Have a website? Link to us! Please! Please! Please! :) www.magnetvalley.com

Frequently Asked Questions:

#1 Most frequently asked question:

Can I call you to place my order or ask you questions? (Or, will you call me?)

I wear all the hats in this company (inventory control, accountant, bookkeeper, packager, research & development, web designer, customer service, pick up and delivery of supplies, scheduler, box-maker, peace-keeper, cleaning lady, cook, etc.) and there just isn’t enough hours in the day to do everything I have to do to ensure orders go out in a timely manner and also answer phone calls. I ship out between 60 and 80 orders per day 6 days a week, answering (or making) phone calls just isn’t possible at this time (I barely have time to talk to my mother as it is).

**This means do not attempt to contact us by phone, our phone number is not on our site for a reason!!**

To be honest, the vast, vast majority of the questions I am asked are answered right on the product page that most people are asking about on here, on our frequently asked questions page.

I am more than happy to answer any question you may have via email. I can generate an email response in about 30 seconds, while the average phone call lasts 15 to 20 minutes (or more). 

I apologize in advance if you do not like this policy. Until I learn how to clone myself a few times, this policy will remain in effect.

If you are nervous about putting your credit card information on the internet, please feel free to mail in a check or money order for your order. Think about this: It’s much more dangerous to hand your credit card to some 18 year old with purple hair and a nose ring working the cash register at a convenience store than to put it on a site like this that has digitally encrypted security surrounding credit card transactions.

NEWSFLASH:   Earlier last year for 1 week, I tried to offer phone customer service. For 7 days, I put my phone number on the site and posted hours people could call. They were generous hours, from 7 am (est) to 11 pm (est). This is what I found:

I answered and logged 49 calls in 7 days.

Of those, 42 were questions that are blatantly answered on this page or, worse yet, right on the product page they were referring to.

2 calls were from idiots that called between 3 am and 5 am, wanting a service usually available via a 900 number with a charge of $2.99 per minute. 

1 call was from a man shouting obscenities at me and calling me things I wouldn’t say in front of my mother, all because he felt $26 was too much to pay in shipping for 85 pounds traveling from Ohio to Oregon. (My guess is this obnoxious man licked some lead paint in his youth)

1 call was from an elderly lady that spent 25 minutes describing her gout problems. She never did get around to asking a magnet-related question (and I didn’t feel much like eating for the rest of the day).

3 calls were actually legitimate questions. However, I could have easily answered those questions in 30 seconds via email rather than 45 minutes on the phone.

Sorry! My sanity is worth more than that!

(Also, if you cannot see the humor in the above, please know that you are 1 in a million. The other 999,999 people have a sense of humor.)

How long will it take for my order to ship?

Most orders ship out within 1-3 business days (and some ship within a few hours).  We do not ship Fed-Ex, DHL or USPS Media Mail. Some products have a 7-10 business day lead time (or more), most are marked as such but from time to time there may be lead times on additional items. 

**LARGE ORDERS MAY HAVE A 2 TO 6 WEEK LEAD TIME, PLEASE ASK IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE SHIP DATE**

What are my shipping options?

UPS Ground,  USPS Priority Mail or USPS Parcel Post. 

We will ship UPS Next Day Air by request only & only if the following applies: The order MUST have the same shipping and billing address AND that must exactly match the name and address on the credit card payment.  No exceptions, ever. If paying with Paypal, must ship to a confirmed address only. Again, no exceptions. Our daily UPS pick-up is at 9:30 am (est). Orders placed for expedited shipping will typically ship out the next business day. If for any reason we need to make a special trip to the Post Office or UPS depot after our normal daily pickup, there will be an additional $8.00 charge.

The reason for this is that 90% of the requests we get for expedited shipping without regard to the exorbitant costs of this shipping method are all using stolen credit cards. Whenever we get an expedited shipping request, we ALWAYS call the issuing bank to verify with the cardholder that they placed the order.

Buyers from Canada or any foreign country will be responsible for any and all duties, taxes or brokerage fees.

**Please remember that ALL shipping transit times given at checkout are approximate. This includes foreign shipments. We do not in any way guarantee foreign or domestic transit times.**

Hey, I paid $xx.xx to have my order shipped and you sent it in a flat rate envelope/box for a lot less. OR Hey, I was sent a partial shipping refund. Is everything ok with my order?

Until the shopping cart learns to 'see', this will continue to be a problem. What we typically do is set an amount for a flat rate envelope or box based on what we are sending in it that includes insurance and handling. The average we charge for each flat rate box is about $12 to $14 and each flat rate envelope $6 to $8 depending on the amount of insurance we need to purchase. (Those are domestic rates only). We then either add in extra product to make up the difference or at time we will just refund the difference instead.

Will you ship my order using my UPS account number?

No. We do not ship on anyone else’s UPS account but our own for any reason. We learned the hard way on this when someone gave us a stolen UPS account number. We do not make exceptions.

