New calendar
for 2010!

NOTE to our International Customers: Prior to placing your order, please see the international shipping information on the Shipping and Payment page.

Click here to jump down to Shipping and Inquiry Policy.
Click here to jump down to Returns and Refunds Policy.
Read on for Payment and Shipping Terms.

INTERNATIONAL Shipping & Handling Charges

For INTERNATIONAL customers only. For Canada, see information below. Unfortunately, PayPal does not automatically calculate international shipping. We must ask for the following additional amounts, which can be paid with a separate PayPal payment. Immediately after placing your order, please return to this shipping and payment page to pay for your shipping. Click on the PayPal button below and enter the correct international shipping amount from the following table, being sure to describe what you are paying for, and give your address. When we receive this separate payment, we will process your order, which should arrive within 5-7 business days from shipment. International orders cannot be processed without the additional shipping payment.

Order total:	Additional shipping:	Australia/New Zealand:
Up to $25.00	$12.00	$15.00
$25.01 - $40.00	$16.00	$22.00
$40.01 - $80.00	$18.00	$27.00
$80.01 - $150	$22.00	$32.00
Over $150.00	$27.00	$38.00

For CANADIAN orders, please add 20% of the amount you are charged by PayPal using the PayPayl payment button below.

US DOMESTIC Shipping & Handling Charges

U.S. mainland shipping is FREE, but there are INTERNATIONAL shipping charges.

Prefer to Pay by CHECK or MONEY ORDER?

If you would prefer to pay with check or money order, you are welcome to print the PayPal shopping cart and mail it to us with your check or money order. Follow these steps:

1. Use the PayPal shopping cart buttons to shop, allowing PayPal to calculate your total. Do NOT click the "CHECKOUT" button.
2. Print the PayPal shopping cart page with your list of items and the total.
3. Add the appropriate shipping amount if overseas.
4. For California residents, please add sales tax of 7.75% to the amount of the total plus shipping.
5. Mail the printout along with your payment to:
   
          R J Stewart Books
          PO Box 802
          Arcata, CA 95518
   
   Or, email if you need further mail order assistance.

Sales Tax

For California residents, a sales tax of 7.75% will apply to the amount of the total plus shipping. The PayPal shopping cart will add the appropriate tax during checkout, or if you are using paper mail, you must add this yourself as described above.

Paying Online with PayPal

Use the PayPal shopping cart buttons in the bookstore to add items to your cart. When you are finished shopping, click the "Checkout" button at the bottom of the shopping cart window. PayPal will ask you to sign up for an account (if you do not have one already). You can pay by credit card or open a PayPal account.

Is it SAFE to pay online using PayPal?

Here's what PayPal has to say about their security:

"The security of your information, transactions, and money is the core of our business and our top priority at PayPal. PayPal automatically encrypts your confidential information in transit from your computer to ours using the Secure Sockets Layer protocol (SSL) with an encryption key length of 128-bits (the highest level commercially available). Before you even register or login to our site, our server checks that you're using an approved browser - one that uses SSL 3.0 or higher. Once your information reaches us, it resides on a server that is heavily guarded both physically and electronically. Our servers sit behind an electronic firewall and are not directly connected to the Internet, so your private information is available only to authorized computers."

Visit the PayPal site and click "Help" to find out more about their services, privacy policy, and security policy.

Shipping Policy and Practice, and Enquiry Procedure

Please read carefully! Thank you.

To contact us for order enquiries please use this email: . Your emails will be read and answered by a live person; our responses from rjstewart.net are not automated.

BUT FIRST: If you receive any “Spam blocker” or similar notices, please comply with the request. That will ensure that your emails are received.

PLEASE NOTE: Do not email enquiries or make calls about orders to R J Stewart workshop organizers, as they cannot help you, and you will be referred to this web page and the email address above. Please do not email enquiries about orders to the R J Stewart on-line discussion lists, as the Lists are not associated with the bookstore, and you will be referred to this web page and the email address above.

FOR OUR “RETURNS” POLICY, SEE PART TWO OF THIS NOTICE

NOW READ ON!

