CONTACT ME at:
-or-
303-731-9061
-or-
2372 Beech Ct, Golden, CO 80401
OOPS, some bad news:
Had some health problems of late and getting out to the shop is going to be problematic till at last after the first of the year. None-the-less, I welcome your questions as to how to display & protect your collections & keepsakes. Be sure to check out my HOW-TO section -I've even had some luck at getting some video kind'a things up.
Thanks for you understanding and patience.
Bill
HOW TO BUY MY PRODUCTS:
Simple -write me an eMail telling me what you think you might want. Maybe even ask me a question or two. I'll write you back with the particulars, and answer your questions. We may go back & forth a time or two -all in the nature of making sure we will get you exactly what you wnat.
When I am all set to start on your piece -and my work-bench is cleared off- I will ask you for payment -or 50% on large or custom orders. Then you will write me back -let us hope with payment, (and if not, that's OK -we both will have learned and enjoyed the learning). I try to keep my customers pretty well informed as to the progress. Whenit's far enough along to build a crate and weigh everything, I will figurethe freight and ask for the2nd 50% and freight. I will ship you your product and confirm shipment with an short email.
You will get the product and be delighted and tell all your friends and neighbors and they will wantme to build them a case, and cycle repeats itself. It's just little old fashioned, but it's the AMERICAN way. A little corny, but I like doing things this way.
PAY PAL:
I am verified by the PayPal folks. This says something about my business practices and allows me to accept your credit cards safely. By "safely," I mean they do it. I don't get involved with your credit card. They also have security, secret codes for sending your info over the net, banks, bankers and clever 'puter people. Happy to let them do it, 'cause I don't understand it.
SECURITY POLICIES:
I have not actually lost money from having used my credit card on-line, but I HAVE had to waste time, effort, and long distance phone time getting debits reversed. So at this point, and as much to simplify my life as to protect my customers, I have chosen to accept payment as follows:
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Personal checks, -I will ship product immediately upon your checks clearing my bank, -usually not more then a week or two, depending on where you live.
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Money Orders, -Rather a nuisance, but foolproof and there is a 7-11 Convenience Store everywhere. They have the advantage of allowing me to ship immediately.
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See above re. PayPal. This allows me to accept your credit card -or allows you to use your credit card to pay the PayPal people and they pay me. This provides you all sorts of security and protection. What happens is -you and I sort out the details of price, shipping, and what-not. Then I invoice you through PayPal. You get an eMail asking for money. If you are already signed up with PayPal, it's an easy thing to pay. (If you are not, it's a little more complicated -you have to fill out their forms and give them credit card info. But it's no big deal -or at least it wasn't when I did it.) After you pay -and your credit-card bank tells them all is OK on your end. I get an eMail telling me I've been paid, and off the item goes. HERE IS THE IMPORTANT POINT -I don't ever know your credit card number. Better this way. I don't do banking and our banks -yours and mine- don't do wood-work.
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I may loose your address and ask for it a second time –I seem to do this with embarrassing regularity. Usually works out that you get back to me about 20 seconds after I found where I put it the first time.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: Neither I -nor PayPal- will ever send you an eMail asking you to update your account. Such things are a SCAM.
PRIVACY POLICY:
I don't use cookies. Frankly, I don't know how. If I figure it out. I'll update this statement to that effect. The only means of gathering information is what you tell me. I need obvious and appropriate information to complete the transaction. Your address -obviously, and phone number -some things can be sorted out most easily on the phone. But I don't like telemarketers either and damn-sure don't want to be one.
I DO NOT SELL / LEASE / or otherwise DISTRIBUTE MY CUSTOMER LIST.
SHIPPING etc:
Shipping is a can of worms. I make beautiful stuff and I make it stout. This is a good thing -until it needs to cross the country to get to your home. It is made all the more difficult because freight rates seem to change on a daily basis -based phases of the moon and the truck drivers shoe-size for all I can tell. I have to take the view that this is a team effort, you, me, and (heaven help us) the trucking company. It seems only fair to me that I charge you my actual cost of shipping. I know a lot of businesses indicate shipping is free. But is this really free or they really asking the people that live close-by to subsidize those who live far away?
