Policies

My sales policy: I believe in personal honor and integrity in my dealings with all my customers. My photos and descriptions are as accurate as I can make them; if you need more information, don't hesitate to contact me and I'll answer your questions the best I can on the same day I receive your e-mail. AZ residents, a 6.35% sales tax will automatically be added to your purchase price.

Some of the items on this website are expensive, and if you are considering purchasing any of them, don't worry--your satisfaction is guaranteed. If the item is not what you expected, or is just not right for you, return it within seven days in the same condition in which I shipped it, and you will receive a full refund.

My shipping policy: First, about your shipping costs

I’ve always hated those catalog companies who offer discount prices but charge huge amounts for shipping and handling. I try to keep shipping charges down, and I reward people who place large orders by giving them breaks on shipping. Your shipping and handling fee includes not just postage, but also careful packing. And, all jewelry items come in a free gold gift box. (Please note: These shipping costs do not apply to Surefire Handbooks, which are shipped separately. Shipping and handling costs for Surefire Handbooks depend upon quantity and are automatically included the in price of the order.)
New! Heart of Stone Studio Shipping Policies, revised May 22, 2007

1) Our days to ship will be Tuesdays and Fridays.

2) Our complimentary priority mail will occur ONLY for total purchases of $150 or more. A $200 purchase total entitles you to priority mail and an additional signature confirmation, and a $350 total gets free insurance as well.

3) Orders totaling $100 to $149.99 will get free shipping, but it will be FIRST CLASS only.

4) If you place two orders within the same week, I will send you a refund of one of the shipping charges if I can combine the orders together.

The Shipping Rates listed below will be automatically added during checkout, depending upon whether you choose USPS First Class, Priority Mail, International Airmail Letter Post:

Heart of Stone Studio Revised Shipping Charges
Effective May 22, 2007
U.S. Shipping
	First Class Mail	Priority Mail
Price Range	Fee	Fee
$.01 to $29.99	$3.00	$5.50
$30.00 to $59.99	$4.50	$7.00
$60.00 to $99.99	$5.00	$7.00
$100.00 to $149.99	Free	$7.00
$150.00 to $199.99		Free
$200.00 to $349.99		free sign. Conf.
$350 and up		free, sign. conf.

International Shipping: Airmail Letter Post, uninsured
Price Range	Fee
$1.00 to $49.99	$5.00
$49.99 to $499.99	$7.50
$500.00 and up	$10.00

International Global Priority Mail is also available. Current rates are posted at checkout. If you feel your package needs to be insured, Global Priority Mail is the only option which allows insurance. International customers are urged to e-mail me before ordering if they require insurance.

Next, How you can pay me:

I will accept approved credit card and e-check payments, as well as PayPal. For those of you not familiar with PayPal, it is a company owned by eBay that facilitates payments over the web. However you decide to pay online, a secure SSL connection protects your privacy as you pay. (Always check for the little yellow lock icon at the bottom of your computer screen before you enter in any personal information. That lock icon insures that your information is being encrypted and kept safe from prying eyes.) PayPal notifies me by e-mail the instant that you pay, enabling me to pack and ship your package out ASAP.

New! If you don't want to use your credit card on your computer, you can e-mail me with your phone number and I will call you and get your credit card information over the phone. After processing your purchase, I destroy your credit card information and don't keep it on any file.

I will accept personal checks or money orders (payable to Heart of Stone Studio) but will not ship until these clear the bank. Please don't risk sending cash. Payment is due within one week of the receipt of your order; after that, the items will be restored to the website for sale. Checks and money orders can be sent to: Heart of Stone Studio, P.O. Box 4480, Cottonwood, AZ, 86326. Please note: If you are sending a check, please notify me by e-mail so that I can reserve your item.

My return policy:

Returns for any reason are no problem, but the item must be returned to me undamaged within one week of receipt. Just re-wrap the item the same way and ship it back to me using the same carrier, and if it arrives in the same condition in which I sent it to you, I'll refund your purchase price. If the item was damaged when it got to you, be sure to save the packaging it came in and photograph everything, if possible. That way, I have a chance to get compensated by the carrier. My bottom line: If you don't like something that you've purchased, that's fine. I'd rather you were happy with what you buy from me so that you'll come back and shop again!

