About shipping your Sponge Candy
If you have a question about shipping Sponge Candy or your order specifically not covered here, please contact us. We’ll get back to you, pronto.
All the attention is paid to making the Sponge Candy and so little to the shipping process – unless somebody’s Sponge Candy isn’t where it’s supposed to be when its supposed to be there and in the condition it’s supposed to be in. And shipping Sponge Candy isn’t cheap, either. We have suggestions here to help get the best out of the shipping process.
Common questions concerning our shipping policies (links to answers down this page):
Other FAQs about other stuff (links to other pages):
What’s the best weather for successfully shipping Sponge Candy?
Weather 70 degrees and above just may melt your Sponge Candy. Prolonged direct sunlight on your package, a hot delivery van, a hot transit hub/shipping warehouse, a delivery left in a door or any number warm circumstances may be more than your Sponge Candy can take unscathed. Usually weather between November 1st and Easter isn’t a problem in most of the country but there are warm places and unusually warm times.
We suggest waiting out any warm weather and trying to ‘hit’ the overcast or cooler periods. Also, deliveries to work places are good for multiple reasons. Not only are commercial addresses often delivered earlier in the day and are often cheaper to ship to, but most important, it often avoids the Sponge Candy being left unattended in poor temperature conditions for an extended time. If you’d like a quick 5 day forecast for any zip code, try Wunderground’s 5 day forecast search by zip code.
Do you refund orders that melt while in transit?
No. We have no control over warm weather in transit or a package delivered to sit in the sun or a warm place all day so we are not responsible for heat damaged Sponge Candy. Our strategy is to only ship November 1st through Easter and for you to be aware there are climatic limitations to consider.
We suggest:
- Wait out any hot weather and try to “hit” an overcast or cooler period
- Check out your time-in-transit and order (or request shipment) on a day that avoids having your Sponge Candy sitting around in your local hot UPS terminal over the weekend for a Monday delivery.
- Delivery to a work place is good because not only are businesses usually delivered earlier in the day but also it is much better than leaving a package unattended in poor conditions for an extended time (not to mention shipping to commercial addresses is often cheaper).
Do you ship in insulated containers with cold packs?
No. It’s just too expensive and troublesome to justify it. Many have good Sponge Candy shipping weather for most if not all of our 5 month shipping season. Those shipping Sponge Candy to warmer climates have a shorter shipping season and must plan around the weather.
Which shipping choices do you offer?
You’ll only see the following two shipping methods priced in the shopping cart and order form:
UPS Ground: Delivery in 1 to 6 business days, guaranteed (with some exceptions); real-time tracking; UPS works a five day week without Saturday delivery, pick-up or transit; does not deliver to PO Boxes or APO/FPO addresses; insurance is included for loss or external damage to the package but not for melting.
Estimated Shipping Your ship-to city, Zip Code and state are not in agreement and one of them is probably incorrect. Please double check your address information. We do check that all delivery addresses are valid as we process your order and if the cart estimates or incorrectly calculates a shipping charge by about two dollars or more, we will refund or charge the difference to your card.
We automatically ship to PO Box addresses using Priority Mail or when you specifically request Priority Mail in the order form comments box. There often is an extra charge added later depending on the distance from Buffalo to cover insurance and for boxes 1 cubic foot and larger. USPS package pick-up for us in usually in the morning so it will often take an extra day to get your Priority Mail package on its way. The USPS delivery standard for Priority Mail is 2 to 3 days (excluding Sundays) but not guaranteed; tracking is sporadic and not in real time; delivery confirmation is included; USPS works a six day week; delivers to PO Boxes and APO/FPO addresses; insurance for for external damage to the package or loss but not for melting is an extra charge.
We’re sorry the we no longer offer UPS Air services (3 day, 2 day and next day). This will not pose any problem for the great majority of our customers since they are 3 or less UPS Ground days away from Buffalo. The air shipping methods can no longer be accurately calculated by the shopping cart because of the additional dimensional pricing and we don’t have the ability to reliably provide the manual quotes in a timely manner.
How long will it take for you to process my order?
- The standard that we work to exceed: We will ship your order out on the next or second business day (Monday – Friday) after it is received.
- What we often achieve: Orders received before 2pm EST, Monday – Friday, often are shipped that afternoon but we cannot guarantee this level of service (stuff happens).
We make an extra effort to ship out as many orders as possible on days preceeding UPS down days such as weekends and holidays. You will receive an email from us letting you know when your order ships or (even sooner) if there is a problem.
How is shipping time-in-transit figured?
Here’s a map of UPS Ground time-in-transit but a more exact time-in-transit from Buffalo 14220 to your Zip Code is here. Remember, time-in-transit starts counting the day after UPS picks up your Sponge Candy and includes the day it is delivered. Time-in-transit does not include Saturdays, Sundays or UPS holidays.
