Frequently Asked Questions
Our team is always here to assist.
Common purchase and ordering queries
Orders and Shipping
MF Safety & Workwear are a UK based business, and at the moment only deliver within the mainland of Great Britain, Scotland and Wales for the advertised delivery charge or free carriage threshold.
For Northern Ireland, Isle Of Man, Scilly Isles, Isle Of Wight & the Channel Islands please put your postcode in at checkout and it will calculate the shipping fee.
For other countries please contact our team directly.
Excess shipping charges may apply and our team will contact you if this is the case.
MF Safety & Workwear follow a strict order processing guide to ensure you get the best service possible.
- You place the order on the website, and get an automated confirmation email confirming payment and items on the order. Your order status is Processing.
- The next working day after this, the MF Team process your order and send you a order confirmation email with ETA dates. Your order status updates to Confirmed.
- We send out your items in time for the ETA date!
Orders received through the website are processed on the next working day, i.e. orders placed on Saturday are confirmed on Monday.
At this point, you’ll receive another email confirmation with a ETA date, with shipping between 1-2 working days or collection on the next working day, subject to stock.
We use FedEx Priority shipping service which is usually next day, but can be 1-3 days.
Creating an account is easy. Simply visit mfsafetyshop.com/registration and fill out the form, and you’ll receive an email confirming successful account creation!
If there are issues registering, please email or call us.
To manage your account details and settings or log back in, see My Account.
To change your registered addresses, please visit the Addresses tab under My Account.
If you want to change the address on an order already placed, this isn’t possible online and you must Contact Us as quickly as possible within working hours. Please note, this isn’t guaranteed but our team will do their best, provided the order hasn’t left the warehouse yet!
You’ll be able to track the status of your orders in the Orders tab of My Account.
An order will display as processing until the MF team manually verify it, at which point you’ll receive another email with the order confirmation document attached with an ETA. Then, it will move to being completed as the order has moved to our warehouse team.
Other common statuses are Refunded, Cancelled, On Hold, Failed, or Draft – with the latter three meaning you need to take further action on the order before it is complete.
If you have a delivery query, please contact us by email or phone and we’ll assist.
To use PayPal to pay for your order on checkout, simply follow the prompts at checkout.
It can be done in two ways. Using the checkbox at the billing stage -lower down the page- will direct you to the PayPal website or app, and you can complete your purchase in one step.
However, if you select PayPal at the top of the page, it will re-direct you back to the checkout after confirming payment, and you need to click ‘confirm order’ as usual:
- Select PayPal at checkout,
- Complete the PayPal payment on the PayPal website or app,
- Then you’ll be redirected back to the checkout, and you need to tick ‘PayPal’ in the payment options and then click confirm order.
You’ll receive an order confirmation email as normal, with PayPal noted as the payment method.
Card information can be stored if you choose to at checkout within My Account Payment Methods.
You can choose to edit or remove this at any time. It allows for a faster checkout the next time.
The information itself is not stored with MF Safety & Workwear in any way, instead being held with WooCommerce’s Payment Partner Stripe in a method called tokenization for enhanced security.
Yes, where possible MF Safety will despatch your order in one package, as we stand by our stock commitment and do not build our business on ‘drop-shipping’ from wholesalers to ensure our service levels are maintained. If an order is part-despatched (as seen on the order confirmation email) you’ll receive orders in more than one package on different dates, but this will be confirmed with you before despatch.
If you need to swap or cancel an item
Returns and Exchanges
Our returns policy is detailed on the Returns page which is also where the form to request a return can be found.
If the items are in original re-saleable condition, they can be returned for up to 14 days after receipt for a refund or replacement.
Please note carriage charges will not be refunded.
We strive for success, but sometimes mistakes happen!
If you’ve unfortunately received the wrong item, either fill out the Returns form or contact us directly. We’ll put this right with either a full refund -including carriage costs- or a replacement item.
Is the damage just to the outer packaging, or are the items inside damaged too? Are all items there?
Using a third party courier service can on very rare occasions mean damage is sustained, and to report this to us either fill out the Returns form or contact us directly. We’ll put this right with either a full refund -including carriage costs- or a replacement item.
All returns -after authorised by a team member from the returns form- are to be mailed to our address in Nottingham, UK to the full address on our Contact page.
Do not send items back to us if the return hasn’t been verified, and please include a copy of the returns authorisation form within the package so we can process it efficiently.
Our team is always available 7am-5pm Mon-Fri to help with queries, please Contact us.
If you need to change or cancel your order after you’ve submitted it on the website, the best thing to do is to send us an email or call us as soon as possible within working hours at the details on the Contact page.
Unless we have already despatched the order (shown as ‘confirmed’ in your order status list) it should be possible to change or cancel the order if you contact our team.
Some specific products may have a 12 month manufacturers warranty, for example the CleanAIR PAPR systems. Other products warranty will be stated in the paperwork accompanying the item.
