Hardcore Luxury® -- Always 100% USA

SHIP ASAP

Given our limited capacity and extremely long production cycle (12-18 months), we need a way to manage backorders.

People can place no-obligation, free backorders for any item not in stock.  And people can reserve backordered items by upgrading their backorders to SHIP ASAP.

SHIP ASAP (As Soon As Possible) reserves a garment at the price in effect when order was placed, even if it takes us a year or two to fill the order.

  • ASAP orders are established when we have a credit card on file
  • When we initiate a production run, we will specifically make and reserve a garment for each ASAP order
  • Credit card will be charged when we ship the order
  • ASAP backorders are protected from any price increase.  That is, ASAP backorders have the original order price locked in
  • ASAP backorders can be modified or canceled by the customer
  • ASAP backorders will be automatically filled unless customer makes a change.  We will not contact customer except to send an email with a tracking number when the order ships

After all ASAP orders are satisfied, if any garments remain, we will contact others who have placed backorders.  We will send one -- or sometimes two -- email reminders, and then we'll delete the backorders.  We really dislike pestering people.

Orders that are not SHIP ASAP are not protected from potential price increase, if any.  And we are going to have to raise prices because those upon whom we rely to make our garments (our Partners) are raising prices to us.

To reserve a backorder via SHIP ASAP:  We need your full credit or debit card info. We can't do this with PayPal because we cannot run a charge against a PayPal account.

We very much prefer to not accept advance payments because we just don't like owing, particularly given the vagaries in our production cycles.

We can make various special arrangements for people with whom we have established relationships.

You can transmit credit/debit card info to us in a variety of ways ... phone call, text, email, WhatsApp, messenger ... You can send photos, PDF, split the information over different messages .... whatever works for you. We will not process payment until we ship. And of course you can still cancel anytime.

Regarding actual delivery, it's good to know if the package can be left without a signature and if you have a preferred carrier. We can ship however you'd like, but special shipping may cost extra.  Usually we ship without requiring a signature for delivery.  Mostly we ship UPS, but we also use USPS quite a bit.  Depends on location.

We understand that some people don't want to leave credit card info with us, so we will also try to reserve (or make) garments for people who convey serious intent, and of course for our established customers. But we'll still mostly process the pieces reserved by credit card first for the enhanced efficiency.

BACKGROUND:

It would be great to have large and regularly replenished inventory and simply fill orders as they come in. But we are very far from that situation, and so we are trying to handle backorders as efficiently as possible.

We are happy to receive no-obligation backorders, and although we do not accept advance payments or deposits, we definitely invite SHIP ASAP backorders, which are handled first.

Setting up SHIP ASAP reserves your garment because SHIP ASAP orders are processed first. After all SHIP ASAP orders are filled, we'll then contact the other people who have backorders. Experience has shown most of these orders are  frivolous ... our emails, texts and phone calls mostly get no response.

It's easy to understand why people would not want their credit card info stored somewhere, and so we also invite people to contact us and let us know they really mean the order. We'll make a note and get back to these SERIOUS people as a second level of priority, right after the SHIP ASAP group.

In the best of times, we are so specialized that I'm not willing to promise delivery dates. And these are not the best of times. There are a great many uncertainties.

I've learned the hard way that until something is in my hand, it can still somehow be delayed or turn out to be other than what I anticipated.

So, we don't accept advance payments or even deposits except in the most unusual circumstances. And only if that will somehow really help our customer. People have needed to pay in advance in order to receive a receipt for an insurance claim. Others have wanted to pay before the end of the tax year.

In 2020 and early 2021, I did accept a relative handful of advance payments because people wanted assurance they were going to get a garment from a limited supply. But even when I was confident of what was coming, the virus made a fool out of me. So that's a problem we will avoid.

Very sorry for all this bureaucracy/red tape.

THANKS!

 

26 January 2024 --- Ralph