This page is about a gift that is already on its way and is not going to make it. Ordering too late is a different problem with a different answer, and it has its own page. How late is too late to order →
The first thing to do is work out which kind of late you have, because three of the four look identical from the outside and only one of them is actually a problem.
Four kinds of late
| What is happening | How you can tell | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| In transit, running behind | Dispatched, tracking moving slowly | Nothing. Tell the recipient. |
| Delivery attempted, nobody there | Status shows an attempt | Get a phone answered today |
| Sitting at a hub | Status has not moved in days | Message us — we chase the courier |
| Not dispatched yet | No dispatch note | Message us — this is on us to explain |
You can check the first three yourself with the tracking code and the last four digits of the phone number on the order. How to track it →
The move that saves it, and it happens before the parcel does
Tell them it is coming, and tell them what it is.
A parcel that turns up unannounced eight days after a birthday reads as an afterthought. The same parcel, when a message on the day said there is something coming for you and it is being printed, reads as a plan that ran into a courier. The object is identical. The framing is the whole difference, and it costs one message.
This is why an occasion with a fixed date is worth a card in hand. Not as an apology — as the announcement.
What actually goes wrong, and how often
Most late arrivals are the third row of that table: a parcel that reached a sorting hub and sat there. Festival weeks, heavy rain in a transit city and the fortnight around Diwali all do it, and no courier in India is immune.
The second commonest is a failed delivery attempt that nobody realised had happened, because the call went to a phone in another city. What happens if nobody is home →
What we do about each of them
Chase it. A parcel that has stopped moving usually needs somebody to file a query with the courier, and that is ours to do rather than yours.
Reprint a damaged one. If it arrives crushed or defective, we reprint and dispatch a replacement. That claim needs evidence: an unboxing photograph or video, taken within a day of delivery and before the parcel is fully unpacked. Tell whoever receives it to film the opening if the parcel looks knocked about, because that is the one thing that cannot be produced afterwards. Returns and replacements →
Keeping the print files for a week after dispatch is partly what makes a fast replacement possible at all. How long we keep your photographs →
Refuse the order in the first place when a date is not reachable. It is better to lose the sale than to take money for a parcel that cannot arrive in time, and it is the same reason we will not quote a date we do not believe. Ordering for a fixed date →
The part nobody says out loud
A gift that arrives a week after a birthday is often received better than one that arrives on it.
On the day itself a personal object competes with a cake, a party, a phone full of messages and four other parcels. A week later it arrives alone, into an ordinary Tuesday, and it gets read properly rather than glanced at and put on a table.
That is not a consolation prize and it is not an argument for being late on purpose. It is a reason not to treat a delayed parcel as a ruined gift, which is how people usually treat it, and to stop apologising for it more than once.
What to actually say
Two messages, and they are shorter than people think.
On the day, before it has arrived and before you have been asked:
Something is coming for you and it did not make it in time — it is being printed. It will turn up this week and it is worth the wait.
When it lands, one line and no second apology:
Here it is. Sorry it is late. I hope you like it.
What does not help is a paragraph about the courier. Detail makes the delay the subject of the gift, and the person receiving it has no use for a tracking narrative.
If it never arrives at all
Rare, and it does happen. A parcel that comes back to us undelivered can go out again once the address is corrected. One that has genuinely stopped moving inside the courier network needs a query raised against the tracking number, and that is ours to file — send us the tracking code rather than waiting.
Both need the same thing from you: a working phone number and a confirmed address. Most undeliverable parcels in India are undeliverable because of an address, not because of a courier.
Frequently asked
My tracking has not updated in four days. Is it lost? Almost certainly not. Parcels sit at hubs, especially in festival weeks. Message us with the tracking code and we will chase it.
Should I buy something else for the day and give this later? If the day matters to the person, yes. A small thing in hand plus the real object later works better than an empty day and an explanation.
Is it worth telling them the gift is delayed? Tell them something is coming. There is no need to narrate the courier, and detail about a delay makes the delay the subject.
Can I get a refund if it misses the date? Once a proof is approved and the thing is printed, no — it exists for one buyer and cannot be resold. Arriving damaged is a separate case with its own route, and it needs an unboxing photograph within a day. Why we are prepaid only →
Does giving it late mean I should spend more? No. Spending more is the reflex and it reads as guilt. Give the thing you chose and say one honest sentence about the timing.
Part of our guide to ordering a personalised gift. See also: reordering a gift you gave before.
Plan the next one properly: Photo magazines from ₹499 · All 11 keepsakes