Shipping Options and Policy
First things first...before a package can ship it must be "handled". This involves getting your order prepped, packed, checked and out the door to the carrier.
Handling times apply to all orders
Please allow up to 3 Business Days (72 business hours) of processing time for your order to be prepared for shipping.
Although many orders will ship sooner, we only commit to ship within our advertised terms. To ensure an urgent order is delivered to you as quickly as possible, we offer a Priority Handling option.
This option ensures that your order will be processed and be handed off to the carrier in 2 business days or less. This is totally different than priority shipping or 2 day air shipping - it actually doesn't effect the shipping or transit time at all - just the processing time.
The Priority Handling Guarantee: If we fail to process your order within two business days, the Priority Handling fee will be refunded (not shipping charges). Priority handling can be selected after 10 AM EST, and it will still guarantee processing within two business days but the day of your order will NOT COUNT as one of those days.
Handling time + Estimated time in transit = The number of days it will take for your package to arrive after we receive your payment.
Business Days and Business Hours
DreadHeadHQ's Business Days Are Monday-Friday (always excluding Saturday and Sunday and all UPS holidays). You may contact us and place orders at any time, on any day, but we will not be able to reply until the following business day. Please give us 24 business hours to respond. Business hours are form 10am EST to 5pm EST and they only occur on business days. =] You're probably thinking "I GET IT ALREADY - business hours are not a new concept!!" ...but every Monday we're confronted with at least one person who has fired of 15 emails since 8pm Friday evening. They are now LIVID and fully convinced that our lack if response is evidence that we intentionally left the rubber-bands out of their dread kit and are now refusing to make things right. Their most recent email explains that they are ready and willing to call local law enforcement since we are ignoring them and refusing to to settle things amicably. PLEASE DONT BE THAT PERSON. We've been in business for over a decade - we're not here to screw people and vanish. We will make sure you are helped - even if we are backed up and delayed at times.
USA Shipping
UPS Mail Innovations Basic, Standard or UPS Ground service is only available for orders going to street addresses in the continental USA. Orders will ship with either UPS Ground or UPS Mail Innovations services depending on what our system determines will get it to you faster.
Orders shipped with either of these methods spend 4-7 business days in transit. (Please include handling time listed above when figuring total time to delivery) To get a closer approximation of actual shipping time please check out our UPS Ground Map below. You will receive a UPS or UPS Mail innovations shipment notification in your email within 24 business hours of it being shipped, sometimes sooner. This email will include a tracking number that will either include a UPS tracking number or a Mail Innovations tracking number, which can be used to get a scheduled delivery date for your package. This shipping method includes insurance up to $100
Priority Mail is available for order being shipping to any USA address, including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, APO addresses, and PO Boxes. Delivery times to these states take up to 7 business days to arrive and you will receive a USPS shipping number by email once your order has shipped. Please allow 72 hours for your order to be processed and shipped. This shipping method is not guaranteed and does not include insurance.
Parcel Post is available for order being shipping to any USA address, including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, APO addresses, and PO Boxes. Delivery times to these states take up to 14 business days to arrive and you will receive a USPS shipping number by email once your order has shipped. Please allow 72 hours for your order to be processed and shipped. This shipping method is not guaranteed and does not include insurance. Tracking info is not updated frequently by USPS, it's almost better to think of it as delivery confirmation rather than actual tracking like UPS would have.
First Class Mail is available for order being shipping to any USA address, including Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, APO addresses, and PO Boxes. Delivery times to these states take 14 business days to arrive and you will receive a USPS shipping number by email once your order has shipped. Please allow 72 hours for your order to be processed and shipped. This shipping method is not guaranteed and does not include insurance. Tracking info is not updated frequently by USPS, it's almost better to think of it as delivery confirmation rather than actual tracking like UPS would have.
International Shipping
UPS Standard to Canada is only available for orders going to street addresses in Canada. Orders are that are shipped UPS Standard take 2-5 business days for delivery. You will receive a UPS shipment notification in your email when your order is shipped. This email will include your UPS tracking number. (Please allow 72 business hours to process and ship your order.) This shipping method includes insurance up to $100
USPS Priority Mail International is available for international orders going to street addresses or Post Office Boxes. Orders are that are shipped USPS Priority Mail International take up to 14 business days for delivery. You will receive a USPS shipment notification in your email when your order is shipped. This email will include your USPS shipping number. (Please allow 72 business hours to process and ship your order.) This shipping method is not guaranteed and does not include insurance.Tracking info is not updated frequently by USPS, it's almost better to think of it as delivery confirmation rather than actual tracking like UPS would have.
