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Online Store F.A.Q.
If, after thouroughly reading this FAQ, you still can't find the answer to your question, email us at house@crimethinc.com. You may also contact us via instant message for quick answers to your questions (AIM = "cwcsalemhouse"). Please, please, please read through these before contacting us.
Q. Anarchists and Mail Order?!? Uh-oh.
Q. Do I have to use a credit card? Can I order through the mail?
Q. What are my shipping options and which would you recommend?
Q. Are there common mistakes I can avoid that will ensure a problem-free order?
Q. In the past, didn't your prices include postage? When and why did that change?
Q. My package hasn't arrived, or arrived incomplete, what should i do?
Q. What are your wholesale prices? Can I get stuff wholesale?
Q. Why buy more than one copy?
Q. Donations!
Q. Am I a bad person for just ordering free stuff?
Q. Why is it so expensive to order from other countries?
Q. Anarchists and Mail Order?!? Uh-oh.
Traditionally anarchists and mail order don't mix very well—as we all know, anarchists lead exciting and adventurous lives, full of passion and action, and this has usually meant undependable and erratic service for mundane tasks such as mail order . Even we here at CrimethInc. were guilty of many mail order transgressions in our first years of sending out orders through the mail, and at one point we even gave up and had another distro do all of our mailorder for us. But as we began to get more serious about this project, we realized that an efficient and responsible mail order would be of great benefit to nearly all involved.
So, we committed to doing it ourselves. This way we take full responsibility for doing the less glamorous work instead of just passing it off as is done within the traditional capitalist structure; are one less step removed from the people who get our stuff; gain more control on the prices people pay to get ahold of our material; and can maximize every dollar that is paid for our books and records (and get to put it towards doing more free projects like Harbinger, instead of depending on advertising).
We are also excited to be able to offer mail order that is affordable, reliable and easy to work with. We work hard to be sure that everything goes out as quickly as possible, that the catalog is up to date, and that we are easy to contact. We spend a lot of time working on these projects, it only makes sense that we would spend the necessary time to make sure you can get them as easily as possible. We view this store and catalog not as a revolutionary thing in itself, but simply as a tool to be used with other revolutionary projects.
We've been doing this for seven years now—we like to think we've gotten pretty good at it—and we take a fair amount of pride in a job well done. If you still don't believe we're serious about doing mailorder right, check out our mailorder table—we made it ourselves. { Back to top }
Q. Do I have to use a credit card? Can I order through the mail instead?
Credit or debit are not required by any means, and you can indeed send your order to us through the mail. You can still use the online store to figure out what you want and what the total cost will be (including the type of shipping you choose), and send the order to us through the mail. Simply add the items to the cart, choose your shipping method and then click the "Proceed to Checkout" button. On the next screen enter your address and then click "Send payment through the mail." Print that page, or copy it onto a piece of paper, and send it in with payment. We accept money orders made out to "CrimethInc." and well-concealed cash—PLEASE, NO CHECKS (orders with checks will be returned to sender, no exceptions). Be sure to put your address on the order itself—not just on the envelope! (This will be done for you automatically if you print the order form as described above). Send orders to:
CrimethInc. Far East
PO Box 13998
Salem OR 97309-1998
U$A
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Q. What are my shipping options and which would you recommend?
For orders inside the United States, there are two primary options for shipping, and one that is available in special circumstances:
UPS Ground is our preferred shipping method—a happy medium that costs less than Priority, but is faster and more reliable than Media Mail—we strongly recommend you use this service. It takes between 1-5 days depending on where you live and is a guaranteed service (click here for a transit time map). UPS Ground packages are treated with much more care on average than USPS packages and have a very high likelihood of making it to your door in pristine condition. We give UPS Ground orders the highest priority in shipping them out.
USPS Media Mail is the least expensive option for shipping your order and takes between 5-12 mailing days, but that time frame is not guaranteed. All orders shipped via Media Mail include Delivery Confirmation. Media Mail packages take the most abuse (as they go from loading dock to loading dock into the trailers of semi trucks crossing the country) but far more often than not, the books arrive in pristine condition.
USPS Priority Mail is a more expensive, expedited option and takes 2-3 mailing days (but that time frame is not guaranteed). We use flat-rate envelopes and boxes exclusively to keep the cost as low as possible—be sure to tweak the size of your order to maximize your shipping value (with flat-rate packaging, oftentimes items can be added to an order without any increase in shipping costs). All orders shipped via Priority Mail include Delivery Confirmation. Priority Mail receives gentler handling, as it travels by air with other low-weight packages and envelopes, as opposed to media mail which gets thrown around with a lot of heavy boxes. Priority Mail orders are also given priority as to which orders get shipped out first. So, basically, we're saying if you can afford it, Priority Mail is worth the extra few bucks, and we recommend it.
