Last Updated: January 20, 2022
Shipping Policy
How long until my item ships? Typically, I will be able to submit your package to the postal system within one calendar week.
How long until my item arrives? Your package may take up to 3 months to arrive. It may also arrive in as little as two weeks. Around one month is typical depending on what country you live in.
Do you offer tracked shipping? NO. All packages are shipped using the cheapest possible untracked shipping using the simplest possible packing method to keep costs low. At this time, no other shipping methods are offered.
European Union & VAT Considerations
European Union VAT is NOT be collected at time of sale, and all packages will be shipped without a VAT registration number. In these cases, the European Union customs authorities will require a payment of VAT for the item before is released to customers residing in EU member countries. The exact VAT rate due will depend on which EU member country you live in. Often, you will also be charged a 'customs broker' fee on top of the VAT fee by the local mail delivery service that actually delivers the package to you. This fee can be as low as 5 EUR, but sometimes the fees can be surprisingly large. You can find many examples of people who were unpleasantly surprised by surprise customs charges.
Customs & Duties
International sales may be subject to additional charges for customs & import charges.
Return Policy
You can return any item that you purchase within 30 days of receiving the item for a full refund. The cost of return shipping will be at the buyers expense. Before returning an item to me, please reach out to me at 'info@robertelder.org' to request a refund and discuss shipping arrangements.
Damaged & Lost Package Policy
What if my item arrives damaged? If your item arrives damaged, please reach out to me at 'info@robertelder.org' with photographic descriptions of the damage and we can come to an agreement to make sure you are satisfied. This may mean offering a refund, or shipping a replacement (provided replacement stock is available).
What if my item never arrives? I have experienced surprisingly high successful delivery rates even with untracked shipping. If your item is taking a long time to arrive, I may ask you to wait up to 3 months before we declare it lost. If your item is declared lost in the mail, I will work with you to arrive at a satisfactory outcome. This may mean offering a refund, or shipping a replacement (provided replacement stock is available).
Historical Data On Shipping Times
Here is some empirical data on shipping times that I gathered from this kickstarter campaign that I ran. This should give you an idea of how long your package may take to arrive:
In total I mailed out 171 untracked packages, and 49 people explicitly communicated with me to let me know when their package arrived. Using these 49 data points, I produced the graph above. 2020-03-18 was the date when I mailed all of the packages, and each colored bar represents how many packages arrived on that day for people in a specific country. The countries are denoted above by their two-letter country codes.
- The graph above shows the arrival times of the package for the 49 people who explicitly confirmed to me that their package arrived.
- 1 package to Slovakia was returned to me with an 'Address not in use' sticker. The customer said it was an issue with the post office and that I need not bother trying to re-send the package.
- 1 package was returned to me with a 'no forwarding address' sticker. I messaged the customer, but they never responded.
- 1 package was destined for Brazil. The first package did not arrive, so I sent another one. The customer did not responded to my attempts to confirm whether the second package ever arrived or not.
- For the 119 people did not let me know when their package arrived, I simply assumed that it arrived safely.
