INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING INFORMATION

This page details available International shipping methods and explains the shipping policies at One Stop Candle.

NOTE: For orders within the United States please see our U.S. Shipping Information here.

We strive to make shopping with One Stop the most pleasant experience possible. Our management and staff has a combined total of over 50 years of mail order operation experience. Our policy is 100% honesty with our customers and no exaggerated claims. The information below details exactly what you can expect regarding order processing, turnaround time, and transit time.

Index:

• Ship Out Time

• Shipping Costs

• Customs

• Service Comparison Chart

• General International Shipping Information

• United States Postal Service (USPS)

• Missing Packages

• Other US

Ship Out Time

Our order turnaround time is very fast, however it varies depending on the shipping method selected. Note that the times shown below are the typical time it takes to get the package out and do not reflect the transit time which depends on the shipping method selected and is explained in the relevant area of this page.

Orders are processed in the evening for packing the following working day. Orders arriving before 5 PM EST (New York time / GMT -5), are normally packed the following day. Orders arriving later will often add one day to the times shown below.

• USPS Global Priority Mail and Global Express Mail Service - Normally ships on the second day.
• USPS First Class Mail- The least efficient method. First class mail always has to be carried to the post office and only ships on Saturdays. The cutoff time for each week's post office trip is Thursday at 5PM Eastern Time. First class mail orders placed after the cutoff time will ship the following Saturday.

Exceptions - The information above is the normal time it takes to get your order out to you and applies to most orders.

• On rare occasions it may take longer due to high order volume such as right before major holidays or after a holiday when we were closed. Normally we are closed on all national holidays.
• Shipping of Priority and Express packages is arranged through the US Postal service electronic manifest. This works for most destination countries, however not all countries. Packages to countries that cannot be entered this way have to be carried to the post office on Saturdays as noted above for first class mail.

Note: Priority Mail and Express Mail are the names used by the Postal Service for their various services and do not imply any special handling on our part - we strive to get all orders out in a timely manner.

Shipping Costs

Shipping charges are determined by package weight and destination. Our software calculates the shipping costs by looking up the rates on the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) online rate charts and presents a menu of all available shipping options to your destination with cost. Not all shipping options appear for all destinations due to availability and cost (options with prohibitive cost are omitted).

Shipping quotes before checkout may be obtained by clicking the Basket link at the top of any page on our site. Once on your basket page, click the calculate shipping button and fill in your destination information to obtain a quote. Note: If you sign in to your account first, the shipping quote destination will be filled in automatically.

Our web site is configured to calculate the correct costs for 99.9% of all shipments, however there are several instances when a correction may be required. Note that in cases where a correct price is not quoted - your account is not billed until we issue a correct quotation and receive an authorization from you.

• Exceptionally heavy shipments may not calculate properly due to shipper restrictions. If you receive an "Unable to calculate shipping costs" message this means that the software is unable to make an accurate shipping calculation. Continue with checkout, you will be contacted with the shipping cost when your order is processed by our office. Your credit card is not billed on these until we send an updated invoice and receive a confirmation from you, so watch for the follow up invoice from our office.
• Bulky, lightweight shipments by air - Air shipping is charged by a combination of dimensional volume and weight. For the vast majority of our products this does not make a difference, and the shipping calculates correctly. However for bulky objects with a low weight, the cost to ship via air may be higher. The most common products affected by this are dipping vats, plastic molds, and paper / cardboard items such as votive boxes. Recent changes by the Postal Service make this effective for Priority and Express mail. Your credit card is not billed on these until we send an updated invoice and receive a confirmation from you, so watch for a follow up notice from our office.

