Stuff you should know about
Emblem Project jewelry sales

I began what is now The Emblem Project as coordinator of what became a shared order, rather than as a merchant. I've tried to run it in the same spirit ever since.

What that means is that I've been doing this more as a service than as a true business. The Project does make a decent profit, but a good chunk of that goes right back into developing new goodies or finding ways to keep prices down — or even reduce them. As a result, there have been times when Emblem Project prices have dropped even as my manufacturing costs have gone up. Now that was cool to be able to do!

The drawback is that this approach doesn't always allow me to re-order as soon as stock gets low — I sometimes have to wait until there's enough money on hand to order in sufficient quantity to maintain the prices. As the project has grown more popular, this situation has grown more rare. But it can still happen. I'll be glad to tell you what's on hand at any time and hold anything for you for up to two weeks while you get your order in. However, if I should be out of the piece you want, I encourage you to send in your order anyway. I will not cash your check or run your credit card until your order is ready to ship! But your pre-orders will help me determine how many of what items to have made and will allow me to order sooner — thereby getting your product to you sooner as well.

Guarantees

• As I said above, I will not cash your check if you order something out of stock — not until it comes into stock and I send it out to you. Credit Card orders are charged when your item is ready to ship out.
• If you get your jewelry and don't like it, send it back within 30 days and get an immediate exchange or refund, your choice. If a defect shows up sometime after 30 days, send it back to me and I'll get the mint to replace it. This doesn't cover normal wear or abuse, of course, but I'll make good on anything defective.

Confidentiality

• I will never sell (or even give away) your name, email address, or any other personal information with a few very specific and reasonable exceptions:
  • If you are ordering an item (usually a custom item) on a tight deadline and, to get it to you in time, you need it shipped to you directly from the manufacturer/jewelry-maker, I'll give the manufacturer your mailing information. I will let you know if and when this is happening.
  • If you have a business address or email address, are clearly seeking customers, and I can direct a potential customer to you, I'll do so if I believe it will be to our mutual advantage.
  • If an authorized law enforcement agency presents a warrant requiring me to provide information, I will.

• Should I ever get email from somebody who wants to reach you for what seems a legitimate reason, I'll get in touch with you myself and let you know, giving you the option of whether you want to make contact.
• If you send me an order form with a stupid mistake on it, I will not refrain from telling someone, "Hey, somebody sent me a large order but didn't tell me where to ship it," but I won't tell them who the culprit is. Nor will I go out of my way to refrain from remarking on coincidences, such as, "Well, you're the third person from Moose Hill, ND, to order the new Emblem doggie chew toy this week!"*
• Here is how Emblem Project records are kept:
  • Emailed and Online Order Form orders are printed out in hard copy. Orders are filled and hard copy forms stuffed into a large manilla envelope. When the envelope is full to bursting, it's put in a box with other envelopes and a new envelope is started. So if you ever desperately need to find out about an order you placed with me three years ago, there's a definite chance that I might be able to find it. No promises, though, and it may take a while.
  • Charge slips are kept, as the bank requires, and are filed away. The only access to them would be by physically breaking into my office and searching for them.
  • Should I ever screw up filling out a credit card slip (and it happens more often than I like to admit), your account number is totally scribbled out before the slip is torn to shreds and thrown away.
• My Online Order Form now sits on a secure server. Copies of orders remain on my personal hard drive for some time. My computer is protected by assorted anti-virus software and the Black Ice intrusion-protection program. In order to get at the order forms, somebody would have to either come to my office and get on my computer, or find a way to crack in while I'm online, circumventing Black Ice protection software (damn hard to do). While I assume this is not impossible, it's certainly not worth the bother when most moderately sized cyberstores sell more product and receive more orders with more credit card numbers in 10 minutes than I do in a week. Or maybe even a month. Should I ever have any indication of a problem, I'll take steps to correct it..
• The only mailing list I keep is the opt-in Emblem Project Emailing list. You will not be added to that list unless you specifically ask to be, and requests must come from the email address to be mailed to.
• I do not keep a database of orders, customers, or credit card information.

* _{No, I do not really offer an Emblem doggie chew toy! But enough pre-orders could change that.}