SMALL ITEMS:
Occasionally the good-old US Postal Service is the better way to go for the smaller packages -but I don't ship a lot of small stuff -and it seems that you never really know how long it's going to take, -guarantees to the contrary not-with-standing.
MEDIUM THINGS:
I package the heck out of my work and the vast majority of it gets there in fine order. But.... I'm told that if the driver is having a grumpy-bad day, UPS doesn't care if it's employees use gravity -and nothing else- to get big boxes out of the back of the truck. (This is one of the reasons I use FedEx.) Even so, if the package looks like someone used it to hold up one end of the truck while they changed a tire, do NOT accept delivery.
BIG THINGS:
Have a look at my Customer's Scrapbook to get an idea of how big I sometimes build. Or if you want lots and lots of cases, I like to put such things on a pallet. (Harder to toss a pallet out the back of the truck.) I'll find the best and least expensive way to go, but I must warn you -gasoline / diesel ain't cheep and so freight ain't either. I will stay in close touch with you until the product is safely in your home. Often my customers have relationships with freight forwarders that serve well and economically. If you have a suggestion in this direction, I'd love to hear it.
You need to understand that it often works out that whom-ever I give the crate to, it is apt to change hands once or twice before it gets to you. This means that I don't know much about, nor can I do much about the timing, telephone calls, specific instructions etc. at your end. If this seems line a cop-out, I agree. I can put labels on the outside of crates say things like "Leave in the driveway. No Signature necessary" and do so all the time. And they are ignored all the time. (There evidently really are still parts of this country where you can leave things out front and they will be there when you get home!)
So here is what an ideal delivery -in terms of saving money rather then convenience- might look like. The delivery truck backs up to the loading dock at your work, wheels the crate off the truck and the janitor or whoever signs for it. You schlep down there with a drill-driver and a Phillips-head bit, take off the lid and the janitor helps you pull out your coffee-table or drawer case. You both take a moment to admire my work and then he helps you put it in the back of your SUV. While you are on your way home, the janitor breaks down the crate and puts the pieces in the dumpster. Oh happy day.
But let's be realistic here. A little more money and a little (?) more convenience. The more likely scenario is that you get home to find a sticker on your front door indicating someone tried to deliver something from someone and you need to call an 800 number, (between the hours of sometime and some-other-time) and you need to do something. All very cryptic. You hash it out with a snarky dispatcher and make plans to work from home the next morning. The next afternoon, (you didn't really expect the delivery when the dispatcher promised did you?), the driver, (who -in my experience- usually turns out to be a peach of a guy), shows up but needs just a little help getting it out of the back of the truck 'cause the hydraulics are not working on his lift gate. It's a little heavier than you expected, and it hits the ground a little harder then we might have liked, but no big deal because I make things strong and crate them up stout. He dollys it into your living room, you offer him a glass of ice tea and he sez that if you can find the portable drill, he will take the lid off and help you lift it out of the crate. Ooh's and ah's all around. The empty crate goes into the back yard 'cause what else are you going to do with it, where the kids decide it's a pretend fort / house / submarine or the dog decides it's his new house.
Save Some Money:
Two things you can do to save yourself some money on shipping. First, have it delivered to a business. Only makes sense. The freight people can show up any-old-time (during business hours anyway) and expect someone to be there. Saves them the bother of making phone calls and then making promises -they often don't keep, but this is another story.
Second thing to do to save some money is simply to have a stout helper. I ship a lot of coffee tables for example, and by the time the legs get into the crate, I end up shipping a lot of air. So the crates are not really all that heavy -150 lbs is usually the max- but they are big and cumbersome. Usually the delivery truck comes with a lift gate and a helpful driver, BUT if I ask for a lift gate, there is usually a $75 charge that has to be paid -even if the truck has a lift gate anyway!?!
If there really is no lift gate, it's USUALLY possible for you and the driver to get it out of the truck. IF you are strong enough, (and lets just not mince words here -if you are not a girl) and IF the unions in your neighborhood don't insist drivers only drive. (And then you get to hire riggers at $65 / hour. What fun! But it's almost never this bad.)
Just for reference and just for the time being, here are some links that you might find interesting, but please understand that I am not making these pieces on a regular basis.
CONTACT ME at:
-or-
303-731-9061
-or-
2372 Beech Ct, Golden, CO 80401