COLLEGE CHAIR DELIVERY

FedEx Ground delivery van in Provo, Utah by An Errant Knight, 7/31/15, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

SHIPPING

We ship our chairs and benches by the following methods:

Shipping by our Amish Furniture Shippers ensures excellent arrival condition and superior security of our shipments.  These local shippers in northeastern Ohio assure safe passage, excellent care, and perfect condition of the delivered chairs.  The trade-off is speed of delivery.   Our Amish shippers require 1-4 weeks to deliver a chair, depending where the shipment falls in their schedule and, of course, the distance involved.

When a speedy delivery is required, we rely on FedEx Ground.  The trade-off is expense.  Fedex is more expensive, but FedEx Ground can usually dellivery in 2-3 days.  FedEx ensures excellent service and pricing for Ground and Freight shipments, both domestically and internationally.

For some shipments of large items and large quantities of smaller items, we rely on some trucking companies located in Ohio Amish country, which specialize in delivering Amish furniture.  Shipping to western U.S. locations and Canada will require higher shipping costs depending on the particular item (depending on distance, dimensions and weight).  When we seek Premium or White Glove service to major urban destinations, we rely on these Amish companies.  In order to deliver a chair to an address in Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, and remote locations, please phone us at 866.748.2228.

“When the chair arrived, it was so well wrapped that there was not a single scratch anywhere on it.  It looked as if I had personally picked it up off of the showroom floor.”

Note: 

FedEx Ground which provides for home deliveries may be disallowed for large items.  We may be required to ship via FedEx Freight which service may require delivery to the  FedEx Depot nearest your destination, awaiting pickup by the customer.

All delivered chairs are carefully and thoroughly inspected to preclude any flaws or damage before delivery.  We depend on clients to carefully inspect each chair or bench for any damage that may have occurred in transit.  The shipping carton should be inspected for external damage and, also, the chair or bench inside the carton.  If ANY internal damage is detected, it is important to inform the carrier and reject the shipment.  The following images indicate the type of warnings that will appear on the shipping carton. These are reminders to the carrier and the recipient, of the necessary handling protocol and of the importance of inspection and recording of damage at the time of delivery.

We expect the recipient to be diligent regarding Chair Care.  Do not use harsh chemicals, solvents, or chemical wipes to clean your college chair.  As with any fine furniture, wipe the wood surface with a soft, damp cloth, and use a soft, dry cloth to carefully dry.and use your common sense.

White Glove Delivery for Large Items

Our delivery service normally includes “curb delivery” by which we deliver chairs directly to your address without entering the building or home.  We recommend our White Glove Delivery service for all of our large chairs and benches.  These items include the following:

•   Affinity Mission Chair (AMC)
•   Affinity Mission Rocking Chair (AMRC)
•   Affinity Laureate Chair  (ALC)
•   Affinity Traditional Deacon’s Bench (ATDB)
•   Amish Benches (AMHB, ACCB, ABMB)
•   Affinity Traditional Rocking Chair (ATRC)

This exceptional service includes the following features:

•   Careful telephone communication prior to arrival to ensure convenient delivery
•   Your chair is blanket-wrapped and shrink-wrapped from our location to yours
•   Inspection of your chair
•   Placement of your chair in your home or office (assuming doorways of a minimum width of 32-inches)
•   Removal of packing materials
•   (However, we strongly recommend that clients retain packing materials in the unlikely case of a warranty claim which would require the return of the item.  Otherwise, a warranty return may not be possible.)
•   Excellent customer service

You will be notified once your chair has been completed and finished to arrange your delivery.  A delivery day may be requested, but it is not possible to guarantee a specific delivery date and time.  However, our drivers will attempt to reach you in advance to arrange a  delivery date and time that fits our delivery route and is convenient for you.  .

