FAQs

We run this website selling Alan's books on a part-time basis. This allows us to pursue our other work commitments and find a work-life balance. We appreciate this may be frustrating in a world that demands around-the-clock service but we hope, by making our timescales clear from the outset, that expectations of timings on delivery will be understood and managed. The books are sent out from a remote, rural location in the Highlands of Scotland with limited postal options that can be disrupted by weather conditions. 
We now sell to Scotland, Wales, England, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, UAE, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa and Hong Kong. It is with regret that we cannot send books to countries within the European Single Market, European Union or Northern Ireland at this time. We may add further destinations at a later point.
We cannot offer book signing as Alan lives a 13-hour round trip from where the books are stored and sent out. We may release signed books from time to time but cannot reserve these. If you are going to a conference or event Alan is attending he is usually happy to sign your copy of his book.
We are not a 'fast turnaround' business. In most instances, we will ship your book within three weeks of payment clearance, however it may occasionally take longer than this. Delivery time beyond this will depend on your location address. In the UK we use Parcelforce 48 but once shipped it usually takes 4 working days as we are located in a remote rural location. For international delivery we use Parcelforce 'Global Priority' or Royal Mail 'Printed Papers'.
In the UK we use 'Royal Mail 48-hour tracked and signed'.
For most destinations outside the UK we use Parcelforce 'Global Priority' or Royal Mail 'Printed Papers'. Royal Mail/Parcelforce use various mail carriers once the books leave the UK depending on the destination country. Books are tracked and signed for where possible - not all countries allow this service from the UK.


We have restricted which countries we deliver to for this print run. The first edition taught us that delivery to some countries can be problematic. We had many books lost in postal systems, badly damaged or just returned. While we always sent out another book or refunded our customers the process of investigation through foreign postal services proved difficult in order to determine what had happened to the books. The weight of the book at over 2kg makes postage/shipping expensive and added a large surcharge in some countries. The sum of all these issues means that this time we have limited the countries we sell to. We are very sorry for any disappointment or inconvenience. Many of our customers worked around this last time by having their book delivered to a friend or colleague in a country we did post to, and picked that book up on a future visit. Furthermore, some countries restrict the sending of any educational books and cannot be included.

We sell to Scotland, Wales, England, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, UAE, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa and Hong Kong. It is with regret that we cannot send book to countries within the European Single Market, European Union or Northern Ireland at this time. We may add further destinations at a later point.

European Single Market, European Union and Northern Ireland

We are sorry that we will not be shipping our book to the European Single Market, European Union or Northern Ireland at this time. Now that the UK has left the EU, and therefore the single market, the complex systems and paperwork are just too burdensome and complicated. Due to the high unit cost of the book we would incur more paperwork and additional costs than we can manage as a small business. Our customers would also potentially be faced with customs duties and tax charges in order to accept delivery, with books held at customs. I apologise for any disappointment this may bring. This is something beyond our control. If the process becomes less onerous, we will let our friends in Europe know as soon as possible.

Alan has recently stepped back from the frontline of gemmology. He has happily handed over the running of the website, sales and rights of the book to his daughter, Valerie, who designed and published the book for her Dad in her spare time and holidays. If you have a message for Alan, we will happily pass it on to him but he cannot sign books as he lives a 13-hour return journey from our base in the north of Scotland. Alan does not offer any services through this site. 
No. We only sell books on this website. Neither Gem Testing Techniques, Alan Hodgkinson or Valerie Hodgkinson offer this service. 
We have held the price we sold the second print of the book at for the launch of the third printing, but as production prices have increase we will be increasing the price from £165 to £175 after the initial launch. Postage/shipping surcharges have reduced since we last sold the book and we have passed that saving onto our customers by reducing our shipping charges. Some countries remain with high surcharges. Our shipping prices will fluctuate depending on what we are charged. 
We have reduced most of our postal charges as fuel surcharges have reduced since the pandemic. The book weighs over two kilos and this weight increases the shipping cost. We use tracking and signature where possible and that also adds to the postal costs. Our postal prices are a reflection of the time and cost of packaging and sending this case-bound book. Fuel surcharges and further additional charges for international flights still impacted by Covid-19 have come down in recent months. Shipping costs will be adjusted to accommodate changes from Parcelforce and The Royal Mail. The shipping to some destinations has reduced and we have passed that saving on.
There is no official digital version of this book. Any digital versions being offered break our © copyright and undermine this small, independent business. We are not considering producing a digital version at this time.
Due to the huge number of requests we are not keeping books aside for customers. We will release a number of the books each month on the website on a first come, first served basis. After that months books are sold it will be the next month before we release the next batch of books. Keep checking our Facebook and Twitter pages for any updates @GemTestingBook