Herb's Stuff: Ordering details, terms of sale

To contact me or for brief terms of ordering, see my main ordering and contact Web page. This page is details about ordering, terms of sale. Details about non-United-States customer ordering and shipping is on another Web page.

Ordering details and terms of sale
REFERENCE: details, explanations
If you want to SELL OR GIVE ME YOUR STUFF
Customers outside the United States

Ordering details and terms of sale

This is the long and detailed description of ordering to cover everything. It includes links to specific reference information. For brief terms of ordering, see my main ordering and email contact Web page.

To order, send an email message. We don't use complicated on-line order forms or "shopping carts". If you want a quote for specific items, I need to know EXACTLY what you want to order, and your FULL shipping address and phone number, If you are concerned about privacy, I need at least your ZIP code, city, state (or city & country if you're outside the US) for a shipping ESTIMATE - you will get an exact quote after I get your full address. Your phone number is only for use by shippers like FedEx, who call if there are delivery problems. I RARELY CALL CUSTOMERS.

I'll answer some technical questions to assist you in making choices, but it's up to YOU to choose what to buy. We don't give much advice or make recommendations; most of what we know technially is on the Web site. If you can, pick specific items from my Web pages. Those descriptions have a price, condition and a shipping weight for most items. That info determines the final total with shipping, so include that info from my Web page if you can. If you want items not on my site, you can ask but please BE SPECIFIC.

If we have a number of emails, please include our prior email message with your reply, and don't change the "subject" heading. I usually reply within24 hours to all inquiries but if you do not hear from me in a few days, it may be a spam or email or network problem so try again or follow this link for details.

I'll send a quote when I have your address and your list of specific items., otherwise I can only provide ESTIMATES and respond to BRIEF questions. My quote will include my mailing address, a quote confirming or updating my estimate, and costs of shipping and handling. Print that email quote and physically mail that printout with your check or money order payment. Most US customers send payment by first class mail or Priority Mail; you can use "delivery confirmation" if you want to track reciept. If you want expedited or quicker service for your order and faster shipping, we can provide "expedited service" but there will be additional costs. Please review that "expedited service" link before sending payment by express services or before using certified or registered mail.

For shipping outside the US, we use the United States Postal Service (USPS) "Priority Mail International", unless you specify otherwise. There is no longer "Air Mail" service as such, as of May 15 2007. Please review the information on my site at at this Web link for details. NOTE: "Priority Mail International" does NOT PROVIDE FOR TRACKING A LOST PACKAGE: accept this service AT YOUR OWN RISK. Other services are available at greater cost but give faster delivery and may provide other services.

Payment for orders inside the US is by check (personal or bank) or money order; no credit cards, no PayPal. Details of the check and where to send it are in my quote. If you are outside the United States, please read the linked section for those terms of payment and shipping. If you want an invoice or to send a purchase order, please review this link; we provide reciepts but don't take PO's without a prepayment. (We'll add your PO or invoice or other number to your reciept if you ask for it.) Most payments are sent to me by first class mail or Air mail; if you want faster reciept of your order check my "expedite" notes.

We'll ship when we receive your order and payment, and notify you by email when we ship. Expedited services for shipping or to send payment are available at extra costs. We normally ship in the US by FedEx ground or US mail (First class or Priority). You will get a paper, numbered reciept with the shipment; shippment tracking and insurance depends on the order and shipping method. For shipments outside the US, please read this linked section.

Verify your order upon reciept; notify me within 7 days of your reciept of any errors, failures, or other problems. We sell good used items, tested before shipping unless noted in our quote. We don't warrent working items beyond "working when shipped" unless specifically noted in our quoting messages. Anything you buy and use is at your own risk and it is up to YOU to know if what you order is useful to you.

This sounds complicated but it's the best way to insure that you know and I know what you are buying, for how much, and that your payment and your items will arrive safely. These methods allow me to keep my costs low, and to provide modest service and to make good use of my time (and yours). I have a lot of satisfied customers over several years who have given me good references.

Shipping costs
shipping outside the US
References:
Copies of manuals:
Expedited orders, payment and shipping:
Pickup of orders:
Tech info, advice:
Other Web links:
Your privacy
No reply from me? your email bounce?
Condition of items
Invoices, Purchase Orders:
Warrenty:
Problems with orders or items recieved:
Delays in ordering:
Delays in delivery:
Fitness for use:
Liability:
request my Employer Identification Number (EIN)? - unnecessary
If you want to SELL ME or GIVE ME your items...
Payment from customers outside the United States

Shipping costs within the USA are based on the weight of the package containing your items, and the distance shipped (from my New Jersey location). We add a few dollars for the time and materials needed to pack your items safely. A total for shipping and handing will be in our quote to you. We have had very few shipping losses over the years because of the care we take in packing. If you want to ESTIMATE shipping costs before you order, please note that most items on our site include a weight in pounds - that includes packing and box. You can go to a shipper's Web site and enter that weight, your ZIP code (or country) and mine (use Trenton NJ 08600 for ESTIMATES ONLY).

