• Next-Day Shipping
  
• Holiday Shipping & Other Delays
  
• Shipping Charges
• Expected Time in Transit
• Premium Shipping Guarantees
• Missing Packages
• International Shipping
• Third-Party Shippers
• Our Return Policy
• Our Packaging
• Out-of-Stock Items
• Our Privacy Policy

Our Next-Day Shipping Promise

• Orders received (and paid for) before 2 pm Eastern Standard Time Monday through Thursday will go out on the next weekday.
• 2nd Day Air, Next-Day Air, and Express Mail orders received before 2 pm will ship the same day.
• Orders received after 2 pm EST go out within two business days.
• Orders received after 2 pm Friday and on Saturdays go out on the following Monday.
• Orders received on Sundays go out on the following Tuesday.
• Postal holidays delay everything by one day.
• Please allow one extra day to process sales outside of the US.

An order is considered filled as soon as it's been shipped. Filled orders cannot be canceled. See our Returns policy for more information about fulfilled orders.

The next-day shipping promise is not a guarantee, but a goal that we strive hard to meet. We frequently manage to ship orders the day they're received, although we can't promise that. Processing international orders often takes an extra day. Circumstances like severe weather sometimes cause unforeseen delays. When we expect delays, we'll let you know about it on our News page. Always check the News page if you're in a particular hurry to receive your order.   


Holiday Shipping and Other Delays

Check our News page for special shipping instructions when a major gift-giving holiday -- Valentine's Day, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, or Christmas -- is approaching. We will list, day by day, the best options to ensure that your order arrives in time for the holiday.

Our normal 48-hour turnaround time is delayed by one day on these postal holidays:

• New Year's Day
  
• Martin Luthur King Day
  
• Presidents Day
  
• Patriots Day
  
• Memorial Day
  
• Independence Day
  
• Labor Day
  
• Columbus Day
  
• Veterans Day
  
• Thanksgiving Day
  
• Christmas Day

Severe weather and other states of emergency also cause occasional shipping delays. Always check our News page if you are in a hurry to receive your order.


Shipping Charges

We calculate delivery charges from real-time lookup tables provided by UPS and the United States Postal Service (USPS). We endeavor to charge you our actual shipping cost, based upon the expected parcel weight and size. We add a very small handling fee (currently 60 cents) to cover our packaging costs. We do not profit from shipping fees.

Why doesn't Curio City offer free shipping? Well, we do have free shipping on some high-value, lightweight products like jewelry. Subscribers to our newsletter occasionally get special free shipping offers. Generally speaking, though, shipping is our biggest cost of doing business. Very large shippers can negotiate special bulk rates with preferred carriers -- that's why they only offer you UPS or FedEx or DHL. Mom-and-pop shops like us pay the same retail price that you pay to mail something. Many companies inflate their regular prices by 15-20% to offer "free" shipping. We prefer to keep our prices honest, let you pick your preferred carrier, and show you the real price of shipping.


Expected Transit Times

According to UPS and the USPS, you can plan on the following transit times:

Express Mail: 1 - 2 days, guaranteed.*
Priority Mail: 2 - 3 days. Usually your best option
First Class Mail: 2 - 4 days, restricted to parcels under 13 ounces (370 grams)
Parcel Post: 4 - 7 days (but see note below). Usually the cheapest
UPS Ground: 3 - 5 days. Includes package tracking. Weekdays only.
UPS 2nd Day Air: 2 weekdays, guaranteed**
UPS Next Day Air: Next weekday, guaranteed**

*To discover the guaranteed transit time for Express Mail, go here. Select "package". Enter 02184 for the sender's zip code. The "shipping time" will be 5 PM EST tomorrow (weekdays only). If our same-day shipping policy is in effect (see the top of this page), your package might ship on the same day that you place your order. Generally speaking, Express Mail takes one weekday for destinations east of the Mississippi and two weekdays for points west.