Once your delivery has been scheduled, we will attempt to contact you two (2) days prior to your delivery to confirm an approximate delivery date.  Customers must confirm that someone 18 years or older will be available to accept delivery during the time frame referenced via text, email or phone call.  One (1) day prior to your delivery, we will attempt to contact you to provide an approximate time frame (via text, email, or phone call) with the estimated four-hour, intended delivery time range.  Without confirmation by 8:00 am (Mountain Time) the day prior to your delivery, we may be unable to deliver your chair, your order may need to be rescheduled for a future date, and you may be charged additional delivery costs.  On the delivery day, our driver will give you a call-ahead to let you know the expected time of arrival.

If no one is at your home or office to receive your scheduled delivery, the original delivery fee may be forfeited and a new delivery fee may be charged.  Please provide a 48-hour notice of any changes to your scheduled delivery date.

Customers are responsible for all measurements of doors (at least 32 inches wide), elevators, and stairways.  Should your chair not fit through doors, elevators, and stairways, delivery fees are non-refundable.

Our driver is NOT PERMITTED to move or handle your existing furniture as specified by our insurance carrier.  Please have your room and space ready, making sure all pathways are clear and removing all breakable items in the delivery path.

Please make family pets secure, because since doors will be open during the delivery process.   To ensure the safety of our drivers, snow or other pedestrian obstacles must be removed by you before our drivers can accomplish delivery.  Our drivers will not move, set up, or disconnect electronic devices including and not limited to televisions, audio equipment, speakers, computers, electronic games and cable boxes.  Difficult or unsafe deliveries (such as window entry) will not be done by our delivery drivers.  Hoists and balcony deliveries will not be attempted under any circumstances.  Deliveries above the third floor (without access to an elevator) are subject to a delivery surcharge fee.  Deliveries require a responsible adult, age 18 or older, to be present to accept and inspect the merchandise at the time of delivery.  Delivery damage to your home and property must be reported to Alumni Chairs LLC at the time of delivery.

All chairs and benches are thoroughly inspected in preparation and in the delivery process to ensure quality.  In the rare event that an item arrives damaged on delivery or has a manufacturer defect, please notify our driver before he/she leaves your home or office, or call Alumni Chairs at 866.748.2230.  Returns and exchanges of items damaged in transit will not be made after items are accepted by purchaser or the purchaser’s representative.  Custom chairs are not eligible for cancellation, re-selection, exchange, or return.

Customer Local Pick-up

We encourage customers to allow us to ship their chairs to them in proper packaging or with professional movers who blanket-wrap the items.   However, your chair may be picked up at our Northern Ohio  locations in lieu of shipping your chair to you.  Customer pick-up items come either packaged or blanket-wrapped for safe transit.  Customer pick-up chairs will need to be returned to the originating location for warranty coverage.

The price for local pick-up of a chair or bench is $75.  Typically, there will be no extra charge for additonal items.   If a shipping container would be requested, we would charge for the actual cost of the chair carton.   Our standard chair cartons for ACAC chairs and ATCC chairs are quite substantial, and our actual cost is $50 each.   

We require proper identification (e.g. driver’s license with photo) at time of pick up.  The identification must match the name on the sales order unless pre-arranged by the purchaser in advance.  If someone else is picking up the merchandise for you, notify us of the name of the person in advance.  We will require proper identification of that person. Any special requests must be arranged at the time you are setting up your pick up.

We request that chairs and benches be picked up within 5 business days of our notice to you, that the chair is ready for pickup.

Customers are responsible for inspecting all items prior to loading and will be asked to acknowledge receipt of merchandise in satisfactory condition upon inspection at our pick-up center.

Alumni Chairs LLC is not responsible for any damage to chairs and benches during the customer loading or transportation process.  Each customer accepts full responsibility for securing merchandise in or to their vehicles.  We do not recommend transporting furniture in the back of any open trailer or flatbed truck, on top of any vehicle or vehicle rack.

In the rare occurrence that an item is determined to have a manufacturer defect after pick up and the product is in your possession, please notify Alumni Chairs LLC at 866.748.2230 or Service@AlumniChairs.com.

