Shipping & Returns

Shipping & Delivery

Receiving Your Order

Shipping & Delivery

Free Shipping Promotion

During the free shipping promotion on orders over $100 within the continental USA, for Krishna.com's 20th Anniversary, the promotion will exclude mrdangas from being shipped for free.

Shipping Methods

Our current online ecommerce software only allows us to offer one method of shipment per destination zone. This is our 'standard' shipping method based on the destination address you enter. If you wish alternative shipping methods such as 2nd day, overnight, or media mail, please place your order and email us immediately at store@krishna.com, or call during business hours so we can change your shipping in our master offline system.

If we can find a more economical shipping method to your destination that is still reliable, we often make the change and alert you to the shipping savings which will be credited to you. We apologize for our online software's limitations at the moment.

Standard Shipping

All 'standard' US orders are shipped by UPS, except those going to Hawaii, Alaska, PO boxes, or military addresses. Most UPS packages are trackable and insured. Delivery time varies by destination. If there is a comparable US Post shipping method that saves you significantly without putting your shipment at risk, we often elect to change your shipping method and credit you the savings.

Our 'Standard' shipping method to international destinations is US Post Priority Mail which is trackable and insurable.

Alternative Shipping Methods

If you want to request alternative shipping methods, please place your order and then contact us immediately at store@krishna.com, or call us. We are happy to work with you on acceptable alternatives.

Our US and international 'Express' method is US Post Express Mail, and is also trackable and insurable. Tracking is available based on the destination country's computer system compliance and sophistication.

We can ship to many US destinations using 'Media Mail' on request, but we do not guarantee the shipment once it leaves our warehouse. It could take several months to arrive, and could arrive damaged due to poor handling in transit.

International 'Urgent' shipping is fulfilled by UPS Global Express, and often includes applicable taxes, tariffs and fees. Domestic 'Urgent' shipping is UPS Overnight, unless otherwise requested.

Special Shipping Notes

If we need to change your shipping method for any reason, we will contact you before shipping. We sometimes require insurable and trackable ship methods for expensive orders or packages to certain destinations.

Click here for our shipping policies, or to learn more about taxes, tariffs and customs fees, click here.

If you need special shipping attention, or need to change your shipping method, please contact us right after you place your order online. Besides our usual ship methods, we are also able to arrange for more economic shipping options such as US Post Media Mail and Parcel Post, or alternative shippers such as FedEx or DHL if would be more convenient for you.

Please contact us for more information.

Mridanga Shipping

Because they are fragile instruments, all Balarama style mridangas will only be shipped to US and Canadian destinations. When you order a mridanga shipped to an international destination, we will contact you to set up the shipping separately.

The two shipping methods available are US Post Express Mail and UPS Worldwide Saver. Both of these methods are more costly than standard postal rates, but they allow us to track and insure your mridanga in case of loss or damage in transit. US Post Express Mail generally takes 4-8 days to most destinations (allow for one or two more days for outlying regions). UPS Worldwide Saver shipping us a door-to-door service, and often includes applicable taxes, tariffs and fees (depending on exact destination).

Because of the size and nature of mridangas, we choose not to ship by standard postal methods outside the US. If you insist on shipping by this method, we cannot be responsible for loss or damage once it leaves our warehouse.

Please contact us for more information or email us directly for a shipping quote at store@krishna.com.

Processing & Delivery

Once you place your order online, you will receive an email confirmation. This means that your order is now available for us to process. We process orders during regular business hours (10:00AM-5:00PM EST, M-F).

If you need to change your order for any reason it is important to call or email right away. Usually an order will be processed and shipped within 48 hours of us receiving it. Once your order has been shipped, we cannot change it. Please email store@krishna.com for the most high-alert messaging.

While processing your order, we may need to verify payment or shipping information, or notify you about an out of stock item. If we cannot contact you, this will cause a delay in shipping your order, so please check your email regularly or make sure your phone number on your account is current.

For small issues that we cannot resolve such as out of stock items, we will ship the part of your order that is available. You will only be charged for the items that we ship. For larger issues with your order such as unverified payment or shipping information, we will hold your order completely until we can contact you. You will not be changed for an order that is held.

