The Artful Soul...artistically inspired jewelry, handbags and gifts
The Artful Soul®Help Center
This page updated 4/5/08
The Artful Soul®| View Cart / Wish List |
Welcome to our Help Center...where we hope to answer many of your questions about how to work with our website. 
|
| Home Page | |
| La Jolla Shop | |
| News & Sales | |
| Jewelry-by Gemstone | |
| Jewelry-by Designer | |
| Jewelry - by Style | |
| Handbags / Belts | |
| Artistic Gifts | |
| Products-by Theme | |
| Artist Tour | |
| Outlet Store | |
| Search | |
| Gift Certificates | |
| Policies & Service | |
| Contact Us | |
|
Help Center you are here! |
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)
Ordering |
| Top of Page |
Can't find an answer to your question?Do you have a question that is not answered by this page, or elsewhere in our website? Please Contact Us by email! |
| Top of Page |
Website function problemsHave you experienced any problems navigating our website? Many times, we are not aware of the problem you may be experiencing! Browsers can operate differently, especially a newly released upgraded version. Please email us, and if you can tell us the page(s) you were viewing, describe the problem, the browser you are using (Netscape or Internet Explorer and version, for example), it would be very much appreciated, and may help us to improve our service for you. Emailing us about these problems will not result in your being placed on any kind of list for unsolicited mail...we promise! |
| Top of Page |
Answers to your QuestionsCan you ship my order to someone else as a gift?We are happy to send your order out as a gift! On the Shopping Cart, enter the Zip/Postal Code of the gift recipient for the correct shipping quote. On the CheckOut form, you will enter both the gift recipient shipping address, as well as your credit card billing address. There is also a place to indicate gift card information. For gifts, we will not put receipts in the shipped package (so print your email receipt). Please note... if you do not indicate a gift card or tell us that this is in fact a gift, then we assume that your order is NOT a gift, so receipts will be included in the package! How do I add another item to my order? After you click [Order] for your first item, you will be taken to the Shopping Cart. If you want to add another item to your order, further down on the Shopping Cart page you will find the [Continue Shopping!] button. This will take you back to the page you were viewing before, and you can continue browsing the website for more items! Clicking on [Order] or [View Shopping Cart] will take you back to your Shopping Cart again! I placed an order, how do I print a copy of it? You can print the "Thank You" screen that appears after your order is submitted and accepted, using the Print feature of your Internet Browser. You will also receive an email receipt for your order, which you can print from your email system. When I click on [Order] why do I get an Error message that the item is sold out? In most cases, the [Order] button is labelled [Out of Stock] or [SOLD] for items we do not have in stock, but occasionally an order will come in immediately prior to you placing your own order, and the item will become unavailable before the order button has been modified! Another possibility, is that you are viewing a page that has been updated, but your computer is showing you an older stored (cached) version of it. To make sure you are seeing the most recent version of our web page, click "Reload/Refresh" on your browser toolbar...more about this. Is insurance included in shipping charges? All shipping charges include the insurance offered by the shipper. You can read more about shipping charges on our Policies & Service page. When will my order be shipped? This depends on our Shop Hours and the day/time of day your order is retrieved from our computer or called in. Your order for in-stock items usually ships out the same or next business day. We will confirm the shipping date in an email confirmation. If delivery time is critical, please feel free to contact us in advance of ordering! Where is my order, what if it arrives late or not at all? After you placed your order, we emailed you with a delivery date by the carrier method you selected. If it is now beyond that date, please check the tracking status with the carrier using the link we provided (all orders by UPS can be tracked en-route, USPS is sometimes scanned enroute). Please do not delay in checking on late deliveries, because it may be sitting outside your door, behind a planter, or held at a shipper's office waiting for you, and delaying could result in loss or returning to sender! UPS services offer a money-back guarantee for late delivery, you can read more about that. In the rare and unfortunate circumstance that your package is permanently lost in transit, we will either replace the item or refund you in full. Lost packages are covered by the UPS/USPS insurance, see Policies & Service page about this. I placed an order, but I did not receive any email confirmations, what does that mean? You should received TWO emails from us after placing an on-line order. The first is automated, and is sent immediately after your order is submitted, the