Frequently Asked Questions about Shipping

We offer free shipping on almost all of the parts in our catalog. These commonly stocked items are shipped direct to you from our primary warehouse in Southern California.

Orders must meet the following to qualify:

- Shipping address is within the 48 Contiguous United States (PO Boxes are not eligible).

- Total parts weight must be under 15 lbs and the order must not include any oversize parts. For orders over 15 lbs in weight you may still qualify for free or discounted shipping, depending upon the total dollar value of qualifying parts in your shopping cart.

All parts except for a few special-order or very large parts qualify for FREE shipping.

We offer a wide variety of both domestic and international shipping options to suit just about any need. For more information, please see our table of available shipping options. This table shows you the various carriers we use, approximate delivery times, and any restrictions that may be required on packages. Please note that starting December 2003 we have implemented FedEx as a standard carrier for all deliveries. This means that all domestic packages may be shipped via either UPS or FedEx.

Shipping costs are directly related to the weight of the package. In addition, we factor in an additional amount to cover packing materials, and any special handling considerations that may be required to ship the package. If you pick up your order in person, we do not charge you any shipping or handling fees.

In late 2005, through useful survey responses like these, we determined that our customers valued FREE shipping as one of their top priorities. However, Pelican's business model was setup to service our customers with both regularly stocked, semi-common items *and* also hard-to-find specialty items that require special procurement and/or handling. Due to the way the specialty items are procured, it is not possible to offer free shipping on these particular items. We could have removed all of the specialty items from our catalog and only sold the mainstream items, but we decided that this was not in the best interest of our customers - many people come to us specifically for these items. However, some of our competitors who only offer the mainstream items were offering FREE shipping to their customers, and we felt that we needed to provide this service as well.

So, in early 2006, we split our fulfillment department into two warehouses - one that is semi-outsourced for efficiency that handles all of the most commonly replaced items and ships to our customers for FREE, and one that is dedicated to the delivery of more difficult-to-find items that most of our competitors do not supply. This way, we have been able to provide FREE shipping on the mainstream parts and remain competitive in the marketplace, while at the same time we still are able to supply the more difficult to find parts for our customers as well. Customer response to this model has been very positive over the past year.

Saturday delivery is only available as a special request option (USA only). FedEx will only deliver on Saturday if the package is sent via Next-Day Air Early AM Delivery (although the package is not delivered in the early AM, ironically). There is an additional charge for Saturday delivery, based on weight and distance traveled. The US Postal service will deliver Next-Day-Air packages on Saturday. Priority Mail packages are also delivered on Saturday as well.

For 99.9% of all the parts we sell, our website shipping calculator works perfectly fine. However, when shipping via air services, the delivery companies require you to compute what is known as 'dimensional weight.' This calculation includes the overall size of the item being shipped. A fiberglass spoiler may only weigh 2 lbs, but it will take up a lot of space on the airplane. Therefore, it must be shipped at a rate that is similar to shipping a 30 lbs package. Our shipping rate calculator at this time cannot calculate dimensional weight, so we need to revise the shipping costs in these cases. We will email or phone you for approval before your credit card is charged.

Pelican Parts no longer allows COD orders. All orders must be pre-paid.

Some of our products are drop-shipped from the manufacturer. This is especially true with some of our artwork (which requires special care and handling), and also our floormats, car bras, and car covers. These are custom made to fit your specific car, so it's usually easiest to have the manufacturer ship directly to you. If you have a problem or a return, then you will deal with us, not the manufacturer.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, we sometimes have product shipped directly to our customers from manufacturer's warehouses. Sometimes, they are only setup to ship via one specific carrier, and must use that carrier instead of the one you specified. Starting in December 2003, we have implemented FedEx has a standard shipping carrier. As such, your packages may be sent via either UPS or FedEx.

Many of our products are custom-made for your specific car, and may take a few weeks to be manufactured and delivered to your doorstep. Some of the Pelican Parts products are special order items which require additional time to acquire. We offer a very wide selection and regularly stock nearly all the products that we sell. However, there are some products that are not regularly stocked items, and may require a few extra days before they are shipped. Check each item's description for additional details.

Our traditional cut-off time for getting next-day and 2nd-day shipments shipped out the same day is 1PM Pacific Standard Time. Unfortunately, our ability to get your parts out to you quickly depends entirely upon what type of part it is. Some special order items, and uncommon parts may take additional time to receive, and may not be available for shipment immediately. On the other hand, if we happen to have the item in stock, and receive your next-day or 2nd day request after 1PM, we can usually accommodate the request. Again, it depends entirely on what you are ordering..

We cannot ship flammable or hazardous substances on airplanes, which means that these goods can only be delivered by ground shipping only. We do not ship batteries via the mail, and we also do not ship windshields, as they are way to easy to break in shipment.

We can ship to alternative, or 3rd party addresses. However, this usually requires that you are a previous customer already, or you have made special arrangement with us beforehand. We reserve the right not to ship packages to any address that we feel may be suspect. We can only ship US mail to APO boxes.

