About shipping your Sponge Candy
If you have a question about shipping Sponge Candy or your order specifically and it’s not covered here, please contact us. We’ll get back to you, pronto.
Common questions concerning our shipping policies:
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 shipping methods priced in the shopping cart:
UPS Ground: Delivery in 1 to 6 business days, guaranteed (with some exceptions); real-time tracking; no Saturday delivery or pick-up; no delivery to PO Boxes or APO/FPO addresses; insurance included for loss or external damage to the package but not for melting.
UPS Standard: If you select the country Canada in the order form as the ship-to address, this is the one choice that shows. It’s pretty much the same deal as UPS Ground with the addition of UPS also acting as the customs broker. All gift wrapped orders are invoiced as a gift of chocolates at actual value and those orders not gift wrapped are invoiced as chocolates for personal consumption at actual value. Duty (if applicable) and taxes (if applicable) are the responsibility of the recipient.
You can request the following air shipping methods in the shopping cart comments box. Your order will initially reflect UPS Ground pricing and we’ll charge your card for the difference. If you would like your order held and have us quote you the charge via email, request that specifically in the shopping cart comments. We’re sorry that these shipping methods can no longer be automatically supplied by the shopping cart. UPS switched to dimensional rates and the cart can no longer quote air services accurately.
UPS 3 Day Select: Delivery in 3 business days, guaranteed (with some exceptions); real-time tracking; insurance included for loss or external damage to the package but not for melting.
UPS 2nd Day: Delivery in 2 business days, guaranteed (with some exceptions); real-time tracking; insurance included for loss or external damage to the package but not for melting.
USPS Priority Mail: Delivery in 2 to 3 days (excluding Sundays) but not guaranteed; no tracking; delivery confirmation; routinely delivers and picks-up on Saturdays; 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.
If you supply a post office box address we automatically ship via USPS Priority Mail. You can also request US Priority mail in the shipping cart comments box. Often, the two services are close in price but now that USPS has gone to dimensional and balloon rates, certain orders’ (usually around 3 to 4 pounds) shipping will price out higher than UPS Ground. Your order will initially reflect UPS Ground pricing and we’ll charge your card if there is a significant price difference. If you would like your order held and have us quote you the charge via email, request that specifically in the shopping cart comments. We’re sorry that USPS Priority Mail can’t at this time be automatically supplied by the shopping cart.
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, where it is being shipped to and how fast you want it to get there. 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 or UPS Standard service (to Canada) 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 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.
- When the State is selected in the drop down box, that triggers the cart to calculate the shipping via UPS Ground service (or UPS Standard for Canada).
- Click the Refresh button to recalculate after any changes.
- If you see an asterisk like-so: “UPS*Ground” in the shipping method box, you have a cart estimated shipping quote and not a real-time quote. Try clicking the refresh button until you see “USP Ground” without the asterisk. 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 will revise any cart estimated shipping quotes that aren’t in the ball park. If the revised shipping costs are higher, we will contact you before shipping. If we revise the shipping costs downward, we will immediately refund that amount and email you an updated receipt.
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