second is sent by a person after reviewing your order to confirm shipping dates. If you received the first email, then the second will arrive within 12 hours. If you did not receive the first, then perhaps you provided a wrong email address, you have blocked our emails with email filters, our emails went to your bulk mail file or junk mail file, your ISP is having transmission and delivery problems, or perhaps your mailbox is full. If we are unable to reach you, we may not process your order...please contact us! How do I order a ring in a particular size, or re-size? We offer rings by several designers, who each have their own policies regarding ring size availability based on production methods. In most cases, we suggest you purchase a ring we have in stock for immediate shipment, and decide you like it before we re-size, you re-size, or we order a new one in your size. In all cases, once a ring is altered, it cannot be returned. The Artful Soul does not do any re-sizings in our own shop, we only utilize the original designer for this. If your question about re-sizing is not answered on the particular artist web page, please contact us about what you want, and we'll let you know. Can I track my order shipment? In your confirmation email about shipping dates, we provided you with a link to your tracking information! Use the tracking number on the UPS or USPS tracking websites to see the status of your shipment (available by the end of the day your package is shipped). If you did not get the tracking link from us in an email, contact us by email with your name and order number! Can I review previous orders I placed? If you have placed orders utilizing the Customer Registration feature, where you logged in with an email address and password, then this information is available to review at any time. To review information in your Customer Registration account, click on any [View Shopping Cart] link and Sign In. You do not have to make a purchase to do this. If you did NOT use Customer Registration when placing an order, since it is optional, then that order will not be stored in your account. Top of Page How do I redeem Collectors Club credit? When we announced the good news that you earned Collectors Club credit, you were given a Code number. Enter this Code in the "Redeem Code" box of your Shopping Cart, then recalculate, and your credit will appear as a deduction from your merchandise total! If you get an error, read on... Why do I get a not eligible message for my Coupon or Credit? You may not have met the minimum requirement or eligible products in your order...as soon as you meet the Coupon requirements, the coupon value will appear! Also, the Shopping Cart is unable to handle negative dollar totals for orders. If you are attempting to redeem a Credit or Coupon that is an amount higher than your merchandise total, it will not be applied. The Credit will appear as soon as your merchandise total exceeds the amount of the credit! If you wish to place the smaller order and use part of your Credit, either contact us, or place your order and make notes in any Comment box about what you would like to do! I clicked on [Order] but nothing happens, what do I do? Occasionally there is a hang-up in the processing of your order request before getting to the Shopping Cart, so you experience a "delay" or "freezing". In most cases, the item is put into your Shopping Cart right away, but you cannot see this! Technical people tell us that the software's complex code (script) pulls information from many computers and needs to communicate back to your particular computer, and along the way a small hang-up can occur. The most common culprit is that we pull information from the UPS computers for shipping costs, and if one of their computers is off-line, we wait for error messages. The problem may resolve within a few minutes, so click on [ View Shopping Cart ] to see if your item is there. You can always use alternative methods to place your order if the problem persists and you want to get your order in fast! I put items in my Shopping Cart, but how do I look at them again to remember what I ordered? You will notice that all (or part) of the item description in your Shopping Cart will be underlined. This is a link to the enlarged image and description page for that item. If you click on this, it will open in a new window...but do not click on [Order] again, it is already in your Shopping Cart!. You may Close this window after opening it. I have two entries for the same item in my Shopping Cart, how do I delete one of them? You may have clicked on [Order] twice, causing this to happen. Simply click the "Delete" button beside the unwanted item. How do I order more than one of the same item? Simply change the quantity from 1 to the quantity desired, then click "Recalculate". Please note, though, that we carry unique and limited production pieces, so may only have the ONE available! An error message will prompt you to reduce your quantity selection if this is the case! How long will my Shopping Cart selections remain available? Items you have put into your Shopping Cart may remain in your Cart for up to 24 hours, until you complete CheckOut and place your final order. Until the