If you package was damaged in shipment, you must immediately notify the carrier via phone (1-800-PICK-UPS, or 1-800-GO-FEDEX). They will initiate a claims process on the damaged package. After calling the carrier, please call Pelican Parts Customer Support, and notify them of the damage. We will make arrangements with you to replace the parts that were damaged.

Our business model depends a lot on the Just-In-Time principle of inventory management. We keep a lean inventory on hand, and depend heavily on supply-chain management to provide the products in a timely manner so that we can ship them out to our customers. This allows us to effectively offer a much larger inventory than any of our competitors. The downside is that a next-day or 2nd-day air package requires us to 'rush' the entire supply-chain process, which directly increases our costs. Hence, we need to charge higher rates for rushed or express delivery.

This depends mostly upon how it was shipped out. In general, we have very few problems with lost packages with any of our carriers. With the recent events from September 11th, a large number of international packages have been slow to arrive. If you believe your package is lost, please send us an email, or call us at 1-310-626-8765, and we will do our best to track it down.

Pelican Parts provides a state-of-the-art package tracking system for use by our customers. This system allows you to see all the information for your order, including any changes and updates, shipper tracking numbers, discounts, etc., all from the web. To track your order, use our on-line tracking page. Please keep in mind that not all shipping methods provide package delivery tracking numbers (US Postal Service, for example). Also, some products shipped directly to you from the manufacturer may not show their tracking numbers in our on-line system.

UPS does not allow us to specify that a package can be left without a signature. In all cases, it is up to the driver whether or not to leave the package on the doorstep. Most of the time, if you leave a note on the door the day that you are expecting the package, the driver will take the note with him and leave the package. Again, with UPS, it's entirely up to the discretion of the driver delivering the package.

Unfortunately, we do not have detailed information on customs fees and tariffs. If you have any questions about applicable duties and tariffs, please contact your local state department office prior to ordering. If you refuse a package at the customs office, and it is returned to us, we will not refund the cost of shipping the package to you.

We get asked this question a lot. UPS seems to be quite reliable, and we have a great program in place with them especially for order under CAD $200. Canada Customs requires Canadian recipients to pay applicable duties and taxes on each shipment entering Canada. These charges may include PST, GST, HST, duties and other taxes of goods (e.g. excise tax). A brokerage fee is also charged to process shipments and present the requisite customs paperwork to Canada Customs on the importer's behalf.

Your order will be shipped under UPS' e-Tailer Brokerage Program (eBP), where eligible shipments imported into Canada for non-commercial purposes and valued under CAD $200 shipped via UPS Standard service are subject to a reduced brokerage fee of CAD $10, plus any applicable duties and taxes. Shipments valued at CAD $200 and above and/or being imported to Canada for commercial purposes and/or subject to specialized clearance may incur additional fees.

Please, be aware that UPS will request payment of these charges at the time of delivery. You have the ability to call UPS ahead of time (1-800-742-5877) to pay these charges, eliminating the need for payment on delivery.

Most of our customers have their packages shipped via Air Mail, which is slower, but can be significantly less costly especially when the order value is over CAD $200.

The processing and shipping of all International orders takes about 1-2 days longer than domestic orders. This is due to a variety of factors, such as the fact that International orders must ship from one single location (on domestic orders we often ship from multiple locations). International orders also require at least twice as much time to pack and ship due to all of the customs paperwork that must be properly filled out. It is for these reasons that we do not specify delivery dates for International orders at the time of purchase. The "ships today" message on the side of the parts unfortunately applies for domestic orders only.

Shipping Internationally is always a difficult process. The best way to ship overseas is with an established carrier like UPS, FedEx, or DHL. They have dedicated services that move the packages through the local customs area and then track the delivery of the shipment to it's final destination. Unfortunately, these services typically cost about twice as much as the USPS Air Mail / Express Mail services that we offer.

The USPS services are a non-traceable service that integrates with the recipient country's postal system. Packages shipped via this method are routed out of the country and then placed in the general customs offices of the destination country. Since the delivery of the package is handed off to a local carrier (typically the destination country's postal service), delivery time can vary widely. Packages can also get stuck in customs offices for up to 3-4 weeks, depending upon the package load at that time of year. In general, the use of USPS is very reliable and very quick, with the rare exception when it's occasionally slow. In worst case scenarios, it can take 4-6 weeks to sometimes deliver the package.

We realize that most of our customers are price-sensitive when it comes to shipping - particularly our International customers. We don't mark up the shipping rates, and even discount them a bit from their levels in order to encourage our International customers to place orders with us. We do offer choices on shipping because we do understand that shipping outside of the United States can be expensive. Some of our customers opt to use UPS, FedEx, or DHL because they enjoy the speed and tracking capabilities available with these services. However, most of our customers like the price points available with using USPS and traditional mail services, and are usually willing to accept a potential delay.

Phone: 1-310-626-8765
Email us: info@pelicanparts.com