Returns and refunds
A rock is hard to photograph and easy to misjudge on a screen. If a piece is not what you expected when you hold it, you have 14 days to send it back.
The return window
You have 14 days from the day the package is delivered to tell the shop you want to return something. The specimen should be back in the post within seven days of that, so it does not sit in a drawer for a month before anyone knows.
How to start a return
Write to the shop through the contact page with the order date, the email address you used at checkout, and which piece you are sending back. You will get a reply with the return address. Do not send anything back before you have that reply, because a package with no return authorization has nothing tying it to your order.
Condition and packing
The specimen has to come back in the condition it left in, packed at least as well as it arrived. The original box and packing material are fine to reuse and are the easiest way to meet this.
A specimen that arrives back damaged is not refundable in full, and what happens next depends on what happened to it. That is a conversation, not an automatic refusal.
What is refunded
Once the piece arrives and has been checked, the price of the item is refunded to the card or wallet you paid with, through Stripe. Refunds usually appear within five to ten business days depending on your bank, which is the bank's timing rather than the shop's.
The original postage is not refunded, because it was spent sending the piece to you. Where shipping was free because the order was over $150, the actual cost of that postage is deducted from the refund instead.
Sales tax charged on a refunded item is refunded with it.
Who pays return postage
You do, unless the piece arrived damaged or is not what the listing described, in which case the shop covers it. Insure the package for what you paid and keep the tracking number. Until a returned specimen arrives it is your package, and an uninsured one that goes missing cannot be refunded.
Damaged, or not as described
If a piece arrives broken, tell the shop within 48 hours of delivery and send photographs of the specimen and of the box and packing as they arrived. That is covered in more detail on the shipping page, because a carrier claim depends on those photographs.
If a piece is not what the listing described, say so and say how. Listings here are written by hand and a mistake in one is the shop's mistake to fix: you get a full refund including both directions of postage, and you do not have to argue for it.
What cannot come back
- A specimen that has been cut, tumbled, drilled, polished, or otherwise altered.
- A bulk lot or a rough parcel that has been broken up, sorted, or partly kept.
- Anything sent back after the 14 days without arranging it first.
- The bonus specimen. It is a gift, and keeping it does not affect a refund.
Exchanges
Almost every piece in this shop is the only one of it, so a straight exchange usually is not possible. What is possible is a refund and a new order, or a refund taken as credit against something else in the catalog if you would rather. Ask on the contact page and say which you would prefer.
Nothing here limits any right you have under the law of your state. The terms of sale cover the rest of what a purchase involves.