For orders outside the United States, there is only one option (sadly, most services are simply too expensive to consider and the USPS has significantly reduced the options available for international mail):
USPS Priority Mail International is an expedited option and takes 3-7 mailing days (but that time frame is not guaranteed). We use flat-rate envelopes and boxes exclusively to keep the cost as low as possible—be sure to tweak the size of your order to maximize your shipping value (with flat-rate packaging, oftentimes items can be added to an order without any increase in shipping costs). All orders shipped via Priority Mail International include Delivery Confirmation and Tracking.
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Q. Are there common mistakes I can avoid that will ensure a problem-free order?
We're so glad you asked! There are, in fact, many costly mistakes that can be made and are easily avoided:
1) Double-check your address. Seriously, check that fucker for any mistakes, twice. You wouldn't believe how many people send us the wrong address. As you can imagine, that causes problems down the road.
2) Put your address on your order. If you are sending your order in via the mail, make sure your address is on the same piece of paper as your order. NOTE: This is only necessary if you want us to send you your order.
3) You know how we said NO CHECKS before? We really mean it.
4) Do not send coins through the mail. Surprisingly, metal and paper do not mix—if you send coins through the mail and by some miracle your envelope doesn't get completely destroyed and some small shred of it does make it to us, we will all pause what we are doing and mock you until we lose our voices.
5) Please do not place an order for free Fighting For Our Lives and then put in the order notes "I will be ordering some books next week." Instead, please order the FFOL at the same time you are ordering the books—this will save us several dollars in postage, a fair amount of time, and a little piece of our soul that would otherwise be extinguished with the wasting of money on postage for no good reason.
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Q. I just got a stolen credit-card—I'm gonna order a bunch of your stuff with it and stick it to the man! That's a good idea, right?
Your heart is in the right place, but like most people, you don't know who gets screwed when you use stolen credit (or debit) cards. Contrary to popular belief, only ONE party eats the loss from fraudulent credit cards: the merchant. Not the credit card holder and not the bank. Just us. And not only do we lose the entire amount of the purchase we also get charged ridiculous service charges for having a fraudulent card used at our store (which means, that the bank actually MAKES money off of the fraud). As a non-profit, volunteer-run organization, even the smallest loss can put a serious strain on our finances, so, please please please don't use stolen credit cards on our site. Thanks! { Back to top }
Q. In the past, didn't your prices include postage? When and why did that change?
In June of 2007, we made the difficult decision to abandon the postage-paid pricing style that we had used for the previous seven years. It wasn't an easy decision for us to make as we all have a sentimental attachment to postage-paid pricing, but circumstances had changed so much since we started that we felt it was the best course of action to take, for both us and the people ordering our books.
Since we priced Days of War in 2000, the Media Mail price for two pounds had changed four times from $1.58 to $2.47; additionally we started to include delivery confirmation which costs an additional 18¢—a $1.07 (or 68%) increase to $2.65 for sending a single copy of the book. However because the increases were incremental, and postage was included in the price, there was no way to easily adjust the price to match the increase in cost of shipping. The final straw came with the postage increases of May 2007, which saw Media Mail increase by a whopping 30% in one fell swoop. We had no choice, we had to change pricing.
Another problem with postage-paid pricing is that it rewards people who place the least efficient orders while punishing those who place the most efficient orders: a single book order ends up paying less than it's fair share of postage and a large order with multiple books ends up paying the full postage for each book, as if they were being sent separately, even though they are not and the actual postage is much less. With the new system, the postage is calculated for precisely how much your order costs to ship, which gives an incentive for people to order multiple things at once instead of placing several small orders—which saves us time and packing resources, and saves them money.
Adding the shipping cost separately also enables us to handle future shipping rate increases easily and seamlessly, and get rid of the hated Online Surcharge.
One example, for the road, to show the advantage of adding shipping costs separately: under the previous system, adding a bundle of Gender posters to an order would cost $4 because it included the full cost of sending it by itself, but under the new system, the same set of posters costs only $2 and adds about 34¢ to the shipping for media mail, and potentially nothing to the Priority Mail cost, as we use flat-rate packaging. Hooray!
For the historians reading this, here is a blog post announcing the new pricing scheme. { Back to top }
Q. What happens if my package never arrives, or arrives incomplete?
If your package is late, take a deep breath and wait five more business days. All types of strange things can happen in transit, so have hope and hold on. 95% of "late package" emails we get are from people who end up receiving their package within a few days of emailing us—so please spare our meager volunteer resources and hold out a bit before getting in touch. Nearly all packages arrive on time, but occasionally some are a little late, particularly if you choose Media Mail or live outside the US.
If your package arrives missing some items, it is very likely that your order was shipped in two or more envelopes and/or boxes at the same time and due to the miracles of the postal services of the world, they will arrive several days apart. We don't understand it either, but trust us, it happens all the freakin' time! Please wait a few days after your first package arrives before contacting us to make sure the rest isn't coming.
