Prints coming soon!
Shipping and FAQ
We get a lot of email questions. About 98% of them are answered here.
Ordering
Shipping
- Shipping costs
- Shipping times
- Shipping packaging
- Tracking
- Late packages
- Lost packages
- Customs and brokering costs
- Returns
Credit cards and PayPal
Personal information
Other
Ordering
Can I order Sky only?
Not if you want to understand Sky.
Complete Shibari: Sky is meant as a true sequel to Land. Sky refers to icons and techniques from Land and presumes you understand them fully. Even if you're familiar with shibari, we strongly recommend you don't buy Sky only.
If you order Sky, we may contact you and suggest that you either buy both or switch your order to Land. However, over time, people that buy Land will go on to buy Sky, so we can't contact people forever.
Shipping
Shipping costs
We don't make money on shipping - our charges are based on the average actual costs to ship.In some cases, you may find that the cost of shipping approaches the cost of the books. We're sorry about that - shipping is expensive and our books aren't. Maybe we should charge more...
Shipping times
Shipments are based on the possible range of our processing times, plus the service standard for shipping. In general, the closer your order is made to the weekend (when we typically ship) and the closer you live to a major metropolitan area, the faster your shipping time will be.
If you live somewhere other than US or Canada, please seriously consider using the faster shipping method. The default method is reliable, but reliably slow and regularly at or beyond the upper edge of the published service standard.
The calculations are based on business days, so a single civic holiday during the shipping period could add as much as much as 3 actual days to the shipping schedule.
If you select faster shipping from the drop-down menu, choose carefully - choosing the wrong item could mean a partial refund and slower shipping.
| Country | Shipping type | Shipping method | Order-to-arrival time |
|---|---|---|---|
| US | Default shipping | Expedited | 14-23 days |
| US | Faster shipping | Xpresspost | 9-13 days |
| Canada | Default shipping | Expedited parcel | 7-17 days |
| Canada | Faster shipping | Xpresspost | 7-10 days |
| International | Default shipping | Small packet surface | 34-49 days |
| International | Faster shipping | Small packet air | 14-20 days |
Shipping packaging
Your books are well protected during shipping.
Books are sealed in a 1 mil poly bag, then boxed in an unmarked, corrugated mailer. The packaging helps keep your books dry, flat, and well-defended from velociraptor attacks.
Late packages
Late packages occur occasionally, especially with international orders. Lost packages rarely occur. The shipper won't initiate a trace until the package is at least two weeks overdue, so the best thing to do is be patient - your books are on their way!Lost packages
Lost packages are a surprisingly rare occurence that virtually never happen. It's amazing, really.However, the possibility exists.
In the event of a lost package, we'll make a claim. Once shippers determine that the package is indeed lost and the claim is settled, we'll ship you another book. If the package is very late, it usually doesn't take long for the claim to be processed.
If you wonder if your package is lost, give it some time - it may have been delayed going through customs.
The shipper will absolutely not allow a claim to be made until the package is a least two weeks overdue. Thus, if the package is late, the best thing to do is be patient - packages are often late, but rarely lost.
Tracking
Packages destined for Canada and the US include a tracking number; international packages aren't tracked.Tracking isn't moment-by-moment accurate. Really, it's better to think of tracking as "delivery confirmation" - packages may seem to be sitting indefinitely in a Canadian terminal, then -BOOM!- it's at your door.
The reason for the disconnect is that in Canada, package scans are reported on the website. However, once the package leaves Canada, the scans aren't reported back to Canada Post until final delivery.
To track a package, go to CanadaPost.ca.
Customs and brokering costs
Shipping methods include brokering costs. There are no surprise fees - the price you pay is the price you expected to pay.Customs in many countries (including US and UK) tend not to charge for books.
Credit card processing
Credit cards are processed through Paypal.We never see your credit card number and can't charge an amount larger than you agreed to.
The price charged is in Canadian dollars. There are many online currency converters, including Google (for the day's exchange, search for "100 CAD in USD" or "100 CAD in EUR").
Returns
Most companies refuse to accept returns on any books. However, we have great faith that once you our books, you'll be thrilled.In the unlikely event that you are dissatisfied with the book, the following conditions apply.
- Returns must be made within 30 days from the date of delivery. To accommodate Christmas shopping, items shipped between November 1 and December 31 may be returned up to January 31 of the following year.