USPS First Class Mail International (Flat Rate Shipping) is available for international orders going to street addresses or Post Office Boxes. Orders are that are shipped USPS First Class Mail International usually take about 14 business days for delivery but can take up to 2 months. You will receive a confirmation email letting you know that your order has shipped. You'll also get a shipment number but this method does not have a tracking number. (Please allow 72 business hours to process and ship your order.) This shipping method is not guaranteed and does not include insurance. If you order Flat Rate shipping or First class Mail International and have not received your package in 4 weeks it is a good idea to check with your local post office and check that the package is not being held there for you. PLEASE contact us and let us know if your post office has not received your package within 6 weeks.
We ship to every country the post office will deliver to. A list of the countries that we ship to can be found on this page.
Please note that this estimation of transit days does not include handling times above.
Required Signatures
A signature may be required for your order if your order. A signature will be required for delivery of your package if your package is shipped internationally or to a different address than the billing address of the credit card.
Shipping Guarantees
We do not guarantee the delivery times with UPS or the US Post Office. We do guarantee that we will ship your package within 72 business hours.
UPS Claims or Damages
If your package is lost or damaged we will reship your package. If UPS or USPS delivers a damaged package to you, accept the package, do not refuse the package. After you accept and inspect the package please fill out this form to let us know what items were damaged. We will put a tracer/claim in with UPS and send you a replacement. If you refuse the package we will not be able to make a claim with UPS. If your package is damaged do not discard the damaged items until we let you know it's ok to throw them away. Sometimes UPS takes the damaged portion of the package back and if you've thrown it away they are not responsible for paying for the claim. Claims through UPS take 8 business days.
Customs Fees, Taxes, & Duties
You are responsible for assuring that the product can be lawfully imported to the destination country. Orders that are shipped to countries outside of the United States may be subject to import taxes, customs duties and fees levied by the destination country. The recipient of an international shipment may be subject to such import taxes, customs duties and fees, which are levied once a shipment reaches your country. Additional charges for customs clearance must be borne by the recipient. Customs policies vary widely from country to country; you should contact your local customs office for further information. When customs clearance procedures are required, it can cause delays beyond our original delivery estimates. We mark all international packages as duty and tax free but sometimes they still charge fees. There is no way for us to know if they will charge you a fee or not or predict what they might be. We do everything we can to prevent fees but you may still be charged. These fees are taxes and you are responsible for them and we cannot credit you for them.
Delivery: With these UPS methods we DO guarantee that you will get your package. This means that if your package should get lost, damaged or stolen in the mail we can put a claim in with UPS for the shipping and product amount. When they pay the claim you'll have the option of having your package re-shipped at no charge or getting your shipping charges and product amount refunded.
Delivery Times: Unfortunately we can not guarantee shipping delivery times. Please note however that in most cases when shipments appear to be late it is simply a misunderstanding of how many actual "business days" (Mon-Fri not counting holidays) were involved, and whether or not the day the package was ordered counted as a business day. All orders are shipped within 3 business days of when we receive payment. If you order an item that needs to be custom made it will often take extra time to prepare the item. If an item requires extra time it will be noted on the product page in our store.
US Post Office Shipments (USPS) Guarantees
We do offer shipping methods through the US Post office. These methods are usually less expensive than the UPS options but with the price difference also comes a service and dependability difference. The US Post Office makes no guarantees about shipping times. Methods that the US Post office offers are Priority Mail, Parcel Post, and First Class Mail. Free Shipping and Flat Rate shipping are always USPS services.They do offer insurance but we have found that each time we try to file an insurance claim with them they find someway to deny the claim or they just put us off for so long we give up on the claim. Because of this it's very important that you do not choose Post office shipping options unless you understand there is no insurance and you'll be accepting full responsibility for the risk. You may not receive your package and we will not be able to help. All we can do is offer you the delivery confirmation number as proof that it was shipped. Most Post Office services do not offer location based tracking numbers, instead they function more as "Delivery Confirmation Numbers". As the name suggests they only scan them once the shipment has been delivered to your house or to your local post office. If it doesn't show up you can not find out where it is or when it will arrive like you can with UPS. So, to recap:
Delivery: There are no delivery guarantees with Post Office Shipments. By choosing at Post office (USPS) shipping method you are agreeing that you understand your package may not arrive and you are willing to take that risk since they usually do arrive and since the shipping is much cheaper.
Delivery Times: Unfortunately we can not guarantee shipping delivery times. A shipment arriving later than expected is not grounds for receiving a full or partial discount on the order.
You may wonder why we even offer US Post office Priority Mail, Parcel Post, and First Class Mail options. They are less expensive and they do arrive 98% of the time. They are also the ONLY methods available to PO Boxes and some Military addresses. When things do go wrong we are usually able to find some way to meet in the middle and get the package re-shipped with minimal cost to the customer. Please understand that we do this because we want to, not because we are required to. If you have a Post Office shipping problem and you rudely tell us what we have to do when we try to help, you'll get a short email with a link to this policy page. If something should go wrong please be patient and understanding and we will bend over backwards to make it right.