New! Revised Professional Customer Policy for Licensed Jewelry Designers

Several jewelers have written me recently about whether I sell wholesale. No, at least not in the usual manner. While at the Tucson Gem Show, I learned that one of my druzy suppliers sells wholesale the rest of the year, but minimum orders are $10,000! Another wholesaler of faceted stones requires a $500,000.00 minimum! Unlike both of these dealers, however, I can't provide multiple copies of the same thing--nearly all of my stones are one-of-a kind.

Moreover, these stones aren't just lying around on trays in a wholesale show. The labor involved in photographing, editing, logging in and describing each stone for the website tends to shrink any profit I might be making from sales. As you can tell from the website, I try to choose only the finest stones. And where doubling the cost I paid for a stone makes the retail price too high (in my estimation) for that particular item, I actually reduce the retail price so that it's more affordable. I do my best to set fair prices for all the stones.

However, being an artist myself, I understand trying to balance the desire to incorporate fine stones into one's jewelry with the need to keep one's initial costs down. So, in consideration of my fellow jewelry professionals, I've instituted the following policy:

If you are a jewelry professional and wish to set up a "Professional Preferred Customer" account, please send me the following:

A copy of your state business license
A short description of your products
A current business card
Your desired shipping address
Your phone number, e-mail address, and website URL if you have one

I will keep these on file and begin running a 2008 tab for you.

Eligibility: This rebate policy is intended for professional jewelers, jewelry designers, craftspeople--anyone who incorporates our gemstones into works of art of their own design that they then sell. Casual hobbyists are always welcome at our site, but are not eligible for the preferred professional customer
discount. Nor are gemstone retailers and other dealers who are purchasing stones for resale. This is part of our original 2004 policy and has not changed since that time.

Buying Pattern Options. The new 2008 policy gives you different rewards for different purchasing patterns:

1. Smaller purchases totaled over a year.

This is a variation on our current policy. Spend what you want, when you want, and at the end of the year, your purchases will be totaled. As in the past, if you spend a total of $500 to $999, you are eligible for a 15% reward, and if you spend $1,000 or more, you get a 20% reward. The change in the policy from prior years is that your reward will be in the form of a store credit towards future purchases on our website. You will receive an online gift certificate which will be good for the first six months of the following calendar year.

So if you have, for example, earned $100 in store credit for 2007, you can use all or any portion of that amount towards any Heart of Stone Studio website purchases until June 30, 2008. As you use this store credit, please be aware that only the net amount of your purchases, after the credit is deducted, will count towards your ongoing 2008 year's totals.

2. Larger individual purchases

This is similar to wholesale buying, and will qualify our professional customers for immediate discounts, as follows:

Spend in one order:                 Get:
$350-$499:                                     10% discount given at checkout
$500-$999:                                     15% discount given at checkout
$1,000 and above:                         20% discount at checkout

These larger purchases will not qualify for any further reward or rebate at the end of the year. However, people who have received immediate discounts for large orders will also have their smaller orders (less than $350) totaled over the year to still qualify for store credit.

Also, keep in mind that you won't be paying tax (unless you're in AZ). And once you're registered, for any single purchase that totals more than $150.00 at a time, I will pay for priority mail shipping (for U.S. customers). Purchases totaling more than $350.00 will receive free insurance. Considering that insured shipping can run from 4.5 to 10 percent of your total, that all adds up to significant savings.

I invite you to register as a Professional Preferred Customer by mailing in the items listed above. Send them to:

Judith Kiriazis Heart of Stone Studio P.O. Box 4480 Cottonwood, AZ 86326

Privacy Policy

PRIVACY POLICY - COMMITMENT TO YOUR PRIVACY

This site is owned and operated by Heart of Stone Studio. Your privacy on the Internet is of the utmost importance to us. At Heart of Stone Studio, we want to make your experience online satisfying and safe.