Once you order ships, we will send you an email receipt to verify what we shipped and where we shipped it to. This will show your order total as well as your ship method. Please keep this for your records.

Delivery time will vary depending on ship method and destination. Read more about shipping policies here. Please be aware that not all packages are trackable due to shipping method or destination.

If your order has not arrived in a reasonable amount of time based on your ship method and destination, there are several things to do before contacting us.

  • Orders shipped by UPS automatically get an email notification with a tracking number that can be reference on the UPS website or by calling UPS.
  • If your order was shipped by US Post to a US destination, check the confirmation email we sent you with the tracking number.
  • International orders are also shipped by Post, and it is common for your local post office to hold the package if there are any duties or tariffs due on it.

Once you have checked with the shipper, please contact us right away. We will work with you to locate your package and resolve the shipping issue.

Please contact us for more information.

Packaging/Shipment

All orders are packaged with generous padding and placed in appropriate boxes or envelopes to ensure safe delivery yet keep the weight of the package light.

Some items need specialized packing and shipping and our online shopping software cannot customize this at the time of the order. Our shipping manager sometimes manually adjusts the weight of an order because it required more or less packaging, or if it needed to be split into multiple packages. We will let you know if this is a significant adjustment before shipping your order.

A few items that require adjustment:

  • Posters, which ship in sturdy tubes and may arrive separately from other items you ordered.
  • Book sets are often pre-packed, requiring that any other items you ordered be shipped separately. (Some book sets are drop-shipped directly from the manufacturer)
  • Large musical instruments such as harmoniums and mrdangas which always ship separately for safety reasons.

If your order shipped in separate packages, please allow for a few days between package delivery. Also check your final receipt to make sure items you originally ordered were not put on back order or removed as discontinued.

Should any items in your order arrive damaged, or missing completely, please contact us immediately. Refund/replacement arrangements can be made up to 10 days from the time you receive the package. After a reasonable amount of time, damaged items can only be returned for partial store credit on arrangement.

Please be aware that some international orders are stopped and examined by the destination country's customs or postal officials. Damage during this process is the buyer's loss, including items removed or held by customs officials. If customs officials decide to charge an import tax, customer is responsible to pay this tax. Returned packages that were unclaimed due to failure to pay this customs tax are considered the customer's responsibility. We will not refund shipping costs on such unclaimed and returned packages, and may only refund the remaining cost of the order at our sole discretion if we receive the returned goods in pristine, re-salable condition.

Also US orders shipped by US Post Media Mail or Parcel Post are not insurable, and we cannot be responsible for damage or loss during shipping. We make every attempt to package your order well, but these economical methods of shipping are not guaranteed and have a high rate of damage and loss.

Please contact us for more information.

International Orders

If you are shipping to an address outside the United States, there are a few very important things you should know.

Choose your payment method with care. We recommend using American Express or PayPal. We do not ship orders to an unconfirmed address and often this process can take up to two weeks with other payment methods. As part of our continuing efforts to fight fraud, we do not ship orders to a country other than that of the billing address.

Shipping time varies from country to country, and is greatly effected by the postal system of the destination country. We can only give estimates on delivery time based on information provided by the US Postal Service. Click here for shipping policies.

Delivery rates are based on package weight, country destination, and level of service. Although these 'standard' levels of shipping are insurable and track-able (in most countries), we can only accept limited liability. We make every effort to package and ship responsibly, but once the package enters the destination country's postal system, it is out of our hands. We attempt to locate, replace, or refund orders, but this is not always possible.

'Urgent' shipping -- this level uses UPS Global, which operates independently from local postal systems. It is automatically insured and track-able, and often includes any traffic or customs fees the package might require.

Our online software is only configured for the most common destination countries. If your country is not configured, it will select a 'default' shipping zone, and we will manually reset your shipping to the correct amount once we process your order. If you have any questions, contact us once you have placed your order.

We are not responsible for any taxes, tariffs or customs fees. See our policies here. Import taxes, tariffs or customs fees are the customer's responsibility. Returned packages that were unclaimed due to failure to pay this customs tax are considered the customer's responsibility. We will not refund shipping costs on such unclaimed and returned packages, and may only refund the remaining cost of the order, at our sole discretion, if we receive the returned goods in pristine, re-salable condition.