We normally ship a few days after recieving your payment by mail; and we ship by Federal Express (FedEx) Ground or US Postal Service (US mail) as per our quote. We send you an email notice when we ship. A tracking number is often available depending on the shipping service used, and we can provide that number. If you want FASTER service, including faster receipt or tracking for your payment, check my expedited section for details; and the the delay section below regarding delays.

Delays in ordering: Contact me if two weeks have gone by since you sent your order and payment and you have not heard from me; include any tracking number if any for your mailed order. If you are outside the US, check this section. If you have sent payment by US mail and it requires a signature, I may not have recieved the item OR notice that it was delivered. I recommend you DO NOT USE SINGATURE SERVICES with the US POST OFFICE. "Delivery Confirmation" is fine, but not "Signature confirmation". Or, use FedEx or UPS or other commercial services.

References: I've been in business for several years. Many people have been pleased to get "good hardware at good prices" from me, and I have references from them accordingly. Here are references from my Apple Macintosh sales; from my S-100 sales; from my SGI system sales.

Expedited payment and shipping: If you wish to speed up shipping of your order, you must send your payment faster, or ask me to "expedite" your order when it arrives, or have it shipped by a faster service. (But also see my option to pick up.)

Expedited Payment: We won't ship until we get payment. You can send payment with a reciept to you and tracking, by US Mail Priority Mail Delivery Confirmation. That is reasonably reliable. Otherwise First class or Priority Mail is fine. A faster service is either Federal Express (FedEx) or United Parcel Service (UPS). If you are really in a hurry, you can use Western Union like my non-US customers, so follow that link for information. DO NOT USE US Postal Service Registered Mail or Certified Mail. The Post Office does not deliver Registered Mail or Certified Mail reliably, it will add to delay. Whatever service you use to send payment, notify me of how payment was sent and give me the tracking information so I can "find" it if necessary.

Expedited Shipping: I normally ship within a few business days of payment reciept. I will ship the same business day I recieve payment if I quote "expedited service" for a $10 fee Mark "expedite" on your envelope. If you want faster shipping by FedEx, specify WHICH service you want from them there are many choices. All this extra effort is why I charge for "expedited" service. But it's a limited service.

Pickup of orders: If you are near enough to central New Jersey we occasionally allow pickups. You can ask. But don't ask just to pick up a $25 order after driving an hour or two - your gas, your time is (generally) not worth the $10 you might save in shipping. Also, I do not have a store, I work from my home. I cannot have customer traffic for many reasons, including insurance and because I have no "storefront" or "display" for you to see anyway so no "shopping". What I have to sell, is on my Web site.

Copies of manuals: My manual copy service fee is 20 cents a page plus postage and handling, unless the specific document in question has a copy price on it or is offered as an original. When you tell me which documents you want and where to ship, I will provide a quote accordingly with price and shipping. If you are looking for documents for specific hardware or software, please be informative. But I can't offer discussion on how-to-use, or what-to-use, or general chat. Sorry, but I'm just trying to help people with docs and I get many inquiries.

Tech info, advice: Check our Web pages first via the links section for links to common questions, my main Web pages, and to lists of links to other sites. Any information I provide is without warrenty or guarantee of completeness or accuracy: use it at your own risk, I am not responsible for loss, damage, or injury. It's up to you to determine what you want to buy from me or anyone else, and whether it will serve your purposes and needs.

Other Web links:
Links to all my Mac pages are on my Mac home page.
Links to my S-100 pages are on my S-100 home page.
Links to my SGI and Sun pages are on my SGI home page.
Links to other pages, for test equipment, floppy drives, etc. start at my Web site home page.
Other pages include frequent questions (FAQ's), or pages of Web links, or technical documents. Check our Apple/Macintosh frequent questions or
our S-100 frequent questions pages.
We have a links page to other Mac Web sites,
and a S-100 Web pointers page.

Privacy: if you are worried about privacy, I won't bug you with spam or junk mail, and I almost never phone a customer. I do not maintain any online personal data: I don't even have your credit card number. I only request a phone number so a shipper can contact you to complete a delivery if necessary. Obviously I need your address to ship, but I need it for my quote because all shipping costs are based on weight and distance; and I want to make sure I have your address correct and readable. Otherwise, I'd end up trying to read a hand-written return address on a damaged envelope. All of my procedures are intended to protect you, your privacy, and your order.

