www.bluemoonantiqueshop.com

Purchasing, Shipping, Layaway & Policies 

Expect possible delays of 24 hours on shipments beginning December 16, 2015 and continuing until January 5, 2016, when we should return to our normal shipping schedule.

Purchasing

Credit card purchases are by PayPal ONLY;  if you are not registered with PayPal, there is no way for me to accept credit card purchases.  To register, go to www.paypal.com and sign up. Follow the prompts to set up your free account with PayPal based on a credit card or your checking account.  When you are ready to purchase, email me with your selections and your zipcode (so that I can calculate shipping,) telling me that you are using PayPal and I will send you a PayPal invoice including the cost of shipping to your location.

Payments for items on the website can also be made by way of check or money order by regular mail.  You can call me or email me with your selections, at which time I will give you a total including shipping.  You can mail me a check or money order, and upon receipt of your payment, your items will be sent to you.  The time period for invoices paid for by mail will be seven days, not including weekends.  Payments by PayPal must be paid within 3 days of my invoice.  When payments are by PayPal, I am informed as to whether it is an instant payment by way of an online balance or credit card, or if it is a payment by electronic check, which takes longer.  If your PayPal account is tied to your checking account, I will of course wait for PayPal to send me the notice of payment cleared, and your items will be in no danger of being returned to stock because of PayPal’s foot-dragging with e-checks.

Shipping

Most shipping will be by way of USPS Priority Mail Flat Rate packaging, whether Domestic or International. On those rare occasions where regular USPS Priority Mail (not Flat Rate) packaging works out substantially less expensive, I will ship that way. 

All Domestic packages will have Tracking Numbers so that you can see the progress of the package on the way to you by clicking the "Track" button next to the item in your PayPal account. 

All International packages will also be by way of USPS Priority Mail (unless you request and pay the additional charges for Express Mail) and will generally also go by way of Flat Rate packaging; it is extremely rare for an International package to be less expensive by regular Priority Mail packaging, but I do always check to make sure. 

International Mail packages will have a Customs Barcode Number, which is NOT a tracking number. Information found with the CBN is usually very limited and usually not available after the package arrives at any one of the five main International Sorting Centers where it will begin its journey out of the US to your destination.  If you need to be able to actually track an International package all the way to your destination, Registered Mail will be necessary; there is an additional charge from USPS for this service and it is not available to all countries. 

Whether Domestic or International, please understand that I have absolutely NO control over any package once it leaves my hands.  When you check the package's progress at the USPS website, as soon as you see "Acceptance" in the "STATUS OF YOUR ITEM" column, it means I have no further control over or responsibility for your package.  At this point, it is entirely up to the postal system.

I have no control over which sorting facility a package goes to, no way to speed up the process and no information on the package that is different, better or more current than the information you access by way of going to the USPS website to track your package.  If someone asks me to locate their package, I go to the USPS website and put in the tracking number; it is the same information that you get when you click the "Track" button at the end of the transaction line in your PayPal account. 

That being said, I will say that I have NEVER had a package go missing.  There are sometimes delays that result from holidays, extra-heavy mail volume and some delays that are unexplained.  On behalf of the USPS I can apologize for that, but there is nothing I can do to change it.  Fortunately, these instances are rare.

Layaway

Layaway is a simple matter; 20% of the total price will hold your item in layaway to start.  The total cost of the item determines the time period allowed for layaway and the amount that must be paid every 30 days to keep it there up to a maximum of 120 days (or more by special arrangement) for higher priced items.  As with outright purchases, there are no refunds on layaway items or any of the monies deposited by you toward the potential purchase of the item.  If the item is not paid out, all payments are forfeit.  I will require an address and a phone number that is not attached to an answering machine for all layaways.  This is to allow me to remind you either by phone or by mail in the event that you forget about your layaway.  You would be stunned to know how often this happens!  Items in layaway will be removed from the selling floor of the shop and carefully packed away until such time as you retrieve them.  The item will still appear on the website, with the word 'HOLD' in bold blue print at the end of the description.  Items paid in full will have 'SOLD' in bold red until such time as I remove the item from the site.

Website Purchasing Etiquette

I am handling website customers simultaneously with customers here in the shop, and I am easily able to keep track of who wants what.  The problem comes in when a website customer asks to be invoiced for items they have chosen and I send the invoice and hear nothing back from that customer.  If you elect NOT to purchase, email me about it so that I can release the items to other customers, which is the same courtesy that you would want others to extend to you. PLEASE; when you request an invoice, I always send it, so let me know even if you decide NOT to complete the purchase so that I can keep my other customers happy too.  There is no insult intended toward anyone; I am asking only that you please take my website as seriously as you would my real world shop which is open seven days a week.  In any real world shop, if you don’t take your items to the cashier and pay for them, they are still available to other shop customers for purchasing.

How & Why Summary

I attempt to keep my prices well within the range of affordability for the average person.  I achieve this by not accepting returns.  My shop is a one-person operation, meaning that not only am I alone responsible for all of the purchasing and overhead, but that my entire income and ability to continue to provide you with wonderful things comes from the items I sell in the shop and on the website.  Because of this, ALL items are considered "Final Sale", whether in the shop or on the website.  I do not accept returns of any kind for any reason.  This keeps prices reasonable, as with this policy I do not incur the expense of restocking a 'buyer's remorse' item or of disappointing a customer because the item they wanted was currently being 'borrowed' for a weekend party.  I do not worry about this policy in terms of how it may affect sales for one simple reason; when a customer is interested in buying something only with the proviso that it can be returned, they have no intention of keeping the item in the first place and therefore should be shopping in a less exclusive shop.  The cost of accepting returns is built into the prices of items sold by businesses that accept returns, so you are subsidizing the indecisiveness and dishonesty of other shoppers.  Those who do not return things should not pay the expenses for those who do. Any questions regarding policies or items on the website will be answered within hours or less by way of email, or instantly by phone, whatever your choice.  I hope you enjoy the website, and I do hope you get a chance to visit the shop in person.  I always have the coffee on; or if you wish, I will brew you a cup of my lovely tea!

It is my intention to make sure that the website serves everyone in a timely fashion that is fair to all.  With your cooperation, it will be so.  Thank you so much!

Angie