Before you get frustrated, confused, or concerned about the status of your order (and before you read everything below) just remember these facts:
Since we handcraft most of the gift items listed on CatholictotheMax.com, the amount of time an order takes to arrive at your house will vary, depending on the time of year (holidays, papal visit), the amount of items on the order (that we have to produce by hand), and the shipping method you choose (UPS Ground, USPS Priority, etc). If there is no holiday/special event going on, and you didn't place your order outside of our regular business hours (Monday – Friday, 8am – 5pm), it takes roughly a week to produce your order before it even ships.
The time formula for how long it takes an order to arrive goes something like this:
Time entering/processing order + Time producing items on order + Shipping time (varies depend on method chosen)
For a detailed breakdown of each order status while your order is being entered/made/shipped, see below.
1. Awaiting fulfillment (1 business day*):
Your order has been placed and has not yet been entered into our system. If you place your order outside of our normal work hours (Monday through Friday, 8 a.m – 5 p.m) it will not be entered into our system until the following Monday. For holidays, the order is not entered until the next business day after the holidays within our normal work hours (Monday – Friday, 8am – 5pm).
* Will vary during periods of high-volumes of orders.
2. Awaiting shipment (minimum of 3 -5 business days):
A lot of people get confused about this status. We work with an e-commerce system which unfortunately doesn't feature all the order statuses a small family business like ours needs. Here is everything that happens to your order while it has the status “Awaiting Shipment”:
3. Shipped (time amount varies depending on shipping method chosen):
Our various shipping carriers pick up your order towards the end of that day. Your order is now shipped and is on its way to the address you specified!
If you see any of the following statuses on your order (with the exception of partially shipped), it means your order has been halted. An action is required from you in order for your order to be completed and shipped.
Awaiting payment:
If you choose to pay with a check, your order will not be entered
into our system until the check arrives here in Steubenville.
Verification required:
You will see this status if your order has one or more of the following:
If any of these conditions are the case, we will try to reach you by the phone or email
address you provided at checkout.
Partially Shipped (at no expense to you):
This isn't really a problem, but when we are experiencing an unusually high volume of orders (aka the Pope comes to America, or a saint is canonized), sometimes the only thing we can do to get people's orders out the door faster is to ship the part of the order that is already produced/made. Rest assured the remaining items on your order will ship still, so no worries.
What happens to my order once it leaves your facility?
You may wonder what happens to your order after it leaves the building. Depending on the shipping method you chose, your order may take days or weeks to arrive at the address you provided. Since our most popular method of shipping is UPS, we have provided a chart below with estimated shipping times for that method to help you get a rough idea of when your order is going to arrive. Keep in mind when reading the chart, your order ships from Steubenville, Ohio.
Why is adding additional items to my order later so hard?
The e-commerce platform we work with, while a good fit for us, doesn't allow us to add additional items to orders. What we recommend is that you place a new order for the additional items you want. Then, at the final step of checkout, leave a comment in the comment section stating that you want this order to ship with order # [specify the number of your original order]. At this time, we can only guarantee that we will try our best to ship that order with the original.
Why does it take so long to tell me whether my order has shipped or is near completion?
On average, every month, hundreds of orders are processed by production department. Due to the limited size of our production staff, checking the status of your order and whether or not it is near completion means halting production, not just for your order, but everyone else's. So, order statuses are checked at whatever time ensures the minimal loss of production time on all orders.
I chose USPS First Class Mail/Priority why is my order taking so long to arrive?
Contrary to popular belief, USPS First Class Mail and Priority Mail are actually some of the slowest methods of shipping to choose. If you are looking for a cost effective shipping method that doesn't take forever we generally recommend UPS Ground in most cases. For the best expedited shipping method for your address we recommend you contact us at 740-282-5334.
Expedited Shipping Exceptions
If you chose a form of expedited shipping (USPS Express, UPS 3 Day Select, UPS 2nd Day Air, UPS Next Day Air), then your order usually goes out that day. However if you order Next Day Air on a Friday evening or a weekend, your order won't go out until Monday because we cannot ship on the weekends. If you order late the day before or on holidays like Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, and the like, your order won't be shipped until the next available business day.