PART ONE: Shipping and Delivery policies

We often have enthusiastic customers who order books and CDs, and within a very few days want to know where their order is, and why it has not arrived! Conversely, we often send out orders swiftly, and then they are infuriatingly delayed by the shipping service, be it USPS or any other. Either of these situations can cause unnecessary concern, and we are here to get your books and CDs to you as fast as possible. To help with order/shipping information in advance, and reduce your own enquiry time and effort, here is our Tree of Life 10 stage shipping policy and practice:

1. In the beginning: We make every effort to ship all “in stock” items within 7-10 business days. In all cases that is 7-10 business days after your payment has cleared, and not after it has been sent.

2. Wisdom becomes clear: Some Pay Pal "E Check" payments can mysteriously take up to 14 days to clear, though most clear more swiftly, and all mailed checks take widely variable times to reach us and be deposited and cleared. Please calculate accordingly, ensure that your payment has cleared, and if you have not received a shipping notification, allow at least 10 days after payment clearing (not after sending payment), before you contact us about the shipment of your order. At that stage, we will be able to advise you on your order status, and help with any enquiries that you may have.

3. Understanding is received: Receipts via Pay Pal: Payment by Pay Pal (direct, not by E-check) is the most rapid, and your Pay Pal confirmation is your receipt. No further additional receipt is sent: this helps us keep costs down for you. If you need a receipt for your records, please print your Pay Pal receipt.

4. Generously notified forth into creation: Shipping Notices: Pay Pal will send you automatic shipping notices when your order is shipped through the Pay Pal/USPS/other shipping, integral system. If you need to contact us about your order, please be sure to include the information regarding your cleared Pay Pal payment, i.e. when it was cleared, not when it was sent. You will need your Pay Pal receipt number for any enquiries regarding Pay Pal payments: without this number we may not be able to trace your order in the Pay Pal system due to the limited search facilities that Pay Pal provides.

5. Our restrictions: We are a specialized independent book publisher and book and CD supplier, and we are not part of a major distribution chain. There is no automation here, and no team of packers slaving away into the late hours of the night. In some unusual circumstances it may take up to 28 days for certain orders to ship, especially if the items are awaited in transit from the UK as part of our relationship with UK sources. We will always notify you if this is the case, and we respectfully request your patience. Please keep in communication with us if you feel that you order is slow: we want you know that your books/CDs are on the way. We do our utmost at all times to comply with mail-order standards that allow up to 30 days for processing and shipping, and most of our orders are fulfilled within 7-10 days of your payment clearing.

6. Bringing things into harmony: Back-ordered items: Books and CDs that are “backordered” may take several weeks to ship as some of these titles are difficult to obtain rapidly. We respectfully ask for your patience in this situation, and we want you to know that we do our utmost to speed your order. If your order is split into multiple shipments, there is no additional charge for additional shipments, and we pay any extra shipping charges.

7. Victorious outreach: You can inquire on the status of your order by sending an email to , but please be sure that your payment has cleared before enquiring, and follow the procedure as described above. In the event of your item being "backordered" we will notify you if there is any delay expected in shipping that is more than the usual processing/shipping time as described above.

8. The glory of Mercury can be retrograde: Shipping Delays, Customs, and Weather: Please note that we are not responsible for Post Office shipping times or postal or weather delays. We are not responsible for delays in overseas shipping or in Customs when your package crosses an international border. Once an item has been notified as shipped, please be patient and await its arrival! Once it has left our office, we have no control over the delivery time, which is utterly dependent upon the US or international postage or shipping services. We specialize in magical books and CDs, but even we, with our vast almost illimitable powers, cannot influence USPS, Customs officers, or the weather (Sorry!).

9. Our Foundation: Once again, most orders are shipped promptly within 7-10 days of your payment being cleared, and all Pay Pal orders receive an automatic shipping notice when shipment is processed.

10. Manifestation in the World: We look forward to supplying you with our remarkable and unusual books and CDs, and we are grateful for your orders and your interest in our authors and recording artists. Good wishes from all at R J Stewart Books.

PART TWO: Returned item and Refund Policy: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!

