FAQs
Do you have a question or a suggestion for this page? Please email us at janice@traditionalstitches.com
Below you will find answers to our most often asked questions as well as a few tid-bits that I thought you should know. If you do not find the information that you are looking for, please feel free to email us.
Postage
Postage is charged by weight and dimensions of your package. Unless you specify otherwise, we do our best to balance postage costs, the packing requirements of the items that you have ordered and timeliness of delivery. The shopping cart system just can't replace our 18+ years of experience in mailing everything (and any/all combinations of everything) from rolls of canvas to fragile porcelain half dolls to a single skein of thread.
We endeavour to keep your postage costs as reasonable as we can. We would *much* rather you spent your hard earned money on stitchy things and not on postage. Sometimes, however, there just isn't an affordable option. If you have concerns, please contact us.
Here are the standards that we use for determining postage costs: Shipping Information. If an item is heavy (eg. hard cover books) or bulky or fragile, your postage rate may fall outside of these guidelines.
Please email us if you have any questions.
Changes to your order
You are always welcome to email us or call to make additions to your order and we will do our best to combine them with your existing order.
Cancellations are very hard on any small business. We expect that when an order is placed, our customers will stand by their commitment to that order. We understand that sometimes shopping cart errors do occur. If that is the case, please let us know by email or telephone right away.
Please note that once your order is placed, we cannot accept cancellations of fabrics that we have already cut for your order, items that we have already ordered for you from our supplier, sale or discounted items, Limited Edition items, our "1 only!" items or fabrics from our Pre-Cut section.
Is Everything In Stock?
With 10,000 items in our catalogue, we can't keep everything in stock all the time. Our on-hand inventory varies daily and because we accept orders in our store, on our web site, over the phone and by email, it just isn't possible to have the web site reflect our actual inventory. Please also keep in mind that we are a small business in a pretty small industry...while we wish that we could afford to automate all of those processes like the big web sites do, it just isn't feasible.
If something is out of stock, we will notify you by email as soon as possible and we will give you our best estimate of the timeframe. We can mail you the rest of your order or hold all of your items until your order is complete...whichever you prefer.
Please also keep in mind that many of our suppliers are also small businesses and while we order your item as soon as we can, they might not have it available to send to us.
Deadlines
Are you taking a workshop? Is there a baby due next month? Are you having a "stitching emergency"? If so, you are welcome to let us know. In some cases, we can make things happen a bit more quickly.
On the same note, if we don't know about your deadline, we can't be positive that we will meet it. Please use the Comments section while checking out or email or call us with that information.
Special Orders
Special Orders are always welcome. Please visit our links page to see the products offered by our most commonly used suppliers, although Special Orders are not limited to those listed. Please email us as much detail about your Special Order item as you can. Most Special Orders take approximately 4 weeks to arrive.
Special Orders must be secured by credit card or prepayment.
Tips for using our Web Site
The Search button: our web site software has a really great Search feature. You will find it in the horizontal tool bar near the top of every page in our on-line catalogue. Want to see all of our Lakeside Linens? Type Lakeside into the text area. Looking for designs with Queen Stitch? Type queen into the text area.
Basket Contents: this is where you edit the quantity of your items or remove something from your shopping basket. You will find this button in the horizontal tool bar near the top of every page in our on-line catalogue.
Sales Tax
GST (Goods and Services Tax) is charged on all orders shipped within Canada or billed to a Canadian address. We do not charge GST on orders shipped outside of Canada.
If your order accidentally comes through with Sales Tax on it, we'll adjust that when we manually process your order.
Canadian Funds Pricing / Currency Conversion
We do all of our pricing, invoicing etc. in Canadian funds. We do have a currency converter on our web site. If you are paying by credit card, your credit card company will do the conversion from Canadian dollars to your currency on your next credit card statement. The total on your invoice and credit card slip will be in Canadian funds. Pay Pal will also perform the conversion for you. If you are paying by check, money order or electronic transfer, please wait for us to email the total in US dollars before sending payment.
Ordering Methods
We offer 4 methods for placing your order:
Securely using our on-line shopping cart system. This is a great way to order if you are a new customer as it sends us all of your information in one step. It is easy to use and available 24/7/365.
By email. If you've ordered from us before, we have your information on file and you can simply email us your order. You can either type the items that you would like into the body of an email or you can add the items to your on-line shopping basket and then copy and paste the contents of your shopping basket into an email.
By telephone. Our local telephone number is 403-208-9650 or within North America you can reach us toll free at 866-208-9650. Please note that we are on Mountain Time, so there may be time differences. Please leave a detailed message and we will return your call as soon as possible.
Visit us in the shop!
Order Fulfillment and Status
Orders are securely downloaded each business day and checked with incoming emails to see if you've sent any additional questions, additions or instructions. If we are out of stock on any of your items, we will email you let you know which item is out of stock and approximately when it will be available. We will ask if you would prefer us to send the rest of your order now or if you would rather we wait and send everything together.
We do not yet have a way for you to check the status of your order on line. Please email us if you have any questions about the status of your order.
Orders with payment issues (declined credit card, waiting for PayPal payment etc.) are kept up to a maximum of 30 days.
Payment Options:
We've got a few!
Visa, Mastercard, American Express: available both on-line or in the shop.
Interac: available in the shop only.
Electronic funds transfer from your bank account to ours: once we've manually processed your order and emailed you a total, you log into your on-line bank account, set us up as a Payee from your account and send us the funds just like you would pay a bill on-line. We receive an email notification that the funds are available and have your package in the mail by the following business day. None of your private banking information is transmitted to us. Your bank may charge a fee for this transfer.
Personal Check or Money Order: orders paid by personal check will be held for 10 days after we receive your check to ensure funds have cleared our accounts. Payment in US funds is welcome, but please contact us for the conversion before sending your payment. Orders paid by Money Orders are sent once the Money Order is received.
Pay Pal: once we have manually processed your order and added the proper shipping, we will send you a Pay Pal request for the total. Your order will be posted as soon as we receive a Pay Pal notice that payment has been accepted.
Security of your Personal Information
This is very important to us! We treat your information in the same way I would like mine treated. At no time and under no circumstances will we share any of your personal information with another individual or company. We do not keep any of our customers' credit card information on our computers. All group emails are sent as BCCs to keep your email addresses private.
Return Policies
We want to make you happy! But we do have to have some policies in place. If you have any concerns about an item that you have ordered, please contact us immediately.
Any errors or omissions on our part must be reported upon receipt of your order.
We will not accept an item for return without prior authorization.
We are unable to offer returns or exchanges on any discounted or sale items.
All items returned via UPS will be refused. This is because they charge a significant brokerage fee for all deliveries.
Due to copyright restrictions we cannot accept returns on charts, books or other printed material.
Returns on all other items are at our discretion. Typically, we will offer an in-store credit that you can use immediately or keep for a future order. There is a 20 % restocking fee on items returned for refund.
Returns on fabric are at our discretion. We will not accept returns for fabrics that have been washed, stitched, cut or mounted on a frame. Fabrics from our Pre-Cut section cannot be returned.
Shipping costs are not refundable. Items must be returned to us in as new, saleable condition and refunds will be processed once the items arrive back to us.
Please contact us if you have any questions at all.