**See the next section for conditions of the carrier's delivery guarantees.

"Days" means Monday through Friday. Start counting from tomorrow when you are estimating delivery times. UPS doesn't deliver on weekends and won't deliver to post office boxes. The farther you are from the East Coast of the US, the more likely it is for your package to take a little longer to get there. Severe weather and natural disasters often impose shipping delays. Monday postal holidays routinely delay shipping for one day.

The times listed above are guidelines, not guarantees. Only Express Mail and UPS air services are guaranteed, and even those guarantees are suspended during the week of Christmas (see next section).

Although the USPS claims a 7-day transit time for parcel post, we have seen packages take as long as 20 days in the continental US during the Christmas season. Alaska and Hawaii can take over 30 days. Be patient if you choose parcel post.

Remember that UPS doesn't deliver on Saturdays. Sometimes an order placed near the end of the week will take longer than you'd think to get there. A 2nd-Day Air order received on Thursday afternoon, for example, won't reach you until the next Tuesday. Priority Mail would be just as quick and much cheaper. 

Some things that we sell might have special shipping restrictions. If we need to ship by some method other than the one you choose, we will e-mail you.

About Premium Shipping Guarantees

UPS 2nd Day Air, UPS Next Day Air, and Express Mail all guarantee delivery within a particular amount of time. Remember that we need a day to process and pack your order before you start counting the days in transit. Remember, too, that neither carrier counts Sundays or holidays, and UPS does not count Saturdays. Sometimes premium shipping takes longer than you would expect. For example: If you order 2nd Day Air on a Thursday, we ship your order on Friday, and UPS won't deliver it until Tuesday. In this example, Priority Mail would arrive at the same time because the USPS works on Saturdays.

(To discover when an Express Mail package will arrive, go to this USPS page. Enter a weight of 5 pounds. Enter 02184 for the "From" zip code, and the next non-holiday weekday for the shipping date. Enter 5 PM for the shipping time. The next page will display the guaranteed arrival time for Express Mail.)

These guarantees are not ironclad. They contain numerous exclusions, such as:

• Disruptions in the air or ground transportation networks, such as weather phenomena and natural disasters
• The unavailability or refusal of a person to accept delivery
• Delays caused by the consignee
• Acts of God
• Public authorities acting with actual or apparent authority on the premises
• Riots, strikes, and other labor disputes
• Civil commotion
• And all other circumstances beyond their control.

Additionally, UPS withdraws all delivery guarantees during the week of Christmas. As you can see, it's very difficult to collect a refund for a package delivered late. 

The carriers are the ones who extend the guarantees and who decide when to honor them. Therefore, Curio City cannot be liable if they fail to deliver on time. If your package arrives late, Curio City will file a claim with the carrier. If the carrier pays our claim, we will cheerfully refund your shipping charge. However, Curio City will not refund your shipping fee if the carrier denies our claim. In our experience, the USPS is more likely to deliver the service that they promise and to pay a refund if they fail to do so. UPS always finds a way to weasel out of their guarantees. If you absolutely need your package right away, we recommend that you choose Express Mail over a UPS air service.

Of course, Curio City will refund your shipping charge if the package is delivered late through some fault of ours.

Neither Curio City nor the carrier is liable for errors on your part, such as an incorrect or incomplete street address.    



When Packages Go Missing

It's rare, but it happens. So we add delivery confirmation to all domestic USPS shipments. That's NOT the same thing as package tracking, though. It merely shows whether your carrier scanned your package at the time of delivery. Packages routinely reach their destinations without ever being shown as entering the mail stream.

If a domestic shipment is not confirmed delivered (or reported undeliverable) within 30 days from the ship date -- that is, if the shipment's whereabouts are unknown -- we file a claim with the carrier (see below for international shipments). They search the sending and receiving facilities. The results of this search determine what happens next. At least 95% of the time, a "lost" package turns up at the receiving post office. If it still cannot be found, Curio City will usually reship your missing order at our expense or refund your purchase (at our discretion). 