When do you charge my credit card?

Your card is charged when you place your order. Approximately 99% of all orders ship within 1 to 3 days so this really isn’t an issue. If you are placing an order for an item that is not in stock or for a larger order with a lead-time, we will still charge your card at the time of purchase. This pre-order effectively secures your order so that when the product is back in stock we can ship immediately.

Hey, I emailed you and never got a response. How dare you not respond.

Let me guess, you have an AOL email address? Or perhaps MSN? Earthlink? SBCGlobal? These 4 ISP’s typically either do not deliver our replies or send them back to us as undeliverable about 85% of the time. If you send us an email and would like a reply, you should probably use a different email address. Many other ISP’s do the same thing, usually sending our replies to your bulk mail folders (especially yahoo, hotmail, etc).

Do you have any restrictions on international orders?

Due to high risk of fraud, magnetvalley.com does not ship to the following countries:

• Afghanistan
• Albania
• Angola
• Colombia
• Cambodia
• Congo
• Cuba
• Egypt
• Ethiopia
• Iran
• Indonesia
• Iraq
• Lebanon
• Lithuania
• Libya
• Malaysia
• Nigeria
• Sierra Leone
• Pakistan
  
  In addition to the countries above, we do not ship to any other locations in Africa.

• We will not at any time ship to an international freight forwarding service here in the US.

This list may change at any time at our discretion due to an increase in insurance claims and fraudulent credit card transactions and other country’s trade restrictions or import practices.

       Additional Verification for International Orders:

Since we are unable to verify credit card billing addresses with foreign banks, for yours and our protection, we will ask the following information to be faxed or e-mailed:

1. Front and back copy of credit card to be used.
2. A photo identification that contains a signature and matches the first and last name on the card being used.
   
   **We reserve the right to cancel any order at any time if we suspect any type of fraud is involved.**
   
   We are in no way responsible for late international orders. We ship in a timely fashion in the method you select, if it takes longer to receive your order we apologize but we will not make any refunds for international orders. They take up a lot of time to fill out customs forms, make a special trip to the post office, wait in line, etc.

If I select ’Personal Check’ or ’Money Order’ as my payment preference, how does that work?

Once you have selected one of the 2 above options, you are given the chance to print out your invoice. The invoice will include our payment address on it. Print out the invoice, mail it to us along with your payment. Orders DO NOT ship out until we have received your payment and the payment has cleared the bank. No exceptions. If your check bounces, you will be charged a $25.00 returned check fee in addition to the order amount by the collection agency we use just for this purpose. No exceptions.

If you select check or money order as your method of payment, we do NOT hold merchandise. This means that if a product shows in stock when you place your order but goes out of stock while we wait on your check, your order will ship out when the item becomes available again.

*This also applies to payment via Paypal E-Checks. The E-Check must clear before we ship the order out. No exceptions.

Can I pay with a Purchase Order?

No. We accept Paypal, MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover, Checks or Money Orders. Payment must be received before any order is sent out. If you email, mail or fax a purchase order it will be discarded. Sorry, we don’t have the time necessary to hunt down deadbeats and this completely eliminates that problem.

We have accepted 6 purchase orders in the last year, all from schools. In one case, we received our payment within 30 days. Three more took over 90 days (and many phone calls, letters and emails) to receive our payment. Two of them we had to contact a collection agency in order to get our payment. Sorry, no more!

What credit cards do you accept?

We currently accept MasterCard, Visa, American Express & Discover directly from our shopping cart as well as any credit card you can attach to a Paypal account if you choose to pay via Paypal.

My organization is trying to (save the whales / free the flying squirrels / empower the emus / etc.) Will you donate material so that we can make magnets to sell to raise money for our cause?

We receive approximately 25-35 requests per week from people asking for donations of material for all kinds of causes, some near-and-dear to my heart (others, not so much). We used to send donated material to organizations, but we found a better way to help more people.

We donate 10% of our monthly profits to several organizations that help people all over the US (and also the world). Among the recipients of the donations are: Red Cross, United Way, Doctors Without Borders, American Cancer Society, Relay for Life plus several other smaller and local charities including a battered women’s shelter, several youth organizations and local schools.

I firmly believe that I have been blessed with the success of this business and it is my responsibility to give back and this is the way I have chosen to do so.

Can the standard thickness (12 to 18 mil) inkjet printable material be printed on my printer? I have a (insert printer model).