Lastly, if you are expecting a package that hasn't arrived, question your roommates and/or family—you'd be amazed how often packages are intercepted, intentionally or not. Also, when a mail carrier decides not to leave a package at your door and instead leaves a pick-up notice, these notices have a habit of disappearing somehow (the wind, malicious mormon missionaries, who knows?! —but, trust us, it happens fairly often). It might pay off to go down to your local Post Office and check to see if they have any packages for your address.
OK, like a good kid, you've followed the above instructions to the letter, but still, still, your package has not arrived. Firstly, thank you soooo much for having patience and waiting to see if the order would arrive. Secondly, new friend, email us (house@crimethinc.com) your order number and tell us the sad story, and we'll get right on top of it.
We keep exceptional records and will be able to tell you when we shipped it and where it was last seen, and we'll work from there. And, thanks so much for your patience and understanding, it is truly appreciated. { Back to top }
Q. What are your wholesale prices? Can I get stuff wholesale?
Unlike other publishers or distributors, we offer our full wholesale discount prices to the public with no barriers at all. Our wholesale prices are listed with each item as the "10+" price, which means for 10 or more copies you get the lowest possible price—this is the same price stores and big, fancy distributors pay for the books. Please don't write to request a bigger discount—these "10+" prices are the absolute minimum we can charge for the books and still sustain our publishing efforts. { Back to top }
Q. Why buy more than one copy?
As you may have noticed, we offer special prices if you order multiple copies of something. This is basically us passing on to you our savings on packing materials and time when sending multiple copies in one order. It also makes it possible and provides an incentive for people to get the books or whatnot for even less by combining their order with some friends, or even better, by ordering many copies and giving them as gifts to friends, relatives, or even selling them at shows or on street corners. At this point at least a third of our orders are for multiple copies and we couldn't be more pleased. If only every book could be distributed on such personal levels by individuals who take it upon themselves to get the books out there! { Back to top }
Q. Donations!
Please note that CrimethInc. is a volunteer-run and -funded organization and we rely on donations of all sizes to keep things moving. Although many of our projects pay for themselves or generate profit to spend on our other not-at-all-profitable projects, much of the postage for free literature distribution, and expenses such as Harbinger and Fighting For Our Lives printing are funded by donations. For example, it costs $7.32 to send out a single package with 50 FFOL, and $1.42 for a single copy to be sent out. These costs can add up pretty quickly. If you are at a place in your life where you can send us something to work with, even a single dollar, we can assure you it will just go right into covering these costs. Donate here!
Thanks very much for the generosity
that has made so much possible so far.
—your friendly neighborhood CrimethInc. agents
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Q. Am I a bad person for only ordering free stuff?
Yes, of course! No, no, no, we kid, we kid. We made it free for a reason, so of course we're glad when people take us up on the offer. Making some literature available for free—all you have to do is fill out a basic form on the internet [the fucking internet!] and we'll mail you real, tangible things to you at absolutely no cost to you—is a pretty unusual thing to do and something that makes our motives rather clear. For example, it costs $7.32 to send out a single package with 50 FFOL, and $1.42 for a single copy to be sent out. Basically, if you can find a way to send us a small donation to cover our costs, please do! And if you can't, well, don't sweat it, that's why we do it. { Back to top }
Q. Why do I have to place a 'paid order' in order to get some of the supposedly 'free' items? I thought they were free?!
With all of our free items, the postage is the most significant cost of getting the item to you—the actual production is often free (ha!) or very inexpensive (between 10¢-35¢). So, when you order solely free stuff, usually the $2.31 for postage (minimum one pound rate for Media Mail with delivery confirmation) comes straight out of our available funds. It may not sound like a lot of money, but multiply it by several hundred a month and you have a significant expense on your hands. We have begun protecting ourselves from overextension by making some free items available only with paid orders and donations, thus ensuring that you cover the postage costs, but we still do offer some items entirely for free. Basically, these things are entirely free, but sometimes getting them to you through the US Postal Service is going to cost a little bit. { Back to top }
Q. Why is it so expensive to order from other countries?
International orders are a fucking mess! The U.S. Postal Service just raised rates to an astronomical degree for international packages (not letters) for the third time in three years. This makes it pretty much impossible to send things any other way besides Priority Mail International. This is expensive and makes setting up prices very complicated. On the other hand, it is a top-notch service often getting packages delivered in one week and with tracking. We have created a fancy system that will give you a custom price based on what you want to get using the most complicated algorithms on earth to determine the optimum packaging using flat-rate boxes and envelopes. As of June 2007 we can send Priority Mail International to every country! At last! { Back to top }
Q. Why does it only let me get a certain number of copies of something? I want a quantity that isn't listed?
If you want a different quantity than the ones listed for any particular item, the best way to do it is to simply place multiple orders until you have the quantity you want. We'll recognize them as one big order and everything will ship together as long as the orders come in close to each other. If this proves impossible, or too difficult, just email us (house@crimethinc.com) and we'll set up a custom order. FYI, the apparently random quantities that appear after 10 are carton quantities that books/etc come in as well as the quantities that are most efficient for us to package—hence we love it when you decide to order those quantities. { Back to top }
