General Policy

We aim to stock high quality products at affordable prices; we strive to provide the best and most personalized service; and we want the result to be 100% customer satisfaction for you and your pet rats!

General Payment Policy

We currently accept VISA, MasterCard, and Discover, as well as paypal payments via our online check out service. We also accept personal/company checks, cashier's checks, and money orders. We require that all orders placed be properly and completely paid for prior to being shipped out by us.

Check and Money Orders

We DO accept personal/company checks, cashier's checks, and money orders. You may make these forms of payment payable to: NESOM DIST and you may mail them to:

NESOM DIST, 5411 Drysdale Drive, San Jose, CA 95124

Please keep in mind that payments of these kinds will result in delayed shipping of your orders because we require that orders are paid in full prior to being shipped.

Paypal Payments

We accept payments via paypal, transferred to: orders@theratshop.com

General Shipping Policy

We operate this business on a PART TIME basis! Gavin works a FULL TIME day job and I work a FULL TIME day job AND a part time night job! As of December 10th, 2012, I am boxing up orders on Monday NIGHT and Wednesday NIGHT for shipping on TUESDAY and THURSDAY. If we discover that the shipment of your package will be delayed, then we will attempt to contact you via email to notify you of the delay, the reason for the delay, and the anticipated shipping date. Delays, most often, result from failure of a restocking order to arrive to us on time or a delay in my ability to sew the hammocks.

Due to the fact that we want you to receive your order as quickly as possible, the method of shipment may be changed to a faster option. Generally speaking, USPS is faster to arrive than FedEx and, if I can fit your order into a USPS flat rate box, it may actually be cheaper as well. In order to keep our costs down and continue to provide excellent service, we attempt to ship as many boxes via USPS Flat Rate Priority as possible. Should this option end up being less expensive than what was paid for on the website checkout, you will recieve a refund IF the difference is more than $5. Other shipping differences will be donated to rat rescue unless you specifically ask for a refund. This will keep orders moving out as efficiently as possible.

IMPORTANT SHIPPING UPDATE: I've noticed an increase in confusion related to changing and/or updating your SHIP TO address. If you need to change or update your SHIP TO address please review your order confirmation page, during checkout, BEFORE clicking the "confirm order" button on the bottom of the page. Your order will be shipped to the FIRST address on that page ("shipping address"). You may call me at 650-704-5368 to confirm that I have the correct information. If you do not do this your order may be shipped to your old address. If this happens, I can no longer afford to reship orders for free, so please call to confirm if you are unsure. I will not be offering free reshipments effective March 7th, 2011. My husband has generously offered to write up an article about making changes to your shipping information and updating your account details. Please look for that in the near future. Thanks for your cooperation.

General Packaging Policy

Due to the fact that many of our customers require discreet packaging for a myriad of reasons, we ONLY ship out in blank USPS priority mail boxes AND/OR plain cardboard boxes. The return address will be from "NESOM DISTRIBUTING". This ensures that prying strangers will not know that your package is for any type of pet or even from a pet supply shop. We aim to provide the most discreet packaging possible so that you don't have to worry about others knowing where your package it from or who it is for!

Standard Domestic Shipping

We currently use FedEx and USPS Priority. We would like to say upfront that FedEx does seem to be a more reliable shipper than USPS. When you place an order online, you should be sent an email confirmation when I ship out your order (provided you submitted a valid email address). This email is sent to you from the shipping carrier and will include information regarding how to track your order and anticipated delivery dates.

Standard International Shipping

We will ship internationally, but our priority is to customers in the United States. Currently, our only method for international shipping is via USPS priority. We can look into alternate shipping carriers but, past experience has shown USPS priority to be the most cost effective, especially if we can fit your order into a flat rate box. The following is a table of prices current as of January 8, 2010:

                                                                                                                     CAN/MEX     OTHER

Please be sure to check the most current prices by visiting the USPS website.

If your secure your own mode of import and just need us to ship the package to a shipping port or other domestic transportation station, we have done that in the past and will accommodate such requests.

USPS Flat Rate Boxes

Our previous site had a section for flat rate packages. We are not sure how this will function on our new site but we do anticipate having a flat rate option and will update this policy once it is figured out.

Expediting Your Order

Being a husband and wife team with four children in the house, we understand that life gets by you sometimes and things get forgotten or left until the last minute. If ordering rat supplies is one of those things and you need your order shipped out as soon as humanly possible, please feel free to call me at (650)704-5368. Please make sure you have completed and paid for your order online and just leave us a message indicating that your order is pending. This does not guarentee instant gratification, but it will ensure that we look into your order.

Problems with Your Order and Returns

It is our goal for you to be 100% satisfied with your shopping experience. We realize that some things are beyond our control but we will try to fix any problems to the best of our ability. If you get your order and there is something not quite right with it, please let us know and we will do our best to resolve the matter to your satisfaction. Our aim is always to go above and beyond your expectations and we want you to be confortable and confident in referring TheRatShop.com to others!

General Privacy Policies

We value you and your patronage of our shop and we want you to rest assured that we will respect all of your private information. We only collect the information required for us to be able to process your orders, collect your payments, and ship out your packages. We do not send out unsolicited emails. We do not want nor ask for your credit card details via email. The only time your should get emails from us is when we confirm the placement of your order, make any changes to the status of your order, and ship out your order. If there is a delay in the shipment of your order, we will also attempt to notify you of the delay, it's reason, and the anticipated ship date. We do not give out, sell, rent, or otherwise dispose of any of your private information to any third parties for any reason. We appreciate your business and continued support.