orders & billing

To place an order, simply add all desired items to your shopping cart by clicking on its desired amount. To change quantities, please enter a desired number and hit the 'recalculate' button. To remove an item, simply set its quantity to zero. Once complete, hit the 'checkout' button to enter in your billing and shipping info and complete the order.

Our 'quick checkout' makes this process even simpler. If you're located in the United States, please look for this option after completing your first order. Click, review, check out. So simple! However, if you're looking to apply a certificate to your order, you must use the regular checkout option.

You may designate an address and payment method as default options and utilize our 'quick checkout' process to speedily complete your order. Please look for this option on repeat visits to our online store. To change your defaults, please visit quick checkout on your account page.

We make adding items to a recently placed order easy. Simply place the additional items in the cart and look for the "add to existing order" button below the shopping cart to complete the transaction.

An order cancellation will automatically refund you the purchase. You may still see the negative charge on your statement, followed by a positive figure of same amount. With some banks, the credits take a few days to arrive. But have no worry, these are processed automatically the second you click the 'cancel order' button.

If you have any billing issues, we'll gladly do our best to resolve them. Before emailing us, however, please review a brief list of known anomalies:

• An extra charge of $1 may appear on your statement from us. Have no worry. This is simply an authorization charge used to verify your card's security code and will disappear automatically within days.
  
  
• An order cancellation will automatically refund you the purchase. You may still see the negative charge on your statement, followed by a positive figure of same amount. With some banks, the credits take a few days to arrive. But have no worry, these are processed automatically the second you click the "cancel order" button.
  
  
• If you were charged a $2 rural shipping surcharge, we apologize, but UPS charges us extra to ship to zip codes designated as 'rural.' We hope you agree that even with this surcharge, our shipping rates are very reasonable.

We made it simple for you to change any information pertaining to your account. If you need to update your billing information, all you have to do is visit the billing information page in your account. The changes will be reflected instantly on your account.

We apologize if your desired tea or teaware item is out of stock. We source all products direct from countries of origin. While this assures superior value and freshness, it also contributes to long lead times. We're working on ensuring its speedy return and invite you to sign up to be notified the moment it's back. Please look for the opportunity to do so on the missing product page.

Change your mind? Canceling your order is a piece of cake. Visit the order history page in your account. You will see a listing of recent orders with the 'click to cancel' option next to each that has yet to be processed.

If the status of your order says 'processing,' then unfortunately the order is beyond cancellation. It had already been boxed up and moved to our shipping dock. Should you still wish to cancel, please refuse delivery of the order and the package will be returned to us. We'll then gladly credit you the value of the items selected, minus the cost of round trip shipping.

It's very easy to change what's in your cart. To remove an item, simply enter a zero into the quantity and press 'recalculate.' You can add to the cart the same way: Change the quantity and press 'recalculate'.

To remove an item, simply enter a zero into the quantity and press 'recalculate.'

Looking to give our products as gifts? We suggest starting with our Gifts page, where all items include complimentary wrapping. Gift-wrapping of other items is only $0.50 each. Please look for this option, along with the opportunity to compose a gift message, during the checkout process. Rest assured, your gift invoice will not list prices.

Tea is a healthy gift that nicely fits all. Not sure what varieties someone may enjoy? A gift certificate offers a practical solution. We offer these in any amount you select on our gifts page. You may even elect delayed delivery, to ensure your certificate arrives at a time of your choosing. Certificates arrive via email. We unfortunately do not offer the snail mail kind.

If for some reason your order is missing from the order history page, then it did not register on our end as our system immediately reflects new orders. Please try entering it once more and notify us if the issue persists.

We've made it easy for you to have multiple addresses attached to your account. If you'd like us to ship to another address, next time you place an order just click 'enter new address.' This newly added address will be saved in your account info so you can use it in the future. However, we may not split an order among multiple addresses. We kindly ask that you enter each recipient's order separately.

We take every precaution to protect our customers' and visitors' information. When customers submit sensitive information via our site, your information is protected both on and off-line.

All sensitive information (such as credit card numbers) submitted on our site is encrypted and is protected with SSL encryption, the best industry standard.

While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also work hard to protect user-information offline as well. All of our visitors' information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific task are granted access to personally identifiable information. And these employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Finally, the servers that we store personally identifiable information on are kept in a secure, locked environment.

We happily accept all major credit and debit cards, as long as they have a Visa, Mastercard, Discover or American Express symbol on it. We do not accept payments via check or money order.

The following three states are subject to sales tax:

New Jersey: 7% on teaware
California: 9% on teaware
Illinois: 6.25% on teaware and 1% on tea

We offer five varieties of tea-of-the-month club: Black, Flavored, Decaf, Herbal and Green/Oolong. Each is available for periods of six or twelve months. To keep shipping costs reasonable, we mail two monthly selections at a time. A six-month club is comprised of three shipments, and a twelve-month club is mailed out six times. Your membership begins and first shipment is mailed the day we receive your order.

If you are searching for a particular tea on our website, and coming up empty, it may be that we don't offer that variety. Please email us to confirm. We also suggest posting your inquiry on our TeaChat bulletin board and our online community of tea lovers may point you in the right direction.