Spam: Did you not get a reply from me? or did your email to me bounce? In brief, some filter may have deleted your email; or your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may be blocking ALL email from my site or my ISP's site. Or, one of us has some email problems. That's why I have two email addresses, try using the other one.

I get a lot of spam, so I filter my email, so your message may have been deleted. To avoid deletion, make sure your message has an obvious "subject" line for a customer - mention a Mac model name and number for instance. Don't use subjects like "help!" or "thanks" , or "hello again". Those are used by spammers and I delete those messages. Also don't send attachments or photo images, as many virus programs are in attachments - I delete all messages with large attachments. Another problem may be that your email or mine may be blocked by a spam filter: try sending a message to my alternate email address and mention that you did not get a reply from me. Don't just send a copy of your email to both of my addresses.

Spam and viruses are a tremendous problem for anyone with a public email address. We list our email address on this page only, to minimize the misuse of our email address by spammers and by programs which send viruses. Many virus programs use a computer's email list, while some "harvest" email addresses from Web pages. When we did not block spam, over 90% of our email was spam (based on daily measurements of 150-200 emails DAILY. This is not a guess.) Please buy an anti-virus program and use it, the annual cost is very modest. And use the spam filters used by most email providers.

Invoices, Purchase Orders: We generally don't provide invoices (except for customs purposes). We don't accept purchase orders unless payment is included - we ship when we are paid. Any information an invoice would have is part of the "quote" I email to you: print that email. Also, with your order you will get an itemized, numbered paper reciept. Frankly, most orders from my site are well below most company's miminum amounts for such procedures; I recommend that you check your "petty cash" procedures, or pay for items directly yourself and get reimbursed, Our procedures provide reasonable protections and safety and a "paper trail" for the modest orders of most people, as the items I sell are not terribly expensive. I have a small one-person company and I save time and fuss with my simple procedures, so I'll have more time for YOU and YOUR ORDER and to work on my inventory. Bottom line: If you want additional payment and ordering services I will have to charge additional fees to YOU accordingly, or simply tell you "I cannot provide the level of services you request."

Condition of items is in the Web page description, but most are good, used, tested; some are unused and new. Refer to the description on my Web site for specifics. We do not use the term "refurbished" as it has no clear definition, it could mean anything. We'll just describe what we do, on my Web page for that item or items of that sort. Some new items - that is items which are unused and even still sealed in original boxes - are on Check a "new" page of mostly Apple repair parts.

Warrenty: All electronic and mechanical items sold are used and sold in working condition unless otherwise noted in their Web site description, and ultimately in our quote to you. They will be tested before shipping and are sold as "working when shipped" unless noted otherwise in our quote. There are NO WARRENTIES for software, and absolutely no guarantees whatsoever on any software that may reside on any system or hard drive sold as we have not "sold" you that software, it is not ours to sell. For Macintosh or Apple systems in particular, look at relevant questions in our Apple/Macintosh frequent questions page.

We offer no additional warrenties in general, unless stated in the quote I provide when you purchase. There are some SPECIFIC warrenties for some specific items, again those warrenties will be noted in my quote before you purchase; reference to those may also be in the item's description on my Web site. Additional information may be provided in our Web page descriptions, read those pages carefully. And PLEASE READ THE SECTIONS BELOW on "problems", "fitness" and "liability".

Problems with orders or with items recieved: Contact me with any questions about your order or your inquiries. We try to process orders and emails "quickly" but we don't offer immediate on-line service; usually next business day. We generally ship a few business days after reciept of order. If you have a problem or failure with an item upon reciept, contact me at once! You MUST contact me within seven days of reciept of order to correct any problems or inaccuracies. We will try to resolve any problems at that point. We don't offer warrenties beyond "working when recieved" but we do want to hear about any problems. We do not offer guarantees about your use of anything sold, and no warrenties on any software whatsoever.

Delays in delivery: Delays in delivery are rare for US orders. Items shipped by Federal Express or United Parcel Service can be tracked ONLINE via their Web sites. You need the tracking number associated with your order's package - ask me if I did not give it to you. Items shipping by United States Postal Service (US Mail) WITHIN THE USA can be tracked online if one of the following services were used: Express Mail, Delivery Confirmation service, Signature Confirmation service, Certified Mail and Registered Mail. Due to changes in the US Postal Service, as of May 15 2007 I do not know if mail can be tracked if NONE of these services were used. Contact me AS SOON AS REASONABLE - there may be time limits to track items.

