How long will my shipment take?
While our selection of an international carrier takes into consideration cost, time and reliability, we cannot foresee or control any delays that are caused by the foreign country point of entry (customs clearance). The overall shipping (from our warehouse in Los Angeles, CA to the international destination) averages around 5-10 business days. Delays in some cases can take longer due to customs clearance in your country.
If you are one of the few customers who is seeing a delivery time greater than 15 business days, then please double check the address you provided to us to ensure it is accurate.
So please be patient as some international orders can and do get delayed by customs, assuming the address you provided us was complete and accurate.
How do I track my international order?
We ship most international orders through a priority mail service (a US post office / DHL hybrid shipping solution). The customs numbers provided by the US Post Office / DHL look something like this: GM5551125885469150
These "GM" numbers are evidence that the parcels have been received and scanned by DHL or the USPS at the receiving or sorting point, but they are not always scanned all the way to delivery so cannot be relied on for in transit status (since the parcel is ultimately passed off to the Post Office system of the destination country, which is disconnected with the US mail system).
The DHL GM numbers can be "tracked" at:
http://webtrack.dhlglobalmail.com
The results will show when the parcel was processed by DHL but may not be trackable to destination as the parcel needs to change hands at customs in your country.
Why do you ship this way?
For quality control purposes, we source most of our products in the United States and ship from our US distribution facility. Because of this, we also do not charge sales taxes on any international orders. Canadian customers for example, would have to prepay the sales tax (GST, PST or other taxes) from any company that ships from within Canada. Although these taxes may still be assessed by local customs in your country when your order arrives, the local post office in your country does not always exert the effort to collect the tax and so many customers get their orders tax free. Our shipping rates are also very low, often times cheaper than shipping from within some foreign countries (such as Canada).
Do you offer other methods for international shipping?
Our regular shipping method described above works best and cheapest for small to mid-size orders. If you have a special order request for a large international order, and would like it shipped UPS or FEDEX for example, email us with your request and we will do our best to accommodate you.