Delivery

I use the U.S. Postal Service to ship your goods. My TURNAROUND TIME is stated in the Shop Announcement on my shop’s homepage, on the “ready to ship in” field on individual product pages, and in the message you receive after you place your order. Turnaround time is the number of *business* days between you placing your order and me shipping your package. It does not include the time it takes for the postal service to get the package to you. It does not include weekends or U.S. mail holidays.



I lovingly pour, "cook," label and package each and every one of your original goods with my own hands. You’ll get a shipping notification with a tracking number when I print your shipping label. I often ship at the *end* of the day (sometimes close to midnight, lol), so when you get a notification, expect to see real movement on your package the next business day. After that, the U.S. Postal Service does the things it does to get your package into your hands. Also, PLEASE read the section above on the new preorder system. Please don’t send me an unpleasant email or leave me under-stellar reviews saying I "took a while" to ship when I'm telling you about this preorder stuff in advance. This is what it sounds like when sharks cry. ;_; ;_;



I ship to your ETSY ADDRESS. If you'd like me to ship to a different address than the one on your Etsy invoice, no problem---just send me a message.



About SHIPPING TIME.

Domestic customers: On average, my packages within the U.S. take three to five business days to arrive after they ship. It’s unusual for them to take longer, though I have seen some packages take very interesting journeys before arriving at their final destination! If your package gets stuck in USPS “tracking limbo” and seven business days have passed since your ship date with no sign of your goods, send me a message and we’ll get you sorted out. Please be nice when you send this message. Don't charge in with "RAWR YOU SAID YOU SHIPPED MY PACKAGE BUT YOU DIDN'T ACTUALLY SHIP IT." Again, sometimes they take interesting journeys. These things happen. I get anxious. I lose sleep. Be nice.



Once your package has been marked "DELIVERED" by your postal carrier, it’s *your* responsibility to retrieve it from your mailbox or whatever other place it gets left at your building. I am not responsible for packages that get “stolen” by your neighbors or misplaced by your postal carrier. Every once in a while someone will get a "Delivered" scan but find no package in their mailbox---I've found that most of the time when that happens, the package shows up the next day. If not, your best bet is to call your local post office. They may be able to speak personally with the carrier who handled your package. Again, it's *your* responsibility to check on a package that has been marked "Delivered." I know it's daunting to make that phone call, but please understand that I don't have any "insider" information on this!



International customers: Please allow up to six weeks after your ship date for your package to arrive! Often packages arrive much sooner, but ship time can vary widely. Once a package leaves my country, I am unable to track it. Please understand that I don’t have any more information than you do on the location of your package. If something goes wrong with delivery, chances are the package will be sent back to me, so if delivery seems to be taking an unusually long time, please feel free to send me a message so I’m aware of the situation and can keep an eye on it.



CUSTOMS FORMS.

My customs forms are automatically generated when I print shipping labels, with the number of items and the dollar amount you paid for goods (that amount doesn’t include shipping cost). I have no problem adjusting the amount on the form to reflect the *value* of the item rather than the retail price. However, I will NOT falsify a customs form and will NOT mark an item as a “gift” unless it is actually a gift from me to you. Mail fraud is serious business, people! Super srsbsns! Please don’t try to get me sent to prison. I can’t take my birds with me.



CUSTOMS CHARGES.

If your customs officer charges you a random fee or demands a bribe before you can pick up your package, please understand that this is beyond my control. I assure you that the money does not come to me! I am NOT responsible for any additional charges you incur at your customs office.



SHIPPING COSTS.

My shipping charges are estimates based on what Etsy charges *me*. Maybe you’ve seen other companies charging less shipping than I charge. But I don’t base what I do on what other companies do. Other companies may charge a higher overhead cost for products, and therefore may be able to offer reduced shipping fees. Other companies may have the budget to buy huge quantities of supplies in bulk and pass the savings on to you with lower shipping costs. I am one small person running a very small company, and on average, I tend to *lose* money on international shipping.



For example, at the time of this writing, a package to Canada costs me $9.03 USD for a package between 4 and 8 ounces. An ounce over that and it goes up to $14.73 USD! Again, this is what *I* PAY. My packages average between 6 and 13 ounces; they’re almost never under 5. To Canada, I charge $8.00 to ship the first item and 50 cents for each additional item. So if you only buy one thing from me you’re actually getting a very nice price break. If you buy three items, you’re paying what I’m paying (minus three pennies, of course). After the third item, the actual cost versus what you pay up front starts varying widely depending on weight. I automatically REFUND your extra shipping costs at the time I print your shipping label, IF you overpay by two U.S. dollars or more. (But NOT for a buck or a few cents, because that is a royal pain in the ass.) If for some reason I forget to refund your extra shipping, please give me a nudge!



