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Q - How do I order parts from you?
Q - Can I pick up my parts at your shop?
No, sorry, my shop is located on my personal property. I do not allow people to come to my shop.
This page has more info
Q - How long before you ship my parts?
Q - How do I know if a part is in stock?
If an item has an order button, then the part is in stock.
I remove the order button for any part that is out of stock so that it cannot be ordered.
The exception to this would be if someone orders all of the remaining items I have before I have had a chance to remove the order button.
This sort of thing can happen while I am not at my shop.
As soon as I see that an item is out of stock, I remove the order button.
Examples:
Someone orders the last 100 feet of Yellow cloth wire at 2 am in the morning.
I would not know the item was now out of stock until I get to the shop in the morning.
Or, 10 people order all the remaining quantities of a part over the course of a weekend.
I would not know the item was now out of stock until I get to the shop on Monday morning.
Q - Do you have a minimum order amount?
I do not have a minimum order amount. If you are in
a bind and need just one small resistor shipped immediately,
that is not a problem. No order is too small.
Q - What payment methods do you accept?
Q - How do I know how much shipping will be?
There is a shipping calculator on my shopping cart that can do shipping guestimates.
Add something to your shopping cart and then you can use the shipping calculator.
Also see the shipping info further down the page.
Q - How come your shopping cart cannot tell me what the exact shipping charge will be on my order?
There is no way I can calculate exact shipping cost on my
shopping cart. There are way too many variables
when it comes to shipping. I use several of the US
Postal systems flat rate containers. This means,
anything that fits inside, can be shipped for a flat
rate amount. The main thing that affects USPS shipping
is if all the parts will fit into a flat rate shipping
container. There's no way that you can calculate all
the possible ways that parts can fit together physically
inside a flat rate package. It's not a simple matter
of how much a package weighs. Please do not
ask for exact shipping cost estimates on a package.
I do not know what the shipping is going to be until
I box up all the parts and see how it all goes together
as a total package. In some cases, I am only able
to calculate the correct shipping amount after I have
the parts packed up and I know the exact weight,
including the box and packaging materials, the package
size being used and how far it is being shipped.
Here's a few of the things that can change shipping
cost.
* The package weight and shipping distance will vary
with every package.
* How much packing material and the weight of the
box can change the weight of a package.
* Items that can be crushed or broken get packed differently
than non fragile items. Example: I cannot put a pot
or a tube in a flat rate envelope, it will be crushed,
but I can put resistors in a flat rate envelope.
* If a pile of parts does not fit physically into
a flat rate postal package then it cost more to ship.
* A long skinny package with $5 worth of parts inside
can cost more to ship than a short fat package with
$200 worth of parts inside.
* A long piece of circuit board will usually cost
you more because I cannot use the flat rate containers.
Q - Do you have a minimum shipping amount on packages?
I do not have a minimum order amount, but I do have a minimum shipping amount.
A box of air cost the same to ship as a box with $200 of small parts
I would loose money all day long on small orders if I did not have a minimum shipping amount.
I process many small orders all day long and I must make a buck or two to stay in business.
It takes just as much time and labor to box up a $5 order as it does a $50 order
If you want a better deal on shipping, it's best to add more items to your order.
See the shipping info further down the page for current rates and minimum shipping amounts.
Q - How come the shipping cost that much?
I add approx. $2.00 to what the shipping cost me to cover the items listed below.
I add $3 to international packages that need the large customs form.
This also helps cover small orders.
Without this extra charge, if you ordered $1.00 worth of parts, I would basically be paying you to order the parts.
It seems that everybody and their brother are always trying to suck money out of the small business man.
There are a number of expenses that occur on every order, however large or small the order is.
Here are some of the items that I have to recover and are included in the shipping charge.
* Bank credit card processing fees. (American Express is the worst)
* Telephone company charges for DSL lines, internet access, etc.
* Postage charges for printing my own postage, postage
stamp forms, shipping labels, monthly postage service charges, etc.
* Shipping tape, plastic shipping bags, shipping boxes, bubble wrap, styro packing peanuts.
