Ordering Info / Contact

Hello and welcome to Robotic Empire's new Online Store! We're really excited and proud about this beast, but because this site relatively new, there may still be a bug or two within it. Some we already know about, some we don't. If you find an error and think we don't know about, please email us as much info about it as you can to mailorder [at] roboticempire [dot] com (replacing the [at] with @ and the [dot] with a period). Any errors you may come across, please copy and paste them into the emails.

That being said, the site should be fully functional now for all major credit card and PayPal orderers. We have the credit card functionality finally available, or if you prefer PayPal that also works fine. This are both widely used and very secure payment methods. If you don't have a credit card or PayPal account and want to order from us, please sign up (free) at www.paypal.com

Here's how our Online Store works:
To shop on our online store, you browse the site and when you see items you want to buy... just add them to the shopping cart. When you're ready to place your order, click "check out" and enter in your payment info. Then review your order (and choose whatever shipping method you need) and confirm the order to finish! We then receive your order, process it and ship it to you.

Typically you should receive your order within roughly 3-4 weeks from when you place it. Typically it will take less time to arrive, but sometimes it will take more. Please realize that although we take this mailorder operation very seriously, we're not a big company with a lot of employees. This is a family-run businesss in a small spot in Olympia, Washington with just a couple of people packing up orders, getting you new music and clothing as quickly as we can. We only ask you please be patient when dealing with us, and despite our ominous moniker, treat us like human beings.

That being said, we take pride in this operation and strive to get you your order as quickly as we can. If it's been more than 4 weeks since you ordered and your order hasn't arrived yet, you can write us for a status on it. Otherwise, PLEASE DO NOT WRITE asking the status of your order... it just slows us down and we'd rather spend time packing orders than answering emails. If you must contact us, the email address is mailorder [at] roboticempire [dot] com (replacing the [at] with @ and the [dot] with a period). Be sure to include the full name you ordered under too as that's the main way we search orders.

Shipping Options, and suggestions:
We've been mailing packages professionally for over 10 years now and have learned a lot about the US Postal systems as a result. To be blunt, they're unpredictable. To elaborate, the USPS (United States Postal Service) is fully awesome 98% of the time... but maybe 2% of the time a package will randomly take a few weeks longer than it should to arrive, or similar bizarre occurrences. We've shipped tens of thousands of packages and literally only a handful have just "never shown up", but please realize we cannot unconditionally guarantee the safe arrival of a USPS-shipped package as a result. The USPS also offers almost nothing in the realm of useful tracking info.

If you really want the extra security and trackability, we highly suggest you upgrade your package to United Parcel Service (UPS). It costs a bit more, but we can actually track these packages if something gets lost. To reiterate, PLEASE CHOOSE UPS IF YOU WANT TRACKING INFO, as we cannot provide tracking info for USPS orders.

How we pack our orders:
All of our vinyl orders are shipped in new, sturdy cardboard mailers. We also ship all large-format records outside of the jacket to help prevent damage to the jacket during shipment. All of our CD orders are packed securely as well, usually in brand new bubble mailers but possibly otherwise for larger orders. We realize that both the USPS and UPS can thrash packages during shipment, so we do our best to pack your order securely. If you are extra fussy about your record jackets or CD jewel cases, please let us know ahead of time if you have additional shipment requirements.

What to do in the event of a problem with your order:
As mentioned above, we are actually humans... and do make mistakes from time to time. If you have a problem with your order (ie, missing item, wrong item received, heavy damage), just write us with a detailed explanation of what's happened. The email address is mailorder [at] roboticempire [dot] com (replacing the [at] with @ and the [dot] with a period). Please be sure to include the full name you ordered under, as this is the main way we search for orders. As also mentioned above, please do allow 3-4 weeks for your order to arrive from when you placed it and please do not write about order status unless it's been a solid 4 weeks.

All that being said...
Thank you SO much for ordering from us, as we unquestionably depend on our mailorder operation for survival. Please know that your order is helping out a family-run business who's heart and soul is in this operation... and not some fat cat big corporation. We genuinely appreciate your order, and hope you'll come back again soon. Peace!

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