Over the couple last years we have seen the quality of service provided by the USPS degrade. We have always tried to provide a rapid turn around from receipt of your order to having on its way to you. We have traditionally relied upon USPS Priority Mail as the fastest means to get your order to your home. A key part of this is having the mail carrier pick up the package from our location in a timely manner.
Although we can schedule pickups to aid in this action, this must be done a full day in advance. What would be a two day period from when we receive your order to when you receive it become a 3 or 4 day period. A clearly defined secure area for the mail carrier to quickly retrieve the package when they deliver mail is being utilized. This is not happening. In fact, it is not happening even when we schedule the pickup. Our only means to ensure we get your package into the USPS system is to take it to a local Post Office, which is not feasible to do on a daily basis as the nearest office is not exactly easy for me to access.
Within recent months, the USPS has introduced a new tier of service called USPS Ground Advantage. It carries many of the same benefits as Priority Mail, mainly included insurance up to $100. Where it differs is the timeline to deliver. Priority Mail offers 2 days to most the country, 3 to more rural areas. Ground Advantage can be 4 days or more depending on distance/zone. In both plans, postage increases the further it needs to travel.
Our plan is to use Ground Advantage wherever possible as it is less expensive and allows us to keep our Shipping Fees down. For the majority of our customers, they will still see a 2 day turnaround from when the carrier obtains the package to when it will be at your door.
Although we strive to get packages to you as quickly as possible, we cannot offer a guarantee to when you will receive your order. There is no certainty with any of these methods that even the typical delivery time will be met by the carrier. Nor can we rely upon the fact that the carrier will retrieve the package within 24 hours of the packaging being made available for pickup.
The new process and what is changing
We will continue to process orders for shipping Monday through Friday to be shipped as quickly as possible. Any order we receive by 11:00am CST will be processed to ship with the next available pickup – which may be the same day. If the order is received by us after 11:00am CST, we will process the order as quickly as possible and have it scheduled for pickup the next business day.
The intent will be to have packages made available for pickup each day. If the carrier opts to not take receipt of the package or otherwise are not picked up that day, we will schedule a pickup for the following day. As long as it is scheduled that day, the carrier will be expected to pick up the packages. If the carrier still refuses to take the packages, we will set them aside to take them to the nearest USPS Office. Also, if weight or quantity of packages is significant enough to be problematic for the mail carrier, we will hold packages to be taken to the local US Post Office on Tuesday sand Fridays between 1:00pm and 4:00pm CST to ensure you get your packages as quickly as possible. This may be affected by harsh winter conditions.
To know the stage or processing your order ans whether or not it has entered into the USPS system we have noted stages for processing orders. Once an order is paid and accepted your order is marked as PROCESSING. This means the order is in our system and ready for us to pick and pack. Once we mark an order as SHIPPED it means it is no longer in our possession and has been given to or accepted by the carrier. COMPLETED means that the order has been processed and shipping label generated but still in our possession. There may be a gap of time before we mark an order as COMPLETED when it is no longer in our possession as we must confirm carrier receipt before we can manually change the status.
Every order will be evaluated for what is the best timing vs costs to get the order to you. We will choose between USPS Ground Advantage and USPS Priority Mail for all shipments. If another means of shipping is desired, please contact us before placing your order to discuss potential options. We cannot guarantee that your preferred option is available.
Also due to costs, we will end our offer for Free Shipping on larger orders. Although we can support this for most orders that are shipping within our USPS Zone, we can not find a means to adjust this service to accommodate the increased costs of shipping the heaviest of orders going to further away Zones. We lose money on orders as small as 3 candles going to California which would qualify for Free Shipping yet cost us $18 in postage alone. We wish to keep the prices of our products and service more reasonable and unilateral to everyone.
These changes will get reflected in our Terms & Conditions as soon as possible. The FREE SHIPPING benefit has already been removed.
Local shoppers can select to pickup their order
Those who wish to save time and not have to pay for shipping can select LOCAL PICKUP at checkout. This will allow you to select an available date and time to pick up your order from the J&L Office without having to pay for shipping.
We do this through appointments to make sure we can be ready for your arrival so we can get your items to you as quickly as possible, and not be involved in other activities that will delay this and make you wait longer. It is also a great way for you to ask questions or provide feedback.