If your order was shipped outside the United States please review the information on this Web page. There are often delays in customs. Contact me as soon as is reasonable if your package is delayed beyond its likely delivery date - there are various deadlines for filing an inquiry with the USPS, and with other shipping services.

Fitness for use: It is up to you, the purchaser, to determine fitness for any particular use and whether the item will satisfy your needs or interests. This is very rarely a problem, we very rarely have customers who change their minds after ordering or after reciept of goods. We always urge our customers to get appropriate information before ordering, and we rarely offer any purchasing advice - that would be a conflict of interest.

We are glad to help you with your order, that is one reason we use email rather than automated forms. But we can't help you with how you might use what you order, or whether it is the "best" thing you "should" buy, or to select what you "need" for one purpose or another. We just offer information, we do not offer advice or support. Check our Web links and frequent questions sections for additional information.

Liability: We are not responsible for any damage, injury or loss due to any use of any items bought, information obtained, or due to any advice, suggestions, or recommendations provided. We do not warrent any information we provide to be complete or accurate. You assume all risks in any use of items purchased or in the use of any information we may provide. We make no judgements as to your skills or abilities to use the information or items you acquire; or to whether you can use this information or items safely. YOUR SAFETY IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.

Request my Employer Identification Number (EIN) or Tax ID? Occasionally a customer's accountant will request my IRS "Employer Identification Number" or EIN, or Tax ID. Apparently some companies or organizations are obliged to report their purchases from other companies by that SELLER's EIN. In the case of individuals (sole proprietors) doing business like myself, that means MY SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, or "taxpayer ID".

To protect myself from indentity fraud, I do NOT give out this number. It is very rare I will accept this request as part of my terms of sale. Also, some customers have attempted to request this number AFTER sale. So, if you company requires an EIN or Tax ID to provide payment to me, we most likely cannot do business. My apologies.

If you want to SELL OR GIVE ME YOUR STUFF

How much will you give me?" I buy for MUCH LESS than I sell for, and I buy locally to avoid shipping costs. That is how I stay in business. If you want to sell to me to make money, you should find a buyer yourself and sell directly to them. My selling price is based on my time and effort and storage costs, as well as what people will pay for a GOOD WORKING CLEAN item. I have some discussion of this in my Mac list of frequent questions. But keep in mind that for items at ANY cost - even ZERO - I have costs of my time to test and repair; costs of storage space; time spent in reviewing inventory. And I have to select items that will sell over items that won't sell. This is how I stay in business. If I'm out of business, I can't help anyone including you.

Who else will take/buy these items?. In general, I don't know. I don't know any national organizations to which you might send or give your stuff to. Such organizations tend to be local and they come and go, and often they have TOO MUCH stuff already. Most organizations who redistribute computers don't want especially old computers, most don't want ANY Apple computers - and most of them CHARGE YOU to take them! There are a number of recycling companies that will take old electronics, most for free, sometimes on special days - check your city or county directory or phonebook or Web site for "computer recycling". Check my Mac list of frequent questions for more info.

Why would someone GIVE this guy their computer items? This question is not as odd as some might think. Many people appreciate the years of service they have had from their Mac or other computers. They also know that others may find THEIR items useful even if it is no longer useful to them. In addition, some cities CHARGE FOR DISPOSAL of computers; and some people simply don't like discarding working items. Finally, some people want to support my services with their "donations". So, paying to ship old computers to me is a reasonable choice.

I try to offer at least "cost of shipping" but I simply can't afford to take everything, even items offered to me for free. My apologies for these limitations. But in order to stay in business to help OTHERS, I must work within these limits when buying or even accepting donations from customers. Thanks for your considerations.

Payment from non-US customers is by check or money order or Western Union, specifics are described in another document. No credit cards, no PayPal. Shipping to customers outside the United States is by US Postal Service (mail) only with rare exceptions, details in another document. If you are a customer outside the U.S., PLEASE ADVISE ME OF YOUR METHOD OF PAYMENT. My apologies, US banks charge $20 US or more, and take weeks, to process non-US or non-dollar checks, except as described in the document referenced above. Credit card services are expensive. The services described are relatively fast and modestly priced in general: POSTAL MONEY ORDERS ARE USUALLY THE CHEAPEST METHOD FOR NON-US CUSTOMERS.

If the ways and services described below are not acceptable to you, or if you want much faster shipping or ordering, or you want to use a shipping service not described; then I suggest you find a US agent or person who will then order from me and pay me directly, as any US customer does. They can ship to you, and you can pay them, as you arrange with them. Otherwise, our experience is that shipping outside the US by US mail is cheaper, takes less of our time and generally SAVES YOU MONEY. If you insist on additional services, we will charge additional fees.