Shipping Policy

Shipping Policy (Aug 2022)

Shipping Terms

Pivotal Group and our stock lens program partners utilize UPS for stock lens order shipments. All UPS terms and conditions apply. Member must have a valid commercial address which is deliverable by UPS. Shipping charges will be invoiced with each order at the time of the product is shipped and will not be displayed during checkout, or on the initial submission summary invoice. Actual shipping charges are based on shipping method, location shipped to, and weight. For estimates on typical shipping charges, please contact Pivotal Group at support@trypivotal.com.

Pivotal Group offers the following shipping options through UPS:

UPS NEXT DAY AIR – Next-day (UPS guarantee) if ordered by 12:45pm PST. Pivotal Group cannot personally guarantee shipping times. Shipment cost based on weight. Please see the UPS terms for Next Day Air Saver shipments on their website.

UPS GROUND – Basic ground shipping from UPS. We highly recommend using ground for any larger orders that are not time sensitive, or for shipments not requiring 1-day turn around. Please see the UPS terms for Ground shipments on their website. Undeliverable packages due to, but not limited to, a closed/moved business, incorrect address on file, residential address on file, etc. may incur additional shipping charges. It is the member’s responsibility to inform Pivotal Group if the address on file is accurate

Shipping Warranties

Pivotal Group has negotiated amazing pricing with UPS and passed that pricing on to our members to keep your shipping costs low. Ultimately, Pivotal Group is not liable for lost or damaged shipments by UPS. Pivotal Group will do our best to assist with any claims for lost or damaged shipments, but UPS will make the final decision on which claims it reimburses. Member agrees the reimbursement for any claim will come from UPS, pending their investigation, not Pivotal Group. Claims can take up to 8 weeks to be processed by UPS.

All UPS shipments include a $100 insurance policy to cover lost or damaged shipments. Many times, this amount is not enough to cover the shipment value. It is the responsibility of the member to either accept the minimum insurance amount for all orders or request additional insurance on their orders. If a member would like to increase the insurance amount on their shipments past $100, please contact support@trypivotal.com and reference your order number, and we will make best efforts to change your order before it ships out. Additional insurance will increase the cost of your shipments and may not be quoted to you before shipment in order to expedite all shipments. Account is always responsible for additional insurance costs when they are requested.

Returns and Warranties

RA Approval and Shipping

In order to receive credit on a return of any lenses, please reach out to support@trypivotal.com to get the RA process started. Once we issue an RA, it will be good for 30 calendar days, at which point you’ll need to reach back out to get another valid RA issued if you haven’t shipped the return yet.

Please don’t send returns or warranties without prior RA approval, as we won’t be able to process them or issue credit. We’ll try to route these back to the address they were sent from if they are caught in time, but ultimately, we can’t be held responsible when these packages end up lost or destroyed. Denied lenses in warranty shipments will be destroyed: please do not send any unqualified returns. Shipping, handling, and insurance for returns and warranties are the responsibility of the account: we recommend using an insured courier for larger returns in particular. Also keep the value of your return in mind: we’ve credited a lot of $4 returns that were shipped to us with $8 worth of shipping, and that makes us sad.

Packaging

We try to avoid clutter as much as possible, but unfortunately manufacturers require us to have original packaging to issue any credit, even in the case of scratch warranties. Please keep the original envelopes handy for all returns and warranties. If you’re returning unused lenses, please keep the packaging free of marks or staples of any kind so we can guarantee full credit.

Return of Unused Lenses

Our ordering system is set up to avoid shipping single lenes when a patient pair is out of stock, and it won’t create or hold backorders when a lens isn’t available on partial orders. Even with those systems in place, we know things happen in a busy optical, so we want to make sure you aren’t stuck with unusable inventory when flukes happen. If you have unedged, unused product in its own undamaged and unmarked packaging, you can return those lenses for full credit within 30 calendar days of the arrival date. This policy is primarily in place to cover you in the case of a mistaken order, last minute cancellation, or accidental duplicate. Please avoid ordering multiples and “backup” pairs for single jobs, and be aware that returns of more than 20 unused pieces won’t be fully credited. We are not able to issue credit on initial inventory orders: please double and triple check your large orders, as you will not be able to return them under this policy.

Manufacturer Defects

While we have only ever seen a handful of defects come through over the years, we know they do happen sometimes. If you feel you have a defect situation, please reach out to support@trypivotal.com, and we’ll work with you to get credit and issue an RA. Ultimately the manufacturer will make the call on a defect, but in any case where the manufacturer agrees there is defective product, we will issue 100% credit to your account. Please be aware we can’t issue defect credit on a lens that has been edged, and this credit will only be issued on lenses ordered within a year from order.

Scratch Warranties

Any lens pair with a scratch coat has a one year one time limited scratch warranty. This will cover normal wear and tear according to the manufacturer. This won’t cover patient abuse or when a coating’s integrity has been compromised (on tinted lenses, for example). Please make sure you have an accompanying replacement lens pair ordered to ensure full credit.

Edging Errors

While we’re huge believers that edging is a huge costs savings, it is inherent with edging that there is the risk of an occasional slip or bad cutout. We want to keep things fair and inexpensive for the group overall, so we won’t be able to issue credit on edging mistakes or lenses rejected at inspection. Lenses received for “scratch warranty” that have marks, swarf, bad beveling, unremoved ITO coating or other indicators of an improperly edged lens, no credit will be issued.

Documentation

For credit generally, we need to verify that the lens was ordered with Pivotal, so please keep packing slips handy or scan them for future use. If don’t have a packing slip for whatever reason, you can access your old order information through the ordering site, and through the verification emails to your email. We might also need you to fill out accompanying documentation or forms physically or online, so please read through your RA email thoroughly; there are changes from time to time in manufacturer requirements and paperwork. Failure to document and return proper forms will result in a reduction of credit, and lenses shipped with no documentation will not be credited.

Credit

Approved returns and warranties are issued in the form of account credit to all active accounts in good standing. You’ll see this applied on your monthly statement.
We want to keep things simple and consistent rather than having a list of fees and penalties, and we want to make you as financially whole as possible even when returns and warranties aren’t perfect. With that in mind, in those situations where we can’t give full credit, approved partial credits will be issued.

Timing

We will endeavor to get credits back to you on the next full billing cycle, but much of the processing is dependent on the manufacturer and can take up to 120 days. If you’re not sure what’s going on with your RA, just reach out to us at support@trypivotal.com, and we’ll get you answers.