When you order a book that is out-of-stock, you will receive a "book buck" - a "credit" on your account to reorder the book when it comes in or to choose an alternative book. This book buck form is included on the end of your yellow packing slip w/instructions on how to reorder. Or you can also see on your invoice when you get a book buck and you use the ref # on your invoice for the book buck # when remitting the book buck on OPOL. To re-order book bucks you will find the book buck option in the drop-down menu in the middle of the page of the Select Books option within OrderPro Online. As a service to your hostesses, when you have a book buck, please call them and let them know that you will take care of it for them. Read further about offering refunds/alternatives vs. waiting for books to come back in stock and how to remit book bucks.

To avoid ordering out-of-stock/out-of-print books, check the Out of Stock List link at the top of your ubah page before every show. If books are OP they are no longer available so you can simply cross those out of your designated party catalogs. I recommend tearing out the last page of your catalog with the reduced stock items as most are OP now.

(What is a designated party catalog? As I do not want to keep marking catalogs, I only do this with 10 - or have my kids do it. Then I put those 10 marked catalogs in a magazine holder that is "attached" inside a plastic 3-prong pocket folder.  Or - I take these designated catalogs and use duck stickers to make "tabs" on kid kits and combined volumes so guests can find them when I am highlight them in the 8 Ways to Save Money.  I also highlight the titles below the combined volumes to draw attention to the money-saving but higher-priced books in each series.  I do let guests know these are my special catalogs so I need them back as I only want to do this with 10.   This keeps my catalogs from "walking off" and also eliminates the need for me to remark OP books in my catalogs before every party.

Often times it is our novelty books that are TOS and these often take a really long time to get back in stock. Why?? Because they are made in China and then shipped on a boat from there!! All shipments are taking longer since 911, especially those from Eastern countries, because of more thorough customs inspections which can cause delays which cannot be predicted and are out of UBAH's control. Even with "normal" TOS books, they first need to be reprinted and then literally shipped on a boat from Europe over to the USA and go through customs. As we live in Germany we know first-hand that shipping by boat is very SLOW and unpredictable - but is the only affordable option.

In addition, sometimes there are add'l delays because of getting the correct materials to make the books, especially in China!! Think of all the different kinds of materials that are in the touchy-feely books or cloth books!! All of this takes TIME!! But we all LOVE our touch-feely books, cloth books, bath books, puzzles, etc... and want UBAH to carry them.

Therefore, it would be better when a customer's book is temporarily out of stock, NOT to promise your customers that they will come in before Christmas. Or even to give the customers the option of waiting for the book til it gets back in stock. There are "estimated" arrival times but this does not mean we have control over when a book will arrive and neither does the HO. If customs decide to open and inspect EVERY single box and container on the ship, it can and has!! This causes significant unexpected delays!! Remember it is an "ESTIMATED" arrival time.

Our way of life in the USA has changed since 911 but if we are aware of some of the difficulties/changes in the international shipping industry, we can better service our customers by not making promises we cannot keep. Thus, when a book is out of stock, let your customer know that it is currently not available - briefly talking about the shipping hassles since 911 - and then offer them an alternative book or a refund and use the book buck for a book for yourself. Our customers will be understand if we give them knowledge to help them to understand. Then keep the customer's name on a list to call when the book does become available so they may reorder if they would still like to do so. And of course, talk about all the new titles since then to bump the order up even more! ;-)

Please do your part in helping our shipping cost not to go up by remitting book bucks with other parties/orders that are going in. When you remit a book buck individually it costs the HO at least $7 to ship it out by UPS. Not my fault you say... Well, though that may be true, we are also all "partners" with the HO - they need to make money so they have more money/incentives to offer us! So instead of ordering Book Bucks individually, always think of ways you can combine several book buck orders at once or add them on to another order going in. It is much cheaper for you to mail the books individually by Media Mail by the USPS then for the Home Office to UPS ONE book to a customer. When Book Bucks are abused everyone will lose. So refrain from ordering Book Bucks individually unless you really have to.

When you borrow someone's inventory, it is sometimes convenient for both parties not to actually have to replace it with actual books. But ordering book buck intentionally to replace inventory is throwing off the inventory management at the HO. For example, if you order 200 copies of a $4.95 TOS book to replace your supervisors $1000 worth of inventory you had sold, the HO thinks that they will need 200 more titles to fulfill that order so will then increase their order at Usborne Publishing. So to prevent this but still having the convenience of ordering "mailable" replacement inventory, please order $25 Gift Certificates instead. There is a $5 s/h charge on each gift certificate but if they are all remitted together in one order there is only one $4 fee. The person borrowing the inventory is responsible for giving the lendee this $5 s/h fee as a minimum. The HO may come up with a different solution in the future but reorder gift certificates instead of book bucks for now. If you don't know what I am talking about then you don't need to worry about it because you weren't doing this anyways. ;-)