Ordering from Sweet Maria's

Ordering and Payment Information; Our Shipping Policies

Quick facts about ordering from Sweet Maria's:

We have a $15 minimum on domestic orders (not including shipping costs).
We do our best to ship orders within 48 hours of payment receipt.
We ship UPS orders 5 times per week.
You can quickly track your UPS Shipments
We ship US Postal Service orders 4 times per week

We have a strict privacy policy
We have a return policy
We accept international orders.
We have a $40 minimum on International Orders (not including shipping costs).
We are a small business! Learn more...

Payment Options:	Visa	Mastercard	Amex	Discover	Money Order	Check
Order By:	Secure Shopping Cart System	On-line Secure Server	Email	Fax	Mail
UPS tracking of your Sweet Maria's order.

Our Online Shopping Cart Order System	Our shopping cart system is available: If you click on the ADD TO CART buttons on our pages, then you will need to use the cart system to check out. The advantages are many, especially in the calculation of order totals, automated shipping calculation, real-time UPS price quoting, email order confirmation with order number, and a customer login feature so you will only have to type in your shipping information once. It's not a perfect system (are any of them?) but we think it is workable. You may use the system for credit card and check payment too! Please note: To track the contents of your shopping cart while you browse, our shopping cart system requires that Cookies be accepted by your web browser. As a default, Cookies are on, so you will probably know if you have turned it off. We do not use Cookies to collect any browser information. We do not share any customer information with anybody ... ever! We take privacy seriously! If you have trouble with the shopping cart and haven't sworn off dealing with us (please don't!), we continue to offer our traditional secure online form too. It's extra work for us to maintain it and most web sites don't offer an online alternative. But I know older browsers and slower connections will have some trouble with cart systems (see note below)
Online Order Form	Use our secure on-line order form as an alternative to the Shopping Cart It's quick, easy and utilizes a certified secure server to insure the privacy of your information. (If you intend to use the online order form, do not use the ADD TO CART buttons on our web pages). It's extra work for us to maintain this alternative order form and most web sites don't offer an online alternative. Information is transferred to us through an encrypted server (if you use Netscape, notice that the key in the lower left corner is "locked" when you are on the secure page). When you go to the Secure Order Form, be patient and wait for the entire page to load. If the page only loads halfway, hit your RELOAD button in your browser. The secure form does not obtain any information from your browser except the information you enter. We take privacy seriously!
Email	If you have trouble with the order form, please email us using our contact form. New customers and old ...please use the Shopping Cart ...it helps us eliminate errors and ship your order quickly! You can reach us at info--at--sweetmarias.com too.
Phone Message	Please use email to reach us! We are an Internet business, so we do not have someone at the desk to answer the phone. Sometimes when the roaster is running and the orders are being packed we can't even hear the phone ring! I hope you realize we try to offer great, responsive service by email and our order turnaround time is very fast, but we just can't man the phones. But we will call you back if you leave a message on our toll free line: 1-888-876-5917 This line is for folks interested in ordering from Sweet Maria's. Yes, we pay the long distance charge when you call. Please use our toll free number responsibly! Questions via our email contact form are always preferred, and EMAIL the fastest way to get a response too...
Order By Fax	Our fax line is also 1-888-876-5917 (toll-free) or 510-628 0919 Order quickly and efficiently by fax while safely transmitting payment information. While we can't take phone orders, fax orders are great and we ship them same day or next day usually. Save paper and fax directly from your desktop via fax modem! Our fax is always set to "auto detect." If the fax doesn't go though the first time, allow your machine to redial immediately. If it's helpful, we have an "lo-tech order form" you can print and fax, or you can print and fax the secure server form.
Order By Mail	Send checks, cashiers checks, business or personal checks to: Sweet Maria's Coffee 1115 21st Street Oakland CA 94607 New customers: we hold the order until your check clears. You may want to use our "lo-tech order form."
Visit, Pick-up Orders	Our shop is located at 1115 21st Street, Oakland CA 94607. Here's a map (on Mapquest). Adeline and West Grand is a major intersection, and we are just a block away. You can get on and off the 80 / 880 at West Grand from all directions. Since moving to California more and more folks are interested in saving shipping cost and stopping by. We do have order pick up hours - Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 11am to 5pm. Closed for walk ins Monday and Friday. We are not set up as a retail space so you can see merchandise a lot easier on the web pages than in the warehouse - believe me! So it is really best to order ahead of time since that guarantees the fastest turn-around time. We close for lunch daily from 1:30pm to 2 pm. Place your orders online using our shopping cart system. During checkout, select "Customer Pickup ($0.00)" as the shipping option. It's the last one after UPS and USPS options. We hope you are ok with dogs because there are 2 of them in our office space up front! We are closed Saturday and Sunday. And the building is not marked other than the address - maybe someday we will have a sign.... I guess we are more comfortable with the "low profile"

Estimating Your Shipping Charges

Our Shopping Cart System totals your shipping cost by sending live queries to the UPS and USPS online pricing interface. They are based on your exact "shipping zone" from our location and the weight of the order. Sweet Maria's does not make any money on shipping! We just hope to cover our cost, which is exact shipping charge $1 for the box and packaging. Please note: if you have a PO Box in the ship to line of your address - UPS will not appear as an option.

