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Help Page - FAQ's

 

• Do I need to create an account? What does creating an account do?

- You do not need to create an account to use our site. However, an account will be created automatically if you decide to make a purchase, or if you sign up for one of our classes.

This allows us to view your contact information, and store your shipping address(es). It allows you to, view your order history and details, and view tracking details for any product that you have had shipped.

We do not store credit card information, and we do not sign you up for any email or advertising lists. We only use the information collected to contact a customer if there is an issue with their product order or class. We do not share this information with any outside person or company, unless required by a governmental or law enforcement agency.

- With an account on our site, in addition to being able to view your order history, you are able to simplify and enhance your experience on the site. While shopping as a logged in user, the items you select will appear in a list in the shopping cart block on the left side of the page. You will also be able to add and remove items directly from here, without having to click back and forth between the cart and product pages. During checkout, entering in your user id or email will automatically attach the order to your account, and you can choose any stored address(es) during to checkout. Having an account also enables us to issue discount coupons to individual customers, such as referral discounts or other similar rewards and incentives.

Future plans are to possibly include customer reviews, a gallery of student projects or items made with our product or during a class, a product & classes forum, download-able content such class materials and instructions or patterns, contests and/or giveaways, and possibly video tutorials and tips. Any such additions to our site would be completely optional, however they would require having an account to access or participate in them. †back to top


• Why isn't my username working? I used your site before, but now I can't login.

- The most likely reason is that during Nov. & Dec.'09 we were in the process of switching shopping cart/sites. If you had previously registered for or taken a class that took place before or during December, it was done so on our old site. You will therefore need to create a new account on this site. We apologize for this one time inconvenience, but it was necessary for the expansion of Sew L.A.. Although your account information from our old site does not currently work to log into this site, most people will be able to simply create their new account reusing the same information. Simply click the create new account tab on the login page or the link in the top right corner on the home page. Enter the username and password from your old account and it should be fine. Because of the change in programs, and with the number of existing accounts on our old site, we weren't able to port over the accounts for our previous customers.

Another reason, although less likely is that while your username isn't strictly case sensitive, check that your caps lock key isn't on. Also check to make sure characters such as the letters I (eye), L (el), O (oh) or the numbers 1 (one), 0 (zero) are being enter correctly as they can sometimes look like another character. †back to top

 

• What if I forgot my password? •OR• My password isn't working.

- All user passwords are case sensitive, so check that you are entering it correctly. If that doesn't work, at the top right of any page, click the 'Log In' link. On the 'User Account' page there is a tab to the right that says 'Request new password'. Click this and then enter your username or email address. We will send you an email with a one-time login link that will redirect you to the account edit page where you can enter a new password. The link expires after 24 hours, so if you do not click it no changes are made. †back to top

   

• Who can I contact if I have questions?

- On the left side of every page under is a link to our contact page, under the 'Information' heading. You can email us directly from this page, and choose from the listed categories to have your email directed to the appropriate person. If you need to contact us sooner, you will also find the phone number for our our retail store/classroom space as well as the hours that someone will generally be able to take your call listed there as well. Generally it is best to contact the retail store during our regular business hours, but please leave us a detailed message if we are unable to talk your call directly. †back to top

 

 • Can I change/cancel an order I just placed?

- We do understand that sometimes people change their minds, so if you need to change or cancel an order you must notify us within one hour of placing your order. It takes us a short while to receive and process your order, so odds are we can cancel your order at no charge to you if we are informed in time. Cancellations requested after one hour may be subject to a 20% restocking fee at our sole discretion, most likely if we have already cut and packaged the order. When in doubt, contact us! To cancel an order, please contact us ASAP via email at orders [AT] sew-la-fabric [DOT] com, or call us at 323.665.7097. No orders may be canceled once the product has shipped, instead you'll have to initiate a return once your product has been received. If we are unable to cancel your order, please review the 'Returns' page linked at the bottom of the page. †back to top

 

 • How or Can I pay for shipping for an order I already placed?

- To ship a previously placed order, simply contact us to let us know where you'd like us to ship your order and the method you'd like for us to use. Our 'Shipping Page' lists all of the available shipping methods we currently provide. We'll send you a link to an 'Add Shipping Charge' page on our site with the amount for the shipping charge of your chosen delivery method and destination. Click on the link you receive, enter the amount of the shipping on the page and continue through the checkout. We'll ship out your order as soon as possible after we have received payment. We don't charge any extra handling fees, the shipping charges are not taxed, and the rates we quote for shipping are the solely the costs we incur to ship with the various carriers. Accordingly, coupons or gift certificates cannot be used to pay for shipping charges. We do not ask for a shipping address when paying for this charge, as we will only ship your order according to the method and address you provided when you first contacted us. †back to top

 

 • Is my credit card information secure through this site?

- We use high-level SSL encryption (AES-256bit)  for all orders placed through our shopping cart, and all transactions are processed through Authorize.net's credit card gateway servers. We do not process or store your credit card information on our servers. We do list the last 4 digits, type of card and expiration date on the completed orders only as a reference should we need to issue a refund to a customer. Refunds are processed through the Authorize.net servers as well, where we do not have access to your full credit card information either. We also use encryption on all user account and login pages, and all administrative pages to prevent any unauthorized access to user and customer information beyond the shopping cart pages.

