Getting it to you, and what happens if it is wrong

Postage

$12.00 per parcel, plus $3.00 for each additional item in the same parcel. Free on any single dealer’s items over $250.00.

Parcels go insured and tracked. That is not an upsell — a musket lock is dense, awkward and irreplaceable, and an uninsured one that goes missing cannot be replaced with an identical part because there usually is no identical part.

If your order spans more than one dealer

You will get more than one parcel, and postage is charged per parcel. This is shown in the cart before you commit, broken out by dealer, for the specific reason that discovering it afterwards is the commonest complaint people have about marketplaces. Each dealer packs and posts their own items, so parcels may arrive on different days.

Outside the United States

Online checkout posts within the US only. Components for antique arms cross borders under rules that vary by country and by part, and quoting a flat international rate produces parcels that are wrong, expensive, or seized. For anywhere else, write to us and postage will be quoted by hand for your address.

How long it takes

Most orders go out within a few working days. This is a small operation — often one person at a bench — so if something is going to take longer you will be told, by a person, rather than left watching a status page.

While card payment is not yet open online, an order is a reservation: the parts come off the shelf and are held for you, and an invoice follows by email. Nothing is despatched until that is settled, and nothing is charged before you have seen it. See order status at any time.

Returns

If a part is not as described, send it back and you get all your money back, including the postage both ways. No time limit worth arguing about, no restocking fee, and no need to prove anything beyond showing us what you received. This applies to every item on the site, including items from third-party dealers.

What “as-is” does and does not mean

These are used components off arms that are well over a century old. Pitting, wear, old repairs, replaced screws and honest patina are the normal condition of the goods, not defects — and every one of them is photographed and described before you buy. The house photography standard requires the worst flaw to be photographed, precisely so that nothing about condition is a surprise.

So the position is:

• Not as described — full refund. Wrong part, undisclosed damage, a repair that was not mentioned, a measurement that is wrong.
• As described but not what you hoped — talk to us. Most of these get sorted out. What we cannot do is take back a part that has been altered, refinished, or fitted, because at that point it is no longer the item that was sold.
• Fitting is expected. Original parts were hand-fitted to individual arms. A part that needs stoning, filing or bedding to fit your particular gun is behaving normally, and that is gunsmithing work rather than a fault. If you are not sure whether a part will fit, ask before buying — that question is answered by Butch Schoeller himself, and it is free.

How to start a return

Email butch@butchsantiquegunparts.com with your order reference and a photograph of the problem. You will get an answer from a person, usually the same day. Do not post anything back before you have heard — sometimes the answer is that we send the right part and you keep the wrong one rather than pay postage on it.

If something arrives damaged

Photograph the packaging before you unpack any further, and email it. The parcel is insured; the claim is ours to make, not yours, and it does not change what you are owed.

Cancelling

Before despatch, an order can be cancelled for any reason at all — reply to the confirmation and say so. A reservation that you decide against costs you nothing and is not held against you; the parts simply go back on the shelf.