Mama's Valentine

How much is shipping? Standard Shipping rate is based on ship to location and weight for all vinyl orders under $50 and shipping is free for vinyl orders over $50, excluding equipment, within the continental US.  Our preferred shipping methods are UPS Ground and USPS Priority Mail.  We do offer the USPS First Class mail option for those frugal shoppers.

How fast do we ship? We typically ship your order within about 24-36 business hours of receipt, it's often much less.  When we create your shipping label, you will get notification that your order is being shipped.  Your order is already picked and boxed and the label is applied, then your shipment goes into the bin for the next USPSor UPS run.  The USPS picks up from our facility six days a week and we make a trip in the evenings to get orders to the Post Office in the evenings so orders go out as fast as possible.   When you place your order you should receive an email or text message that says IN PROCESS which means our site has recorded your order and it is in queue to be filled. Between the time it is filled and shipped, you may see other statuses on your order at various times which means it's making it's way through the fulfillment process such as picking, QC, and boxing.  Once your order is filled you should receive an email with shipping information and another email labeled COMPLETED.  If you do not receive any emails from us, please check your SPAM and Junk Email folders.  You may also log into your account at any time and view your order status.   If you do not receive any emails and are unable to log into your account you probably typed your email address incorrectly and will need to contact us.

Flat Rate Shipping and How We Ship We offer both UPS and USPS.  Our shipping options allows us to offer a rate you can rely on for smaller orders and still offer FREE shipping on orders over $50.  Orders under one pound may ship USPS First Class, but the majority of orders exceed this and most are shipped via UPS Ground or USPS Priority Mail.  You get to choose your shipping option and flat rates are not available at this time for this reason.

Most areas of the country are 1-3 days from our facility in Rockford, IL.  Outlying areas that are further away such as the West Coast, Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and others may take a bit longer.  Well over 99% of the time the USPS gets it right and your package arrives on time and sometimes early.  There are a very small percentage that may get routed wrong by the USPS and has to be corrected, resulting in a delay of a few days.  If you have a complaint regarding the amount of time the US Postal Service took to deliver your package, please contact the U.S. Postal Service.  

Priority and Express Mail Options We do not offer these shipping methods because we have too many issues with people ordering and using them, thinking they will have their order right away.  Since we have to custom pack EVERY order that comes in, we cannot guarantee your order will make it to the post office before the daily cut-off for shipments.  Many customers also think this gets their order out faster but it does not (see Rush Orders, below).  It's simply a much larger problem than it benefits and unfortunately leaves us in a bad position with our customers even though we do everything we can to make sure they are informed.  A very high percentage of customers do not understand the logistics involved in shipping.  For example, someone orders on a Sunday night, pays for "Priority Mail 2-Day" shipping, and they think they will have their order on Tuesday and that is not the case.  First, the shipping times are estimated by the USPS, we cannot control this.  Second, our goal is to ship within 24 hours so that potentially adds another day.  The end results is someone orders on Sunday night, it could possibly ship after the cutoff on Monday evening, which means it goes to the post office on Tuesday morning and SHOULD arrive on Thursday.  "SHOULD" means the USPS does not guarantee delivery times on Priority Mail.  In a case like this, we almost always end up with an angry customer through no fault of our own.  We hope you understand our policy on this issue.  

Rush Orders We process shipments in the order received and there is no option to rush your order with the exception of DTF Orders.  The DTF rush option is for order processing only and does not apply to the shipping method.  Likewise, we are not an "emergency" shop, even for Local Pickups; however you are always welcome to come in and shop in person.  We do everything we can to get your orders filled and shipped as quickly as possible, we will continue to do so.

Store Pick Up Orders If you selected store pick up when placing your order, please either contact us prior to coming out or wait for us to contact you stating your order is complete.  As we stated, there are no Rush Orders, and we can not guarantee an order will be available at any given time, regardless of what the appointment time you set on the order screen.  We do try our best to get it ready by that time, but orders are processed in a first come, first served basis.  Once you received a completed order confirmation, you are welcome to contact us to set up a new pick up time if necessary.