If a product has a manufacturing defect, a consumer has the right under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 in the UK to:
- Within 30 days – Return the faulty goods for a full refund.
- After 30 days but within 6 months – the retailer must repair or replace the goods.
This doesn’t apply if it isn’t a manufacturing defect, such as wear and tear through use – of a boot for example.
The best thing to do is to Contact our team directly and send photos over email, and they’ll be able to assist in each situation.
After being reviewed and approved, a request for a refund will show as ‘refunded’ in the order status tab.
From this point, it can take a further 10 working days for the refund to arrive back into your bank.
Please also check your PayPal balance if using this service, as refunds by PayPal are sometimes credited to the balance rather than being refunded to the card.
Product, stock, and VAT questions
Products and Stock
This website is still under development, are we’re adding products constantly.
To be of most use to our customers, we’re adding products in like for like groups, i.e. you’ll see that many of the current products are related to high heat protection.
Ultimately, this webshop will show all products listed in the MF Safety Catalogue, (Issue 12 visible here), but in the meantime if you need a price or stock level or any particular product please email the team.
At MF Safety we hold stock of over 90,000 items across 2,500 product styles in our warehouse at any one time.
This constantly varies, and stocks are adjusted depending on demand levels of both our B2B and B2C customers.
Our website isn’t connected to any online wholesaler, meaning the stock figures are our own so we can give you the service you deserve!
Stock levels are synced online once per day, and if anything has changed at the point of your order be assured we’ll contact you when this is processed the next working day.
If you want to see a certain product stocked as you use large quantities of it, get in touch with us and we’ll see if we can help!
Backorder stock messages on certain products mean that we haven’t currently got stock in the warehouse, i.e. the product has sold out.
It might be imminently expected on a delivery, or it might be that the particular item is one that we buy in to order because of demand.
Delivery of these might be anywhere from 3 working days to 3 weeks if it’s an item we import from Europe.
Usually, products will take no longer than 5 working days subject to manufacturer stock unless it is a EDC, Coval, UHL, CleanAIR, Cofra or Lavoro product as these are imported.
Any items ordered which are on backorder will be manually processed and you’ll be sent an ETA date with your order confirmation the next working day.
Please call or email us for an accurate ETA date before placing an order if this is time-critical. We’re always happy to help!
You may have noticed that safety boots and safety helmets have a checkbox on the product page which, when ticked, will remove VAT from that product.
By doing this, you are declaring that the purchase is for use yourself as a private individual or a non-VAT registered company.
Contrary to popular belief or some other websites online, all PPE is not VAT free, and if you’re buying as a business for your staff you also must pay VAT on everything, but can then claim this back as usual if VAT registered.
The laws date back to the mid 1970s and is linked to mining, when zero VAT on personal purchases of PPE was introduced to encourage safety.
However, PPE at that time was only a steel toe boot and hard hat, which is why other categories of PPE (even safety shoes) do not fall under this exemption!
Standard 20% VAT applies.
Yes, VAT is applied to any relevant shipping costs at the standard UK rate of 20%
Footwear is measured as half a pair, i.e. one shoe or boot. Mens styles are measured as an 8 or 9, and ladies as a 5, unless otherwise stated.
Other products, such as helmets, are weighed per unit.
This is a guide only, but should help you to compare different products when weight is a deciding factor in the decision.
The term ‘steel toe cap boots’ is often used to generically describe the whole class of safety footwear, and you may hear it if someone is asking you to buy a new pair of safety boots for them.
But, you can also now get safety footwear with a composite material as both a toecap and midsole, meaning safety footwear may even be 100% metal free! (Yes it’s still safety!)
Whether this is fibreglass or another composite material, you may be asking how it compares to a traditional steel toe cap or midsole?
It’s good news on this, as both are tested and certified to the same standard (EN ISO 20345). Composite protection usually makes the footwear lighter weight, more flexible, and can even prevent injuries such as crushed toes after an impact because it flexes back into shape rather than deform like steel, so in some cases composite may be better.
Certain applications like induction furnaces, electromagnets, metal free zones and others may influence the decision one way or another, but usually the decision to purchase a particular safety boot or shoe shouldn’t be influenced dramatically over the material used to provide protection in most use cases, as long as the standards meet your company guidelines.
If, for example, you need a quantity of 10 items of a product but there are only 8 in stock, under normal circumstances we’ll send the stock items out sooner than the remaining 2 and you’ll receive your backorder when it becomes available.
If, however, the backorder is expected imminently, or if there is only 1 item in stock out of the 10 ordered, and especially if the order is low value, the MF team may at their discretion wait for the remaining items and send a complete order out to save on shipping costs.
You’ll be consulted on this when you receive a order confirmation the next working day after your order, and full ETA’s will be listed.
Please contact us or leave a note with your order if you require anything different, and be assured we prioritise speed of delivery and fulfilment at all times!
Where possible, we’ll send your order out in one package in order to reduce packaging waste and simplify shipping.
This will be confirmed on your order confirmation after the order is processed.