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What happens when I order
items on the Best Home Systems web site?
What happens when I
provide my credit card information?
Does BHS share or sell any
of my information - personal or otherwise?
Does BHS retain my credit
card or personal information?
Can I order over the
telephone or via mail?
Can I find out how much
shipping will cost without providing my personal information?
Why does BHS want my email
address?
How long will my order
take to get to me?
Does BHS have stock?
Is BHS able to ship
faster than “standard ground”?
Does BHS ship outside the
USA?
Will BHS ship to a
military APO?
What if I have
additional questions?
General Order Processing
What happens when I order items on your web site?
When you have selected your items and they are in the shopping cart and you
have filled out your billing and shipping information, submitted it, and
verified it - a page will appear that you can print or save electronically.
This is your invoice / receipt. We also
receive an automatic invoice indicating you have placed an order.
Basically this is treated as a request for us to check stock and communicate
back to you if stock is available. Additionally, at this point, your
credit card has been approved for the transaction amount via a 3rd party credit
card processing company. Your credit card is not charged at this time.
We are able to check stock for all lighting items Monday
through Friday during normal business hours only. For all other items, we
can check stock via our supplier’s computer systems and therefore may be able to
provide you with information more quickly. In any case, depending on the
suppliers involved, you will be sent an email 2 to 24 hours after placing your
order informing you of stock availability and the status of your order.
When we ascertain that the items you ordered are in stock, a
purchase order is automatically sent to our supplier. We also alert you
via email that your order has been processed and we provide you with an
anticipated ship date. We try to be conservative with this estimate.
Shipping often occurs prior to the date provided.
If the items you ordered are not in stock, we will notify you via
email of this condition and let you know the available options. We will
not process your order further until you tell us, via email, how you would
like us to proceed. If you accept a backorder condition, you will not hear
from us until your order ships or 2 weeks passes whichever comes first. If
you provide us with a comment - in the comments area of your order - letting us
know that a backorder condition is acceptable, your order will be processed
without the additional communication via email. When "Special Order" is
listed in the item description, the part will most likely have to be
backordered.
If your order requires adjustment, we will send you a new invoice via email for
your review and acceptance. When you notify us via email that you concur
with the new invoice we will process your order further.
When your order ships, whether normally or after being placed on backorder, we
provide you with the ship date and the tracking information when it becomes
available. This notification usually happens the day after shipping has
occurred but sometimes it takes a day or two to process this information.
When you receive the tracking information, you can check the shipper's proposed
arrival date via the internet. Our suppliers usually ship via UPS but
sometimes use other shippers as necessary.
When we receive the electronic invoice from our supplier indicating shipping has
occurred, we begin the process of charging your credit card. This can
happen the same day or several days after shipping has occurred.
You can check the status of your order or print a copy of your
invoice 24 hours a day 7 days a
week by selecting the "Order Status" link in the header of our home
page at www.BestHomeSystems.com. Input your invoice number and last
name and you can see the most up to date information regarding your order
status.
Credit Card Processing
What happens when I when I give you my credit
card number?
When you supply us with your credit card information via the web site or phone, your
credit card number and billing information is sent via a secure connection to
our 3rd party credit card processing company that we use as a merchant to approve
the transaction and eventually charge your credit card. This processing
center either approves the transaction or denies it. For the processing
center to approve your transaction, the billing information you provide to us
must match the billing information your credit card company has on file for
you. If there is a match, the processing center tells us that the
transaction has been approved and that you have provided enough correct
information to reasonably verify that you are indeed the credit card owner. Your credit
card has NOT been charged at this point - the transaction has only been
approved. When we receive confirmation from our supplier(s) that your
order has shipped, we then request the credit card processing company to capture the transaction.
It is at this
time that the funds begin the transfer process from your credit card company to
our account. This
takes from 12 to 36 hours to occur. This is the process of charging your
credit card.
Handling and Retention of Information You Supply to
Us
Do you share or sell any of my information -
personal or otherwise?
Do you retain my credit card or personal
information?
Absolutely no information about you or your purchase is sold or given to a 3rd
party except as required to process your order. Your name and address
remain in our accounting database for no more than one year. We purge our
database regularly. Additionally, for your protection and ours, your
credit card number and expiration date is only contained within our secure
database for 2 months and is then deleted. After you have received your
order and the return period has passed, there is simply no reason for us to have
your credit card information. We do not engage in mailing lists or spam
schemes of any kind.
Shipping Calculator
Can I find out how much shipping will cost
without giving my personal information?
Absolutely! Our shopping cart contains a UPS shipping calculator.
Enter your items into the shipping cart using the 
button. In the yellow box input your zip code. Click the "Submit"
button. Now, select the "Select a Shipping Option" drop down button and
select "Ground" or " 2-Day Air". The shipping cost for the
items you have selected to the zip code you have input will be displayed. Remember, the
zip code must be correct or the calculator will give you
an inaccurate result. We do not mark up shipping charges.
Use of Email Address
Why do you want my email address?