Customs

Customs - All international packages will need to pass through the customs office of your destination country. The rules and regulations vary from one country to the next - we suggest contacting your customs office to learn the details before ordering to avoid unpleasant surprises. This has several implications:

• Customs may delay your package as long as they feel necessary - we have no control over this and you will need to work with your customs office if this happens.
• Your countries' customs office may impose fees on import shipments - these are not included in the shipping charge.
• Your shipment may be subject to import duty, border fees, or other taxes imposed by your country- these are not included in the shipping charge.
• Your customs office may require you to hire a customs broker - a business that will process your order through customs. This commonly applies only to large shipments, but regulations vary by country. Cost is not included in the shipping charge.
• Some countries do not impose any fees or duty on small postal shipments - you may wish to determine if this applies to your country and size your orders accordingly.
• We do not offer any products that are not legal to export from the U.S., however your country may have restrictions about what products are legal to import which differ from U.S. regulations. Please check this before ordering.
• Falsifying customs documents is fraud - we will not prepare shipments with false information.
• Our shipping charges cover the cost of preparing and shipping your order only and do not include any fees, taxes, or additional postage imposed by your country. Note: In many countries this shipping charge will only cover the cost to arrive at your customs office, and your post office may charge additional postage from the customs office to your post office - we have no control over this.

Service Comparison Chart

General International Shipping Information

Orders to other countries are normally shipped via the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) as the cost of other methods is quite prohibitive. Shipping time may range from a week to several weeks depending on the shipping method you choose. International shipping charges include only the cost of shipping and may incur additional charges imposed by your country. There are several important things to note about shipping internationally:

International Shipping Quotes - Our web site is set up to look up postal rates to anywhere in the world, and an instant shipping quote can be had by placing the products in your shopping basket then clicking the Basket link at the top of any page on our site. Once on your basket page, click the calculate shipping button and fill in your destination information to obtain a quote. Note: If you sign in to your account first, the shipping quote destination will be filled in automatically. Our software looks up the rates on the USPS online rate charts.

Tracking - Be aware that the postal service offers electronic tracking only on select (higher priced) shipping methods such as Express services. No form of electronic tracking at all is available for most postal services. Priority mail only supplies a delivery confirmation number and even when this works it can only be used to find out if the package has been delivered, not to track it. Please do not shrug this off - do not expect postal shipments to be trackable or even to have any form of unique ID number.

Freight Consolidators - Some of our larger international customers prefer to use a freight consolidator for savings on shipping cost. This is usually most economical on orders over 100 pounds (45 kilos). A freight consolidator generally will have locations in your country and the United States. They accumulate shipments for many recipients then combine them into a shipping container for delivery to your country usually at a large savings to you. Some consolidators ship by air and some by ship (much slower). Shipments to freight consolidators within the U.S. can be sent via UPS (recommended) or USPS.

Other Shipping Methods - We do not maintain accounts with international courier services and do not export on our UPS account. If you wish to use these methods via your own account we can prepare the shipment and notify you when it is ready for pickup by your selected courier. There is no shipping charge for this service, however a 2.00 per shipment handling fee will be charged by us. If you wish to have a courier shipment you will need to let us know your account number and let us know as soon as possible after placing the order. Our sales department can be contacted at or with this form.

Important Note: There is a high incidence of packages to some international destinations being returned to us undelivered. This occurs most often on packages to the UK and Canada, but can happen anywhere. This seems to be from mail carriers not delivering it and failing to notify the addressee that it is at the post office. We highly recommend keeping in touch with your local post office and your mail carrier if you are expecting a package that seems overdue.

USPS - United States Postal Service

For international packages the postal service is the most economical in most cases. Our main dislikes of shipping via postal service are their nearly non existent tracking system, varying pick up practices, and lack of delivery guarantees. In spite of this, the postal service is a viable option for most international shipments if you are willing to do without tracking.

Tracking - Be aware that the postal service offers electronic tracking only on select (higher priced) shipping methods such as Express services. No form of electronic tracking at all is available for most postal services. If you are on a time frame and being able to track shipments is important - consider providing us with a courier service account. Priority mail only supplies a delivery confirmation number and even when this works it can only be used to find out if the package has been delivered, not to track it. Please do not shrug this off - do not expect postal shipments to be trackable or even to have any form of unique ID number.

