Winter Ink Shipping (#Canadianproblems)

It's that time of year! Temperatures are beginning to dip, and we've had our first few snowfalls. It's the time of year when Canadians buck up and take it in the chin (or cower near the rad, growing paler day by day...). This means a couple of things if you're ordering ink online!

1. We are going to be sending orders containing ink - ink bottles, samples or cartridges (even if you order a pen that comes with a single cartridge!) - to the post office for pick up. Your delivery person should be leaving you a card to let you know it's there, but you can also follow along with the tracking info we send. This is even if you know that you or a family member are going to be home, or if you live in an apartment or condo. Your delivery person does not carry all of the mail for their entire route when they leave the sorting facility. Canada Post sorts mail and packages to be dropped off in the grey "pick-up boxes" along a mailman's route. Your mailman picks up that section of the route's mail as they progress, and the time between the package being left in the grey pick up box, and your mailman actually delivering it could be a while - in fact, while it should not happen, it could even be overnight. Please note that inks expand as they begin to reach freezing, so even as the inks reach 10 degrees, 5 degrees, the liquid is expanding. It is not only after temperatures reach 0 degrees and lower. 2. Diamine ink bottles have a particular weakness for chilly temperatures, and unfortunately, we're going to be pulling our Diamine inks out of commission very soon, as the weather drops more and more. If you can no longer order it online, it means temperatures throughout Canada are too low to ship Diamine. We have tried our best, but even with sending these bottles to the post office, extra layers of bubble wrap, "do not freeze" stickers, and a kiss for good luck, there are too many broken Diamine bottles for us to continue sending them out in the winter. We are truly small business, and we just cannot absorb the loss of so many bottles as well as potential damage to other items in your shipment. 3. If you purchase a bottle of ink from us, you may receive it with a small portion siphoned out into a plastic vial. This is to protect the bottle from cracking or breaking if the ink inside expands too much. 4. We will do these precautions automatically, at our discretion, and based on our experience with other shipments in your province or town. If you would prefer to have us do something differently, please make a note in the order comments, at your own risk! 5. At the risk of sounding like a pushy salesman, I might encourage you to consider your ink purchases sooner rather than later. Reason one is that your ink has the highest chance of getting to you safely and we can both breathe easier knowing that ink has not been spilt in vain. Reason two is that not being able to ship out ink also means we won't be able to get ink in from our distributors. If we sell out of one, or two, or a few more savoury flavours of ink, we won't be getting it in until next spring. I still get minor anxiety attacks thinking about last year and our empty shelves... All that being said, you can always come visit us in store! And with winter coming, I hope you are taking brisk walks and drinking hot chocolate. We've got lots of exciting things to come in the next few weeks as we work up to the holiday madness!