As a general rule, if you buy one to three items, you’re getting a better deal on shipping than I am. If those items are heavy, you’re probably getting an *AMAZING* deal. But if you’re buying, say, ten Bitsies, your up-front costs start to add up. So here’s my tip:



If you find that you’re getting nervous because you’ve got a big pile of items in your cart and your shipping costs are climbing, please get in touch with me. I can give you a better estimate of what your package will actually weigh and cost. I *won’t* make you a special listing for all the items together, because not seeing them in my queue screws with my inventory. But I will either refund you the extra or—if you don’t have the cash to overpay in advance—I’ll send you a discount code to defray the costs. Or something. We’ll work it out. But you’ve got to talk to me. Don’t be secretly mad at me on the internet, TALK TO MEEEEEEE. I won’t bite! Unless you’re into that or whatever! I’m easy!



Also, international customers who have worked with me in the past know I’m extremely flexible about holding and combining orders to help you save on shipping. See the next couple of paragraphs for my policies and practices on combined orders.



******COMBINING ORDERS.******

For INTERNATIONAL customers (outside the United States), I am happy to hold and combine orders that you place up to three weeks apart. I will refund any extra shipping you’ve paid at the time I print your shipping label. If you don’t have the $ to pay additional shipping costs up front, feel free to message me and I will give you a discount code that you can use to apply free shipping to your subsequent order. (A little secret: Even if I lose a couple of bucks, it actually is more convenient for me if you use the code up front, so that I don’t have to go hunting for your order in PayPal’s antiquated system to send you a refund.)



International customers, I’m always honored when you are willing to pay the price in order to make DarlingClandestine yours! Combining orders is a COURTESY that I extend to my customers because I know that international shipping costs are $$$$, and because I know that I like to spring lots of new and exciting things on you in the span of a few weeks. IN FACT, I schedule my new releases with international customers in mind, to place them within the three-week timespan from catalog to catalog. Please don’t complain on the internet that I “don’t care” about my international customers because I won’t hold your orders for months and months. There are days when I spend literally HOURS sorting through orders because I’m scrolling past “held” items in the queue, and simply printing labels can take three times as long because I have to check every single order to make sure it doesn’t have an add-on. Not to mention the time it takes to find your PayPal receipt in its 1991-style exact-character-match-only spreadsheet format to send you a refund for any shipping overage. Ay. This is a labor of LOVE, man. Don’t EVER think I don’t love you, OKAY?



For DOMESTIC customers (in the United States), I am happy to hold and combine orders that you place up to ONE WEEK apart. I know all too well what it’s like to place an order and then immediately decide you should’ve bought *more* stuff, lol. It’s cool if you do that, especially if you use a combined shipping code to speed things up for me. (Message me if you need that code.) But no more than one week apart, a’ight?



If it makes *sense* for me to combine domestic orders that are further apart, I will do that automatically, at my discretion. Let’s say, for example, that you ordered a presale item that wasn’t ready to ship yet, and then you ordered stuff from the general catalog two weeks later, and the items just happen to become available at the same time. Then I will automatically combine them and let you know, and I’ll send you a little refund for any shipping overage. But please, if you live in the United States, don’t ask me to hold multiple items for multiple weeks. Again, I spend HOURS sorting through combined orders and scrolling past “held” ones, and I’d really prefer not to add to that queue so that you can save, like, two bucks.



*******I CANNOT HOLD ORDERS INDEFINITELY******* to combine with a future purchase that doesn't have a specific date. Unless, for example, you're planning on adding stuff from a seasonal release that I have announced is coming up next week, please expect your package to ship within the stated turnaround time.



*******Also, PLEASE note that when you add on to your order, your ship date is subject to the TURNAROUND TIME of the MOST RECENT ORDER.*******



GIFT PACKAGES.

I love it when you choose DarlingClandestine for your gifting needs! If you’d like me to send a package to a loved one as a gift, please let me know in your Message to Seller that you’re placing a gift order, and I’ll be happy to include a cute little note or other special gesture at my discretion. There’s no additional charge, unless you have something more elaborate in mind. If you would like something extra, send me a message; it sounds like fun! :D Please remember that gift orders are subject to the same TURNAROUND TIME as any other order, so plan ahead! And when you place a gift order, please make sure that the GIFTEE’S ADDRESS is the one you provide to Etsy. Yaaaaay!