Order Fulfillment Process

How We Process Your Order

Like most of the products you find on our site, we prepare each package for shipment with a personal touch, by hand. There are no robots here, and do not expect us to be delivering by drone anytime soon. This page describes our order fulfillment steps. We put considerable thought into this process, and while not perfect, we believe it offers a great deal to you our customer and to us. Our goal is to always deliver the best service and value to the NoseWork® community.

What happens when you click Place Order

When you click on the Place Order button from the Check Out screen, we receive a notice much like the email you receive1.

  • These order sheets are stacked and processed in the order they are received. Your products are pulled from inventory, noting any items that need special processing.
  • When everything is gathered, we pick the smallest box that can accommodate your order, the items are wrapped and protected in the box.
  • Next we weigh everything on a postal scale and calculate the postage to determine the true shipping cost. This usually completes the day you placed your order or the next morning2.
  • A PayPal® invoice is generated and sent to the email address you provided. This includes the price of the items as seen on the checkout screen, the amount of postage for shipping and any applicable taxes.
  • Once we receive notification from PayPal® that the financial transaction is completed, the box is sealed, the shipping label printed and the package delivered to the local post office at 11:00 AM or 4:00 PM.

Some Common Questions

I placed my order and the next day I got an invoice, am I being charged twice?

Absolutely not. There is no financial transaction when you click on the Place Order button from our web site. We assemble your order and calculate the true shipping costs. The invoice has the final bill for your order. The financial transaction only completes when you respond to the invoice email. Once you pay the invoice we will ship your product to you via the US Post Office.

When I place my order from the Check Out screen, why do I get another invoice, can’t you just complete my order like other web sites?

At the time you check out, the true shipping costs have not yet been determined. The software is capable of keeping an approximate weight for each item and a calculator could determine a shipping fee when you check out. However, this scheme involves weight estimates and “rounding up” in each step of the calculation. Such a policy means you would be overcharged in the end, which is contrary to our goal of providing you with the best value for NoseWork® products.

There actually is very little delay in our process, as your order has already been assembled and ready to ship when you get the PayPal® invoice. Furthermore, the shipping fees are completely transparent and if you feel they are unreasonable, then you can cancel the order. We won’t even charge a restocking fee.

Why PayPal®? I really do not want to use PayPal®.

First, and I cannot emphasize this enough, you do not have to have a PayPal® account. If you do not have an account, then you are simply using them as our “credit card processor”3. You are actually making a credit card payment through the PayPal® screens into my PayPal® account. If you do have a PayPal® account, then you have the option to transfer between our accounts or use a credit card.

Why do we do payments this way? Well, we are small potatoes and while the web site is capable of managing many payment “gateways”, each of these come with fees that are steep for business volumes as small as ours. Ultimately those fees would be passed onto you in the price of each item. But there is another very important consideration. You never give us any of your financial information. So if our site is hacked, the intruders will not get your credit card number from us.


  1. On the Check Out screen and in your email there is a yellow highlighted box summarizing what to expect next. 
  2. I am actively trialing three dogs, so I cannot meet my goal of next day shipping, when we are at an event. 
  3. Even when you swipe your card at a restaurant or physical store, behind the scenes you are using a third-party “credit card processor” to complete your transaction.