Commonly used English terms for our customers making purchases in online stores of the U.S. and Canada:
Back-order: this term in US stores means, that this item is currently not available. If it is not specified when the item is expected at a warehouse, this time period may be longer than a month, and we do not recommend buying this item on such terms.
Out-of-stock: this means that this product is not available. Since there is no uniform system of shopping terms, it can sometimes mean that the item is not yet available (temporarily out of stock), and then it can be viewed as an indefinite back-order, but generally it means that the store has just run out of this particular item.
If you reaaally badly need a certain item, but you see this type of note next to it – contact us, we will get in touch with the seller for you, verify the status of the item and whether/when it is expected to be back in stock.
Estimated tax: this indicates an approximate amount of tax on purchasing an item in the United States. Most of the time we will know for sure if this item is taxed, and if so, by how much exactly before we send you an invoice for the order. It occasionally happens that the tax amount was announced lower, but the real bill came back with a higher amount: you will NOT be notified of such instances, and you will only pay what you were notified when we sent you an invoice for your order.
Free shipping on ... Free shipping within the United States. Typically it starts from a specific purchase amount. In other words, in order to be provided a free delivery within the US, your order total should reach a certain dollar amount. For example, if the shipping within the U.S. costs $ 10, and free shipping is available for purchases of $100 and more, when you buy $80 worth of products – pick something else for $20 – and it will cost you half the price))
Combined shipping: this is a common concept at auctions and big multi-brand U.S. stores (eBay, Amazon, Etsy, etc.). It applies when you bought several things from the same seller in America, and he can provide a discount (or even free) shipping of your second and subsequent items within the USA.
Expires on… - относится к распродаже, предложению (например: free shipping) или скидке в США. Дата в этом предложении означaет, что в полночь (11:59 pm) этого дня чудесное предложение превратится в тыкву, а Вы же не в овощной пошли... ))
Внимание: В США, в отличие от России и стран СНГ, первым в дате ставится месяц, а потом уже день. Например: 08/09/2011 означает 9 Августа, а не 8 Сентября.
Expires on ... – this refers to a sale, or a special offer (for example: free shipping) or a discount in a US store. The date in such sentence means that at midnight (11:59 pm) of that day that amazing offer will turn into a pumpkin))
Attention: In the U.S., unlike in European countries, the date is written in a different format: in Europe the format is DD-MM, while in the Unites States it is the opposite, MM-DD. For example, in the US, the date 08/09/2014 means “August 9th” and not “September 8th” as in Europe.
URL - the address bar: when you send us an order to calculate your final price, it is most convenient for us to get from you the complete URL of the page with your selected items; this way we will literally be on the same page.
Return policy: These are the rules and guidelines of returns or exchange of your purchased items in the US stores.
To return or exchange an item in America is quite simple, although everything depends on a specific store. The average time period for returns and exchanges is typically around 45 days (the return is usually up to 30 days, and exchange up to 60)
For electronic goods the return and exchange period is always up to 14 days.
Wedding dresses and evening dresses are not subject to returns or exchanges, the same goes for underwear and sometimes swimwear.
If the time period for return/exchange has expired in connection with the delivery of goods from the United States, you should still contact us – we will try to help.
Store credit: If the time period to return your purchase to the US store has passed, then, hopefully, we will be able to get you a credit for future purchases at that store. Usually such credit does not expire. If you, however, became very disappointed in that store, where you now have a credit, then we will try to turn it into cash. As soon as one of our customers places an order from that store, we will use your stire credit to make the purchase and will credit that amount to your account on our website – and that money will be available for you to make purchases in other US stores or cover your shipping costs.
Refurbished: this means that the item has been impeccably renovated by the manufacturer. If you purchased an item and then returned it to a U.S. store as faulty, the store then sends it back to the manufacturer. For example, if Samsung receives back from a store a phone or a TV, it examines it, repairs and sends it back to be sold.
Such items are not worse than new ones, but are always cheaper. In most cases, people return perfectly working items in which they simply couldn’t understand the settings, etc.
Refurbished items are never sold in their original packaging, so if you want to buy something from the United States for resale or as a gift, keep this in mind. Usually refurbished items come in a white box (sometimes gray) with a simple label (2-3 colors) and a small sticker (indicating a make, model and basic information).
There is a saying in the USA "to be on the same page" – it was invented many years ago before the advent of the Internet in our lives, and it means - to understand each other perfectly.
