Return Shipping Details and Requests
You’ve made the exciting and bold decision to mail your quilt across the country to take advantage of our services, thank you!! We know a lot of folks have questions about their packages coming home.
Charges: We charge a flat $15 to ship your quilt home. Any other quilt we can fit in the same box is just an additional $5. This will be automatically added to your invoice based on how many quilts you’ve sent and how many boxes it takes to send them home.
Once it is time for the quilt to come home it is also time to think about whether or not you have any special requests for your return shipping. The two main elements we encourage you to think about are whether or not to purchase extra insurance on the return package as well as requesting a certain level of shipping or a specific carrier.
Baseline:
We work to find that balance between speed and cost when printing return labels as we charge a simple flat rate for your return shipping. About 95% of our packages are now sent UPS. Regardless of how we ship, we always choose an option that has $100 of insurance and estimates no more than 5 business days to arrive.
Requesting A Specific Service or Carrier:
Should you feel strongly about us using a particular service or vendor you are more than welcome to make that request. The timing of this request is important - we have the most success of honoring this if it is made AFTER your initial invoice is received but BEFORE you have paid it. This ensures that request is at our fingertips during the packing and shipping process and does not get lost in the shuffle of the earlier stages of our processes. Please make your request in writing, via email, after you’ve looked over your initial invoice. Again, please do not pay until these additional arrangements are confirmed. Invoices that are paid are assumed good to go home and we do not necessarily know additional requests may be sitting in our email.
If the cost and effort to honor your request is comparable to our normal process, great! If not then we can easily add that difference to your invoice.
Additional Insurance:
All packages shipped from TCQ include $100 of insurance but it is understandable that you might want more. First, read through all the information below. If you decide you would like more than the $100, simply notify TCQ in writing, via email, confirming that you would like additional insurance as well as the amount to be purchased BEFORE YOU PAY THE INVOICE. Once an invoice is paid we assume that box is ready for shipping and we do not necessarily know to check to see if additional insurance has been requested. Insurance must be added at the time we purchase the label, and while technically we can cancel the label and repurchase it, there is the likelihood it has already been dropped off at the post office and at that point it is too late.
Here are a few things to consider:
Every box we mail has an automatic $100 of insurance included. Adding more is an additional charge. For the sake of speed and simplicity of updating your invoice and getting your quilt back to you, we charge two different flat rates to add additional insurance to your package, depending on the amount you request. Once that is added to your invoice we will resend the email and you may then pay the full amount.
$5 additional charge for insurance requests up to $500.
$10 additional charge for insurance requests between $500-1000
Over $1000 - we will cross that bridge if anyone requests it.
It is important to insure the package for an accurate amount. Should the worst happen and you need to file a claim, you will be required to provide documentation that the contents were worth the amount for which they were insured. It is easy to know the amount of your longarming costs as that is something recently documented. It’s not at all unreasonable to add insurance for at least that much. However, should you decide to insure for as much as you feel the quilt is worth, or what you’ve invested in it, you’ll need to be prepared to provide receipts for fabric and other expenses to justify that dollar amount should you have to file a claim.
With some services, insuring for over $500 means a signature is required for delivery. This means you will either need to be home to sign for your package or you will need to make a trip to your local post office/UPS office to collect your package.
TCQ does our absolute best on our end to ensure a successful return of your package; after all, it’s in our best interest as well. We pack your quilts in plastic for water protection and then box them up in new USPS boxes or reliable brown boxes. We add a TCQ sticker for a little bit of excitement when the package arrives, but also for easy identification should the mailing service need to locate it. However, once it leaves our custody we no longer have any control of it. While we will do our best to assist and support you in your documentation gathering as well as identification of the box and its contents, that’s about as much as we can do. It is the delivery service’s responsibility to get it to you safely. It is your responsibility to follow up with the service and file claims should that become necessary. (Click here for what to do should your package be delayed or lost.)
We hope this helps inform you of the options you have and how to take advantage of them successfully with TCQ. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns at any stage of the process and we will do our best to evaluate and assist in a productive manner. Thanks so much!!
Lilo and the TCQ Family