Additionally, our site is tested quarterly by an outside company under contract with our merchant service provider, with a SecurityMetrics® Site Certification vulnerability scan to ensure the security of our site and customers. SecurityMetrics, Inc. is a leading provider of Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS) security solutions. SecurityMetrics is certified to perform PCI Scans (ASV), PCI audits (QSA), PA-DSS audits, penetration tests and forensic analysis. †back to top

 

• Can I update my account contact information?

- The only contact information we store with your account is the email address used when you created your account. This is only ever displayed to the site administrators. We do require a phone number to be entered when placing an order, however this can be changed on a per order basis. The billing address must match the records of the payment provider, either PayPal or your credit card company, so if you change your payment method you will need to change the billing to reflect this as well. Please read the following question with regards to changing your email address. †back to top

 

• Can I change my password and/or e-mail address?

- We encourage the use of a strong password with a combination of letters and numbers, and it should be noted that all passwords are case sensitive. On your account page you can click the 'Edit' tab and enter in a new password in the box provided and again below to confirm that they are the same. The site will offer a recommendation as to the strength of the password, you are of course free to ignore this and enter whatever you want and will be able to remember. If an account was created for you by a site administrator, the password is typically set up initially as your email address. We strongly encourage you to change it to something that is of your own choosing. If your account was created by the purchase of a gift certificate, you will be instructed to change the temporary password when you first log in to the site.

- You can change your email address and/or username on the 'Edit' tab as well. These should only be changed for important reasons though. The site's ability to track your orders, issue you coupon codes and referral discounts, are actually dependent on your user-id number, but it's more likely that you will remember your username & email address better. Please only change these once & only if it's really necessary. The site can keep track of these changes, but us humans have a harder time keeping up with lots of frequent changes. †back to top

 

• Can I view my previous orders placed on this site?

- Yes, the quickest and easiest way is to just log in to the site, and you'll see the 'Click here to view your order history' link under the word Orders. If you've logged in already and are somewhere else on the site, your order history is located on the 'Orders' tab in your account pages. Either click 'My Account' on the left side of the page under your Username, or click your username at the top of the page next to where it says 'You are logged in as ...' The 'Orders' tab will list all your order #'s, the date, status and total amount charged. Click an order # to view the details of your purchase and a link to a printable invoice for your records. If you don't see an order that you think should be listed, please contact us, but the most likely reason would be that your order was not successfully processed or payment was declined and subsequently canceled. If an order's status is processing then we have yet to ship your order. It will be marked completed once it has shipped and you will be able to see the attached tracking number as well as any necessary information or messages regarding the order. †back to top

 

• My coupon code doesn't work, or the amount discounted doesn't look right.

- All of our coupons have specific settings governing their proper usage. As a general rule, coupon codes are good for one use per customer, and are only valid for a set period of time. Our classes and items that are currently listed in our site's sale section will not be further discounted by a coupon. Coupons might be specific to a particular type of fabric, designer, a specific keyword, or even to a specific customer. When a coupon's usage is defined in one of these ways, it will only apply to items that have those particular tags. Other items in the cart will not be discounted if they do match the coupon code's criteria. An item's tags are listed at the bottom of it's main page. If a coupon has been set for a specific user anyone else trying to use the code will get an error message. Coupon codes may be originally posted at another site of our choosing, yet sometimes these are then re-posted by people to other sites. When they have been re-posted in situations like this, we don't have control over how their intended usage is described. †back to top

 

• I have a gift certificate, and I could use some help. Can I save a gift certificate for later?

- Gift certificates can be used for any item or class sold through our site. When a gift certificate is purchased, either a new account is created for you (see above for changing account info), or if you already have an account the site uses the email address of your account to store the amount. To use the gift certificate, you will need to be logged in, or you can log during checkout. The site will automatically deduct the amount of the certificate from the order. If your order is less than the certificate amount, the balance will remain in your account for future use. If your order is more than the certificate amount, the site will deduct the amount and the remaining balance of the order can be paid with either a credit card or PayPal.

If you would like to save your gift certificate balance for a future order, you can do so by not logging into your account. During checkout you will see a box under 'Customer Information' asking for an email address to send the order details to. Put your account email address in here, DO NOT login or enter your username and the site will add the order to your account history, but it will not offer you the gift certificate as a form of payment. Choose either a credit card or PayPal option to proceed through checkout. You should see a message that the site found your account, and after your order is complete you will be able to view the new order added to your history. You should also see the gift certificate balance waiting for a future use. †back to top

 

• Can I provide special instructions to my order?

- Absolutely, at the bottom of the checkout pages, you'll see an 'Order Comments' box. Put any special instructions for us in here. You can also use the 'Contact Us' link found on the left side of the page under the 'Information' heading if you would like to ask a question prior to placing an order. †back to top

 

• Where can I find a page or Class I know was here?

- If you had bookmarked a Class in the past, or if you are following a link to a Class listing that has already started and/or possibly has finished, be advised that we remove past classes from their original location so as to keep the menus up to date with available classes and not full of 'out of stock' listings. You can try the "search box" to search for Classes with the same name to see any available or upcoming Classes.

- If you are looking for details of a class you have taken previously, you can get some basic information by checking the order history tab on your account page. You can then search for an upcoming class with the same number to see the class description, materials and supply list & requirements and prerequisites. Please also see the next topic below. †back to top

 

 

 

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