After a package is confirmed delivered, or when you are notified of a delivery attempt, that package is no longer the responsibility of Curio City. We aren't liable for packages that are lost or stolen after delivery is confirmed. If an undeliverable package is returned to us, we will contact you for reshipping instructions. Return-to-sender service is typically very slow, so please be patient. There might be an additional charge for shipping the order again.

Make sure that your carrier knows where to leave packages securely (especially if you live in an apartment building). If you don't have a secure place to get packages, consider having your order sent to work, or to a neighbor. If you are shipping your order to somebody else, be sure to tell them that it's coming. As much as we hate to hear about packages that are stolen or lost after delivery, we can't do anything about them. Insurance does not protect you against theft after delivery.

If you want to add an optional service, like signature confirmation, just e-mail us after you place your order, or put a note in the Comments box when you check out. We'll make arrangements before we send out your package. Special shipping arrangements might cost a dollar or two extra.

We insure all shipments valued at over $100 at our own expense.


International Shipping

We'll ship your order almost anyplace the USPS or UPS will take it (except for the high-risk countries listed below).* Third-party shippers might use different carriers (see Third-Party Shippers, below). Be sure to enter your delivery information accurately and completely, and include your telephone number. Orders paid by Paypal must be from a "Non-USA Verified Account" and must ship to the address on your Paypal account.

You might have to pay import duties, fees, taxes, tariffs, or other charges imposed by your government. Such charges can be substantial, and they are not included in your shipping fee. Some Canadian customers have reported being assessed duties approaching 100% of the value of some merchandise. We have absolutely no control over which packages are singled out for inspection or how much your government charges you, and we don't make a dime from such fees. In our experience, UPS shipments are assessed import duties more often than are USPS packages, especially in Canada.  

Our shipping software will present you with the appropriate choices and costs when you check out. The most common options for worldwide shipments are:

• Express Mail International: 3 - 5 days, not available to all countries. Expensive!
• Priority Mail International: 6 - 10 days, usually the most economical option.
• First Class Mail International: 4 - 10 days, availability is restricted**
  
• UPS Standard: Delivery time varies. Only available to Canada
• UPS Worldwide Expedited: 2 days to Canada; 2-3 days to Mexico; 3-4 days to Europe; 4-5 days elsewhere. Expensive!
  

**The USPS does not offer package tracking or delivery confirmation with this service, hence we regrettably stopped offering it.

We ship international orders within 48-72 hours. Although most packages will reach you within 10 days, Customs delays sometimes take up to four weeks. This is unpredictable and beyond our control. The shipping notification email that we send you will include a Customs number for USPS orders, or a tracking number for UPS. You can also get these numbers by logging in to your Curio City account, if you created one when you checked out. Your local Customs office can locate the package using the Customs ID number, or you can follow the UPS shipment at www.ups.com. We cannot trace a package after it clears Customs and enters your country's delivery system. It's up to you to contact your country's Customs department if your package is delayed. International shipments are not considered lost until 60 days from the ship date. If your package is still missing after 60 days, we will ordinarily refund your money. We will not refund your purchase if you gave us an inaccurate or incomplete delivery address, if you did not provide your telephone number at the time of sale, or if the package was undeliverable for any other error of your making.

We might change your chosen shipping method if we can get your package to you faster, more reliably, or more economically. If we do make a change, we'll e-mail you.

If all of that sounds discouraging, rest assured that most international shipments reach their destinations in a timely manner with reasonable or no import duties assessed. 

*We will refuse transactions that appear fraudulent. We will not use private couriers or accept payment from non-standard processors. We might delay shipping your order for several days until your payment is verified. We will not accept any orders from the following high-risk countries: Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Lebanon, Macedonia, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine, or Vietnam.

Third-Party Shippers

Unlike many online merchants, we ship almost everything from our own warehouse. We like the quality control that packing our own shipments gives us. However, sometimes "dropshipping" gets your merchandise to you more quickly and more efficiently than we could do ourselves. Third-party fulfillment is usually transparent to you, but in rare instances you might notice that your Curio City box came from somebody else, or came in two different shipments -- one from us, and one from the dropshipper. Third-party shippers are not bound by our same-day shipping promise and might use carriers other than USPS and UPS.     


