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Order Fulfillment Timetable - Most Orders Ship Within 48 Hours Orders with UPS Shipping: • Orders that we receive before 2 pm Eastern Standard Time Monday-Friday specifying UPS Ground shipping will often ship from our North Carolina location that same day, although this cannot be guaranteed. Weekday orders received later in the afternoon or evening generally ship the next business day. Larger or more complicated orders may require an extra day or two. • Orders received over a weekend (Friday after 2 pm, Saturday and Sunday) will usually be shipped the following Monday, or at the latest Tuesday. • Orders specifying expedited UPS domestic air shipping (Next Day Air, 2nd Day Air) must be received by us before 2 pm Eastern Standard Time to ship that same day. Weekend orders will ship on Monday. Please try to submit expedited UPS orders as early as possible. • Orders specifying expedited UPS international shipping (Worldwide Express, Worldwide Saver, Worldwide Expedited) must be received by us before 12 noon Eastern Standard Time to ship that same day. • Please keep in mind that UPS does not pick up or deliver on weekends or holidays. For example, a package shipped UPS 2nd Day Air on Thursday will not be delivered to you until Monday. UPS transit times are always calculated in business days (Monday-Friday). • UPS Saturday delivery is available for an extra surcharge on 2nd Day Air and Next Day Air shipments only. Call us in advance if you need this option for your order. Orders with USPS Shipping: • Domestic orders specifying shipment by Postal Service Priority Mail received before 2 pm Eastern Standard Time Monday-Friday generally go out via USPS mail carrier pickup the following business day. Occasionally an additional day is required. • International orders specifying shipment by Post Office Priority Mail International received before 2 pm Eastern Standard Time Monday-Friday are also usually ready for USPS mail carrier pickup from us the following business day. Occasionally an additional day is required. • USPS Priority Mail orders received over a weekend (Friday after 2 pm, Saturday and Sunday) will usually be mailed the following Monday, or at the latest Tuesday. • International orders specifying shipment by Post Office Express Mail International must be received by us before 10 am Eastern Standard Time (Monday-Friday) to be mailed that same day. Shipping General Information • The majority of our domestic customers select UPS Ground Service as their shipping choice. Click here to see a map of estimated business day transit times within the USA for UPS Ground Service packages sent from our North Carolina location. • A comparative explanation of all of our domestic and international shipping choices is available here. This same information is also posted for reference on the shopping cart entry page where you make the initial shipping selection for your order. • Once your order is in the shopping cart, you can compare shipping costs by clicking on the "change shipping method" link on the shopping cart form to recalculate the shipping cost. You can do this as often as you like before placing your order. • The approximate weight of your shipment (not including packing material) appears on the shopping cart as you build your order. Be aware that UPS rate charts round up package weights to the next pound. • We will email you promptly if there we encounter any unusual delay shipping your order. Larger or more complicated orders may require slightly more time to pack and ship. Let us know in advance if you must have delivery by a specific date (see our order fulfillment guidelines above). Domestic Shipping - Additional Information & Tips • We offer the following UPS Shipping Services for delivery within the United States: Ground, 3-Day Select, 2nd Day Air, Next Day Air. We also offer domestic shipping by USPS Priority Mail. For an explanation these options, go here. • Depending on your Zip Code, small (under 2 lb.) orders can sometimes be shipped by USPS Priority Mail for a little less than the UPS Ground Service rate. • As package weight increases, this situation is reversed and UPS Ground generally becomes more affordable than Priority Mail. • If you live in a remote or rural area of the United Sates and your order weighs under 2-3 lbs., you may save money by using USPS Priority Mail. UPS charges more for rural deliveries, the Postal Service does not. • UPS Ground Service packages will take 5 business days (1 week) to reach the West Coast from our location in North Carolina. Priority Mail may save a day or two. UPS 3-Day Select is often a sensible option for California, Oregon and Washington State. • If you live in Alaska or Hawaii, USPS Priority Mail is usually the least expensive shipping option. UPS Ground Service is not available to Hawaii and some parts of Alaska. • Oversize Items: Please note that we carry a few large, heavy or long hardware items that cannot be shipped through the Postal Service. In these cases the designation "This item must ship UPS" is shown below the order form. Select any UPS domestic shipping option if your order contains one of these larger items. • UPS cannot ship to Post Office Box addresses. Select Priority Mail if you want your order delivered to a domestic PO Box. Remember that large hardware items cannot be sent through the Post Office. • The guaranteed delivery time for UPS Next Day packages will vary depending on the shipping address. Often it will be "Before 10:30 am" on the next business day but it may be "Before 12 Noon" or even in the case of some out-of-the-way addresses "Before End of Day." UPS 2nd Day Air packages are guaranteed to arrive "Before End of Day" on the second business day. • Don't pay for expedited UPS delivery if UPS Ground Service will get your order delivered to you just as fast. For example, most of Florida is two days from our location in North Carolina via UPS Ground shipping. Paying extra for UPS 3-Day Select shipping to Florida is therefore a waste of