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6/1/09

• Do you sell to the general public?
• Do you sell half-drilled beads?
• Do you sell loose beads?
• Do you have print catalog and price list?
• Is the quality of merchandise pictures in this web site accurate and reliable?
• Could you tell where your stones come from?
• Do you always carry the same items as shown in the web site?
• Do you hold merchandise for customer?
• Why I can't find an item that I had ordered before?
• How long is a typical strand? And how many pieces in a strand?
• What is 4x, 6x, 8x, 10x, 10x-12x, etc.?
• Do you issue credit for unusable beads?
• What is your policy on quantity discounts?
• What is the minimum for mail order?
• Do you offer net 30-day terms?
• What kind of payment you accept?
• How do you ship and how do you charge for shipping?
• Do you ship to destinations outside the USA?
• What is your return policy?
• The list of Birthstones
• Miscellaneous glossaries and clarifications

No, we don't. We sell only to businesses that have a valid

• Seller's Permit, or Sales Tax License, issued by the state where your business is located.
  A Seller's Permit, or Sales Tax License, is issued by a state where sales tax is collected. You need it for collecting sales tax and filing sales tax return in your state. Seller's Permit is the term used in California. Different state may have different name for it, such as Sales Tax License.
• For no-sales-tax-state buyers: Some states, such as Oregon, have no sales tax and, therefore, no Sales Tax License. In that case, a Business License issued by the local authority, or anything that shows your jewelry-related business status, is required.
• For international buyers: Please provide anything that shows your jewelry-related business status, such as a print invoice showing your business name, phone number, and address, or an official Business License or Certificate, etc.
• For all orders with California shipping address: If your business is located outside California, but you want your order shipped to an address in California, such as your forwarding agent's address or your family member or friend's address, you will be considered as a California-based business. We will need your Seller's Permit issued by the California State Board of Equalization.

• No, we don't sell half-drilled beads.

• No, we don't sell loose beads. All the beads we sell are temporarily strung and sold by the strand.
• If you are looking for just a few loose beads, please contact your local bead shop for help.

• No, we don't. We no longer publish any new print catalog and price list. Please browse through this website for all information.

• No, there is unfortunately no 100% accurate and reliable picture that can show the actual quality of merchandise without certain degree of distortion. We are therefore technically not able to guarantee the accuracy of picture quality presented in this web site.
• However, you still can use our pictures as a reference to do your purchase. Even with unavoidable distortion, a picture still can convey a lot of useful information if you know the limit of a picture can show. After all, a picture online is always better than a thousand words over the phone.
• Tip: Give yourself a try with a small test order. You never know if you don't try.
• Tip: If you really need 100% guarantee on the accuracy of picture quality, we suggest you not shopping online. Instead, go to a gem show near you, so you can see and touch before you buy.
• Copyrights: We produce all pictures in our own office and own the copyrights. Since we have done a superior job on picture production, many other companies have tried to copy from ours. If you see identical picture on other company's web site, that is definitely copied from ours. Please let us know and help us to protect our copyrights. Your help will also encourage us to do the right thing, working hard.

Could you tell where your stones come from?

• We are not able to tell the origin of every single item. We may disclose the origin of some stones based on information provided by our sources. However, we are not responsible for the accuracy of those information.

• Yes & No. It really depends on the market demand and material supply. We'll try to carry popular and regular items all the time. However, we can not and never guarantee the availability of any particular item at any time.
• If you are working on a new design for a large quantity project, it is always good to check the availability of the items you are planning to use before finalizing the design with your client. When working with your client, always reserve the right to use substitute item because the status of the availability may be changed at any time.

• No, we don't. Our policy is First Come, First Served. We will sell to the first customer who place an order for immediate delivery, rather than who check the availability for future use.

• If you can't find a particular item that you had seen before in this web site, that means it is either temporarily out of stock or discontinued. Please try to find a substitute that match the best.

• How long? A typical strand of beads, pearls, or corals is approximately 16" long. Please be aware that our strands may not be exactly 16" long, the actual length could be shorter or longer.
• All prices are based on a single strand as it is, NOT on any specific length or any specific number of pieces in a strand. 
• How many pieces? The portion of beads, pearls, and corals shown in a typical box in this website is approximately 4" long, or 1/4 of a 16" strand. To figure out how many pieces in a strand, you may count what you see in the box and times 4 for a typical 16" strand, or times 2 for a typical 8" strand, etc. 
• Exception: Bali Beads are shown in a different scale. See Bali Beads pages for details.
• Example: The Malachite beads shown below is 8mm. There are about 12.5 pieces in the box. 12.5 times 4 is 50. So, there are approximate 50 pieces in a typical 16" strand of 8mm round beads.
• Tip: Please always keep in mind that the actual count always varies due to various lengths, shapes, and sizes. In addition, in a typical strand of beads or pearls, there are always some pieces not suitable for your use for various reasons. Therefore, after you figure out the quantity you need, you may add extra 5% - 10% allowances, depending on your own quality requirements, and then convert it into strands.

