Shipping
Where is your order shipped from?
GreekShops.Com maintains two shipping centers, one in the US (California) and one in Greece (Athens). These facilities allow us to select the closest shipping origin based on your delivery address and product availability. Our US shipping center covers the US, Canada, South America, Oceania, and Asian destinations. Orders delivered to European, African, and Middle Eastern addresses, are typically shipped from Athens, Greece. When an item is not available in the closest GreekShops.com location then GreekShops.com expedites your shipment by shipping from the shipping center that can fulfill your order.
How is your order shipped?
Our standard shipping method is via Standard US Mail, US Priority Mail, Global US Priority Mail or the Greek Postal Service. Typical delivery time for most US and European addresses is 5 to 7 business days or less. For items that require special packaging and handling (i.e. statues, ceramics, etc.) please allow 6 to 10 business days. If Express Service is required GreekShops.com offers to make arrangements to deliver products via Airborne Express, UPS (also available from Greece), or Federal Express (also available from Greece). Most GreekShops.com products can be shipped Next-Day or Two-Day delivery. Additional shipping fees for Express Service will be required. To inquire about express delivery options for your order, please contact Customer Service. Please include your order number with you inquiry.
Certain heavy items, such as statues, may require special shipping arrangements via Air Cargo or Ground shipping. If such a need arises, one of our agents will contact you upon receipt of your order.
Can I insure my shipment?
If your order is shipped to a US address from our US fulfillment center, then
we can make arrangements for insurance. International postal restrictions do not
allow us to offer insurance for orders sent from Greece or orders shipped from
the US abroad.
If you are seriously concerned about your order getting lost
or your items being damaged in transit, please contact Customer Service to make arrangements for shipment via
registered mail and postal insurance (when available).
NOTE:
We regret that we cannot refund shipping costs under any circumstances, except
for the case of shipping the wrong items.
How can I determine the shipping cost for my order?
The shipping cost of your order is based on postage/courier rates determined by weight, shipping origin, and shipping destination. Before we can estimate the cost of your shipment we need to determine the total weight of your merchandise, which warehouse is going to ship it (we do ship from both US and European locations), and your shipping address. Our online ordering system automatically makes these calculations for you based on your shopping cart merchandise and your shipping address provided during registration.
To determine you shipping cost you can add the desired merchandise in a shopping cart and proceed to checkout. During the process and before a payment is requested, you will be given the final cost of your order including shipping. Please note that you do not have to commit to an order until you enter your payment information.
I just placed an order and noticed that the shipping address is wrong.
If after placing your order you discover that the shipping address on your order is wrong please contact us immediately by calling (310) 581-5059. You may also email us but we cannot guarantee that your email will be received before shipment of your order. Our shipping department is fast in sending out your orders and in certain cases it may take us longer to get to your email than process your order.
In case you are wondering why you cannot edit your order information after placing your order, note that shipping was already calculated and charged based on the shipping address you originally provided. Changing the shipping address may involve shipping reconsiderations and recalculation and this is why our system does not allow you to change after your order is received. Our staff is more than happy to help you with the change when you call or email us.
Also note that you can change your "default" Billing and Shipping address for future orders by logging on to "My Account" . Again any changes to your account's billing and shipping addresses will not affect the address information on past orders.
My postage (shipping) cost seems too high.
The shipping cost of your order is based on the shipping weight of your purchases, not the actual cost of your merchandise. It is common for certain categories (particularly for food products and certain books) that shipping is quite high in reference to the cost of goods. In this case you may choose Ground Shipping or alternately contact us for alternate economy shipping methods. Do note however that cheaper shipping methods (with the exception of US Ground Shipping) may be also less reliable and we cannot guarantee the condition of a product/package shipped using Economy Mail.
If you do think that the shipping cost for your order is unreasonable please email us or call us. We would be more than happy to review your order and determine if there is a cheaper but reliable method to ship your order.
We regret that we cannot ship via Surface Mail outside the US.
Save on Shipping for Los Angeles area residents
Los Angeles area residents can save the shipping cost by ordering online and requesting "order pickup" in the Special Instructions area. In this case we will prepare your order and contact you to let you know when you can stop by our store in Santa Monica for pickup. Typically your order will be ready within 24 hours of receipt of your order, but it can also be done faster if you call us after placing your order.
Shipping cost will be credited to your account after you pick up your products from our store. To pick up an order placed online you may also call at (310) 581-5059.
My tracking number is not working. It does not show any relevant information.
Tracking information depends on the level of service chosen for shipping. If you want real-time tracking of your order after it ships from us you will need to choose Express or 2nd Day shipping service. Our standard and Priority Mail service to the US, is sent with Delivery Confirmation which is not a real-time tracking reference but rather a confirmation of delivery at the shipping address. If your package is lost, Delivery Confirmation numbers can be used to try and locate your package at your local Postoffice.
International Mail is not traceable unless it is via Express Mail. Registered, Global Priority, Insured, and International Air Mail have a package reference but the number of your package is used by Postal and Customs officials and cannot be used by the general public.
If package tracking is critical to your delivery please advice us at the time of order (use the Special Instructions area) or select an Express Shipping Option.
How do I know that Greekshops.com has mailed my order?
An email confirmation is sent out every time we ship a package to you with the exception of phone and mail orders that do not include an email address or orders shipped from Greece. The process is automated and concurrent to adding postage to your order. When you receive our email confirmation of shipment, your package is actually about to be delivered to the carrier. In most cases your package is on its way before you receive our shipping confirmation.
If your order is shown as "Shipped from US" in our system (accessed through "My Account"), there is no tracking reference attached to your order, and you have not received our shipment confirmation for over a couple of horus since you checked the status of your order, check your email program for blocked / filtered email messages from us . If you do not find a confirmation in your mailbox, contact us.
I am trying to track my shipment without success
Most of our shipments are sent via the US Postal Service and its affiliates around the world. Unless you choose Express Service, these shipments do not offer real-time tracking particularly for International Shipments. The information provided will allow the Postal Service to investigate internally a misdirected or lost shipment, but will not allow for real-time tracking of a package. Do note that due to the level of service and the volume handled by these services, it is common to see "Information not available at this time." This is not an indication of anything wrong but rather that your package information was not updated on the provided web site.
Real time tracking is available only for shipments via UPS or FEDEX (including Ground in the US).