Despatchboxes.com are simply the BEST shopping and gift site for busy people, for all those family occasions and necessities you cannot find.

Despatchboxes.com provide a personal shopping service for people with relatives abroad or people living abroad.

We carry a wide range of gifts, specially chosen by our team to be particularly interesting to ex-pats and relatives.

In addition, we have extended our personal service to include a bespoke shopping service for those special gifts that you can't find here.

important notices!

Email your shopping requests to enquiries@despatchboxes.com and we will post it to you by special delivery

For special commissions email enquiries@despatchboxes.com
Of course we also send our packages within the UK

We shop for you. 2kg limit on each parcel weight, (because of postage costs).

£7.00 shopping charge per parcel for items found in the High Street.

FREE BFPO packets to IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN!

Thank you Prime Minister - at last you have been listening to us all!

You have introduced free parcels to the war zones outside the Christmas period!. At Despatchboxes we have been campaigning for three years now for this to happen. We have had very polite letters from 10 Downing Street, but no action.

Of course it was really the least you could do. We all know that everyone does their duty to the best of his or her ability, often separated for months on end, leave cancelled at short notice, plans changed etc. So, please no change to this, and what about extending it to the Royal Naval fleet at sea, and our regiments and RAF, also serving far from home?

For those prepared to pay the ultimate price, a free parcel or two is surely not too much to ask, after all the millions of pounds squandered on Government IT projects with very little result. The cost is easily offset against the tax relief for pension dividends (just £8billion p.a.) which was quietly announced a few years ago, seriously jeopardising the profitability of hard-saved pension funds.

Come on Mr Brown, don't be a such a meanie ...

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR DESPATCHBOX CUSTOMERS

Extra value ... if the package ordered is a single item for BFPO in the free posting area, you will not be charged postage on ordering. If it is a composite gift we will add the value to the gift ... so every pound of yours goes further...

BFPO Addresses & Special delivery - how it works

BFPO orders are a speciality of ours. We send the parcels to the BFPO address using the Royal Mail Special Delivery service.

The parcel arrives at the main London Mill Hill sorting office the day after posting. Then it is up to the Forces to transport the parcel to the correct BFPO address.

Of course this cannot happen overnight, and we have to depend on the Army, Royal Navy or RAF system to deliver the parcel, however using the SPECIAL DELIVERY service does give the parcel priority, but of course a parcel can be delayed for operational reasons, and these are outside our control.

We only charge you the actual cost of sending your goods.

airsure & international signed for - how it works

We will always send by AirSure or International Signed For if the recipient country accepts this.

Otherwise we use Royal Mail Air Mail (unless you ask us to use an International Courier service such as UPS or FedEx).

We charge you the actual cost of delivery, and the parcels have priority if we use AirSure or International Signed for. This way we know the parcels have arrived and have been accepted at the address in the country of delivery.

You may think our postal charges are high, but this is the reason, we charge the actual cost of sending your parcel, and the parcel including all wrapping must not exceed 2 kgs. (We can always send heavier, bulkier or high value, parcels by courier if you wish - go to the bespoke page).

Local customs officers in any country can decide to check and open parcels. This is a local decision and, of course, we have no control over this! This might cause a gift to be delayed for a short while, but should not affect its safe receipt. It is always a good idea to order in advance, and we can add the date the parcel is intended for on the outside!

If we think there may be a delivery problem, we telephone you. For example it is prohibited to send alcohol to Muslim countries, and we will phone if we think there may be a customs problem, because of the nature of the goods.

However, we are delighted to send anything legal!

Why choose despatchboxes?

We do NOT simply sell gifts, we provide a VERY personal service that delivers your love and care as though you had delivered by hand personally. You can buy cheaper elsewhere, sure, but you won't find the same magic and delight so lovingly wrapped on your behalf.

Approximately 40% of our business is repeat business and a very many of the rest come from personal referrals from previous customers..

So why do despatchboxes customers return again and again?

Well firstly there's our truly personal service that ensures our attention to detail  reflects the high standards of our clients.

We hand pick  beautiful wrapping  - we do not use business wrapping paper or ribbon our wrapping with our corporate logo – all gifts are wrapped beautifully with bows, ribbons, shredded tissue and confetti where appropriate.

Each gift-wrapping is different, so no two gifts are the same – you can be sure that a gift sent to your friend’s wife will look different to the gift you send to your own wife’s, (even if the gift chosen is the same). Even our messages are handwritten and you choose the exact message.  Have you ever been disappointed with a typed message?  It's awful!