Communication! We believe that by keeping you
informed with regard to the status of your order, it saves both of us time,
money, and most importantly - frustration. Therefore, we will communicate
with you during every phase of getting your order from our suppliers to your
front door. We have had fantastic results from making communication with
our customers a number one priority. This is why it is important that you
provide us with a good email address. Things rarely go wrong, but when
they do, it is nice to know that we are going to alert you good, bad, or
indifferent. And, we are going to keep you posted when everything is
proceeding smoothly as well. We do not want you wondering what happened to
your order or when it might arrive. We do not use your email address at
any later date for any reason. After you have received your order you will
not hear from us again unless you contact us first.
Telephone & Mail Orders
Can I order over the telephone or via mail?
Absolutely! However, we encourage you to order
via the web site because the information you provide is then automatically
downloaded into our accounting system, thus eliminating the chance for errors
that can occur from typo's and miscommunication. Another positive point for web
input is that your credit card is automatically approved via a secure
connection. Additionally, your order is then in our web order system
(shopping cart) and information regarding your order status can be obtained via
the "Order Status" link located in the header of our web site. If you
have special instructions, you may include them in the comments section of the
order pages. Should something need to be communicated after you order - simply send us
an email.
Should you want to make a telephone order, we will be happy to
take your order over the phone at our toll free number. After your order
has been taken, we will send you an electronic invoice for your approval prior
to processing your order. This way we eliminate the possibility that there
is a transcription error. When you have had to opportunity to review the
transaction and information, and you concur via email, we will process your
order and ship the goods you ordered. Mail-in orders are handled much the
same way, except your order is held until payment has been received and cleared
your banking institution, or arranged via a credit card approval. You are
sent an email stating such and your order is processed. In either case,
you may feel free to leave your name, credit card number, and expiration date on
our answer machine. It is secure. Our order processors are the only people
that have access to our answer system and have been trained to know what to do with and how to
treat your valuable information.
Delivery Times
How long will my order take to get to me?
A large percentage of the time, ordered items are in
stock and the order is shipped the same day ordered or the following business
day. Less frequently, orders ship 2 to 3 days following receipt.
Usually these orders are orders that require our communication with the customer
to fix or resolve something to complete processing. Rarely do orders ship later
than 5 days from receipt by us unless in a backorder status or special
circumstances in which case you are alerted via email and will have the
opportunity to have a say in your order’s activity.
All lighting
items ship from California. Once shipped, orders have
averaged 4 business days to the east cost, 3 days to the mid-west, and next day
on the west coast. All other items ship from a large supplier who has
warehouses across the USA. If the items you ordered are in stock, the item
could potentially be on your doorstep the next day. This depends upon
whether there is stock in a warehouse near you, which is often the case.
In any case, my supplier will ship from the warehouse nearest your location that
has the stock. This is one reason we can offer such competitive shipping
rates for many items.
Are you able to ship faster than
“standard ground”?
We often receive requests for rush orders. We make
every effort to accommodate requests made in the comments section of the order
form or by email. We do not ship overnight. 2 day shipping
requires special handling by us with our suppliers and can usually be arranged.
However, many items ship from the
warehouse nearest your location and it is often quicker and less expensive to
utilize ground shipping. We will notify you if you request 2 day air and
this condition occurres with your order.
We will do everything possible to meet your requirements, and frequently it
is possible to do so. However, on occasion, things do not always work as
planned. If your life depends on your order being there tomorrow, we
invite you to shop elsewhere. We are not trying to be rude or abrasive -
we are really quite friendly and easy to work with - but things sometimes go
wrong. It is not how we planned it - it just happens – rarely, but it
happens. For example: we did not plan for UPS to destroy an order 3 days
after it shipped while being transferred from one hub to another. Yes,
this has happened. The customer was not happy. Neither were we. As
soon as our supplier confirmed the condition, a new order was reshipped in its
entirety at no charge to our customer.
Stock
Do you have it in stock?
We are an authorized reseller for, and drop ship from,
several nationwide suppliers. If in the description of the item it says "Normally
Stocked" there is a very high probability that our suppliers have the item
available for immediate shipment. If in the description of the item it
says "Special Order" it is highly likely that the item will have to be
backordered.
For all lighting items and wire manufactured abroad we must call our supplier
during their normal business hours to obtain stock information. For the
rest of the products offered, we have access to these supplier’s computers and
can ascertain an inventory condition 24/7.
As soon as we have verified
stock, we will send you an email indicating our findings. Our order takers
are not immediately able to verify stock via the telephone as the request must
go through our stock verification process which usually involves at least some
investigation and/or a phone call. This can often be accomplished in a few
minutes and one of our order processors will gladly call you back with that
information.
Shipping outside the USA
Do you ship outside the USA?
Will you ship to a military APO?
We do not ship outside the United States. We do
ship to Hawaii and Alaska via UPS 2 day air or the new UPS 5 day ground
(additional shipping charges may apply). We do ship to our military
customers via an APO address. Please
click here to E-Mail us for
special instructions regarding APO orders.
More Information
What if I have additional questions?
If your question has not been answered here there are
a few additional sources of information within our web site.
For
additional information regarding Our Policies .
For information
regarding
Do-It-Yourself information
.
For technical
information about lighting and our lighting products .
Lastly, feel free to with your questions and we
will be happy to provide you with assistance.
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