P A Y P A L   S H I P P I N G   O V E R C H A R G E S
We are very sorry for this inconvenience, Paypal's shopping cart software does not let us configure the shipping by weight or by country - which to save you money we ship by weight and not a set item price. This has caused headaches for us and our clients as well. We have been waiting for the Mexican banks to be able to offer us direct internet depositing for over a year now, and as soon as we know they can handle it we plan on changing to their proprietor secure direct deposit system. Until then we have to rely on the mediocre services of Paypal here in Mexico.

We know it is an inconvenience overpaying for shipping, and we try to reimburse you for the extra shipping fees charged by Paypal's system as soon as we receive your payment. Please bear with us and hopefully we will be able to make the switch away from Paypal and their antiquated software system early in 2007.

S H I P P I N G
We ship from the state of Colima on the Pacific side of México, worldwide. Constantly we are looking for new ways to keep our shipping costs down by using safe, reliable and the least expensive route for our customers. At current we use Mexico International Flat Rate (Sepomex) to ship envelopes and at times use MexPost to ship small boxes safely to the U.S. and around the world. You can request delivery by UPS, DHL or FedEx - the price will usually be about 3 to 5 times the cost (for parcels weighing less than 1 kilo) of the regular Mexico Postal Service.

On parcels over 1 kilo, it is usually cheaper and safer to ship by alternate carriers like UPS, DHL or FedEx. All parcels of 1 kilo or more will automatically be custom quoted for you, this includes single and combined item shipping. Our shipping charges are calculated by weight and not by quantity.

     ** Our shipping rates do not include International Customs charges,
these must be paid by the customer (if any) when you receive your parcel.

R E T U R N S
If your purchase needs to be returned you must first contact us within 3 days of receipt of your parcel and then promptly ship the item(s) back to us within 7 days of receipt. You must ship the items back in their original package and pay all shipping costs to us here in México. Once the parcel is received and contents inspected we will have PayPal refund * the purchase price for the item.

We Do Not Accept Returns On Rough Opals or Fire Agate Purchases. Your skills as a lapidarist will dictate the quality you produce from our rough material, all of our raw stone lots are high grade - unless otherwise stated.

* If an item is damaged it will be helpful to send us a digital image (photo or scan) of the damage before returning - we may offer a discount or partial refund if you would still like to keep the damaged item.

Refunds for missing parcels take 60 days to complete the postal tracking return system, this allows the parcel or Registered Mail card time to be returned to us here in México. A full refund (except for shipping charges) will be made after the 60 day period, from the day the parcel was shipped - NO EXCEPTIONS.

RETURNS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED FOR REASONS SUCH AS: "the color does not match my clothes", "it was not what I had envisioned", "it is smaller than I imagined", "I was expecting something different", etc...* we list all sizes, weights and use good un-retouched photos to represent the product, usually photographed in sunlight (unless the description says otherwise) - every item we sell is handpicked, we do not buy in bulk, what you see and what is in our description is exactly what you receive and 99% of our clients have been happy with their purchases over the 5 years that we have selling stones.

* 20% restocking fee for 'non-damaged' return items.

N O T I C E  -  L O S T    P A R C E L
To protect ourselves from mail theft in Mexico, around the world and a few dishonest customers (unfortunately they are out there) - customers must now pay for Registered Mail (see below) if they expect any kind of refund for a parcel they did not receive. This means that the parcel will have to be signed for and a return card will be sent back to us for verification in case of any discrepancy arising from a transaction.

Unfortunately we do lose a couple parcels a year (mainly to Singapore, Thailand and South Africa), but that is a small amount out of amount of parcels we ship per year. Registered Mail is now mandatory for your piece of mind and the guarantee that your purchase is 100% safe.

Parcels take between 12 and 25 days to arrive to their destination from Mexico, and sometimes (for some unknown reason) a few parcels have taken 30 to 45 days to arrive to certain destinations (usually to Asia, and sometimes to Florida, USA also...) - this fortunately occurs very rarely.

WE DO NOT SHIP TO THE FOLLOWING STATES OR COUNTRIES:
Arizona & Texas in the United States
Some postal employees have taken it to be their patriotic duty to damage, destroy or lose parcels via "Origin of México". We are very sorry that a few narrow-minded souls have decided where the people of Arizona and Texas are allowed to purchase items from. We have lost hundreds of dollars this year and the stones arrived broken (forklift tire tread on package) or not at all.

We would hate to lose any customer, especially over a politically motivated immigration battle... if you would still like to purchase from us, send your address and we will find you the best price for an alternative shipping company that does not use the US postal system (USPS). Most likely Estafeta, which passes off parcels at the California border to UPS and DHL without problems - the cost will be sufficently more, but your purchases will arrive in perfect condition the way they used to before these political border wars began.

Singapore
Sometimes our parcels get through with long delays (45 days) once in awhile, but almost half do not arrive at all. Sorry, but Singapore has been a blackhole for us and many other companies for many years now.