Delivery Guarantee - You may find this hard to believe but there is None, Zero, Nada, etc... for most services (and I have my doubts about the others). Reading the fine print about postal services will show that you should not expect anything in the way of a delivery guarantee.

Lost or missing packages - Although with few exceptions no electronic tracking is available, since we insure Priority and Express Mail the packages are traceable manually. Tracing postal shipments takes a minimum of 6 weeks and usually longer. This involves waiting 30 days from date of shipment , filing papers at the post office, then waiting several weeks while they correspond with other post offices. This slow tracing has been the source of a high degree of fraud as well as unintentional duplicated shipments and because of that our policy is not to replace or refund such shipments until the post office has finished its investigation.

NOTE: International shipments via First Class Mail are not insurable or trackable and are shipped at the buyers risk. We highly advise use of a different shipping method on any packages of substantial value.

Ship Out Times - The postal service will only pick up priority and express shipments without charging an exorbitant fee. Because of this we ship USPS three times weekly. All First Class Mail are shipped on Saturday when we drag them over to the post office. Keep this in mind when selecting USPS shipment as it may delay your order several days. Orders received by 5 PM (New York Time) on Thursdays will ship Saturday.

Postal Shipment Benefits

• Much lower cost on international shipments.
• Small postal shipments often pass through customs with less cost or difficulty (varies by country).
• Small postal shipments often pass through customs without hiring a customs broker (varies by country).

Postal Shipment Drawbacks

• No electronic tracking.
• No guaranteed delivery times on most services.
• Less frequent ship outs.
• Slow tracing of lost or destroyed shipments.
• First class mail is not insurable and shipped at buyers risk if you choose this shipping method.

Transit Times - The following transit times are what we have found to be typical for postal shipments - in business days from day of shipment (not the date order is placed). The day of shipment, Saturdays and Sundays are not included in these times. These times vary from those published by the postal service and reflect what our experience has shown to be typical. Note: None of the delivery times shown below are guaranteed.

Missing Packages

Infrequently, a package becomes lost or totally destroyed in transit. Although this is an inconvenience when it happens, there is nothing we can do to prevent it. All packages are packed to withstand the normal abuses of transport, however sometimes boxes get crushed by machinery or vehicles and no amount of packaging material can protect them from such a fate.

Note: First Class Mail packages are not insurable and shipped at buyers risk. All other packages are insured, the order will be refunded or replaced at your option subject to the following policy:

As soon as the Postal Service acknowledges either the loss or destruction of the package we will immediately reship or refund (your choice) the order. This may mean a time frame of several days to several months depending on the carrier based on the following:

• UPS - Only on shipments to U.S. Destinations such as freight consolidators. Usually a few days. Note: if you track a UPS package and the tracking information shows an "exception" contact our sales department immediately at or with this form. Exception in this case is anything not routine for a package. It may mean anything from a damaged carton to an incorrect address label, but we will be able to enquire about it sooner this way.
• US Postal Service - Tracing packages usually takes a minimum of 2 - 4 weeks and cannot be started until 30 days after date of shipment. We have had this take as long as 3 months on international shipments, although it is usually less.
• Freight consolidator - Same as UPS or USPS above until it is delivered to the freight consolidator. If you choose to ship via a forwarder or consolidator, our responsibility ends when the package is delivered to them and any claims after that will need to be made with them.
• Courier Service - If you choose to have a courier service or trucking company pick up your shipment, our responsibility ends when they pick it up and sign for it. Any claims should be directed to the courier service.

We regret that this strict policy is necessary, however due to a common scam with certain shipping methods and to prevent duplicate shipping of slightly slow packages it has become necessary.

Other U.S.

If you are in a country served by the U.S. Postal Service such as Puerto Rico, Guam, Etc... please refer to the U.S. Shipping Information Page.

Important Note: There is a high incidence of packages to some of these destinations being returned to us undelivered. This occurs most often on packages to Puerto Rico, but can happen anywhere. This seems to be from mail carriers not delivering it and failing to notify the addressee that it is at the post office. We highly recommend keeping in touch with your local post office if you are expecting a package and live in one of these destinations.

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