Where we are sending to family addresses our packing chips made of potato starch so they are completely bio-degradable and safe (even  if a toddler or the family dog does sample them)

Individual sprit and champagne bottles are sent in polystyrene containers over wrapped in cardboard outers and of course gift wrapped.  Indeed, all our gifts are sent in smart Post Office preferred outer boxes

We send by Royal Mail Special Delivery in the UK and the main BFPO sorting office in London, (research when planning our service showed that first class mail was sometimes not good enough).

We are very familiar with the BFPO system and BFPO orders are a specialty – please say so if you are ordering from outside the EU eg. OP Telic or similar.

Just in case you can't find what you are looking for in our catalogue, we can offer you complete flexibility through our bespoke service which allows you to send whatever you wish, whenever you wish.

Alternatively, you can email us for a no obligation quotation.

Bespoke Shopping
Our Bespoke service allows you to request goods that are not currently for sale within our catalogue.

This is a service that is tailored unlike any other in that it will enable us to offer what YOU want, the way that YOU want to express yourself, with individual personalised messages, specific wrapping, and most of all, YOUR special touch.

You are not committed until you have had a quotation from us and have accepted it separately on the website.   We always try to offer the best service to our customers. This bespoke service offers the widest choice and items ordered outside or sent outside the EU are sent net of VAT, saving you money!

No customs forms no hassle because of the way our busyness is set up we can send direct VAT free (Make sure you confirm the country of order/delivery).

Quite simply because we provide a very comprehensive gift wrapping, gift sourcing and personal gift delivery service.

So why do despatchboxes customers return again and again?

Approx 40% of our business is repeat business and we love to see our customers coming back

Click here to find out why you should choose despatchboxes.com for your special presents...

Weddings & anniversaries

See our Weddings and Engagements page for wonderful gifts if you can't be there. 

All of our presents are beautifully gift-wrapped for the appropriate occasion - with your hand-written individual message.

Don't forget if you don't see what you want in our catalogue, or if you wish to order something special, visit our bespoke page.. 

Present ideas

We have suggestions for Desert Divas and Demons in hot climates or for chocoholics far from home - Birthdays?

We can shop for those too - send your son a rugby ball or football with a huge bar of chocolate ... or a big tin of toffees and a book token or chart CD ... or your daughter a cuddly bear and CD token. (don't get the music wrong)..or a cute Despatchbox cat.

If you can't see exactly what you want email why not us at enquiries@despatchboxes.com

Gifts for Anniversaries, New babies, Children's birthdays, Graduations, Christmas, Parent's birthdays or just to say 'Missing you'…

WE'LL FIND IT FOR YOU AND GIVE YOU A QUOTE

more reasons to shop at despatchboxes.com

Wherever you are we can shop and send to you, or for you - for example if shopping is difficult in Hartlepool because you have just broken your leg we can send a lovely freshwater pearl necklace, or chocolates and a garden token to your Mum for her birthday and a football to your nephew for his.

Are you living abroad or up country and you want to remember your girlfriend - send her favourite perfume as a surprise "Missing you"  gift - we will wrap it beautifully for you and send it with your handwritten message anywhere. Visit our "Special Relationships" section.

Perhaps your boyfriend is serving abroad - you miss him and want to send him his favourite things - you tell us and we will make up a box of his favourite things.  Each individual box for sending by special delivery has to be under 2kgs and for this we have to charge the post office rate which is currently 6.55. If you want us to courier something vital to you quickly we can do that too. Visit our "Working Abroad" section

Perhaps you haven't seen the children in ages and you want them to remember all those good times together.  Why not send them a surprise parcel of goodies?  WE can arrange for it to arrive on Saturday morning so that they are not at school and can receive it personally - we want YOUR kids to say when they open that exciting box - "WOW it's great! DAD remembered me today" Send a football or rugby ball and a huge bar of chocolate and every time he takes that football out to play your son (or daughter) will remember you.  It is a good way to keep in touch. Visit our "Children" section.

Presents don't have to be just for Christmas or Birthdays, there are loads of other reasons to send a lovely surprise and all our gifts are beautifully gift wrapped with the wrapping chosen with the recipient in mind. There are lovely feminine gift bags with shredded tissue sprinkled with hearts or stars, or masculine boxes for those macho bars of chocolate.