How long before I get my stinking teas?
Online orders are usually shipped within 4-5 business days. I say “usually” because more often than not, we shoot for 3 business days. Each order is hand-blended so you can imagine that during crazy seasonal surges we might have to sneak an extra day in there, but if we feel there will be any sort of a delay above 5 days, we’ll email you.
STANDARD FLAT RATE SHIPPING
Currently, flat rate shipping is $5. I say currently because the USPS rates have been jumping up like a kangaroo who stepped on a pop-top at Jimmy Buffet’s beach party! We have and will continue to hold that course, but like many things in life, sometimes we have to jack a price or two up to stay afloat.
RUSH ORDERS
Please inquire if a rush order is available. If we can sneak it in towards the front of the line with our current production schedule, we’ll gladly do so on us but if we have to juggle folks around after regular hours, which is a added cost for us – we might have to tack on a few dollars depending on the size/complexity of the order. It never hurts to drop us an email inquiring about that “Damn, I forgot her birthday again!” situation and we’ll let you know either way ASAP if we can help. Keep in mind, we do offer gift certificates that can be emailed right to the person (whom you totally forgot about) as an option. Email brian@designatea.com to inquire on rush orders.
USPS/UPS
Most orders are shipped through the United States Postal Service with a tracking number emailed to the email address used on the original order. We sometimes utilize UPS for larger orders with a UPS tracking number emailed. Please contact us for RUSH delivery – a charge may apply. Keep in mind, once the package is out of our hands we have no control of its location. Sometimes tracking shows the last place it was, but en-route scans get missed. If you have any tracking issues, please reach out to your local post office. Most won’t talk to or deal directly with a business regarding delivery/tracking information – even if we are the coolest company in the world.
RETURNED ITEMS
Packages returned due to incorrect or incomplete address information which was entered on the original order/shipping form will result in an additional S/H charge. If your package is delivered by the mail or delivery service to the wrong address (their bad) – give us a call and we’ll see if we can work something out. In many cases for us, to reship an entire order and eat the shipping twice – we take a loss so many times we’ll have the shipping covered by the customer, but those are fun details we can wrestle over so give us a call.
CANADIAN & INTERNATIONAL ORDERS
We ship our teas all over the world (as long as your country has no restrictions), but because shipping costs can be out of this world for international parcels; we ask that you contact us first and we can get you a shipping estimate in USD before proceeding with any order. All we would need in that email is an estimated order size (2 larges, 1 small, etc.) for a weight and a shipping address.
Design a Tea wants to believe that the working conditions, wages and benefits are fair and equitable for the growers of our teas. We are proud to say that our tea suppliers are members of the ETP Ethical Tea Partnership organization. An organization that monitors and regulates living and working conditions on tea estates around the world. For more visit www.ethicalteapartnership.org. ETP has formed alliances with RainForest Alliance and Fairtrade organization.