1. You are entitled to return an undamaged item that you do not wish to keep, within 48 hours of receipt, and will obtain a refund subject to the exceptions listed below. Please notify us immediately on receipt if you wish to return the item, stating your reasons. We do not accept returns or give refunds on returns notified to us more than 48 hours after receipt. You must return the item(s) in good condition, at your own expense, before we issue a refund. Any refund is based on the item cost only, and does not include any shipping costs, as the customer has decided that he/she does not want the book/CD, and we ship in good faith. If the book has been used, folded open, or the CD used or damaged, we do not issue any refund
   
   A re-stocking charge of $5.00 per item will be deducted from any refund. Refunds will be by Pay Pal if the original payment was Pay Pal, or by check if the original payment was by any other method. You may also request in writing/by email a Pay Pal payment for your refund, even if you used another payment method with your order. We do not refund or cover Pay Pal charges incurred.

OUR POLICY FOR RETURN of DAMAGED ITEMS and for MISSING ITEMS

1. If an item arrives damaged, please advise by email immediately to . We do not replace damaged items that are notified more than 7 days after receipt, or items that have been used or have sustained user damage. We do not replace books that have been folded open. We do not replace CDs that have been unwrapped from shrink-wrap unless the CD is faulty and will not play. Due to the variations of user conditions for playing CDs, we will only replace CDs that absolutely do not play on any kind of player. Otherwise we do not replace CDs for any reason. You may request a replacement jewel case if you send back a damaged jewel case and proof of purchase: we will ship you two (yes, 2) replacement cases free of charge. Do not return the original CD if you are requesting a replacement jewel case. Please allow up to 28 days for your replacement jewel cases to arrive, though they will usually arrive within 10 days of being shipped to you.

2. You must send any damaged item that you wish replaced back to us with proof of purchase. We do not replace damaged items without proof of purchase. We do not replace reported damaged items that do not reach us (i.e. that cannot be traced after you have shipped them. Please be aware of this!). If an item is not returned we cannot accept a damage claim. You will be responsible for return shipping costs, but we may, solely at our discretion and with no guarantee, apply all or part of your return shipping cost as a credit towards a future order, usually up to $10.00. In keeping with the general policy found at most online bookstores, we do not pay return shipping and we do not refund outward or return shipping costs on damaged items. We do our utmost to work with you and we will replace damaged items swiftly once you have followed the return procedure. Please understand that standard shipping costs for lost or damaged items typically cannot be claimed back from USPS, either by the sender or the recipient.

3. Please allow time, at least 10 working days from the date of sending your returned goods, for us to receive and examine any damaged items. Once we have done so, and we confirm that the item should be replaced, we will replace your damaged item promptly, and ship the replacement back to you by Priority mail at no charge. We will notify you of shipping and tracking numbers.

4. Missing items? Most orders arrive on time, and are delivered in good condition. However, we know that occasionally problems can occur, and we want to help solve such problems if they arise. If we have shipped an order and you do not receive it within 10 days of receiving our shipping notice, please allow up to 28 days (i.e. an extra 18 days) for it to arrive. Some media mail shipping and other levels of mail, take an extraordinary time to arrive, while other packages arrive swiftly. We do not know why this occurs, and USPS will not provide specific answers to questions of this sort. Even with tracking numbers some items are slow to arrive and tracking numbers are sometimes slow to appear in the USPS system. We have no control over this, and it is as frustrating to us as it is to a customer waiting for books and CDs. Please be patient.

5. Replacement of missing items. If an order fails to arrive 28 days after you receive a shipping confirmation, please notify us. Delay in notifying after the 28-day period may invalidate your claim for a replacement. We will make enquiries with the shipper, usually USPS. You may also make your own enquiries if you have a tracking number for your order. We will work with you to trace your order, and we will replace it by Priority with tracking at no extra charge if it is confirmed as missing. We do not accept requests for replacement items until 28 days after the original shipping notice.

6. Caution! We reserve the right not to accept further orders from customers who generate an unusual amount of complaints and/or returned or damaged items. This is due to certain scams that are practiced by a tiny minority of mail order customers. We gratefully acknowledge that the majority of our customers are honest and good people, and this Caution is to protect us all from the effects of dishonest practices.

All good wishes from everyone at R J Stewart Books.