Shipping, Returns & Out-of-Stock Policy

Your Package & Shipment

We do not offer "free shipping" because "free" shipping is not free — it is simply a way to hide the cost of shipping inside the price of the part. Nothing in this life is free, so with free shipping the cost of shipping is hidden in the price of the part. If you order a single part, you are simply paying for shipping in the cost of the part.

The idea of "free shipping" becomes a rip-off to the customer when you order two or more parts, because you are now paying two or more "hidden" shipping costs, but it does not cost twice as much to ship two parts. The end result is that if a customer orders two or more parts, the customer is getting ripped off.

We charge an honest shipping cost that covers postage, packaging materials, and our time to package and drop the shipment at the post office. We ship all parts via the United States Postal Service.

Shipping Methods

We offer two shipping methods:

First Class Package Service — lower cost, with tracking number
Priority Mail — faster in some cases, includes $50 of insurance, with tracking number

One great advantage of our parts is that they are small, so if you use First Class Package Service the package is small enough to fit inside most mailboxes with your regular mail. This reduces the risk of packages being left at your door and stolen.

Shipping Notice (August 15, 2022)

We have noticed in many cases that USPS is quoting the same delivery time for packages via Priority Mail as for First Class Package Service. We do not see this info until we actually ship and purchase the shipping label, so there is no way for us to know if Priority Mail will be faster for you prior to paying postage. Only use Priority Mail if you know from past experience that your package will get to you sooner. In most cases we see either the same delivery time, or only one day longer for First Class.

Shipping Liability

As per our terms and conditions, shipping liability ends when the USPS tracking information shows the package accepted by USPS. If you are worried about packages being lost during shipping, our Priority Mail option comes with $50 of insurance.

Return Shipments

Our standard policy is that in most cases we do not pay for return shipping. If we were to make a mistake in shipping the wrong parts, then in that case the error would be ours and we would make an exception.

If you are directed to return parts, do NOT place the return parts in a regular envelope. Since our parts are small (i.e., flat) they will fit in a regular envelope, but they will NOT make it back to us. USPS runs all regular envelopes through letter processing machines and any envelope containing our parts will jam in the machine and the parts will end up in the trash. If returned parts do not make it to us, we cannot honor any agreement for exchanges or refunds.

Out-of-Stock Items

We make all our own latches. As far as we can tell, since Atwood went out of business we are the only supplier of replacement latches. If we are out of stock on a specific latch, the shortage is temporary — until we are able to fabricate more of the out-of-stock item.

We do not sell our latches wholesale to other retailers, so it is highly unlikely you will find our latches elsewhere. You can either:

Check back with us on a weekly basis to see when the item is back in stock, or
Email us to ask us to notify you when the item is back in stock.