Because we gather certain types of information about our users, we feel you should fully understand our policy and the terms and conditions surrounding the capture and use of that information. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather and how we use it.

Heart of Stone Studio gathers two types of information about users:

1) Information that users provide through optional, voluntary submissions. These are voluntary submissions to receive our electronic newsletters, to participate in our message boards or forums, to email a friend, and from participation in polls and surveys:

2) Like many other online businesses, we gather aggregated tracking information derived mainly by tallying page views throughout our sites. This information allows us to better tailor our content to readers' needs and to help our advertisers and sponsors better understand the demographics of our audience. Under no circumstances does Heart of Stone Studio divulge any information about an individual user to a third party.

Heart of Stone Studio Gathers User Information In The Following Processes:

1. Electronic newsletters policy (Dispatches)

Heart of Stone Studio offers a free electronic newsletter to users. We gather the email addresses of users who voluntarily subscribe. Users may remove themselves from this mailing list by following the link provided in every newsletter that points users to the subscription management page. Users can also subscribe to the newsletters at the time of registration.

2. "E-mail this to a friend" policy

Our site users can choose to electronically forward a link, page, or documents to someone else by clicking "e-mail this to a friend". The user must provide their email address, as well as that of the recipient. This information is used only in the case of transmission errors and, of course, to let the recipient know who sent the email. The information is not used for any other purpose.

3. Usage tracking

Heart of Stone Studio tracks user traffic patterns throughout all of our sites. However, we do not correlate this information with data about individual users. Heart of Stone Studio does break down overall usage statistics according to a user's domain name, browser type, and MIME type by reading this information from the browser string (information contained in every user's browser).

Heart of Stone Studio sometimes tracks and catalogs the search terms that users enter in our Search function, but this tracking is never associated with individual users. We use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you.

4. Cookies

We may place a text file called a "cookie" in the browser files of your computer. The cookie itself does not contain Personal Information although it will enable us to relate your use of this site to information that you have specifically and knowingly provided. But the only personal information a cookie can contain is information you supply yourself. A cookie can't read data off your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. Heart of Stone Studio uses cookies to track user traffic patterns (as described above). Our advertising system delivers a one-time cookie to better track ad impressions and click rates.

You can refuse cookies by turning them off in your browser. If you've set your browser to warn you before accepting cookies, you will receive the warning message with each cookie. You do not need to have cookies turned on to use this site. However, you do need cookies to participate actively in message boards, forums, polling and surveys.

5. Child Protection

Consistent with the Federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without requesting parental consent.

USE OF INFORMATION

Heart of Stone Studio uses any information voluntarily given by our users to enhance their experience in our network of sites, whether to provide interactive or personalized elements on the sites or to better prepare future content based on the interests of our users.

As stated above, we use information that users voluntarily provide in order to send out electronic newsletters and to enable users to participate in polls, surveys, message boards, and forums. We send out newsletters to subscribers on a regular schedule (depending on the newsletter), and occasionally send out special editions when we think subscribers might be particularly interested in something we are doing. Heart of Stone Studio never shares newsletter mailing lists with any third parties, including advertisers, sponsors or partners.

When we use tracking information to determine which areas of our sites users like and don't like based on traffic to those areas. We do not track what individual users read, but rather how well each page performs overall. This helps us continue to build a better service for you. We track search terms entered in Search function as one of many measures of what interests our users. But we don't track which terms a particular user enters.We will not disclose any information about any individual user except to comply with applicable law or valid legal process or to protect the personal safety of our users or the public.

SECURITY

Heart of Stone Studio operates secure data networks protected by industry standard firewall and password protection systems. Our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorized individuals have access to the information provided by our customers.

OPT-OUT POLICY

We give users options wherever necessary and practical. Such choices include:

Opting not to register to receive our electronic newsletters.

Opting not to participate in certain interactive areas, which completely alleviates the need to gather any personally identifiable information from our users

YOUR CONSENT

By using this site, you consent to the collection and use of this information by Heart of Stone Studio. If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.

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