- Shipping charges are not refundable.
- The sender is responsible for shipping charges related to returning the item. Returns that are shipped collect will not be accepted.
- Books lost in the mail during return are your responsibility. For better safety, use insurance.
- To qualify for a full refund of the purchase price, the book must not show obvious signs of use or damage. If the book is used or not in a saleable state, we will refund 50% of the purchase price. Books showing signs of abuse, damage or missing pages will not be accepted for refund. Evaluation of the condition of the books will be at our sole discretion.
- Refunds are made in the same form of payment originally used for the purchase.
- You can expect a refund to be made within 30 business days of our receiving the book(s). You will be refunded the shipping cost if the return is a result of our error.
Credit cards and PayPal
Credit card security
We understand that the risk of credit card fraud is a serious concern for our customers. Mental Gears Publishing processes purchases through PayPal, a large company that services a significant portion of global companies. We process the transaction when we ship (not before). We never see your credit card number.When credit card information is collected, it is done so using a secure server. The data is encrypted with a 128-bit SSL digital certificate. This method of encryption is a standard method of encrypting e-commerce transactions and ensuring that we are who we say we are.
When you are ready to provide credit card information, you are transferred to a secure server. Most browsers indicate that you are on a secure page, usually with a closed padlock icon.
To learn more about 128-bit SSL, see the Wikipedia entry about Transport Layer Security.
Ordering without a credit card
Orders are processed through Paypal, which allows many methods of payment, including debit cards.PayPal disputes
PayPal makes it easy to dispute a charge, if you need to. A little too easy, it seems.Before migrating to Paypal, we sold the The Better Built Bondage Book for six years. During that time, we had a total of two credit card disputes, both of which were determined to be spurious.
If you have a concern, read this page - most of the concerns about undelivered packages seem to be made by customers that haven't read the Shipping Times section of this page. If that doesn't help, send us an email.
Disputed charges should be a last resort, not a first. We take pride in making sure our customers are treated fairly, so you should never have to resort to a dispute.
Personal information
Privacy
We promise...- We will never sell, rent or share our customer data.
- We will use the information we collect only for the purposes of fulfilling your order, sending email confirmations, billing and so on.
- We won't use any sneaky "opt-ins" for mailing lists. If mailing lists are offered, the sign-ups will be clearly worded. By default they will be set to "No."
- All communications with you will be discrete. Email will come from the URLs www.tbbbb.com, www.CompleteShibari.com or www.mentalgears.com (the publishing company). (For best privacy, we encourage the use of a personal throwaway Gmail account.)
- Packages will be described accurately and honestly described as educational books. Although these books contain no prurient, lewd or objectionable material, we understand that possession of such a book infers very private information about your sexuality. We will do the utmost to ensure that your privacy isn't compromised.
- We will use secure methods to protect your personal data.
Information Collection
In order to connect to this web server (or any web server), your browser provides anonymous information to enable the connection. This information includes your ISP's (Internet Service Provider) IP address, the type of browser you're using (IE, Mozilla, Safari, etc.) and so on.The gathered data is used to generate statistics about the website. These statistics include web traffic, popular pages, unpopular pages, broken links and so on. This information is used only in aggregate form and isn't connected with information that identifies you personally.
To learn more about the types of information collected by web servers, see the page for the free web statistics program, Webalizer.
A Bit More
Except for the secure server used to complete a sale, the site is informational, not data-gathering. The site uses no cookies, web bugs, or hidden data-laden images. There are no pop-ups, pop-unders or redirects on exit. There are no banners, third-party advertising partners or affiliates. No secret downloads, spyware, code executions, ActiveX or Flash.Just simple html pages, lovingly hand-coded in the same manner your great-grandparents made their homepages.
Other
Contact us
About 98% of the emails we get are already answered on this page. So you can get a more complete answer - faster - by reviewing this page before emailing. However, if the answer isn't here, send an email to CompleteShibari@gmail.com.
When contacting us, please include your name as it appears on your Paypal account and the exact date of your order. Send your request from the email account attached to your PayPal account.
Please contact us before initiating a PayPal dispute - we have a long history of treating our customers fairly and we do so just because we believe it's the right thing to do.
Copyright Douglas Kent