Answer: The inkjet printable material can be printed in *virtually* all inkjet printers, regardless of make or model. This material cannot be printed in a laser printer, as it will damage the printer. They also cannot be used in a copier. If you use these products in your laser printer or copier you will void the warranty on your equipment. **WE ARE IN NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM RESPONSIBLE FOR DAMAGE RESULTING IF YOU CHOOSE TO IGNORE THIS. THIS WARNING IS ALSO SENT WITH EACH ORDER IN THE FORM OF A SHEET OF INSTRUCTIONS. PLEASE READ THEM!**

Please don’t email and say, ’I have a _____ printer. Can this be used in it?’ I don’t have every owner’s manual to every printer ever made. I have been selling these products for 6 years and have only come across three customers that said the standard thickness of magnet (12 to 16 mil) wouldn’t feed through their printers properly. All three of those were the all-in-one type printers (printer-copier-fax). Read the owners manual for your printer or look up the manufacturer’s online documentation for the specs on your printer. If the sheets will not feed through your printer properly, please visit our returns page.

What’s the difference in the 20 mil, 30 mil & 60 mil Adhesive Business Cards?

The 30 mil business cards are a thicker material, more like the business cards you would purchase at the big office supply stores. The 20 mil business cards are perfect for people that want to include magnetic advertising in mailings, as they are lighter. The 60 mil business cards are really, really thick and also have a closer pole spacing making them magnetically stronger.

Is a thicker magnet a stronger magnet?

Not necessarily. The magnetic properties of a magnet are not determined by the thickness of the magnet, but rather by the spacing of the magnetic poles of the magnet. The 30 mil magnet is not necessarily stronger than the 20 mil magnet.

Is this product exactly like the ones I bought at the store (or thinner, thicker, etc.)?

I do not have access to every office supply store’s inventory nationwide. I can tell you how thick our material is and how it compares in general to office supply store products.
Our printable material is, in general, much thicker than printable products sold nationwide. If you are concerned about the thickness, see the next question.

How thick is a mil?

One sheet of copy paper is about 4 mils in thickness. Thus, a 20 mil magnet is about as thick as 5 pieces of copy paper stacked together. A 16 mil magnet is comparable to 4 pieces of copy paper stacked together, etc.

If you would like to know how thick a certain product is in inches, millimeters, etc., please visit one of the many unit conversion tools available free online. I have included a link below to a good one we use a lot. In the box on the left scroll down and highlight ’mil’ and in the right box scroll down and highlight what you would like to convert it to. Enter the mil given on our site (16, 18, 20, 30, 60, etc) and click ’convert’.

http://www.onlineconversion.com/length_all.htm

I placed an order two weeks ago and placed one a few days ago for the same product and this order feels a bit thinner/thicker than my last order. Why?

We specifically state on our homepage (and at the bottom of every single page on our website) that all magnet will be +/- 2 mil in thickness. While we strive for consistency, you may notice a small difference between orders since they may come from different batches. If you are purchasing magnet to print on to fill an order for one of your customers, please try to order all of the magnet at one time. This will better ensure all sheets are the same thickness for your customer’s order.

Are the Adhesive Business Cards magnetically strong?

Each card will hold up several pieces of copy paper on the fridge.

Are the Printable Magnetic Business cards strong?

Again, each card will hold up several pieces of copy paper on the fridge.

If I buy 1,000 sheets of material, will you give me a discount?

The pricing on each product is set up so that the price per piece drops as the quantity increases, so the quantity discount is already included. If you would like to place an order for over 1,000 sheets of any one of the materials (or a combination of printable products), please visit our wholesale site at www.wholesalemagnet.com.

I want to buy a bunch of stuff, will you ship it for free?

No. When you checkout, the shipping costs for the materials you have purchased will be calculated and added to your order. We run a very successful business and our customers are expected to pay for the shipping of their materials. We do occasionally run special ’free shipping’ offers on certain products to US Addresses.

I chose one method of shipping and my order was shipped via a different method. Why?

We will never downgrade your shipping method to a slower method. We will, in some cases, upgrade orders from USPS Parcel Post or UPS Ground to a faster shipping method depending on where you live. This won’t happen all the time, but it will happen occasionally. If this is a problem, please let us know before placing your order and we will make sure your order ships out via your selected shipping method. (One customer’s ex-husband is her UPS delivery person so she’d rather the mailman brings her orders, etc).

If you give a P.O. Box as your shipping address but select UPS Ground as the shipping method we will attempt to contact you via email for a corrected shipping address. If we receive no response from you within 48 hours we may use USPS Parcel Post as the shipping method. No refund will be given in these cases for downgraded shipping.

I want to try one sheet of printable material to see if it meets my standards. Will you send me one sheet for free?

We do not give away material for free or we would have to spend several hours a day packaging up the 30 to 40 requests we get per day for free samples.  We do offer sample packs (see our home page) for those that wish to try an array of products. Also, almost every product is available for purchase by the sheet.

I would like to see the adhesive business cards, to see which one I am interested in. Will you send me samples?

Please visit our ’sample pack’ category.

How can you charge such low prices?

We can keep our prices low for several reasons. The first is that we buy in huge bulk quantities from the manufacturers of these products and can pass that quantity discount on to you. Second, we have no brick-and-mortar storefront to pay for.