An example: you order before 2pm EST on a Thursday and you select UPS Ground which we will say is 3 days time-in-transit. While we promise to ship out your order within one Monday to Friday working day, we try to get all orders placed before 2pm EST shipped that day. It’s a good day and we ship your order out that day. Friday is the first day in-transit. Monday is the second day in transit. Tuesday is the third day in-transit and the day your order is delivered.
How much do you charge for shipping?
Shipping costs vary by the weight of the order, how far it’s going from Buffalo and whether it’s a commercial, residential or rural area delivery. The shopping cart and the UPS shipping rate server work together to provide accurately calculated shipping costs in real time. The best way to check your shipping cost for UPS Ground service is to:
- Enter the items you want a shipping quote on in the shopping cart and click the green check-out button.
- On the Checkout page in the billing address section, first fill in your ship-to City and ZIP Code. Next, in the billing address section, select your ship-to state. This will trigger the shopping cart to fetch a real time quote from UPS for Ground shipping. If you make and mistakes or changes, click the “refresh button just below next to the shipping method drop down box.
- When the State is selected in the drop down box, that triggers the cart to calculate the shipping via UPS Ground service. Sorry, but we do not offer any UPS Air services. We will ship via USPS Priority Mail for PO Boxes or if requested in the comments box on the order form. There may be an extra charge for USPS Priority Mail shipments larger than 1 cubic foot to the deep south or west of the Mississippi.
- Click the Refresh button to recalculate after any changes.
- If you see “Estimated Shipping” in the shipping method box, you have a cart estimated shipping quote and not a real-time quote. Possiblly. the UPS server does not recognize your city/state/zip combiination. Review your information and try clicking the refresh button again to see “UPS Ground” instead of “Estimated Shipping” to get the calculated shipping and handling for that specific weight to that specific Zip Code. Cart estimated shipping quotes can be fairly accurate for the usual pound or pound and a half orders but wildly inaccurate on larger orders. We review all shipping charges and will refund to your credit card any cart estimated shipping quotes or other shipping charges that aren’t reasonably close. If the revised shipping costs are significantly higher, we will contact you before shipping.
After you have seen what your shipping costs are, you can either enter payment information and complete your order or just abandon the order with none of your personal address or payment information having been sent from your computer.
How are shipping costs calculated?
Shipping costs are automatically calculated by the shopping cart for each order. It looks up the cost of shipping the gross weight of your order to the delivery address on the UPS server and adds a handling fee of $2.
Are you making money off of the shipping and handling charges?
No, shipping and handling is not a profit center for us. The majority of your shipping charge goes to UPS (or The U.S. Postal Service). We add a $2 handling fee help defray the other expenses necessary to get your Sponge Candy to you such as packaging materials, package pick-up and other expenses.
Where do you ship to?
UPS delivers to street addresses within the United States lower 48 pretty much without restriction. UPS does not deliver to post office boxes so in this case we will automatically send your Sponge Candy by USPS Priority Mail and this may involve an extra day to be shipped out.
Do you ship to Alaska and Hawaii?
We have shipped to Hawaii using USPS Priority Mail right to a post office box. The customer’s strategy was to get the package inside the air conditioned post office for him to pick up at his convenience. His plan worked but your mileage may vary. USPS Priority Mail dimensional rates will apply to all packages over 1 cuft (usually over 2 pounds of Sponge Candy). UPS Ground (6 Days) is not likely to give good results. In any case, any shipping rate quoted by the shopping cart at checkout is likely to be revised upward. We will be glad to quote shipping costs by email if you provide the exact order you are considering and the specific address you would like to ship to.
We regularly ship to Alaska using UPS Ground (4 days) and USPS Priority Mail (2 – 3 days), both with satisfactory results. Shipping costs for both methods are similarly high. The shopping cart is likely to under quote your actual shipping and handling costs for USPS Priority Mail due to dimensional rates (packages over 1 cuft). We will be glad to quote shipping costs by email if you provide the exact order you are considering and the specific address you would like to ship to.
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Do you ship to Canada?
Yes, we do using UPS Standard. It seems to be considerably faster than the post due to electronic submission of the customs documentation. You can check the shipping costs using the above method. If you are sending a gift of Sponge Candy to Canada, please include the recipient’s phone number in the order form’s comments box. It’s required for the customs documents.
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Do you ship to APO/FPO Addresses?
Yes, via USPS Priority Mail. Since there are zillions of special circumstances and frequent changes, there’s likely to be delivery restrictions and you should research the ins and outs if you are not familiar with them. We are no longer responsible for the package once we turn it over to the USPS carrier.
Do you ship to locations outside the United States?
No, we do not ship to Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, Mexico or any other international locations.
What are “dimensional rates” and “balloon rates”?
coming soon
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