Returns Policy

We want you to come back to Curio City again and again. Making a new customer matters more than making a sale. Don't believe us? Read some customer testimonials. Sadly, unscrupulous people commonly abuse unconditional satisfaction guarantees, so we have to lay out a lot of rules. 

If you're disappointed with your order, e-mail Service @ CurioCityOnline.com within 30 days of your order's shipping date and explain the problem. All sales are final after 30 days. If your merchandise is defective, or we sent the wrong thing, we'll refund your money (including postage both ways) or reship your order if we have more available -- it's your choice. If the product is covered by a manufacturer's warranty, we'll give you the necessary contact information to get an exchange from them. We might ask you to return the problem shipment or to send us photos of the claimed damage or defect. We will reimburse your return postage if we made an error, but not if you just changed your mind about your order or decided that you don't like what you bought. You have to return it in its original manufacturer's packaging, and in the same condition in which we sent it out. Packages that were opened, or merchandise that has been used, are never returnable. You will not receive credit for used items or torn packaging, so please don't waste your time and money sending them to us.

We will credit the same account that you originally used to pay. Credits can never exceed the original charge, so we might need to mail you a check for your return postage.

Damage that happens in transit is the carrier's responsibility. Be sure that you keep your shipping materials if you initiate a claim with your local post office or UPS outlet. We will handle the damage claims for premium shipping services.

That's a lot of rules. If you're unhappy for some reason we didn't cover, we will try to find a solution that's both satisfactory to you and reasonable for us. We promise to consider all complaints honestly and fairly, but we do have the final word on how they're handled. 

• No returns will be accepted without prior authorization. Period. You will not receive a refund, nor will we ship the merchandise back to you, if it just shows up here unexpectedly.
  
• You must request authorization within 30 days of your order's ship date. All sales are final after 30 days. You need to provide your order number or equivalent proof of purchase.
  
• Authorization expires 30 days after it is granted, so please return your item promptly.
• If your product is covered by a manufacturer's warranty, you should file your claim with them. We'll give you the contact information.
• Giftwrapping and service charges are never refundable.
• We refund shipping charges, including your return postage, if we made a mistake. We do NOT refund shipping charges if we shipped your order correctly, because we are out that expense.
  
• We can only refund the same account that you originally charged. This is our bank's policy and is not negotiable.
  
• Custom orders may be exchanged if defective; items that are made-to-order (like some jewelry) are never eligible for refunds.

Our Packaging

Curio City practices the "reduce - reuse - recycle" philosophy. We use as little packaging as we can to ensure that your order has a safe trip. We reuse shipping cartons and packing material whenever possible. Your carton might look like it's made a few trips before. It might even have somebody else's name on it. We hope that you'll save the box and send it off on another trip someday, or recycle it properly if it's not suitable for further use. If we run out of packing peanuts, your excelsior might consist of wadded up newspaper. It isn't elegant, but it does the job. These practices mean that we add almost no virgin materials to the waste stream.


Out of Stock Items

Our website is supposed to prevent you from putting anything that we don't have in your shopping cart. Under certain conditions, that safeguard fails (computers are only human, after all). If we do accidentally sell you something we can't supply, we'll promptly contact you for the information we need to refund the charge, including any tax or postage that we collected. If your item can be replenished, we will offer you the choice of placing it on backorder. Upon arrival, we will ship your item(s) at our expense.


Privacy Policy

It's simple and brief: Your contact information won't go beyond Curio City and its parent company, Kraken Enterprises. We only ever use it to conduct business with you. We won't sell, rent, give, loan, share, or discuss your account information with anyone unless we are compelled to do so by law.

When you create an account, you can sign up for the Curio City Chronicle. This newsletter comes out every six to eight weeks, or as news warrants. We hope you'll enjoy reading it and take advantage of its discounts and special offers. If you don't want it, of course, you can unsubscribe with a single click. The Chronicle is what they call an opt-in newsletter. You won't get it unless you sign up.