Terms & Conditions

(日本語で特定商取引法に基づく表記こちらへ)

General

All orders are usually processed within 24 hours, 365 days a year. 

FedEx orders shipped orders are shipped on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays Japan time with the exception of holidays.

Japan Post EMS orders are shipped daily.

All food & tea items bound for the USA complies with FDA Prior Notice regulations.

We only ship to countries that have a proven track record in handling deliveries in a timely and efficient manner.

International Duties & Taxes

While we make every attempt to ship our parcels to our customers in a manner that will not attract additional taxes, your parcel may incur additional international duties and taxes. This is highly dependent on the country. We have no control over nor are we responsible for these fees.

  • We are required to include an invoice in every package.
  • Effective July 1, 2021 EU orders will incur VAT tax on all purchases. There is no longer a 22 Euro exemption. We do not collect VAT taxes on your order.  You will probably be asked to pay VAT upon delivery.
  • We can not mark down the value of your parcel so that you can pay less taxes because customs often opens parcels to compare the values and they even visit our site. Please do not ask us to mark down your parcel value - we'd love to but we cannot.

Additonal FedEx Fees

Although not typical, on occasion FedEx will sometimes attempt to collect additonal fees from you. In most cases, they're not supposed to do that. We cannot dispute these from our end and if this occurs we encourage you to dispute those directly with Fed Ex.  We've had numerous customers dispute those fees and not have to pay them.

Undelivered returned orders

O-Cha.com does not refund shipping fees if the package comes back to us because of a refusal to pay duties, taxes, broker fees, when the parcel was not picked up from postal authorities in a timely manner, the shipping address was incorrect, or for any reason that is not the fault of our company. Under such conditions we will be happy to arrange reshipment of a returned order at your expense. We will refund if it’s only unopened , unused, but we cannot refund shipping costs as they are unrecoverable by us.

Refunds

In a case where a customer wishes to return an item for a refund, we will issue refunds under the following conditions.  

  • All tea and matcha items returned must be unopened, unconsumed, and shipped back to O-Cha.com within 10 days of receipt.
  • As tea is perishable, we will not refund expired tea or tea nearing it's expiration date.
  • We may, at our discretion, make refunds on tea items when there was some discrepancy from our product description or when the customer was not satisfied with the product and in such case this will be made on a case-by-case basis. 
  • For teapots, teacups, and other tea ware items, we will refund if said item is returned to us in new, unused condition.  
  • All refunds will be made only after return of said items

Replacement of lost parcels

As all of our shipped parcels include tracking, O-Cha.com will replace orders which are lost or damaged before they reach their final destination.  We will not replace parcels which tracking shows to have been delivered. (In other words, we will not replace delivered parcels stolen from the front porch.)

Shipping Charges and Options

It is O-Cha.com's policy to only charge what it actaually costs to ship a parcel and no more if it can be helped. For that reason, we have gone to considerable effort to weight every single item we sell in our store  down to the tenth of a gram. Our shopping cart automatically calculates shipping fees based on various factors including destination, weight, weight of the shipping box, shipping method, and other factors.  For this reason, our shipping rates usually extremely close if not exactly the shipping price charged. Sometimes when various items are combined, it will not always be exact because a custom sized box may be needed and it is difficult to know the box weight. Because of the complexity in shipping rates, it is impossible for us to list below exactly what the shipping fee will be prior to your placing an order, but you will always know the shipping charge when you are at the checkout page.  The following link is our shipping charges charged including the weight of the packaging and it's contents:

http://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/charge/list/ems_all_en.html

 

Shipping Methods & Options

 
 

Small Packets Air

EMS

FedEx

Includes insurance for loss or damage:

Yes

If parcel is lost or damaged, customer will not be liable and either a replacement or refund will be given

Yes

If parcel is lost or damaged, customer will not be liable and either a replacement or refund will be given.

Yes

If parcel is lost or damaged, customer will not be liable and either a replacement or refund will be given.

Order Tracking:

Yes

Order can be tracked

Yes

Order can be tracked

Yes

Order can be tracked

Typical Delivery Time:

7-21 days

4-6 days

 2-3 days

Notes:

 

Usually will be returned if not picked up from post office within 10 days. Under cirucmstance where customer fails to pick up parcel and the parcel is returned to us, customer is responsible for any re-shipping fees.

 

 

Undeliverable or Not Picked-Up Parcels

In cases where parcels are returned because customer was not available to accept delivery, or where delivery was attempted and customer did not pick up items from local postal service, O-Cha.com cannot be held liable for re-shipment fees. Re-shipment fees under such circumstances will be at the customer's expense. USA CUSTOMERS ORDERING BY EXPRESS MAIL: If you are not home when your Express Mail package is delivered by the USPS, they will return your items to us if not picked up from your local post office within 10 days. O-Cha.com cannot be held liable for the costs of re-shipping fees in such cases.

When mistakes are made by local postal authorities beyond the control of O-Cha.com and an item needs to be re-shipped, O-Cha.com cannot be held liable for shipping fees.

Footer navigation