Quick links: Payment, Shipping and Handling, Return Policy, Age Warnings, Privacy Policy, Copyright, Disclaimer

See this page for other store FAQs and info about repairs, contact details, etc.

Payment

I accept Paypal (preferrable for international orders), cheque, money order, or bank deposit. Bank details are given once an order has been made, as well as an address to send cheques/money orders to. I only accept payment in Australian dollars, or American if buying through Etsy or Lulu. If payment is not received within 7 days, I will attempt to contact you via email or other contact info provided. If no reply is made within 5 days, I reserve the right to cancel the order and place the items back up for sale.

Please note: I do not charge GST (tax) on any of my products at this time.

All products are sold through third-party sites (etsy.com, etc.) as of May 2009. Please read the information provided at those sites for more details about payments. 

Shipping and Handling

For the puppet products:

Shipping prices quoted are created using Australia Post’s own calculator; shipping and handling is included in the price. Regular post is used for Australian orders; international orders are via Australia Post’s Airmail.

Puppets will be wrapped and shipped in boxes. I ship Monday to Friday. Orders should arrive 3-6 working days within Australia, and for international orders, please allow for at least three weeks for them to arrive. An email will be sent to you confirming your order, and another sent to confirm the puppet/s have been sent.

For downloadable products:

Orders should arrive immediately after payment has been received and processed. No shipping or handling fees are applied to downloadable products.

Return Policy

I hope that you enjoy all of my puppets, but if you find there is something wrong with your puppets, I’m happy to accept returns, and will refund your payment once the puppet is returned. I try my best to display as much information as possible about what’s available for sale, including photos, video and descriptions (including colours, sizes in metric and feet, difficulty/skill level, and so on). If you are concerned that what you are purchasing won’t meet your needs, please contact me before buying.

Customers wishing to return puppets in the same condition they were in upon arrival to you will have to pay return shipping costs, and I do not refund shipping costs. I do reserve the right to resell any puppets returned to me. Contact me to arrange a return.

I do not offer returns on any downloadable patterns; please contact Lulu.com (the site I use to sell patterns on), as they may have their own policies on returns. If you have any problems downloading the patterns for sale, please first contact Lulu. If they can not assist, please let me know and I can arrange an alternative method of sending you your order. For refunds on workshops, please see the relevant policy info contained on the relevant page.

For info on repairs, please see this.

Age Warnings

My puppets are designed for people above the age of 6, unless otherwise stated. Shadow puppets have small parts, along with long pointy rods. In general, anyone between 6 and 12 should probably be supervised. All of the products are intended not as toys, but as professional, theatre-, film- or TV- use puppets, or patterns/parts for professionals (ie. adults). Please do keep this in mind when purchasing: I do not make children’s toys or children’s puppets. They’re just puppets. They’re great for the classroom yes, they’re cool for kids yes, but really, I’m not making them for children. I’m making them for professional puppeteers, and as such, they have lots of things that won’t suit a child’s temperament or skill level (like small parts and long pointy rods).

Privacy Policy

I respect your privacy, and do not share your information with any outside party or affiliate (this excludes any information you volunteer to Paypal, Etsy, Lulu, or any other third party site I use to sell my products on; please check their sites for more details about their policies). Any information I collect is only used to communicate to you about your order/s. On this site, information is collected about the pages you visit, via cookies (stored bites of information that most websites use to improve your visit). If you purchase a product, information is collected in terms of contact details and shipping location. I do not accept credit cards directly (only via Paypal) and so do not store any CC information.

If you are a member of the Puppets in Melbourne website, you will be asked to store an email address and password in order to access the site; you may choose to store other information about yourself in your profile and within the forums. Due to the incompatability of posting images and having an entirely secure site using SSL, when you login as a member (not as a customer) the information is not encrypted. (Sorry, wish there was a workaround for that one)

I don’t have a marketing mailing list, so if you’d like to be notified about new products, please let me know or do subscribe to this website where you can receive updates - contact info and subscription links can be found to the right of this text.

Copyright

Any patterns sold here and for any content provided on my website for free or via paid membership offered up for the creation of puppets for personal or commercial use; however, the patterns themselves, online content, and any accompanying instructions and images can not be reproduced, copied, transmitted, distributed, or sold online or offline in any form, and no derivative works based upon it can be made, without written permission from me (Naomi Guss). (Sorry, but this is my livelihood, and you’d be reselling my work!) For those downloadable products and online patterns, I do not reserve any performance copyrights.

For any physical products, I reserve the creative copyright in terms of design and performance rights. You’re more than welcome to use my puppets in schools, professional or amateur shows, videos, and in the home: you’re NOT welcome to use my puppets on or in your own merchandise. If you plan on making any money from my puppets at all, then please contact me for more info about my copyrights.

Disclaimer

If you are a member of the website, you will be able to participate in the forums section, as well as have access to priviledged information. Participants are encouraged to publish their own information, but no warranty is given that the information can be properly kept secure (see Privacy above). Every effort is made to maintain security, but due to incompatabilities with SSL, the information is not encrypted.

Puppets in Melbourne is not responsible for the information provided or the views expressed, nor does it necessarily endorse the information or views by providing public forums where people may publish this information. Comments posted in the various forums are wholly the responsibility of the person posting the information. Material published on this website remains the intellectual property of the originator and copyright holder. By choosing to publish material on this site, the copyright owner expressly permits reproduction.

Participants in the forums are asked to respect this area and each other.

Additionally, Puppets in Melbourne can not guarantee to any that files available for downloading will be free of viruses, infections, worms, Trojan horses or any other code that may contaminate or have destructive properties. (I do my best to keep my computers infectious free)
Puppets in Melbourne does not guarantee members that the services generally available through the website will be uninterrupted or free of errors. Every possible course of action will be taken to ensure that the site remains available. As a paying member of Puppets in Melbourne, you receive lifetime access: which is available as long as this site is remains online and/or as long as you live.

Puppets in Melbourne provides safety instructions with patterns and other tutorials, but any safety instructions provided can not and do not constitute professional health and safety advice. Puppets in Melbourne can not be held liable for any mishaps that take place in the privacy of one’s home, school or workshop.