Shipping Information – become familiar with the answers to the questions below

This information below is important for you to understand.

When does my order of books/cards go out?

Laughing Grape Publishing LLC usually gets your package into the hands of the USPS twice a business week after orders are received.  “Business days” do not mean weekend days.  But as true of life, there can occasionally be exceptions to when it goes out, but not often. 🙂

Which USPS (United States Postal Service) shipping should I choose?

For those in the United States who order: USPS Media Mail is cheaper. But it’s also far slower and there is no insurance to cover if USPS messes up. Using Media is at your own risk.  USPS Priority is usually faster, even if more expensive, and there is $50 insurance automatically included if USPS messes up.

For other countries who order: USPS First Class is cheaper, but also much slower, (some customers say it took a month to arrive; others stated much less) and there is no insurance if USPS or your own shipping service messes up.  Priority is more expensive, has some insurance automatically, and is faster.

Cards ordered  by themselves without books go out via USPS First Class letter mail automatically.

Remember, once your packaged book / books are out of our hands, talk to your local post office with questions. We aren’t the shipper. We are just the company that takes your order and gets the package to the post office. Thus, once is leaves us, you need to contact the shipper, not us, with concerns.

Why is shipping so high to Australia?

It’s both due to Australia and United States Postal Services, NOT an us thing.  We have no control over it. P.S. Delivery times to Australia vary for a few reasons: the departure point of the goods within the US make it different (east/mid/west); the carriers then allocate the freight according to the service level rate paid for by the consumer and available space, then of course it flies over and that takes a little time, then it arrives to Australia (generally) on the east coast for Customs/Quarantine clearances. The freight is then taken for distribution by the carrier or their agent, and then you’ll get delivery accordingly. With any type of transport (road/air/sea) it all about the rates, space, clearances and paperwork… lots of paperwork!! Have patience. It can take time, unfortunately.

I paid by Paypal. Are there any issues with that?

Overall no issues. Paypal has usually worked fine if you have the funds within it! Make sure that the address you have on PayPal has been updated, though.

I’d like to pay via Credit Card. Is that workable?

Credit cards work great, but 1) We will reject your order if you use American Express. Too many spammers using it. 2) The .credit card processor WILL REJECT an address that is NOT the one officially approved by the bank that issued your card.  Use the approved address — both the shipping address and the official one connected to your card have to agree.

Can anything go wrong with my order that’s my fault as a customer?

If you fail to provide your correct address, yes. Look at it carefully! We can not take responsibility if your book goes to the wrong address that you provided. Or if you fail to claim your package at your facility.  We are a small publishing company and we won’t be responsible for any of those issues. 

Is LGP responsible if USPS, or your own country’s postal service, messes up the package, misdelivers, or loses/damages the contents?

We cannot and will not be responsible for anything as far as the postal services.  Remember, we are the Distributor and our responsibility is to receive your order, pull your products from inventory, prepare the package, print and attach the label, and hand it over to the US Post Office. We are glad to do that for you! 🙂  🙂 But once it’s in the hands  of USPS or eventually your own postal service, it’s their responsibility as a separate company from us.  We are not responsible for what could happen after it leaves our hands. Contact your local Post Office, shipper, or USPS, not LGP, if you have concerns or questions about its arrival or about the product as it arrives.

(The good news is we rarely see USPS mess up a package or loose contents. But it can happen, and you will need to contact USPS, not LGP.  We cannot be responsible for a separate company. Same with YOUR country’s shipper.)

What if I get a package, but what’s within is not what I ordered?

To help us sort this out, there are three requirements when you contact us, and no exceptions:  1) Send a photo of what you got within the package 2)  Send a clear and closeup photo, FRONT AND BACK, of the entire package  3)  Send us the measurements of the package .    If you can’t provide all three, there is no way to help you.   The good news is that this RARELY happens that the “wrong” books/cards are sent.  🙂 If it does, and you send the photos plus measurements, and we can see what we need to see, we will correct it. 🙂

NOTE: if there is any damage to the packaging, that is a postal service thing. Contact them.

What is the difference between Laughing Grape Publishing and the United States Postal Service?

We are literally two different entities. Laughing Grape Publishing is a private small company responsible to receive your order, retrieve the items you ordered from inventory, print the label (some issues may cause us to handprint it out on the package), package the products, and take the package to the US Post Office. USPS is the shipper and connected to the US government, not to LGP. Same goes with your postal service if in another country. f you fail to receive your book (extremely rare) or receive a banged up package (rare but it happens), or book are lost, contact your local Post Office. It becomes their responsibility after the book is in their hands and out of ours.

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