money. Please refer to the UPS zone map here for UPS Ground package transit times from our location. International Shipping - Additional Information • We ship internationally via Post Office Priority Mail International and Express Mail International and also by the three UPS International Services: Worldwide Express, Worldwide Saver and Worldwide Expedited. These shipping options all provide reliable delivery to most countries outside the United States. For an explanation of these options, go here. • For shipments to Canada, we also offer UPS Canada Ground Standard which provides UPS door-to-door service to all Canadian provinces. This service is for deliveries to Canada only and is similar to domestic UPS Ground Service in cost and transit time. • When submitting an international order, select the destination country on the entry page to the shopping cart, insert the destination address Postal Code, then select the international shipping method of your choice. • Oversize Items: Please note that we carry a few large, heavy or long hardware items that cannot be shipped internationally through the Postal Service. In these cases the designation "This item must ship UPS" is shown below the order form. Select any UPS international shipping option if your order contains one of these larger items. • We will fill out the necessary customs paperwork for your international order. Please be aware that you will be responsible for any custom fees, taxes or import duties imposed by your country. Shipping to US Territories • We ship to US Territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, Virgin Islands, etc.) via USPS Priority Mail only. Enter the destination US Zip Code on the shopping cart entry page and choose "US Postal Service Priority Mail" as your shipping choice. Shipping to APO/FPO Addresses • We ship to Military Post Office addresses by USPS Priority Mail only. UPS cannot deliver to APO/FPO addresses. Please insert the correct address code (AA, AE, or AP) in the State box on the shopping cart form and make sure that the rest of your address is accurate and complete. Select "US Postal Service Priority Mail" as your shipping choice. Tracking Notifications UPS Tracking: • When we generate a UPS package label for your order, a tracking notification email from UPS will be automatically transmitted at the same time to the email address you provided to us with your online order. Package information, address details and a tracking link are contained in this email notification. • Our UPS package pickup takes place around 5 pm EST, Monday-Friday. Tracking information for your package typically will not be available from the UPS system until late in the evening of the day that UPS picks it up from us. • If UPS has an issue with the shipping address you provided to us with your order that will result in a UPS delivery delay, or if some other in-transit problem occurs, you will receive a second email message from UPS warning you of this. To avoid shipping delays, please enter your shipping address in the shopping cart as accurately and completely as possible. You can quickly validate any domestic address here. • Please also make sure that the email address you submit to us with your order is entered correctly and that the address is active. Bounced email or email returned by spam filters cannot be resent. • Finally, UPS will send you an email notifying you that your package has been delivered. While this may be redundant in the case of a residential delivery, deliveries to businesses can get lost in Receiving Departments so we have found this to be a useful notification. USPS Tracking: • We use the Postal System's electronic Click-N-Ship system to mail USPS packages. This system provides delivery confirmation and some limited tracking capability. In cases where we have your email address from your online or phone order, you will receive an email notification when we generate the USPS package label. This email message will provide you with the label number and information on how to check the delivery status of your package. • If the Click-N-Ship system rejects your mailing address as you have provided it to us, we will attempt to mail your order manually. This will delay delivery and no tracking information will be available. To avoid shipping delays, please enter your shipping address in the shopping cart as accurately and completely as possible. You can validate your domestic mailing address against the USPS database here. • USPS tracking is not as comprehensive or robust as the tracking offered by UPS, but it usually will provide date and time notification of "Acceptance" (package pickup from us), "Arrival" (package arrival at your local PO) and "Delivery" (package delivery to you). Your USPS package can be tracked here. Some Final Notes on Shipping • Upon special request, we can ship UPS orders to you with the UPS shipping cost billed directly to your company's existing UPS account. Your order will then contain no shipping charges from us--UPS will bill you directly for shipping. • We do not use FedEx for shipping. We have found that UPS provides better, more affordable shipping than FedEx. • Our shopping cart imposes a 15 lb. weight limit per shipping box. If your order weighs more than this, additional boxes are specified. If we are able to consolidate your order into fewer boxes, we will do so. • We do our best to pack our products as sturdily as possible, but if UPS delivers a package to you with obvious shipping damage, such that the contents also appear to be damaged or missing, refuse it (do not sign for it). UPS will notify us of this refusal, the damaged package will be returned to us and we will resend your order. • If UPS fails to deliver any 2nd Day Air or Next Day Air package on time due to an avoidable error on their part, we will file a claim with UPS and refund the shipping cost of your order to you. Be aware that UPS does not consider weather-related delays or airplane mechanical problems to be "avoidable."
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