I have a number of policies that I work by. I decided to write them down here so that others might know "how I work".

Custom vs. Shelf vs. In Stock When I say that everything is 'in stock', that means that I have all of the parts to build every cable I sell. If I don't have the parts, I'll post to that fact on my order page. My cables consist of 3 parts - the computer side, the converter, and the car side. For the computer side, the USB and RS232 cables are standard parts and I keep a lot of them in stock. For the converters, I try to keep enough built up and ready to go to cover orders for a week. For the car side, the molded cables are "off the shelf". I can ship molded cables sometimes the same day (you order at 2am, I ship at 7am). For any non-molded cable (the OBD-Y, the crimp-style cables, or custom work) I may or may not have one "ready to go", but you can probably assume that I'll have to build it. I usually build in the evening (or during lunch), which may introduce a slight delay (but usually I can hit the "within 24-36 hours" window that is my goal). Just posting this so that people know what I consider to be "off the shelf" versus something that's slightly custom build.

Payment via E-check. Sometimes a Paypal payment will come through as an e-check. These take at least 4 business days to clear. My policy on e-checks is to hold shipment until it has cleared. I have had them "e-bounce" on me before, and I lost 'stuff' in the process. No offense intended to anyone, but, that's my policy.

Shipping I make every effort to ship within 24 hours of receiving the order. Sometimes I can't meet that goal. Normal shipping is via Priority Mail. I typically drop packages in the local post office's inside drop box on my way to work (as they are not open at that time). I'd say that 90% of my domestic orders that ship Priority Mail are shipped within 24 hours. You should receive an email from US Postal Service with your Delivery Confirmation number in it. Remember, though, that Delivery Confirmation is NOT a 'true' tracking number, but it will show a delivery or attempted delivery.

International shipments (normally Air Letter Post) require a trip to the post office and standing in line. This, I also do before work, but I have to go to a different post office (one that opens at 7:30 am). If I have the order ready to go the evening before, I can make time to get to the post office the next morning. But sometimes it might be a day (or at most 2) later that I can get to the post office and get the shipment out. Air Letter to Canada works, but takes a while. Average is about 2 weeks, but can be as long as a month (it has been in the past). Amazing that I can have a package to central Europe in a week, but it takes 3 weeks to get one to Montreal. Go figure. ;)

UPS For UPS shipments, if time allows (I have it ready in the morning), I have them pick it up from my day job (as there is a daily pick up). If not, I'll go over to UPS after work and drop in their drop box. UPS has gotten crazy expensive lately. I remember when I first started shipping cables in 2000, UPS 2-day was between $7 and $10. Now it's usually between $15 and $20. Next Day Air is sometimes hitting high $30's for a cable these days. Uggh.

Other Shipping Methods I have shipped FedEx and DHL/Airborne in the past, but prefer not to, as they're more of a hassle.

Phone I used to have my phone number listed on the site, with a big "do not call me during the day because of my day job" notice. Thanks to people not honoring my request, I have removed my phone number from the site. I do not want to take calls during the day. If you need to talk to me, email me and we can schedule a call. I work best with designating a time for the call.

Email Having kept the same email addresses since getting online almost 10 years ago... I get so much spam that sometimes it seems that my inbox is extremely frustrating to navigate. Sometimes I miss important emails. It happens. If it happens to you, please resend your email, with RESENDING in the subject line. I apologize for this. It seems that the andrew @ akmcables email box fills up about once a month due to spam. It used to take a year. Now it takes a month or less. Sigh. Anyhow, email me at amattei @ mindspring if you can't reach andrew @ akmcables. I like to leave emails in my box so that I can reference them from anywhere (like when travelling).

Email lists I don't have any mailing lists of customers. Or any contacts. Etc. So my privacy policy is "I'm not going to do anything with your information except send you the stuff you ordered or requested". I hate spam, unsolicited marketing, etc as much or more than most people.

Credit Cards I don't take them directly - I never see your numbers, and I don't want to see your numbers. I use Paypal. I haven't found a better solution. I don't want to enter a contract with a bank / merchant provider, I don't want to rent equipment, etc. So I don't have a card machine, can't take cards over the phone. So everything is through Paypal.

Tuning, working on other peoples' cars, etc I don't tune cars. I basically am busy enough with my own projects, wife & 3 kids, day job, and cable business, that I don't have time to work on other peoples' stuff. When I started doing cables, my son was a year old. Now he's 7, we added 2 daughters to the mix, and it's all work 'round here!

Data Retention I have attempted to keep very accurate records of my orders. I use QuickBooks for receipts. I try to keep all emails. I have well over 100,000 emails on my PC at home. Several gigabytes worth of email, dating back to the mid/late 90s. So I try to keep everything. This is especially important for you Datamaster customers out there, so that we (myself and TTS) can keep track of you. I have had people email me saying "I purchased Datamaster from you a couple years ago..."... No, they didn't. My records and email log do show that stuff. Even though my boxes may be flooded with spam, I don't delete them. Hence the problem of not being able to 'spot' a new message that has come in, but when doing a search, I can narrow things down very quickly.