An Update On Order Volume & Delays

Edited on 21/09/26

Dear DarkStar Customers,

Another short one from me, this time about how busy things are.

If you've read the recent updates, you'll know why: the vape tax arrives on 1 October, everything made before that date is tax-free stock, and a very large number of you have done the maths. Every day right now is running at 3-4x a normal day. We hadn’t seen as many customers stocking up as expected in the first half of this year, and it looks as though the majority have waited to put their large orders in this month.

First, the practical stuff:

What this means for your order

We’re asking that you please allow an extra 2 days, 3 at most. Not weeks. We've brought in extra hands and extra hours to keep the delay to a minimum.

How orders are being handled

In the order they arrive. No queue-jumping and no favourites. The only exception will be on products that require manufacturing, but these products are prioritised each day and won’t add much time at all.

If your order is waiting on one of the two products above, it holds its place, and the moment stock lands, those orders go out in sequence, oldest first. Nobody who ordered early gets leapfrogged by somebody who ordered late.

Which leads to the obvious point: the earlier your order is in, the earlier in the queue it sits. Stock that's here today is allocated to orders as they come in, and September has another 10 days of this pace to run.

Will everything get filled?

Yes. That's the one thing I want to be completely clear about. We planned for this period for the better part of a year: stock built ahead, extra storage taken, extra people trained. Orders placed with us will be honoured and shipped, in order, every time. A busy warehouse is a solvable problem.

If anything ever did change on an order of yours, you'd hear it from us directly and in a timely manner.

The Bigger Picture

The window for pre-tax prices closes on 30 September. After that, every new litre of vaping liquid made in the UK carries duty, and prices across the whole industry change permanently, and that’s why order volumes look the way they do. Our stocking-up guide covers what to prioritise if you're still planning yours.

I'd rather you ordered now than in the last week of September. Partly because your order sits earlier in the queue, and partly because the final days before the deadline will be the busiest this company has ever seen, and I'd like your delivery to be with you asap!

The response since the last update has been extraordinary, and the patience people have shown on the odd delayed parcel even more so. We've got a warehouse full of stock, a team working flat out, and four weeks to get as much of it into your cupboards as we can.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Get your order in, and leave the rest to us.

Rob Scammell - Managing Director

DarkStar