• All dimensions are approximate: No matter how we describe the dimension, please always keep in mind that all dimensions are approximate. We'll try our best to provide dimension information as precise as possible, however, it is just impossible to be exact without variations.
• Uniform Size: When the size of an item is relatively uniform through the entire strand, we'll describe the dimension as precise as possible, such as 8mm Round, 4x13 (4mm by 13mm) Tube, etc.
• Size varies: When the size of an item varies through the entire strand, we'll describe the major dimension that is common to most of pieces. For example, 4x (4 by) Tube is tube of 4mm in diameter with the length of every piece varies.
• Size graduated: There are also items with major dimension varies through the entire strand. For example, 10x-12x (10 by to 12 by) means the average size is in the range of 10mm to 12mm.
• In general, when it is difficult to give a precise dimension, we'll use the 4x and 10x-12x system to describe the average size.

• As mentioned above, it is common to have some beads or pearls in a strand not suitable for your use for various reasons. We do NOT issue credit for those beads or pearls because the wholesale price always reflects the general quality of the entire strand, not every single piece. Therefore, if the overall quality of the entire strand doesn't meet your requirements, you can return the whole strand in its original condition for a full refund. We do not issue refunds for returns of partial strands or used strands.
• Tip: If you need every single bead or pearl to be perfect for your use, your local retail bead shops can supply what you need because retail bead shops usually allow you to select a few perfect pieces from a lot of loose ones.

• Quantity discounts are based on our list price and good for items in stock only.
• Items on Sales are good for additional quantity discount based on reduced prices.
• No quantity discount for special order items.
• Out of stock or discontinued item is not qualified for the quantity discount calculation. (It might happened that the item you want is out of stock or discontinued when you re-order from a previous invoice or even from a current web page. If that happened and affected the level of quantity discount, we will call you and suggest a substitute. We will do our best to keep our website current and accurate, however, we still can not guarantee the availability of every single item shown on our website at this moment. Your understanding is greatly appreciated.)
• Returned item is not qualified for the quantity discount calculation. We will revise the level of quantity discount on a delivered and paid invoice if the returned amount is too large and affected the original discount level. The discount difference will then be deducted from the refund to the returned items.

• Quantity Discount Rates:

• over $200 assorted, 10% off;
• over $500 assorted, 15% off;
• over $1,000 assorted, 20% off.
• over $2,000 assorted, 25% off.
• over $3,000 assorted, 25% off and up.
  We do not have any pre-set discount for orders over $3,000. We'll review your order and try to give you the best discount on case-by-case basis. In general, an order with large quantity (minimum 10 strands) per item may get better discount than that with single strand for each different item.
  For example, if you order 1 strand each for 100 different items, you may get our standard pre-set discount up to 25% off. However, if you order 100 strands for just one single item and can accept wider range of color and size variations, you may get discount better than the standard pre-set one.

(7/18/05)

• Minimum Order: $50.00 for assorted items.
• Handling Charge: $5.00 handling charge will be added to orders less than $50.00.

• No, we do not provide terms to customers.

• We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. Sorry, we do not accept other credit cards.
• Sorry, we don't accept personal, company, or COD checks.

• Standard Delivery: If not specified, the default method of shipping is by UPS Ground.
• Rush Delivery: You may specify Next Day, Second Day, or Third Day by UPS or FedEx.
  Tip: The way any shipping carrier count Next Day, Second Day, and Third Day is based on business day, not calendar day. Saturday, Sunday, and national holidays is not considered as a business day. The next business day of Friday is Monday, not Saturday. If you placed an order on Friday and wish to receive your order on Saturday, you need to specify Next Day delivery plus special Saturday delivery.
• Delivery Delay: Although not a problem happened every day, it might happened to your shipment due to various reasons. We cannot guarantee the shipping carriers' actual delivery time because we have no control over their operation. We are not responsible or liable for any problem or loss caused by shipping carriers' delivery delay.
  Tip: Always allow sufficient time for delivery.
• We DO NOT ship via US Postal Services or other carriers not mentioned above.
• Freight charges, including shipping, handling and insurance, will be added to every shipment based on shipping carriers' rate schedule.
• Estimate Shipping Charges: You may check the shipping charge and other charges on the carriers' web site. Please use Zip Code 91711 as the place of origin for checking the shipping charge.
  To estimate the shipping charge, you need to know the weight of package. Unfortunately, there is no way to know the weight of package unless we pull all your order together. And, unfortunately again, we won't be able to pull every thing you want together just to figure out the shipping cost. However, our sales may give you a rough estimate based on their experience. The actual charge may be different from their estimate. For your information, 12 strands of 8mm round Black Onyx weighs roughly 1 pound.
• Third Party Charge: If you have an UPS or FedEx account and want to charge all freight, insurance, and duties to your account, please provide us your account number.
• Surcharges: The shipping carrier may apply additional surcharge to shipment with wrong address that need correction or address change requested by the recipient.
  Sometimes the carrier may charge for incomplete address, such as missing East, West, South and North in front of the street name, misspelling of the street name, missing Ave., Street, and Blvd., or missing unit number, etc. It is rare for that kind of surcharge, however, it happened if you have a square driver in your area.
• Back order shipment is considered a separate shipment from original order. Freight charges will be added to every back order shipment.
• Exchange is considered a return of shipped order followed by a separate new order. Customer need to pay both return freight and new order's outgoing freight.