Delivery Dates

We are unable to specify delivery dates.  We can only estimate delivery dates based on estimated production dates.  We advise clients that production and shipment may require approximately 4-8 weeks from the time at which your order has been completely submitted.  Certain chairs require additonal time for production. Although, in some situations, we are able to ship chairs in less than four weeks after orders, we always advise clients to be patient and allow adequate time for production and delivery.  Any requests for special logo art, changes in logo art, submission or changes in nameplate text, and other product attributes will significantly affect estimated delivery dates.  New artwork (of new colleges) may add from two to four weeks to delivery dates.

Tasks including the request and receipt of permissions from institutions and the preparation of the logo art can require weeks and, even, months.  Therefore, adequate and early planning is not only helpful but essential.   Chairs that will require special permission and art must be ordered early if we are to complete and deliver chairs  before a special event with a certain date.  Rush orders may require special charges, and some may be declined if we are not given adequate time to plan, build, finish, and deliver.

Seasonal Variations in Shipping Rates and Delivery Time

Although, we normally project completion and shipping dates of 4-8 weeks for most chairs (full-size and miniature), after an order is completely submitted.  More complex chairs require 8-12 weeks.  In addition to the above factors, there are two annual time periods in which completion times delivery times and shipping rates may increase:

• Spring Graduation (May – June), a time of our highest number of orders.   We ask clients to complete their orders before March 15.   Whether your order is intended for presentation to a new graduate, a donor, a fellow employee, or a family member, we ask you to plan ahead and order early.  Orders even in February would be very much appreciated.

• Christmas and the Holidays (October – December), a critical time for shipping.  We seek your Christmas and Holiday Orders before September 15.   Our shipping costs will likely be increased by our shippers for chairs that are completely ordered after September 15 and the chairs are finished in October.   We ask that all Christmas and Holiday chairs be ordered, shipped, and received as early as possible.  Often, clients ask us to build chairs early and to hold the chairs for delivery just in time for the Holidays.   Such just-in-time requests are difficult to accommodate, and we ask clients to order early, receive early, and store their chair until the presentation during the Holidays.

College Chair Packing

Alumni Chairs packs its furniture in premium shipping cartons made by excellent container companies.  These are custom, corrugated boxes made of double-wall cardboard made specifically for each college chair model.  These boxes ensure that our college chairs will arrive in perfect condition.  We carefully wrap each chair in paper or shrink wrap before inserting each chair into its carton. The packing process includes attaching hang-tags that indicate that each licensed chair is an officially licensed product, licensed by a particular institution.  We attach hang-tags that identify Alumni Chairs and the model of chair.   We also attach under each seat two name plates that indicate the chair model and company information about Alumni Chairs. We encourage all clients to retain the box and packing materials in case of a future move or the unlikely case of a warranty reason such as a product defect.  It is essential that chairs be shipped in the originally materials and exactly as packed originally.  Otherwise, chairs may be damaged in shipping.

Company and Product Nameplates

Every piece of furniture produced by Alumni Chairs is identified by two product nameplates: 

(1) one nameplate identifying the manufacturer, Alumni Chairs LLC, and

(2) one plate identifying the particular piece of furniture. 

Both plates are installed under each chair seat with brass screws with round heads at each end of the nameplates.

Important:  

Upon receipt of a chair delivery, it is absolutely essential that recipients inspect each chair or bench for any damage that may have occurred in transit.  Our chairs leave the shop in perfect condition.  If a chair has been damaged in transit and it has NOT been noted at the time of receipt, we may not be successful in our claim against the carrier.  Each chair delivery that remains un-inspected is assumed to have been received in perfect condition.  Any damage detected after chair delivery and not reported immediately may be deemed the responsibility of the recipient.  Certainly, any damage in transit, that is not reported within 24 hours of the chair delivery cannot be claimed against our shippers.  Therefore, we urge recipients to inspect and report the status of chairs or benches immediately upon chair delivery and signed receipt.  

Also, it is essential that the recipient retain the original shipping carton and packing materials in order for the chair or bench to be returned for repair.   Chairs and benches that are found to have been damaged in transit should be rejected and returned in the original shipping carton and shipping materials.  Chairs and benches that are found to possess flaws in manufacturing must be photographed, reported to Alumni Chairs, and returned in the original shipping carton and shipping materials.