Shipping Costs for Small Orders We sometimes receive requests to ship one or two sheets and not charge as much for shipping because customers feel they should be able to order a small amount and not pay as much shipping as if they ordered 20 sheets.  The size of the sheets and the need for some moderate protection dictates that it be shipped in a box the same size as 20 sheets so we have to charge a minimum shipping fee for small orders. We have costs associated with the shipping materials as well as the labor to process the order which costs the same whether you order 1 sheet or 20 sheets. The best option that most people take advantage of is to order more than $149 and there is no shipping fee.

Lost Orders or Mis-routed Orders Our responsibility with shipping is to get your order to the courier.  In some rare cases the US Postal Service and other couriers may lose your package or more likely, deliver it to the wrong address.  We cannot be held responsible for a lost shipment once it reaches the courier and during holiday periods of heavy shipping, couriers often misplace or make mistakes delivering packages that take time to for them to correct.  If your shipment tracking shows delivered and you did not receive it, you must check with your local post office branch as most cases we find they mistakenly deliver to the wrong address.  When the packages are scanned as "Delivered" they record the GPS coordinates of the exact delivery location and can retrieve it for you if it was indeed delivered to the wrong address.  The majority of our packages are delivered in a long narrow box that is about 3-4" square unless the order is very large.  We often have cases where the Postal Service mis-routes packages and they apply erroneous error codes to the tracking information such as this one:

This is a problem with the US Postal Service -  The Postal Service will sometimes sort packages incorrectly resulting it the package being sent to the wrong facility and it must be forwarded on to the correct destination.  Unfortunately this may cause a delay in receiving your package that we cannot control.  We are unsure why the Postal Service does this as it only adds confusion for the customer and we have complained to no avail.  You may call your local Post Master to complain, if you wish.

We are fully automated for shipping information from the time you enter your shipping address to the time we print the shipping label so we can assure you that your shipping information gets printed on the shipping label just as you entered it.  For packages of this size the US Postal Service is usually the least expensive way to ship.  We would be happy to change our standard shipping to UPS or FedEx but the vast majority of customers do not wish to pay more for a better delivery service.  

Order Errors If you receive your order and you believe there to be an error, any missing items, etc, please use the Contact Us form on our website and include the details of the issue along with your order number.  We highly recommend using the Contact Us form over sending an email because email may not reach its destination for various reasons such as SPAM filtering or Internet communication issues.  If your items are damaged we may request a picture of the damage to review with our Quality Control Team, so please do not be offended as we are constantly making efforts to serve our customers better.  After receipt of your order (based on carrier tracking information) you have five days to contact us to report any issues.  After that time period has elapsed, your order is considered complete and correct.

Out of Stock Items We are also a brick and mortar store that allows our customers to come in and purchase directly from us.  At times, this could cause issues with our inventory system.  We do our absolute best to keep the system up to date.  But every so often we run out of stock on items you have ordered.  If such a case arises, we will contact you directly (either via email or phone call based on information provided with your order) to inform you of the discrepancy and to rectify the situation as quickly as possible.  For any item we run out of stock, we may at our discretion order the same product for you and have it shipped directly to you at no additional cost from another vendor.  If we do this, it will arrive in a separate shipment.  Yes, we take that good of care of our customers and we do everything we can to not delay your order. 

​Returns & Exchanges
We accept returns, exchanges and cancellations:
Contact us within: 5 days of delivery
Ship items back within: 14 days of delivery
Request a cancellation within: 2 hours of purchase

Items not available for return:

  - Apparel
  - Special orders (including custom prints)
  - Drop shipped orders
  - Used vinyl where smaller rolls or sheets are not available
  - Textile foils

Questions about your order?
Please contact an associate if you have any problems with your order.
Returns will be granted on a case-by-case basis. Returns may be subject to a 20% restocking fee.

If you are unhappy and would like to return your unused order for a refund, please contact us within 5 days of receiving your order. If a refund is granted, we will refund you the cost of the items excluding the shipping charges after the item(s) have been returned. Items must be returned in their original condition.

Keep in mind that our color charts are a graphic sample of available colors. It is as close to the product color as possible - but may not be exact. We cannot guarantee an exact color match from the color chart as computer monitor settings vary.

Due to the manufacturing process, material may vary in width by 1/8" - 1/4"​
If there's a question about an order, we reserve the right to request detailed photos of front and back of product in question for resolution.