COVID19 - Chards Business Updates

15th July Update - Returning to More Normal Operations

The Latest News

With the country opening up again and government restrictions being eased, we feel it’s time for another operational update from Chards.

Our showroom is open on an appointment only basis, and we’re gradually seeing more staff return to the office. We’re still very busy, but we’re coping well!

Our customer service team is available 10-4pm Monday - Friday via telephone and email, and you can make an appointment to visit us at our Blackpool showroom - click here for more information. Some of us still have childcare commitments to juggle, so we’re not quite back to a fully normal operation as of yet, but we are moving in the right direction and we are optimistic about the coming weeks.

We are now regularly taking delivery of bullion items, such as sovereigns and both gold and silver Britannias. We have now cleared the backlog of orders for minty silver Britannias! We anticipate the waiting time on 'orderable' products will be around 4-6 weeks, which is a remarkable improvement from the uncertainty seen in March and April. As always, you can place your order now and fix a price that we will honour.

Buy-ins from customers are also regularly occurring, which shows delivery and orderable waiting times are reducing even further, alongside adding more variety to our stock available for despatch.

The general situation is now much clearer, and in the coming weeks we aim to revert back to a normal operation with a lead time on our ‘orderable’ bullion products. We are progressing well through the allocation and fulfilment of backdated orders. We can now commit to despatching all ‘in-stock’ products within two working days – click here to see our range of in stock bullion items!

The only way is up! Thank you for your patience and for dealing with Chards Coin and Bullion Dealer.

To see our previous supply updates, please click here.

Desktop Background Download Links

By popular demand, we have made the photographs of our recent delivery available for download at high-resolution desktop backgrounds! To see all the photos, check out our Gold and Silver Desktop Backgrounds page.

Customer Orders - Orderable and Sourced To Order Items

The market became extremely busy overnight with supplies across the globe being bought up at a rapid pace including from EU suppliers of some of our bullion coins. Our suppliers were struggling to provide us with up to date information for us to pass this through to our customers. We were advised that stock was out for delivery only to find it missing from shipments or that it was stuck at EU transport hubs due to the lack of staff as a result of local responses to coronavirus. The complete meltdown of EU supply chains could not be foreseen, and the situation was changing on an hourly basis.

Your Assistance

In order for us to maintain our customer service standards, we would like those customers who require an urgent update (such as first time buyers, those nervous about the current market or delivery) to fill in the form below requesting an urgent update via telephone. We would appreciate it if our regular customers who are happy to wait a for an update fill in the form for low urgency and email updates. 

We have set up a google form for customers to submit their preferences. Please click here to submit information.

Dedicated Team 

We have a dedicated team made up of Rochelle (Business Manager), Lesley (Sales Manager), Bhumika (Customer Service Team Leader) and me (Bullion Manager). During normal operations we contact every customer with a phone call, and we wish to maintain this level of personal service. Hopefully you can understand that this process takes time and we are asking for patience as we work through the backlog.  

Our Experience

We have been through this, or something similar before; the nearest comparison was during the 2008/9 Global Financial Crisis. We are one of the few UK bullion dealers who have and understand how to manage the uncertainty. We will update our site with pages explaining the 2008 crash, the issues and our methods to continue trading and supplying our customers.

We want to re-assure you your order is safe with us and we have any risks covered. In terms of financial risk, all outstanding orders are offset against our current stocks, so your money is safe in this regard. Customer satisfaction is our priority and in these uncertain times we are doing everything we can to supply products to you as quickly as possible, We have been in this  business for some 55 years and our reputation for fulfilling orders and exceeding expectations is key to our longevity. That said, we endeavour to deliver the products ordered, for dated coins we still expect a 2020 supply. Should a new issue be released, we will purchase 2021 in place of 2020. Any product specific backorders which are unable to be placed with our suppliers due to supply constraints are covered with alternative metal products, further limiting risk. This metal is then liquidated and products purchased when they are ready for despatch. Please note that we only do this with reputable and longstanding suppliers who have weathered more than one global crisis before.

You Goods, Not Ours

The benefit of buying at the current rate and allowing us to order or source your items means you have fixed at a preferred live price and bought your items whilst premiums were lower. Premiums have already increased in the past week for all products, and should demand continue to rise, so too will premiums. The precious metals you have bought at all times remain your personal property and our company liability. We never add these items to our balance sheet and you are welcome to sell back to us at any point at the current rate. You can also consider your items in free storage in the interim period until we receive stocks and despatch.

Sell Gold and Silver In Lockdown!

We are probably one of the few bullion dealers in Britain still accepting buy-ins! Whilst we never intended this as a pandemic tool, it is still an excellent and practical way of selling your bullion to us. The quickest way to organise this would be by e-mailing us at [email protected].

We still offer customers the option to post to us via Royal Mail. For smaller values (up to about £2,500), we recommend using Royal Mail's Special Delivery service. For example, using multiple postings of 2 or 3 packets can provide insurance cover up to £5,000, £7,500 and so on.

Please see our extensive Sell Gold and Silver to Chards webpage for more details and live quote prices! 

Frequently Asked Questions

We have a dedicated page for all the questions we are getting asked regarding coronavirus and the current supply situation. Please click here to read more.

Best Ways to Contact Chards

Currently the best way to contact us is via e-mail on [email protected] or by live-chat on our website.

Our staff are working around the clock answering emails and telephone calls,but we have been inundated from 9am to 5pm and into the night. We are asking customers to please be patient during this extremely busy period. We have received on average over 300 phone calls an hour!

The best way to buy gold and silver bullion is to find products on our website and pay using bank transfer (BACS) or by debit card. This will reserve stock for you using the current live metal price, and our friendly customer service team will be in touch as quickly as possible afterwards. Our fantastic website is easy to navigate and we have over 20,000 products to browse through online!

Bullion Products Currently Available For Purchase

We are proud to be operating a full service after addressing our large backlog of customer orders. Our full stock range is available, deliveries are continuing as normal but please expect some delays. Customers are reminded we offer on-site vaulted storage, which is our preferred option to relieve pressure on our courier network.

Thank you for your patience during this unprecedented period, as we moved our operation off site and transformed into a fully digital bullion delivery service! 

We have split up our bullion selection into 'in stock' and 'orderable'. This is to clarify what products we have on site and those items we are sourcing for wholesale suppliers. You can use our website filters to arrange products to suit your needs.

Shipping Delays 

Do be prepared for shipping delays. Anything stored at our showroom is highly secure, and fully insured via Lloyds. Be assured that any bullion stored with us is safe and secure in vaults good for insurance cover over £100 million. No international orders will be dispatched from us until further notice. International orders can still be placed and prices locked in, and we can offer free storage to international customers.

Royal Mail can no longer guarantee next day delivery by 1pm, this is beyond our control. As of the 31st March, Royal Mail have announced that their Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm will now change to 9pm the next working day, with existing postcode exemptions still applying. Please see Royal Mail's website for more details.

Summary

In summary, your money and order(s) are safe with Chards, we have delivered on all orders ever placed and will endeavour to deliver yours. Should you be concerned about any financial risk, we hope the above gives context to how we manage the most demanding of situations, and we will keep you informed every couple of weeks via telephone or email about any updates we have with regards to the market situation.

We welcome customers to call us on 01253 343081 if any concerns remain and we have a dedicated team working on this topic and will try to assign names contacts for each and every customer. All customers can expect a call in the coming days regarding any 'orderable' or 'sourced to order' item. Please bear with us as over 70% of our customer service staff are on childcare duties for the foreseeable future, and the remainder of our staff are shouldering the day to day operation.