Why UK shipments have been cancelled

On March 5th, we had to send our customers in the UK a message we’ve never wanted to send. In it, we informed our customers that their orders had been canceled effective within 48 hours and that they would receive a full refund. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and hassle this has caused, and we’re incredibly disappointed to have missed this opportunity to share the products we’re so proud of with our amazing UK customers.

We value our relationship with our customers, and we have worked hard to earn your trust in the past few years. You make everything we do possible, and we couldn’t be more grateful for your support. In order to maintain transparency with our customers and help everyone understand the situation as clearly as possible, we’d like to explain exactly why we have had to make this very difficult decision.

This happened for the following reasons:

From January 1st, 2021, new regulations resulting from Brexit came into effect. According to the Brexit agreement, all shipments from the EU to the UK require an authorized UK EORI number and VAT, valid HS codes, and detailed information about the country of origin of shipped goods, as well as terms of delivery. These are all now required for customs clearance at the UK border.  

As our shipments to the UK and EU originate from the Netherlands, Autonomous submitted all necessary documents to the UK government which were required to ship our products in October 2020, well in advance of the deadline. However, due to an enormous volume of applications, the UK government has not yet approved Autonomous’ documents. At present, we do not currently have an estimated timeline of when these documents will be approved, and we have been told it may take months for this process to finally move forward.

We are working closely with our UK agency to rectify this situation as quickly as we can. Unfortunately, we’ve had to cancel all orders shipped to the UK in the near-term, as we currently can’t project how long it will be until we are given permission by UK customs to ship our products from the Netherlands once again.

All of us at Team Autonomous extend our deepest apologies once again for this unfortunate setback. We appreciate your understanding during this difficult time and we look forward to reconnecting with our amazing UK customers as soon as we possibly can.