order is completed with payment, though, your merchandise is not set aside for you, and could be ordered by someone else and sell out. But enjoy browsing our website at your leisure, selecting items you think you want, then go back to it and make your final decisions! Why don't I see UPS shipping options? We offer on-line quotes for UPS and USPS shipping in the Shopping Cart, but first the Shopping Cart needs to know where the package is going! STEP 1, enter your "Ship-To Zip/Postal Code" in box indicated, and CLICK "Recalculate" to get your shipping choices (if you are not in the U.S., select another country from the list). STEP 2, CHECK a shipping option box before you CheckOut. In the rare instance that the UPS computers are unavailable, or UPS does not deliver to your area, an error message usually appears. Use any comment box to explain the shipping method you want, we WILL read the comment, and include the shipping amount in your email confirmation. How do I redeem a Collectors Club credit, coupon, or Gift Certificate on my order? In the Shopping Cart, there is a box called Redeem Code into which you can enter the unique code provided to you. When you click "Recalculate", the discount or credit will be applied, or a message about any error encountered will pop up. If you forgot the code given to you, please Contact Us. How do I enter more than one credit or coupon toward my order? If you are lucky enough to have more than one special offer to apply toward your order, perhaps one of our email special coupons plus a Collectors Club credit to redeem, you can certainly apply both toward one order! In the Shopping Cart, after you have made all your purchases selections, simply enter the code provided you for the first offer in the Redeem Code box, and click "Recalculate". Then enter your second code in the Redeem Code box, and "Recalculate" again. You should see both credits applied, or receive a message about any error encountered. If you forgot the code given to you, please Contact Us. What is CVV2 Security Code? After you have entered your credit card information for payment, there is a space requesting the Card Verification Value, which requires that you have the credit card in front of you! We will be unable to process your credit card order without this, as a security precaution for you. Read more about where to find your code. If you are NOT paying by credit card, you may enter the value "NONE" instead. I keep getting an error about changing my postal code/country before I can CheckOut? After you have entered your items into the Shopping Cart, entered your ship-to country and postal code, you then proceed to the Check Out page. You then enter your Billing address, and proceed down the page to the "Ship-To" address section. You should see the postal code entered for you from your Shopping Cart entry. Do NOT type over this, or you will need to follow directions below. If your shipping and billing address are the same, you check the box accordingly, and do not enter anything in the ship-to section. If you want a different country or postal code than the one shown (your original ship-to selections were wrong), please type it in, do NOT check the box for "billing and shipping are the same", then go back to the Shopping Cart page by clicking Change Items/Shipping. You should see that your new entries are shown there. Simply Proceed to CheckOut screen again...and continue (it's now okay to check the "billing/shipping are the same" box), but do NOT change or delete the postal code/country again on Ship-To side! Why is this a problem? The Shopping Cart calculates shipping rates based on country and postal code on the "Ship-To" address (or on the Bill-To side if the same-as checkbox is marked)...if these fields are changed during CheckOut, then it will want to start over to recalculate your shipping charge. Top of Page Why do I see enlarged product images, then cannot find them again? All our products have links to enlarged images and product details. If you CLICK ON THE IMAGE from the main web page, the enlarged image will appear IN THE SAME BROWSER WINDOW (call it Window #1) as the main web page...this is the BEST METHOD for users who use FULL-SCREEN (maximized) window to view the Internet. If you CLICK ON THE PRODUCT NAME from the main web page, the enlarged image will appear IN A NEW BROWSER WINDOW (call it Window #2), which can be handy when you keep many smaller-screen windows going (custom sized/restore). So, if you "lost" in open product image, it may be in a window "underneath" the window currently on your screen, or it is in a MINIMIZED version! Somewhere on your computer screen is contained the list of "open windows", and you can see what's on them by clicking that list to bring them into view...if this is too technical, ask someone handy to help you out! How do I make sure I am seeing the most up-to-date pages? We make changes to The Artful Soul website daily! The date shown on each page indicates the last time products were added or deleted, but the page is more current than that when it comes to item availability! If there is an Order/Out of Stock indication, that IS current!! If you wonder whether the page you are viewing is up-to-date, simply click on "Reload/Refresh" in your browser toolbar. How do I find a particular artist on your website? Most of the artists carried in our La Jolla, California store are listed on the Jewelry - By Designer, Handbags and Artistic Gifts pages. Artists and designers are listed alphabetically within their category. If a name is underlined, then it is a link to a web page of their work! If the artist name is not underlined, we may still have some work shown in a Theme or Gemstone page, so try entering the artist name in our Search page! If we carry your favorite designer (on our list), and there is no work being shown by either of these methods, then please inquire about specific items you are seeking...our La Jolla shop is super full of wonderful treasures! How do I find certain shapes or styles or colors? For some popular shapes or colors, such as cats or black, we have developed THEME pages to group samples together from various artists. You can see these from the Products-By Theme. If you do not see your theme there, then go to the Search page and enter your key word...this will find products that are in our database for the website that contain the word you entered somewhere in their description. If you still wonder what we have, then contact us! How do I get on your mailing list? We maintain an email list for customers who indicate they want to be on our list while placing an order. We email special offers and news to existing customers, and this is our only mailing list. Do you have a catalog? Our website is the perfect tool to show you a wondrous array of artistically inspired jewelry, handbags and gifts. Because of their unique or limited production nature, we change the website offering daily! A printed catalog could not possibly do this for us...so the answer is No. Do you offer quantity discounts? Most individual items offered on our website are currently available in a quantity of ONE for immediate shipment. If you would like to Special Order a larger quantity of one item, please see Special Order instructions, and we would explore the possibilities. Purchasing a variety of items at one time, or over time, can qualify toward Collectors Club Credit. Our policy is to reward our valued customers, who purchase from us time and again, and THEY get the discounts and special offers! How can I contact an artist? As a general and simple and strict rule, we do not give out artist contact information, nor do we send your contact information to our artists. PERIOD, do not get mad at our non-responsiveness to your request. We respect the potential privacy of an artist to not give information out. If you are a retail store trying to contact one of our artists, we encourage you to utilize your trade resources, as we have spent many years sourcing our designers to build our unique shop for our valued customers. If you are a personal/long-lost friend of an artist, tell us a good story, so that we will at least be entertained while taking time to read it! How do you measure your jewelry? We try to provide measurements with all our jewelry, but you can always email an inquiry if it is unclear. Post-style and clip-on style earrings are measured lengthwise from top to bottom. Earrings on any kind of earwire are measured lengthwise from the top of wire where it enters the ear, to the bottom. If a width is provided, it is usually at the widest point. Necklaces are measured sometimes for design span across the front, then again for finished length. The length will be shortest length, then longest if an extender chain is included. If a width is provided on a necklace, it is usually the place where the design is the widest, or at the center. Bracelets are measured for length when clasped, so the length if you go tip-to-tip will be slightly longer. Bangle bracelets will include an inside diameter of the opening. Cuff-style bracelets do not always require a measurement, since they adjust. To visualize all measurements, it is extremely helpful to compare them to a piece of jewelry you already own! You can even try drawing your own piece of jewelry on paper, measuring it, then marking the on-line item measurements against this! Why is there a Processing Charge on my order? If we had a problem processing your order, such as incomplete address, wrong address, billing address mis-match, or CVV2 security code mis-match or missing, we have added a charge to offset our cost of processing. All credit card companies charge us additional fees for information matching errors or extra verification steps, and UPS charges to redeliver a package with a wrong address. We took these extra steps to get your order to you, instead of canceling or non-delivery! |
| Thank you for shopping at The Artful Soul! . . . Marcea Donovan Reid, owner |
| About Ordering | [ View Shopping Cart / Check Out ] || [ View Wish List ] | |
|
Jeweler List
Theme List
Gemstone List
Style List
Handbags
Gifts
Outlet Store
Artist Tour Home Page News & Sales Search Site Map La Jolla Shop Policies & Service Contact Us |
||
| Top of Page | ||
|
Web site designed and managed by Marcea Donovan Reid "The Artful Soul" ©The Artful Soul. All rights reserved. The Artful Soul is a registered trademark with the U.S. Office of Patents and Trademarks. | ||