* Bank service charges.
* PayPal service charges. (PayPal charges are horrible)
* Web site hosting charges.
* Office supplies including Computer paper, labels, pens, staples, ink jet cartridges, software upgrades, etc.
* County and state business operating charges.
Q - Will you just throw a couple small parts in a regular
envelope to save me from paying the priority mail shipping charges?
Sorry, but No.
Please do not ask me to throw small parts in a regular envelope and mail them for the price of a first class stamp.
First of all, parts will not go through the USPS envelope sorting machines with parts inside
Regular envelopes are made for flat paper, not parts
Some other reasons are:
It takes more labor and cost me more to process a first class type package.
Packaging materials are not free - Priority mail packages and supplies are free
I have to weigh the package and know the exact weight before I can print the postage.
None of these things are true for Flat Rate priority mail packages
I have no problem shipping small orders, but I loose money by shipping first class mail packages
The only way to make shipping charges work out better is to put more stuff in the box.
See all of the info on this page about shipping charges and the extra cost that need to be recovered.
Q - How come you do not use regular airmail or surface (by ship) for non US shipments?
Priority mail is way faster for me to process an order and pack up a package.
Less time spent packing up packages means cheaper shipping cost to the customer.
The priority mail flat rate shipping containers are provided free by the post office.
I can bill out a priority mail package and know the shipping cost without weighing a package.
If I used regular mail, I would have to buy custom boxes, weight each package to get an exact weight
and then print a custom label for that package.
I would have to charge double the standard priority
mail charge if I had to spend that much time shipping
a custom package.
Non priority mail shipping would be much slower and would be more expensive because of the extra labor involved.
Q - What is domestic shipping?
Domestic shipping means the United states and US territories like Puerto Rico.
Q - What is International shipping?
International shipments are any non US or non US territories addresses.
Q - What shipping methods do you use?
USPS Priority and Express mail are the only shipping methods I use for domestic packages.
USPS Priority mail International is the only shipping method that I use for international shipments.
Q - Can I send you a list of parts and then you can tell
me what the total cost will be with shipping?
No, sorry, I am very busy when I am at work and I don't have time to create parts list, or add up the cost.
My shopping cart will give you a running total of all the parts cost.
You can just add the part to a list and then decide if you want to order them or not.
Q - How come my order was split into two packages?
Certain items do not lend themselves to being shipped together
in the same package. Sometimes items have to be split into separate packages
because they are very long, such as a long piece of
circuit board, a reverb tank or something very heavy
such as a transformer, or something very wide such as a book.
See the section below titled, Parts and combos that may present a problem.
Q - What are the USPS flat rate shipping containers?
See the information further down on this page about the Flat rate shipping containers and their cost.
Q - Do you have to attach a customs form to my International package?
Yes. See the information further down on this page about customs forms.
Q - Can you alter my customs form and say it is a gift or commercial sample?
No. I am registered with the US post office as a commercial shipper.
They pick up and inspect all my packages.
They know that I do not send out gifts and samples all day long.
Q - Can I get delivery confirmation on my package?
Yes, I add delivery confirmation at no extra charge to all US packages. Delivery confirmation is
not a tracking service. It only notifies you when
the package has been delivered. You cannot follow the package
as it travels with Delivery confirmation. Delivery
confirmation is only available on US packages. See the info on this page about USPS tracking
Q - Can I track a package sent to me?
The USPS only offers tracking on packages sent to US addresses. See the info on this page about USPS tracking.
Q - How come the USPS tracking info never changes on my International package?
The USPS does not offer tracking for the flat rate priority mail packages to International addresses. See the info on this page about USPS tracking.
Q - My package has not arrived yet, where is it?
See the section below about delayed or lost packages and strange shipping tales.
Q - Can you send me another package while I wait for my delayed package?
No, sorry. Your package will arrive or it will be returned to me if there is a problem.
See the section below about delayed or lost packages and strange shipping tales.
Q - How come some packages are delayed?
Please read the section below about delayed packages and some of the strange shipping tales that customers have reported to me.
