SHOPPING GUIDE

PAYMENTS

Thank you for your interest in purchasing items from Koto Tea. Payments on our online store can be made by credit card (via Stripe) or Paypal. The credit cards we accept are: VISA, MasterCard, JCB, American Express, Diners Club International, Discover and JCB. Payments can also be made by Apple Pay and GPay via Stripe.

All final payments on our store are made in Japanese Yen. For your reference, prices have been converted into your local currency based on a daily updated exchange rate. Final prices billed to you (in your currency) may vary slightly. To choose a different currency, please select from the menu below:

SECURITY

To protect your personal information, we follow industry best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed.

If you provide us with your credit card information, the information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL). Although no method of transmission over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, we follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional generally accepted industry standards.

SHIPPING

Koto Tea ships from Kyoto, Japan to most countries worldwide by DHL Express courier service.

We offer a simple and fair flat rate for shipping depending on the region. Please enter your address in the checkout to determine shipping rates and availability to your location.

PROCESSING TIMES : Typically 1-3 business days after receiving order

SHIPPING TIMES : Typically 2-4 business days to major countries and cities

Due to the COVID-19 virus we’ve experienced delays and suspensions using Japan Post and the regular mail network. We’ve established a partnership with DHL Express Courier service, and all orders will currently be shipped via DHL Express.

DHL Express provides fast and reliable shipping to most destinations around the world. We can ship to any country within the DHL network*.

*Unfortunately we cannot ship to Russia at the moment due to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

**UPDATE: Some European countries we can now ship to by postal mail. If preferred, please contact us through our CONTACT form to see if we can arrange alternative shipping method.

IMPORTANT (CUSTOMS & TAXES)

**PLEASE NOTE : Once a package has been shipped, ownership rights transfer from Koto Tea to the purchaser. It is the purchaser’s responsibility to track their packages and take delivery. We supply a tracking number and link to tracking page in a confirmation email when an order is shipped.

Products shipped from Japan to certain countries and jurisdictions might be subject to local customs duties or consumption tax in the country of delivery. Such duties and taxes are purchaser’s (or receiver’s) responsibility. This applies in particular to European countries (especially European Union) which apply VAT (or similar) and approximately 6% duty.

What is payable (if anything) is unique to each jurisdiction, and depends on where the goods are sent from, the type of goods, their transactional value and the weight of the package

None of these charges are paid to us the seller (Koto Tea), but to the local authorities in the destination country.

**IMPORTANT : If duties and taxes apply to a customer’s package, they will need to be collected by DHL Express couriers before delivery. As a service to speed up express delivery, DHL Express pays the customers duties and taxes in advance to bypass the usual delays in customs processing.

For this service DHL Express also applies a handling fee (a certain percentage of taxes/duties payable). This fee varies depending on country and package weight, contents, value etc. and is payable by the customer before delivery.

Please be aware this is a condition of shipping and unfortunately can’t be avoided. (This only applies IF duties and taxes are payable)

The following are guidelines for particular regions. Please note this information is offered as a guide and is subject to change. Please contact your local authorities for the latest and most accurate information:

U.S.A. :

  • Generally the U.S.A. does NOT charge customs fees or duties. Officially, packages with a declared value under $2000 USD will be cleared without any fee. Packages with a value over $800 might require signed declaration that they are not for commercial use. We’ve shipped thousands of packages to the U.S.A. and have rarely encountered any issues with customs.

CANADA :

  • Most packages usually clear customs without issue. Orders above $20CAD MIGHT require that you pay the applicable duties and the GST. For more information please visit the Canadian customs website. They have a duty and taxes estimation calculator on their site.

AUSTRALIA :

  • Orders below $1000 AUD are regarded as ‘low value imports’ by Australian customs. Generally orders are delivered smoothly and without customs fees applied. However according to the Australian customs website: as of 01 July 2018, customs duties MIGHT apply to any goods imported from overseas by consumers in Australia. For more information please visit the Australian customs website.