United Parcel Service: Our standard default shipping is by UPS Ground. You can use the UPS Rate Calculator to estimate your shipping cost. Other UPS services are Next Day Air Saver (arrives next business day by 3pm), 2 Day Air (arrives in two business days by end of day), and 3 Day Select (arrives in 3 business days). Worldwide Services for international addresses described on the international orders page. PLEASE NOTE: UPS does not count the day they pick up the order or weekend days as time in transit. So a Next Day package sent on Friday will arrive on Monday (except for holidays). We ship 5 days a week by UPS. Transit time map is below. UPS does charge "dimensional weight" on air orders - which means that if the box is light and bulky (i.e. takes up more space on the airplane) there may be an extra charge - if so we will contact you.

United States Postal Service: We will ship USPS mail. Delivery confirmation locates the package in two places only - once when we generate the postage and then when it is delivered. Packages are not really trackable - and there is no default insurance. We strongly recommend you select UPS Ground for these reasons! You can estimate charges using the Postal Service Calulator. USPS shipping options are First Class mail (for items under 13 ounces only), Priority Mail (for items over 13 ounces, any size box) and two Flat Rate options described below.

USPS Flat Rate Box (available for domestic, APO/FPO and international addresses): This smaller flat rate box fits 12#s maximum and costs $9.95. You can order green coffee and/or most bags, the maximum total weight is 12#s. Large burlap bags and almost all merchandise will not fit. Roasted coffee can fit in the box within reason - it takes up the same space as 2#s of green coffee.
USPS Large Flat Rate Box (available for domestic and APO/FPO only - no international): This larger flat rate box fits 18#s maximum and costs $13.95. (The USPS has a cheaper rate for APO/FPO zip codes.) You can order green coffee and/or most bags, the maximum total weight is 18#s. As stated above, large burlap bags and almost all merchandise will not fit. Roasted coffee can fit in the box within reason - it takes up the same space as 2#s of green coffee.
We ship 5 days a week via Postal Service. USPS also charges "dimensional weight" on air orders - which means that if the box is light and bulky (i.e. takes up more space on the airplane) there may be an extra charge - if so we will contact you. Transit times for postal packages can vary widely - at times, miraculously fast; other times, mind-numbingly slow. But hey, it works surprisingly well for a government-run monopoly.

We rate our shipping by the pound. Want to save money? Your per lb. shipping rate goes down dramatically with UPS after the first 5 lbs., so it costs say $6.25 to send a Nissan thermos from California to Colorado - and adding 10#s of coffee adds just about $4. UPS Ground does cost more in rural areas than in cities. And the further you are from our location in California - the more expensive the shipping. In general, lighter and smaller boxes are cheaper to send USPS, heavier boxes are cheaper to send UPS. For addresses East of the Rockies, USPS Flat Rate for green coffee and bags is cheaper and faster than UPS. For addresses West of the Rockies, UPS Ground is going is probably best for every kind of order.

Taxes:

Interstate sales are not subject to California state sales tax. If your Ship To address is outside California, no sales tax is assessed.
California residents only: Here's more good news: Coffee is food, and carry-out food items are not taxed in California. But merchandise is taxable at the rate of 7.25% across the state. However! - since California is huge and kooky and complicated - depending on the California county (or city) in which you live, the combined sales and district taxes can range from 7.35% to 8.50%. If you live in Alameda County, California - where our warehouse and office is located the district tax rate of 8.75% will be added to your order, so if you pick up an order with merchandise here, it is taxed (merch. only -green coffee is never taxed). If you live in another county that has a district tax, you the purchaser are responsible for reporting the district use tax applicable in your county.

How Do I Estimate the Delivery Date of a UPS Ground Order?

Click on the thumbnail image of the map

on the left to estimate shipping time.

*Please note: UPS does not count the day the package is shipped, and weekends and holidays are not included in time in transit calculation.

UPS time in transit map for Sweet Maria's Coffee

Wrong Shipping Information:

Please double-check the address information you provide. It can severely affect the promptness of your delivery. Worse than that, if you provide a wrong shipping address UPS charges us a $5 to $10 penalty!! We'll contact you if we get charged a wrong address fee by UPS and make sure the charge is warranted. If we make a mistake on your address, please let us know ASAP so we can correct it in the UPS system! I am glad to say it happens very rarely...

Shipping in the US Outside the 48 States:

Our Shopping Cart System will calculate exact rates to AK, HI, Territories, Canada, or elsewhere, or if you want expedited (UPS Air) or USPS Priority Mail shipping.

Please note that if a shipping option is not available - it may mean that service is not available for the zip code you entered, e.g. UPS Ground to HI is not an option. If UPS or USPS quotes are missing entirely - it could be that their online system is out of whack and not responding, so you might check back at a later time.

Yes, we have a return and back order policy!
We do reserve the right to not ship specific orders - if that happens we will contact you as soon as possible to let you know.

We have a separate page to answer questions we receive for all our international orders.

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Our Online Shopping Cart Order System

Online Order Form

Estimating Your Shipping Charges