to maintain
the very highest standards at all times. We know that we may fall
short sometimes, so if you have any complaints about our business,
web site or products, we would love to hear from you so we can put
them right as soon as possible!
Please email Keith Milsom, Managing Director, Email me here
We will deal with any complaints quickly, fairly and
confidentially and make sure that you end up happy and we learn
from any issues raised to improve our operations in future.
If you have any nice things to say about us, we like that as
well :)
Privacy
We will only use your personal information to process your order
and send you information you have requested. We do not pass on ANY
personal details to ANYONE else for ANY reason whatsoever or do
mailings or promotions on behalf of ANY other business..
You can browse our whole website without disclosing any personal
data. If you want to join the Left-Handers Club, we only need your email address. To place an order we will need your address and payment details.
All screens and data transfers involving payment information
are protected using SSL encryption.
We are registered with the UK Data
Protection Registrar, number for 2003 Z597937X and you can see
our entry here. This registration controls our
collection, use, storage and security of all personal information
recorded.
Anonymous analytics information
We use third-party web beacons from Yahoo! to help analyze where visitors go and what they do while visiting our website. Yahoo! may also use anonymous information about your visits to this and other websites in order to improve its products and services and provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by Yahoo!, click here.
Use of your email address
When you place an order on our web site, we will send a
confirmation email to the address you registered with. This will
NOT contain your full payment details as email is not secure.
If you have ticked the "opt-in" box asking for information from
us on new products and offers, we will send occasional emails when
we have things that we think may be of interest.
If you have joined the free Left-Handers Club, we will send a
welcome email and introductory newsletter, then further newsletters
about one a month.
We definitely do NOT give, swap, rent or otherwise make our
email lists available to ANY other business. Some unscrupulous
businesses do select company email addresses from the web and use
them as "from" addresses for their unwanted SPAM. If you receive
any email that purports to be from us but is not a genuine
communication related to left-handedness that you have requested
from us, please forward it to
spamwatch@anythingleft-handed.co.uk
and we will investigate as best we can.
Use of your mailing address
We will use your mailing address to send your order and will
probably include one of our printed catalogues for you to look
at.
As with email addresses, we will never lend, swap, rent or
otherwise make you address available to ANYONE else.
Use of cookies
A "cookie" is a small text file that a Website puts on your
local hard drive so that it can remember something about you at a
later time. Our online ordering system uses a cookie to record a
unique reference on your computer so that we can keep track of your
order and retain the contents of your shopping basket.
Please note that we do not use cookies to store any of your
personal or financial information on your computer
You can control the use of cookies on your computer and can turn them on or off at anytime (search for "cookies" in your web browser's help screen). If your system is set to disallow cookies, you will not be able to use our shopping cart system.
To change your settings, search for "cookies" in your browser's help screen.
In Internet Explorer 6
Tools / Internet Options / Privacy and move the slider to Medium
(you can always change it back after placing your order if you wish)
In Netscape 7
Open our site, then Tools / Cookie Manager / Allow cookies from this site
In Mozilla Firefox
Tools / Options / Privacy / Cookies then tick "Allow sites to set cookies"
Firewalls
Most firewall software also has cookie settings and you may need to change the setting to allow our site to set cookies - please look at the Help screens for your particular software for details
Paperwork
We will send an email confirmation of your full order details
immediately after the order is placed. We will also send a printed
invoice and a printed catalogue with the items you have
ordered.
See our page of detailed terms and conditions for using our web site
Links back to previous sections
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