Caramal Holistic Health Shoppe

How can I save on the cost of shipping my order?

What's the extra charge on my credit card?

Why does the shipping cost more than on other sites?

At the end of the Order Form you will be asked to CHOOSE SHIPPING, please select the appropriate shipping method for your country and desired speed of delivery.

NOTE: Orders to Alaska and Hawaii are processed as International Orders (not USA). This is determined by the courier companies. So please follow the shipping guidelines and pricing for International orders if you live in Alaska or Hawaii.

You will receive an order confirmation email within 24 hours of placing your order. This email will provide you with the details necessary to locate your order.

If you did not provide us with an email address, please keep your Order Confirmation number readily available from time of purchase. This will help us track your package for you.

Additional charges will be applied if the delivery address is incorrect, or if the package needs to be forwarded to a different location.

We regularly stock every item we carry. Although every attempt is made to maintain inventory of each product, occasionally a product may be on back order. If any product is not in stock for an order, we will hold the shipment of your entire order until all products are available. All backorders will not be held after five business days. Any order placed on the weekends (or after 2pm on Friday) will be shipped on the next business day. Business days are Monday through Friday.

Please Note: The charge on your credit card will appear as Caramal Holistic Health Shoppe - please make note of this to save us both time and hassle!

How can I save on the cost of shipping my order?

Important Information on Pricing and How to Save on Shipping
To save money on shipping, it's best to order more than one item. UPS and FedEx charge one main fee to ship any package, and then add only modest increments for each additional pound. We don't use USPS anymore as they have lost too many packages and there is no insurance or tracking with them.

So the per-item shipping cost goes down dramatically with each additional item that you order. For example, if it costs $12 to ship one item, it often costs just a dollar or two more to ship two items, and only two or three dollars more to ship three items, and so on and so forth. This example is for orders within the United States. Packages being shipped to locations outside of the United States start at a higher base rate, and are also charged according to weight.

So keep in mind that if you add a product to your order - like George's Aloe Vera Juice 1 gallon jug - that is going to increase your shipping far beyond if you'd ordered a bottle of CoQ10 capsules - which weighs practically nothing.

For some smaller items, like our comfrey salve, or pycnogenol or CoQ10, it's hard to justify ordering just one item, as the shipping cost will often be close to or higher than the cost of the actual product; we recommend ordering these products only when you order more than one item from our health shoppe.

We only charge for shipping and handling what we ourselves are charged by UPS or FedEx and our warehouse.

Regarding Free Shipping
We are able to offer free shipping (UPS Ground) for orders in the continental USA that exceed $350. This is because you've ordered enough product, that we can take some of the profits and pay for your shipping.

Our policy is to provide the lowest possible prices on our products every day.

We don't increase prices to subsidize shipping costs. Therefore, you pay the actual cost of shipping the products that the courier company bills us - and this is subject to changes in gas prices and other market factors.

Regarding Discounts
You can get a 10% or 15% discount off every order by joining JPT Wellness Circle.

WHEN WILL MY ORDER ARRIVE?

This depends on whether you ordered products that require refrigerated shipping, or not. If none of the products you ordered require refrigerated shipping, then your order will be sent out within 24 hours (weekends and holidays not included). Your order will arrive according to whichever shipping option you chose.

If you ordered a product like Natren probiotics, that has to be shipped on ice and arrive within 3 days time, the shipping schedule is as follows

Refrigerated Shipping Required:

USA orders are sent out on Monday, Tuesday only.
International orders are sent out on Monday and Friday only.
(Please ensure you place your order before 1pm PST for same day shipping).

WHAT'S THE EXTRA CHARGE ON MY CREDIT CARD?

If you see an additional charge on your credit card you probably selected an incorrect shipping option (for example, you live in Australia, but you selected a USA shipping option), then we will charge your credit card the difference according to the actual cost of shipping your order. If you're not sure, or would like clarification of a charge, please email us at: service@HolisticHealthShoppe.com

INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING GUIDELINES

	We have to calculate the cost for shipping Refrigerated or International orders (including Alaska and Hawaii) on a case-by-case basis - since it varies widely from state to state and from country to country. Therefore, our policy is to calculate the cost of shipping your order and automatically charge your credit card the cost of shipping so we can get your order out to you without delay. This means, we charge your credit card the actual cost of shipping after we've sent your order. The charge typically varies from $36 - $150, depending on your state, country and the size of your order. If you wish to have a quote for the cost of shipping prior to ordering, please phone our customer service team at: Toll Free 1.888.866.7745 (US/Canada), or 1.360.977.5357 (Int) or email us at:service@HolisticHealthShoppe.com and we'll be happy to give you an approximate quote.

	Do not order items that are illegal to import into your country. Laws vary from country to country. It is your responsibility to check with your Customs office to see if your country permits the shipment of our products. You can also email us and ask us if we have shipped to your country before and what we advise: service@HolisticHealthShoppe.com

	If the package is seized by Customs for any reason and we do not receive the package back, we will not issue you a refund. If we do receive the package back after being seized and the products are in perfect condition, we will credit you the product cost, but you are still responsible for the shipping charges.