EUROPE (EU) :

  • If payable, duties and fees are applied according to a “Total Value” which is a combination of product price(s) and shipping fees.
  • Orders with a Total Value of 22 Euros and below are are not charged tax and import duty.
  • For orders with a Total Value between 22 to 150 Euros – The buyer is responsible for paying the consumption tax (VAT or equivalent) of the total value.
  • For orders with a Total Value over 150 Euros, The buyer is responsible for paying both consumption tax and import duty of the total value.

**UPDATE: Some European countries we can now ship to by postal mail. If preferred, please contact us through our CONTACT form to see if we can arrange alternative shipping method.

**REMOTE AREAS :

  • DHL Express charges an extra surcharge (¥2,600) to deliver to addresses that are deemed to be in a “remote area”. On the rare occasion where a purchaser’s (or receiver’s) shipping address is in a remote location, we will contact the customer to arrange for payment of the remote area surcharge, or attempt to arrange delivery by another method.

 

**PLEASE NOTE : We will not falsify information on customs papers, especially price.

  • Falsifying shipping papers and invoices by lowering prices and totals is illegal. It puts both our business, and you the customer at risk.
  • Additionally, it can lead to the voiding of insurance claims and refunds in the case of damaged or missing packages. Therefore it is in the customer’s interest and protection.
  • We empathise with customers who live in countries that impose high import taxes and duties, but we strictly refuse to falsify prices on shipping documents for the above reasons. We thank you for your understanding.
 

RETURNS & REFUNDS

We will gladly replace or refund items under the following circumstances:

  • The item/s received differ from what was ordered
  • The item/s received are defective or damaged

We are unable to refund or exchange orders if a customer changes their mind, or for any other personal or subjective reasons.

DAMAGE TO SHIPMENT

We inspect all products before shipping, so any damage is likely to have occurred during shipment. In the event of damage to a shipment, or if a product received is defective in some way, please contact us within 7 days. Please take photos of the damage and submit images by email to [email protected] and we’ll rectify the situation. **Please note we only offer refunds or replacements up to 14 days after delivery of order.

MISSED, NON DELIVERY OR REJECTED DELIVERY

  • If a parcel fails to be delivered because the purchaser entered an incorrect or incomplete delivery address, we don’t accept responsibility. In this event we have to wait for the package to be returned, and then we can reship the package. The return shipping and reshipping fees must be paid by the  purchaser. Please take care when entering the shipping address to ensure it is correct. We ask our U.S.A. customers to please enter the extension of their ZIP Code (Plus 4 number), to ensure reliable delivery.
  • If the purchaser (or receiver) fails to accept shipment after attempts to deliver, and the package is returned to sender, we don’t accept responsibility. We will reship the order after it has returned to us. In this case, the cost of return shipping and reshipping must be paid by the purchaser.
  • **IMPORTANT – DHL Express Deliveries: If a delivery is made to a region where local taxes and/or customs duties are applied to a package (particularly European and some Asian countries), and delivery is rejected, the taxes/duties and return shipping fee will become the liability of Koto Tea. In this instance we can only refund any remaining balance after the taxes/duties and return shipping fees have been paid. In the case where taxes, duties and return shipping fee are over and above the value of the original order, the package will have to be destroyed and no refund will be given. 

CANCELLATIONS

Cancellations to orders can only be made up until an order is shipped. Once a package has been shipped it cannot be retrieved and ownership rights transfer from Koto Tea to the purchaser. 

GIFTS & GIFT WRAPPING

As a general policy, Koto Tea doesn’t offer gift wrapping services. We specialise in artisanal hand crafted products that are mostly one-of-a-kind, or can be difficult to source or replace. Therefore our priority when shipping is the safety of products.

To ensure safe delivery, Koto Tea wraps all items with extra care and layers of packaging. Therefore in most cases it is impractical to gift wrap items. We thank you for your understanding.

**We can offer personalised gift notes inside packages upon request.

 

If you require any further information, please contact us at [email protected] or use the online contact form.