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| Buyer's Guide |
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| How do I purchase a product that's out of stock? |
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We're sorry to say that we don't do any preorders at Goulet Pen Company. We don't reserve any items that are out of stock, or hold your order indefinitely while waiting for something to come in. There's nothing worse than thinking you've got a product reserved for you, only to find out it was oversold and you won't actually get it. Sometimes the orders that we place with our manufacturers get shorted, and we don't receive as much as we initially were promised. If this happens when we've already sold all of our allotment, then we would have overcommitted to you if we'd taken a preorder. And that just stinks.
Delays also happen all the time, across all brands. There are some products that we carry that have been delayed, literally, by more than a year before their release. But it's not just limited to new products, we have regularly available products that are backordered to us for months at a time. Taking a pre-order in that situation means that you'd be waiting for us all that time, and that is just not ideal for anyone. Damage in shipping is also a risk for orders coming from our manufacturers. It's rare, but sometimes we're anticipating a big order of a new product and we receive it to find that 1/4 of it is crunched, wet, or defective in some manner. Then what? If we already sold it all, then we have some explaining to do to a group of disappointed (and likely angry) customers. Nope, we like to get things in hand, make sure we know exactly how many we have, then sell them.
What it all boils down to is that we just can't logistically manage preorders while maintaining the level of customer service that we're known for. Many retailers do preorders, and it is tempting for us to do because it seemingly provides a better service for the eager buyer. But because of the many exceptions that we see happen every day with our suppliers, it's actually in all our customers' best interest for us to withhold from taking any preorders and only commit to selling what we know we have, once we physically have it. |
| How do I buy/redeem a gift certificate? |
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To purchase a gift certificate for someone, click here. If you are the recipient of a gift certificate and would like to redeem your gift certificate, click here. |
| How do I find a product? |
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To find the product(s) you're looking for, you may (1) use the navigation menus on the top or left of our website, or (2) type a keyword into the SEARCH box.
If you still have any trouble locating a product, feel free to contact us for assistance. |
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