Shipping Policies

Shipping Policy

Delivery and Lead Time
To ensure that your order maintains its freshness and wholesomeness during shipping, we ship orders Monday thru Wednesday. We also prefer to ship to an address (and preferably a business address), not a post office box. Cookies are shipped fresh, so avoid having the cookies sit for extended periods of time in extreme temperatures and conditions without human intervention.

Cookie orders for less than fifteen (15) dozen are normally shipped within 48 hours of receiving your order. For orders greater than fifteen (15) dozen cookies, we ask that you provide five (5) days lead time. Custom or Rush orders must be placed via phone and e-mail only. All orders will be followed up with an e-mail (or phone call if necessary) confirming your order, including a copy of our shipping policies. Your order will not be shipped without 1) receipt of payment 2) confirmation of your order.

Cancellation Policy
For orders of less than fifteen (15) dozen that ship within 48 hours, please call (207)615-5754 within 24 hours of placing your original order with any changes/cancellation.

For orders of fifteen (15) dozen cookies or more that ship within five (5) days, the dead line for cancellations or changes is 48 hours. In either case, we will make every effort to cancel or change your order IF it has not shipped. Please provide your name, account and contact information.

We are unable to accept cancellations or changes for Custom and Rush orders.

Rates
All orders are shipped U.S.P.S. Priority Mail and all our shipping charges are based on standard U.S.P.S mail rates (derived from package weight, size, and shipping distance). We also ship to A.P.O. addresses via US Priority Mail.  However, we believe in letting our customers have choices. To that end, The Sweet Specialist will ship UPS 2 Day Air to our customers per their request. Please keep in mind that UPS does not ship on Saturdays or Sundays (including express shipping).

Priority Mail can now be tracked during transit.   For those customers with e-mail addresses, those numbers will be forwarded along with a copy of our shipping policies.

Please note: We are unable to offer international shipping (other than U.S. military) at this time.

Tracking and Insurance
We have discovered that packages DO get lost, and they DO get damaged ... independent of which carrier you choose. We believe it is worth a dollar or two to guarantee that it arrives safe and undamaged. If you decide to use UPS, you will automatically be provided a tracking number for the package. Using any of the USPS services, tracking and insurance is NOT automatically provided. If you wish to be able to track your package, please ask us to include TRACKING services in your order, and we will add these costs to your order prior to shipping.

Damages
If a package is shipped without insurance, the customer (i.e. you) accepts 100% of the risk if the package is lost or damaged. We (The Sweet Specialist) are not liable for anything that is lost or damaged during transit, since we are not delivering the package -- the carrier is. If you insist on using a shipping method that does not allow insurance, you will accept the risk if any portion of your order is damaged or if your order is lost. The Sweet Specialist will not be liable to replace or repair any portion of the order. If you should receive damaged goods, please contact the shipping agent and address the damages directly with them. They will generally need to inspect the shipping containers to honor their insurance claim, so please be sure you follow all of their instructions carefully, as we cannot honor replacement requests for goods damaged in shipping without specific instructions from the shipping agent.

Refund & Return
•The Sales Manager must authorize all refunds or replacements. E-mail info@thesweetspecialist.com or call 1-207-615-5754.

•All claims for credit, shortages and/or complaints must be placed within 24 business hours of receipt of products. 

•Any refund or credit for exchange will be based on the value of the products at the time of purchase. Shipping and Handling fees are not subject to refund unless the merchandise is defective or we shipped an incorrect item. You are responsible for shipping and insurance costs on all returns unless we specifically inform you otherwise.

•The internal paperwork for credit/exchange is normally completed within 48 hrs of receipt of complaint.

•All refunds are applied to the individual customer account unless otherwise specified by Sales Manager or Accounting Department. 

•Any form of reimbursement is consistent with the original method of payment.