Shipping: What Actually Determines When It Arrives
Two clocks run on every order: the time before it leaves and the time after. Knowing which one you are waiting on explains almost every delivery question.
The two clocks
Processing time is ours. It covers picking, checking, packing and, on a custom piece, making the thing in the first place. Transit time belongs to the carrier and, on a cross-border shipment, to customs. Almost every delivery complaint comes from reading one clock as the other — an order that was processed in two days but sat in customs for nine was never late leaving.
Processing time
Stock pieces move in the order they arrive, which is the fastest route we have. Anything that changes the item adds a step before packing: a resize, an engraving, a stone swap, a custom combination. Custom orders need additional production time on top of normal processing, and that is a real constraint rather than a scheduling excuse — the work happens in a workshop, in sequence, and cannot be compressed by paying for faster shipping.
Transit time
A domestic parcel has one handover. An international one has several: an export scan, a flight or a road leg, an import scan, then a local delivery network. The flights are quick; the waiting happens at the two ends.
What shipping costs
| Order total | Shipping |
| $99 and over | Free standard shipping |
| Under $99 | $5.99 |
The threshold is about cost, not speed. Free shipping removes the charge on the standard service; it does not upgrade the service or move a parcel forward in the queue.
Why parcels stop in customs
A parcel crossing a border leaves the carrier's normal network and enters a government process. Nothing is wrong when tracking sits still for several days — the parcel is in a queue that the carrier does not control and the seller cannot influence.
Duty or tax may be assessed while it waits. If it is, the carrier will contact you and the parcel holds until it is paid. This is the most common reason a parcel appears stuck: a payment request nobody has opened. Check the email on the order, spam folder included, before assuming the worst.
When a tracking number means something
| Status | What it actually means |
| Label created | A number exists. The parcel may still be on our bench. |
| Accepted / picked up | The first physical scan. This is when it has genuinely shipped. |
| In transit | Moving between facilities, possibly on another continent. |
| Customs clearance | With the authority. No carrier can hurry this. |
| Out for delivery | On a van today, in your area. |
| Delivered | Scanned at the door — usually, but see below. |
Holiday peaks
From late November through December, and again around Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, sorting centres run at capacity. The distance does not change; the queue does. A parcel that moves briskly in March can crawl in December, and every day of that extra time is spent sitting in a facility rather than travelling. Order earlier than the calendar suggests, and treat any estimate given in the last week of December as optimistic.
Paying for a faster service shortens the transit clock, not the customs queue or the production queue. What genuinely helps is unglamorous: a complete address, an email you actually read, a phone number the carrier can use, and ordering before a holiday rather than during it.
Delivered, but not there
Check the obvious first: a neighbour, a porch, a building reception, a parcel locker, someone in the household who brought it in and forgot to mention it. Then read the carrier's page for the scan location and any delivery photo. Then give it a day — some scans fire when the van is loaded rather than when the parcel reaches the door.
If it still has not appeared, contact us with the order number. Do not wait a week, because the carrier's own investigation window is short and it starts from the delivery date.
Signature and insurance
Higher-value parcels often travel with a signature requirement. If you ask for that to be waived, the risk of a parcel on a doorstep becomes yours, which is a fair trade only if someone is home. If a parcel arrives damaged, photograph the box before opening and the contents immediately after. A claim needs those pictures, and they cannot be recreated later.
Wrong address: the window
The window closes at dispatch. Before that, an address is a line in an order we can edit. After it, redirection is the carrier's decision and usually their fee.
Message us immediately, in writing, with the order number and the corrected address. A missing apartment number is the most common failure and also the easiest to fix, provided the message arrives before the label is printed. An address that is simply wrong at the point of order is not something either of us can fix once the parcel is in another country.
What we make
Everything is made in our own workshop in Wuzhou, which we have run since 2008 — moissanite with GRA certificates at D colour VVS1, and lab grown diamond with IGI certificates, set in 925 silver, 9K, 14K and 18K gold. Pieces run from $17 to $2,020, median around $98, and every one ships with its certificate in the box.
If you have a date to hit, tell us at the point of order. We will tell you honestly whether the piece can be made and shipped in time, rather than promising a date the workshop cannot keep.