Shipping Transit Delays Advisory
Transit delays are well outside our ability to predict or control, so we suggest you allow for the possibility of a transit delay when placing your order. If the date of delivery is critical, we recommend selecting either UPS Next Day Air® or USPS Priority Mail Express® shipping methods which are currently the only carrier services available to us with money-back carrier guarantees. Carriers will not issue refunds if they fail to meet their transit time commitments and delivery date estimates for other services.
While Dive Gear Express orders dispatch on time, transportation logistics issues are causing unavoidable USPS, UPS and DHL carrier transit delays. With personnel and cargo resources stretched to their limits, we've seen an increase in sorting errors and routing inefficiencies plus the carriers also seem to be more affected by external factors such as severe weather or equipment malfunctions. As a result, formerly rare transit delays have become more common for all the carriers and shipping methods.
Ground shipment transit delays are typically a day or two, but we have seen some extended delays. While the money-back carrier guarantees have been restored for USPS Priority Express and UPS Next Day Air services; we are still seeing the occasional USPS Priority, UPS 2nd Day Air and UPS 3 Day Select expedited domestic shipment take additional transit days. We've seen many international shipments by all the carriers also take significant additional transit time due to inefficient routing and slow Customs clearance. Remote destinations with limited commercial air service can experience much longer transit delays.
Estimated delivery dates are based on "best effort" services by the carriers. There is no absolute certainty they will be able to deliver on their estimated date, even the money-back carrier guaranteed services. (The carriers are not promising to deliver on-time, they only offer a refund of monies paid for shipping if their guaranteed service does not deliver on-time due to circumstances within their control.) However, most packages from us will transit in the time frames predicted by the carrier and Dive Gear Express guarantees safe arrival to your ship-to address.
Guaranteed safe arrival means we are responsible for delivery of the undamaged order to your ship-to address. You are responsible for providing the correct address of a delivery location that is accessible, safe and secure; then collecting the order from the carrier and promptly notifying us of any discrepancies. For international orders shipped outside the US, you are also responsible for paying import fees upon delivery. Please note the special conditions for orders shipped to APO/FPO/DPO mailboxes, orders with specified date delivery, orders requesting non-guaranteed shipping, and orders shipped to package forwarding services.