• Yes, we do. By UPS or FedEx.
• Duties: All duties to be paid by customer.
  Usually the shipping carrier will pay the duties on behalf of you and collect duties from you upon delivery. However, if the shipping carrier has difficulties to collect duties from you and turn back to us for duties after delivery made, we will pay the duties on behalf of you first and charge to your credit card all applicable duties and fees plus 6% surcharge.
  Please make sure how to pay duties in your country before placing an order with us. Please call your local UPS and FedEx offices for details.
• We DO NOT ship via US Postal Services or other carriers not mentioned above.

• Return within 10 calendar days: We refund the actual paid cost of any merchandise returned to us within 10 calendar days after you receive it. Freight and insurance are not refundable.
  Tip: Inspect your order right after you receive it, so you have 10 calendar days to decide whether to keep it or not.
• Return within 30 calendar days: There is a 10% re-stocking fee if the merchandise returned to us after 10 calendar days, but within 30 calendar days after you receive it.
• Return within 60 calendar days: There is a 25% re-stocking fee if the merchandise returned to us after 30 calendar days, but within 60 calendar days after you receive it.
• Return after 60 calendar days: No return will be accepted.
• Return Authorization: Please email return@earthstone.com, fax (909-949-7618), or call (909-949-7616) for Return Authorization Number before sending any merchandise back. Please provide the original invoice number, the item you want to return and tell us why you want to return (so that we can improve our services in the future), we'll issue a Return Authorization Number via email, fax, or phone call. 
• Return in Original Conditions: All returned merchandise must be in its original condition. Partial strand, loosen strand, or used strand is not acceptable.
• Return Carrier: We recommend that you return merchandise in a carton box via a carrier with a reliable package tracking system, such as UPS and FedEx.
  Never return merchandise in a regular business letter envelope via Post Office in order to save return shipping cost. Quite often what we got is just an empty damaged envelope. We do not issue refunds if your return package is lost in the mail or damaged when arriving at our office.
• Return Freight: It is customers' responsibility to pay the return shipping cost and insurance.
  We do not reimburse return freight as well as the original outgoing freight even if customer think the merchandise received "looks different" from what shown on the web site or the quality does not meet their requirements. Please see more information on Picture Quality.
• Refund Method: We will mail you a refund check or credit directly to your original credit card account right after we receive your authorized and qualified return package.
• Quantity Discount Adjustment: If the returned amount affected the level of quantity discount on the original invoice, we will revise it accordingly and deduct the quantity discount difference from the refund.
  For example: A $500 order received 15% off discount. A $100 return would bring the total amount down to $400 and, therefore, the discount level down to 10% off. The refund to the $100 return with the original 15% off is $85, and the discount adjustment, 5% in this example, for the remaining $400 order is $20. Therefore, the actual refund will be $85 minus $20, or $65, unless a new order of the equal value were placed at the same time.
• Tip: To avoid any possible mistakes, we strongly recommend you placing your order via fax, instead of phone call. Please write down item number, description, and price on your fax order. Yes, it is absolutely all right to call us for questions and placing orders, however, a fax will help us a lot.
• Exchange is considered a return followed by a separate new order. All Return Policy apply to Exchange Request. Shipping charges will be added to every outgoing "exchange" shipment.
  We keep a quite consistent quality for every item. That means every strand of beads or pearls from the same item has same quality. If you are not satisfied with the quality of a particular strand of beads or pearls, we are not able to send you another one to replace it.

1. January: Garnet
2. February: Amethyst
3. March: Bloodstone, Aquamarine
4. April: Diamond
5. May: Emerald
6. June: Pearl, Moonstone
7. July: Ruby
8. August: Sardonyx, Peridot
9. September: Sapphire
10. October: Opal, Tourmaline
11. November: Topaz
12. December: Turquoise, Zircon

• C.D.: Center-drilled.
• CTQ: Chinese Turquoise
• FWP: Freshwater Pearls.
• Graduated: The size of each single piece in a strand varies and the strand is temporarily strung from the smaller one to the larger one, usually with the largest one in the middle of the strand.
• IR.: Irradiated.
• Matte finish: Frosted looking, not shining like the polished one. Example: Matte Lapis.
• S.D.: Side-drilled.
• Size varies: The size of each single piece in a strand varies without a specific order.
• Syn.: Synthetic.
• T.D.: Top-drilled; offset-drilled.

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