	You are responsible for any customs duties or fees on your order, imposed by your country’s customs office. All orders are shipped from Washington, USA

REFRIGERATED SHIPPING GUIDELINES

1) Shipping Costs
The shipping charge for refrigerated items/probitics is indeed expensive. This is because it has to be sent 2-day courier in the summer and/or 2/3-day courier in the winter (depending on where you live), the charge also covers the extra cost of the cold packaging - ice packs, special insulated box and packing charge. For international orders, we ship out the probiotics on Mondays/Tuesdays and all shipments should be received before the end of the week.

2) Prompt Delivery
Sometimes, you will arrive home several hours after your probiotics have been delivered and find the ice packs melted and the product is not cold. We have checked with Natren Inc. and they have assured us this is fine, as long as the probiotics have not been warm for longer than 30 hours. Since we automatically ship Natren orders by express courier this should not be a problem. Natren informed us that they automatically include MORE bacteria than is stated on the label to buffer against just this sort of problem. So even if your probiotics are warm or room temperature when you open them, they will still contain the amount of live bacteria stated on the label. Remember to then immediately put your probiotics into the refrigerator.

3) US Orders - Important Information
If you live in a very hot place in the continental US (like Texas and other Southern States) and ordered probiotics in the summer, then you need to make sure someone is home when your package is delivered. You can get delivery information from the tracking number that you are sent when your order is shipped out.

We cannot be held responisible for the condition of the probiotics due to deilvery problems through the courier. If the courier company has made an error, then please let us know and we will advocate on your behalf to get the courier company to issue you a refund. However, if they dispute the matter, then we will not be responsible (or reimburse you) for another company's errors.

4) International Orders - Important Information
If you ordered a refrigerated shipping item outside of the USA, you are 100% responsible for any product delays due to customs, local import laws, taxes, incorrect address given, etc. And you cannot return the product if it is delayed until no longer cold. We will only take responsibility for packing the order properly and getting it into the courier's hands for delivery. After that, any failure in timely delivery is not our responsibility and we will not issue a refund.

If the courier company has made an error, then please let us know and we will advocate on your behalf to get the courier company to issue you a refund. However, if they dispute the matter, then we will not be responsible (or reimburse you) for another company's errors. If this doesn't suit you, please don't order refrigerated items from us. Remember, you can always order your probiotics or refrigerated items directly from the product manufacturer.

For additional information on international shipping, please see our International Shipping Guidelines.

WHY DOES THE SHIPPING COST MORE THAN ON OTHER SITES?

Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do on the shipping cost. We don't ship using USPS (the cheaper option) since we had too many orders go 'missing'. So now we only use trackable courier shipping like FedEx and UPS. And believe it or not, on some orders we are actually losing a few dollars.

Some tips we can give you that may help: Order more at one time, rather than less, since there is a base shipping charge and adding extra products does not add that much extra to the shipping cost (unless you're ordering heavy items like the 1 gallon George's Aloe Vera and Absorb Plus).

Also, if you're going to be purchasing every 2-3 months or so, then it will be cheaper to sign up for JPT Wellness Circle, since one of the benefits of membership is 10% - 15% off EVERY order - regardless of size. Of course, you can then combine this discount with free shipping (for orders over $350), if you wish. You can find out all the benefits of membership (much more than just the 15% discount) here: http://www.jptwellnesscircle.com/membershipinfo.php

Of course, the other alternative is to order over $350 worth - then you will get a 5% discount AND free shipping if you are in the continental USA (does not apply to Alaska and Hawaii). If you're not in the continental U.S., I'm sorry but there's no way we can give free shipping as we'd no longer be in business!

Perhaps the way other internet sites can offer cheaper shipping is that (1) They are shipping such a large number of orders per day, that the courier companies have given them steep discounts and/or (2) They are selling such a large volume of product that they can afford to subsidize shipping costs from their product profits.

The other strategy sites will use is to lose money on low-ticket items like vitamins and herbs, but then they have your email and address to market high-priced items where they make up for the lost revenue - we actually had a long conversation with an Internet supplement store that was doing this.

Unfortunately, since we are just a small shop, and we're not a front to upsell you into some expensive products/systems, we can't offer any of those cost-cutting measures. Believe me, nothing would make us happier than to be able to offer flat-rate or free shipping - that's one of the reasons we love buying books from Amazon! But unless droves of people decide to abandon medical/drug treatment and seek natural healing protocols, that's not going to happen anytime soon!

Anyway, as Jini often says, if you prefer to buy locally, then just use the Holistic Health Shoppe as a resource - find out which brands Jini recommends and what to look for to ensure potency in the various products. Just copy down the names of the products Jini recommends, then contact your local health store and get them to order everything in for you. Since the products will come along with their regular shipments, they won't charge you any shipping costs.

Again, we really do empathize with you and wish there was more we could do on this - but it's the classic corner store trying to compete with Wal-Mart scenario - there's just no way we can get prices as low as the 'big guys'