Required By Dates

When ordering your products on our website do you ever wonder how the REQUIRED BY DATE box works? Our dialog with Rebecca helped us learn that some of you may have questions about this service. Rebecca wrote to us “I will mention that the ‘required by date’ field made me really nervous, it read like a blank check option.”

We don’t like writing blank checks and we imagine you don’t either! So, let me explain a few things you should know about our REQUIRED BY DATE box.

1) This box is a calendar and not a free text option. You choose the date and it is specific. Why not a text box? Because we have had people enter the date they are placing their order when the order is submitted at 11PM. Umm, sorry folks, we are not pizza delivery and while we think we can perform magic, we can’t perform this kind of magic.

2) The REQUIRED BY DATE box does not allow weekends. Since the majority of everything we ship goes UPS we honor their practice of delivery on Monday through Friday. UPS has so few delivery holidays that service is really pretty smooth. USPS has far more holidays but they also deliver Saturday. Consider Saturday USPS delivery a bonus day.

3) How will you know the costs of upgrade? Look at the costs with each delivery method. If you need Next Day Air then the costs will be shown to you during checkout. Costs associated with all delivery options (except freight truck) are shown in the Choose a Shipping Method step of checkout.

4) If we can get your order there without any upgrade (and no additional costs) we will. We try to spend your money as though it were our own. If you live in a area that has delivery in two days using ground shipping and you tell us to upgrade to 2nd Day Air, we won’t. We send it Ground. It gets there the same day.

5) UPS has a time in transit guarantee, USPS does not. USPS has a * and then a disclaimer stating that the average delivery is in 2-3 days. It is a rare package that leaves our facility going USPS Expedited Guaranteed. Most of you don’t live in these areas and if you do we find you aren’t happy with shipping rates anyway and are more likely to plan ahead. Why is it that folks who live in rural areas tend to be less stressed about time and those of us who live in dense cities live by a “New York minute”? If anyone has a cure for instant-itis I would love to hear it.

6) If your date is 2 weeks out, tell us that too. If UPS damages the package and we must reship then we ask for expedited services because you ordered in advance AND told us your requirements. We always get UPS to pay these charges when damages happen (which is rare) but by telling us of any requirements you open our options to replace your order faster.

7) We never hold orders to wait for your required by date, we just ship. If you need one held because you are traveling and you want it to arrive on the same day you get home then we can do that. Use the comments field to request a specific delivery date for when you are available. Remember, delaying a shipment for appropriate receiving dates is a far different service than having a REQUIRED BY DATE.

So, now you have 7 helpful hints to get your orders to you on specific days. We do understand RUSH shipments but we also know they eat up profits faster than anything else you can do. We try to choose wisely and make this a reliable, yet cost efficient, process.

Happy holidays!