In recent years, and especially the last several months, I’ve been receiving the same question from new customers.  “Is what I want really in stock?  Will it ship now or some later time?”  It seems it’s becoming almost common to list items for sale that are not in stock.  Then the customer ends up waiting, often with no advance warning, as the product(s) are ordered and shipped to the seller, entered into inventory, only then to be sent to the buyer.

The simple answer in our case is,” YES, it is in stock.”  We strive to keep our inventory as accurate as possible and it is managed live by the ordering system.  So, if you are able to order something, that means we HAVE it in our tea room or warehouse and it will ship.  In addition, it will generally be shipped within a business day and can even be within several minutes, if the order is placed during our regular weekday hours.  Add to that our rapid transit times and it means that 90% of our orders arrive within two days of shipment, no special handling needed.  That’s right.  Thanks to our central location in Colorado, 90% of our orders are delivered, with tracking, within two days of shipment with the Postal Service.  Even if you live as far away as Miami or Seattle, your order will generally arrive within two days of shipment.  The other 10% of customers, mainly in the upper Midwest or some rural locations, will usually receive their orders in three days, including shipments as far away as Alaska and Hawaii.  To make things even better, The USPS transports shipments seven days a week and delivers six days a week.  This means an order shipped to 90% of the country on Thursday by USPS will arrive on Saturday.  Of course, no matter how hard we strive to keep our online inventory correct, there is occasionally a mistake and something turns out to not be in stock.  Fortunately, among all the orders we receive every year, this typically only happens two or three times.  If it does happen, we will contact you with the option of canceling the item or having it sent, at no additional cost, when it is available.  While we ship the vast majority of our orders by the fastest method available, First Class or Priority Mail, larger or fragile orders my be sent by FedEx Ground, with transit times of up to four weekdays.

So, when you order from The Tea Table, you will receive your order and you will receive it in a reasonable time, typically three days or less.