If your order is unreasonably late, first check with local post office. Often your local post office holds packages that are due customs fees without timely notification. Then contact us immediately to help locate the package or determine the problem.

Please contact us for more information.

Customer Pick-ups

Choose this shipping method if you are in, or plan to be in, the Alachua, Florida, area and can come to our warehouse to pick up your order in a timely manner.

Be prepared to include Florida sales tax to any order you pick up from us. There is no shipping or packing fee for customer pick-up orders but we have to charge you sales tax.

We do have a retail facility to browse, that includes many items from our online store, as well as many items not online. (Our warehouse is not safe or set up to browse leisurely, so please do not enter these marked areas.) As always we will endeavor to accommodate you, but be aware our staff handles online and phone orders as well as walk-in shopping at the same time. Please call if you are going to pick up your order immediately.

Please contact us for more information.

 

Receiving Your Order

Returns & Exchanges

Once you receive your order, look it over carefully for anything damaged or defective. Compare what you received to your final receipt. Try on clothing items, play CDs and DVDs, and look through books right away.

If an item is damaged or defective, or if you received the wrong item, or if you were missing an item, we need to know very soon in order to replace it to your satisfaction. Read more about returns, exchanges, and refunds/replacements to know how long you have to place a claim on an item.

Also be aware of our policies regarding voluntary returns or exchanges, which include a 10% restocking fee on direct returns. Shipping fees on voluntary returns/exchanges are also the customers' responsibility. If you need extended information on any product prior to ordering it, we will be happy research it for you to reduce the chance of a voluntary return.

We make every effort to make you happy when handling returns and exchanges brought to our attention in a timely manner.

Please contact us for more information.

Damaged or Defective

Once you receive your order, look it over carefully for anything damaged or defective. Try on clothing items, play CDs and DVDs, and look through books right away.

If an item is damaged or defective, we need to know very soon in order to replace it to your satisfaction. Read more about returns,exchanges, and refunds/replacements to know how long you have to place a claim on an item.

Many of the items we carry are cottage-industry products. Clothing is sewn by tailors, jewelry is handcrafted by artisans, worship and meditation items are made by hand individually. Many books are printed on small presses in Indian workshops. Even quite a few CDs and DVDs we offer are produced by the artist or creator in home studios on CD-Rs or DVD-Rs. This allows for a wide variety of original and relevant products to be offered at reasonable prices, but it also increases the chance of human error.

Our quality control team catches most of the defective or damaged items that come into our warehouse, but we realize some things ship out that do not meet the Krishna.com quality standards. If you receive a damaged or defective item, please contact us immediately. We make every effort to make you happy when handling returns and exchanges brought to our attention in a timely manner.

Please contact us for more information.

Late or Lost

If you are concerned that your order is late or lost, please check two things before contacting us.

Check your email. Orders placed online have two confirmation emails. The first email is simply a notice that your order was successfully placed in the system. The second email confirms that your order has been shipped. If there were any problems with your order, we have attempted to contact you about it and you would not have received the second (shipping confirmation) email.

Check with the shipper. If your order was sent by UPS, you would have received an automatic UPS tracking email at the email address we have on your order. International orders are sent by US Post, but since many countries charge tariffs or customs fees on these orders, your package may be held at your local post office pending payment.

Once a reasonable amount of time has passed and you're concerned your package is late or lost, contact us so we can determine what the problem might be, and work with you to solve the problem to your satisfaction. Keep in mind that not all packages are insured or trackable once they leave our warehouse and we have limited responsibility for them. Read more about shipping methods.

As always, we can only estimate shipping time based on the information the shipper provides. Often rural areas require more delivery time. International orders are delivered through local postal systems which vary in reliability and speed. Natural disasters or social/political situations also cause delays or losses beyond our control. And holidays create unpredictable delivery schedules. So please order early if you are on a deadline, and allow for a reasonable delivery window of time before considering your package is lost.

Please contact us for more information.