We would like to thank each and every one of you who have chosen to shop with us. We know that you have many other shopping options, but you have chosen to shop with a USA, family-run, Catholic company that handmakes all our products. And for that we are truly thankful.
Who We Are and What We Do at Nelson Gifts
Before you get frustrated, confused, or concerned about the status of your order (and before you read everything below)
just remember these facts:
- We literally make almost everything we sell. No joke, that beautiful "L'Innocence" by Bouguereau diptych you ordered from us didn't get to its final stages in China. We made it here, with care and hard work after you placed your order for it.
- We are a small family business. There are less than 50 employees (mainly family and friends) that work for us from 8am - 5pm, Monday through Friday.
- We are real people with families just like you! We occasionally take time off for holidays or vacation and like to spend time with our loved ones in the evening. Which brings us to the next point...
- Family comes first. Because we are a Catholic business run on Catholic principles, family always comes first. The importance of the family for the life and well-being of society entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family (CCC #2210).
How long does it take to get my order?
Since we handcraft most of the gift items listed on catholictothemax.com, the amount of time an order takes to arrive at your house will vary, depending on the time of year (holidays, papal visit), the amount of items on the order (that we have to produce by hand), and the shipping method you choose (UPS Ground, USPS Priority, etc). If there is no holiday/special event going on, and you didn't place your order outside of our regular business hours (Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm), it takes roughly a week to produce your order before it even ships.
The time formula for how long it takes an order to arrive goes something like this:
Time entering/processing order + Time producing items on order + Shipping time (varies depend on method chosen)
For a detailed breakdown of each order status while your order is being entered/made/shipped, see below.
1. Awaiting fulfillment:
Your order has been placed and has not yet been entered into our system. If you place your order outside of our normal work hours (Monday through Friday, 8 a.m-5 p.m.) it will not be entered into our system until the following Monday. For holidays, the order is not entered until the next business day after the holidays within our normal work hours (Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm).
*Will vary during periods of high-volumes of orders.
2. Awaiting shipment:
A lot of people get confused about this status. We work with an e-commerce system which unfortunately doesn't feature all the order statuses a small family business like ours needs. Here is everything that happens to your order while it has the status "Awaiting Shipment":
- The office enters your order into our system and prints a copy of your order off for production.
- A member of the production team (usually the shipping manager) picks up the printed copy of your order and brings it to the production end of our building.
- A production team member looks through our inventory of popular items on our shelves and pulls any items that are on your order.
- If everything you order is a part of our popular item inventory, the production team passes the order on to our packing department, and the process skips to step #7.
- Usually, your order will still need items that are not a part of our popular inventory. In this case, every item that has not yet been made by hand goes on a list (made right then) for each department of production (e.g. t-shirt press, gift item assembly room, art assembly, wood shop, etc.).
- Each department of production works hard to create the items needed to complete your order. Then, when they are finished, the items join the rest of your order on our order production belt.
- The shipping department packs your order, prints and adheres shipping labels to it, and updates your order status to "Shipped". You receive an email with the new "Shipped" status and the tracking information for the order.
3. Shipped (time amount varies depending on shipping method chosen):
Our various shipping carriers pick up your order towards the end of that day. Your order is now shipped and is on its way to the address you specified!
Statuses of Orders with Problems
If you see any of the following statuses on your order (with the exception of partially shipped), it means your order has been halted. An action is required from you in order for your order to be completed and shipped.
Awaiting payment:
If you choose to pay with a check, your order will not be entered into our system until the check arrives here in Steubenville.
Verification required:
You will see this status if your order has one or more of the following:
- inaccurate information (typos, etc.)
- items that are out of stock, no longer available, or don't exist in the system (occasionally we accidentally offer sizes of products that we don't make!)
- an invalid shipping method (P.O box, military, and other specialty addresses are limited to certain shipping methods)
If any of these conditions are the case, we will try to reach you by the phone or email address you provided at checkout.
Partially Shipped (at no expense to you):
This isn't really a problem, but when we are experiencing an unusually high volume of orders (aka the Pope comes to America, or a saint is canonized), sometimes the only thing we can do to get people's orders out the door faster is to ship the part of the order that is already produced/made. Rest assured the remaining items on your order will ship still, so no worries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to my order once it leaves your facility?
You may wonder what happens to your order after it leaves the building. Depending on the shipping method you chose, your order may take days or weeks to arrive at the address you provided. Since our most popular method of shipping is UPS, we have provided a chart below with estimated shipping times for that method to help you get a rough idea of when your order is going to arrive. Keep in mind when reading the chart, your order ships from Steubenville, Ohio.
Why does it take so long to tell me whether my order has shipped or is near completion?
On average, every month, hundreds of orders are processed by production department. Due to the limited size of our production staff, checking the status of your order and whether or not it is near completion means halting production, not just for your order, but everyone else's. So, order statuses are checked at whatever time ensures the minimal loss of production time on all orders.
Why is adding additional items to my order later so hard?
The e-commerce platform we work with, while a good fit for us, doesn't allow us to add additional items to orders. What we recommend is that you place a new order for the additional items you want. Then, at the final step of checkout, leave a comment in the comment section stating that you want this order to ship with order # [specify the number of your original order]. At this time, we can only guarantee that we will try our best to ship that order with the original.
I chose USPS First Class Mail/Priority why is my order taking so long to arrive?
Contrary to popular belief, USPS First Class Mail and Priority Mail are actually some of the slowest methods of shipping to choose. If you are looking for a cost effective shipping method that doesn't take forever we generally recommend UPS Ground in most cases. For the best expedited shipping method for your address we recommend you contact us at 740-282-5334.
Expedited Shipping Exceptions
If you chose a form of expedited shipping (USPS Express, UPS 3 Day Select, UPS 2nd Day Air, UPS Next Day Air), then your order usually goes out that day. However if you order Next Day Air on a Friday evening or a weekend, your order won't go out until Monday because we cannot ship on the weekends. If you order late the day before or on holidays like Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, and the like, your order won't be shipped until the next available business day.
*The Christmas Season Is Here!*
Due to an influx of orders at this time of year, our usual production time of 1-2 weeks does take a bit longer than usual. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this busy time.
*The last day to order your products with a guaranteed Christmas delivery (end of day Christmas Eve) is November 30th, 11:59p.m. EST*
We would like to thank each and every one of you who have chosen to shop with us, especially during this Christmas season. We know that you have many other shopping options, but you have chosen to shop with a USA, family-run, Catholic company that handmakes all our products. And for that we are truly thankful.