The answer displays below the question, after you click on the question
Q - What are your shop hours?
The time I am at the shop varies every day
Sometimes I get here as early as 5:30 am Eastern time, but most days it is probably around 7:30 am
I usually close the shop down at 4 pm eastern time
I do come into the shop on Saturday mornings to take care of all the orders that came in Friday night
I usually pop by on Sundays for just a bit to take of any orders and so that Mondays are not so busy.
Just a reminder to those on the left coast, 4 pm eastern time is 1 pm left coast time.
Submit your orders before 10 am eastern time, so I can make sure they go out the same day.
Q - How do I order parts from you?
Q - Do you offer wholesale pricing?
Sorry, no
I am a retail store which means that I pay wholesale prices.
I buy parts at wholesale and sell them at retail
I cannot buy parts at wholesale and sell them at wholesale or I would not be in business very long
The large distibutors I buy my parts from buy from the manufactuers in huge quantities and then they sell parts at wholesale prices
I do have very good prices on many items because I do buy some items in very large quantities
You can think of my store as a corner 7-11 convienence store
You can pull in, get your goodies and be on your way very fast
I ship things out way faster than most other on line stores and that is one of the things that people love about my business
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?
I ship your parts as soon as you pay for your parts.
When your credit card is run through, or the Paypal funds arrive, the package is packed up
Also see the info on this page.
Payment methods info page Q - What time do you take the packages to the post office?
I don't go to the post office. I have not been in a post office for several years.
I print my own shipping labels with the correct postage amount at my shop
I am a commercial shipper, a postal carrier comes to my shop to pick up the packages every day of the week except Sunday
Package pickups happen at different times each day, depending on how busy the postal carrier is that day.
Sometimes the carrier picks up the packages as early as 11 am eastern and sometimes as late as 3 pm Eastern time
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 - Can you tell me what all the parts for an amp cost?
No, sorry.
The best way to do this is for you to add all the parts to the shopping cart and let it total up all the parts for you.
It can give you a shipping guestimate also.
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 that container, 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 is no way that a computer can calculate all the possible ways that parts can fit together physically inside a flat rate package.
It is not a simple matter of how much a package weighs.
Please do email me and ask for exact shipping cost estimates on a package.
Here are a few of the things that can change shipping cost.
* The package weight and shipping distance 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 very 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
Q - How come you do not use first class mail shipping?
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.
I would have to do all this extra work:
Pick all the parts, go find a shipping container that would not be free, package everything up, get the exact weight, go back to the computer, look up the exact shipping charges,
then process the sale if possible.
I say if possible because if it is Paypal I then have to send out a Paypal email and wait for the payment.
That means I would have to set that package aside somewhere and hope I actually receive the Paypal payment.
So what's the problem here?
First of all, I will not pick a pile of parts unless I have actually received the money.
An order is not a real order unless I have run the charge card through or the Paypal funds have been transferred to me
An order is only a real order when I have received the money.
Plus it takes a whole lot more time and labor to do all of the above and I charge allot for my time
So first class mail would not be cheaper if I start charging by the minute for my time
None of the things above are true for Flat Rate priority mail packages
I do not have to weigh the package, pick the parts in advance or pay for shipping containers.
I have no problem shipping small orders, but I would 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.
Q - Can I give you my UPS account number - Can you ship by UPS or FedEx?
No, Sorry.
I cancelled my UPS daily pickup several years ago because they charged me $72 a month to stop by every day
It was rare that a customer would choose UPS shipping on my shopping cart and so daily UPS pickup was not worth the added expense
If I want to ship a package by UPS today, I would have to go on line and schedule a pickup manually
The last time I checked, they charged almost $6 to come pick up a package
That $6 would have to get added to the customers shipping cost
The added time and labor to go on line and schedule a pickup and the additional pickup charge makes UPS very expensive and way slower than USPS priority mail.
For these reasons, I don't offer UPS or FedEx shipping
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.
Just add the part to the shopping cart to see the total.
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, sorry
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 really a tracking service.
It only notifies you when the package has been delivered.
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.
