About Us
Online Store
FAQ
Wholesale Info
Links

Ameritool Lapidary

Inland Lapidary

Diamond Pacific

JSP

We accept

Designer Cabochons
(by Stone Type)

QUESTION: How do we protect payment (credit card / PayPal) information provided over Internet?

ANSWER: All payment information is encrypted by Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) when it is transmitted to us via the web. We do not resell or provide any third party your information. Our shopping cart is also scan daily by HackerSafe.

QUESTION: I don’t like to provide any information on Internet, how do I order from you?

ANSWER: Search our site and write down the product sku numbers (example: AGATCABS1002) and a brief description of what you are ordering cabochons, mineral specimens; call us at 501.538.4473 and we will take your order over the phone. You can also send us and email at info@unconventionallapidarist.com and let us know what you are interested in.

QUESTION: I am looking for certain items but I don’t see them on your site. Can you get them?

ANSWER: We have a lot of products that we haven’t had time to get online. We have thousands of products online and many thousands more that haven’t been put online. We are constantly acquiring new material and processing new stones. Just send us an email to info@unconventionallapidarist.com and ask.

QUESTION: Do you offer wholesale?

ANSWER: Yes. We have a program to purchase our products at a wholesale discount. The information regarding this program can be found at our wholesale link

QUESTION: What shipping options do you offer?

ANSWER: We ship United States Postal Service (USPS), Federal Express (FedEx), United Parcel Service (UPS), and DHL. Our online shopping cart has real-time shipping calculations that will show your shipping charges at the time you order. Certain products can only be shipped via UPS.

QUESTION: Do you accept International Orders? What shipping options do you offer for International orders?

ANSWER: Yes, we accept International orders. We ship using the same couriers that we use here in the United States using the shipping options they have available for International shipping. Example: USPS we can ship via Global Priority Mail (if available to destination country), EMS (Express Mail), First Class International. Federal Express and UPS offer several express shipping options.

We have found shipping to Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Thailand and some other countries, it is better to ship via a company that offers an online tracking system (FedEx, UPS).

NOTE: If you choose a shipping option that DOES NOT offer International Tracking (ex. FedEx, UPS) we can not be held responsible for packages that do not make it to the destination address. We will try to help resolve any shipping disputes, but we can not refund money for items shipped without some type of delivery confirmation.

QUESTION: How much does it cost to ship International?

ANSWER: The prices can vary greatly depending on the destination country, shipping weight and the courier chosen. We have found shipping to countries like Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Japan; the USPS Global Priority Mail or First Class International have been the most cost effective for small items where the weight is under 4lbs. This option does not have deliver confirmation. Since it does not provide delivery confirmation, we can not be responsible for the package once it is shipped. As an example: if you are buying cabochons and small items that can fit in a small 6” x 8” envelope, the cost is usually $5.00. If it fits in larger envelope, the cost is usually $9.00. Items less than 4lbs put in a Global Priority box have averaged about $14.00. Our shopping cart should give a reasonable estimate to the shipping costs.

We charge the actually shipping amount. If you have more questions, feel free to contact us.

QUESTION: What is your return policy?

ANSWER: Please read our Terms & Conditions page: http://www.unconventionallapidarist.com/xcart/help.php?section=conditions

QUESTION: Do you have a shop?

ANSWER: No. We sell online and at trade related shows during the year.

QUESTION: Do you have a catalog?

ANSWER: No. We currently do not have a catalog. Our merchandise is one-of-a-kind and it is always changing. We are working on a brochure that will outline materials that we normally carry. Example: Spectrolite rough, Lepidolite, Blue Chalcedony, etc.

QUESTION: How do I shop online? You don’t have any buttons to “Add to Cart”.

ANSWER: The most common problem is customers who have disabled Active Scripting (JavaScript). Our site requires the use of Active Scripting and cookies to perform a lot of the shopping cart features. The vendor of the shopping cart claims that cart can be used without “Active Scripting”, but have found that it is very difficult to navigate without it.

Select the “Tools” menu option and select “Internet Options...”.

This will bring up the next dialog.

Select the “Security” tab. You should see the a dialog that looks like the one above.

Select “Custom Level…”.

Scroll down the list until you see the section called “Scripting” and “Active scripting”.

Make sure this option is set to “Enable”. This will allow the shopping cart to work properly.

Select “OK” to accept your changes.

On the “Internet Options:” dialog select “OK” to close the dialog.

QUESTION: I put items into the shopping cart and when I go to “Checkout” or “View Cart”, my shopping cart is empty.

ANSWER: Unfortunately this could be one of many things. The most common is customers who have disabled cookies on their browsers. Our shopping cart needs to set a cookie to be able to add items to the cart. We understand that many people do not want to allow cookies because of security concerns. We can show you how to enable our site to set a temporary session cookie without changing your global security preferences. You basically have to tell the browser to “allow” our site to set a temporary session cookie. This only needs to be done once in the browser for our site. If you are using the same browser, you shouldn’t have to set this option again.

The following instructions are for allowing cookies for a specific site in Internet Explorer. Other browsers have similar procedures. If you need help please contact us at info@unconventionallapidarist.com.

If you do not have cookies enabled for all websites (because your computer is set for “High” Privacy setting), we need to be added to a list of sites that you will allow a temporary “session cookie”. A “session cookie” does not track or store any personal information. This does not affect the privacy setting for other sites or allow us any privileges except to store a temporary id we use for our shopping cart that allows your computer to recognize our site, and create a link between you and the shopping cart. The cookie is a unique system generated string that helps us associate items you put in your shopping cart to you. The “cookie” does not contain any information about you and is not used for any other purpose except group the items you select to “Add to Cart” in our system. Otherwise Without a cookie, you will add items and go “Checkout” of the shopping cart and find it to be empty (very frustrating). The “session cookie” will terminate within 3 hours of you entering the first item into the shopping cart on our site, or when you close your browser, whichever comes first.

Select the “Tools” menu option and select “Internet Options...”.

This will bring up the next dialog.

Select the “Privacy” tab at the top of the Internet Options dialog.

You should see a dialog that looks like the image above.

Press the “Sites…” button on the “Privacy” tab

You will see a dialog similar to the one above. You need to put our website address in this field

That says “Address of Web site:”. You should type in www.unconventionallapidarist.com

After you type in the address the screen should look like the one above.

Press the “Allow” button to allow our website to store cookies.

If it was done correctly, the dialog should look similar to the one above where

It should show the “Domain” as unconventionallapidarist.com and “Always Allow” as the “Setting”.

Press the “OK” button to complete the changes.

Press the “OK” button on the “Internet Options” dialog to confirm the changes you just made.

If you are still experience problems, please don’t get frustrated. I know it is hard.

It is hard to get a shopping cart work with multiple browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla, Opera, etc..) that each behave differently and handle security differently.

If you are still experiencing problems; please send us email (info@unconventionallapidarist.com) and let us know. We want to work on the problems to help you and others in the future. We don’t want to loose a customer because we are subject the limitations of browser technology.

You can always write down the product numbers and email or call us. We will be happy to take your order over the phone and work with you anyway we can.