Help Center

If you have landed here, you may be brand new to working with us.  If so, welcome!  We're happy to have you join our clay family.   On this page and the other pages linked above, you can find tons of information about how we do things here.  Now, we are NOT going to make you read through this and present you with some kind of Apple-inspired check box that you agree to the terms and conditions, BUT, if you call to ask a question that we have answered here, we WILL just refer you back here. sooo.. you know, the decision is yours....

In general, we are individual-focused.  No two shoppers have the same needs and preferences and we do try to tailor our services to your needs.  Online shopping can be very cold and impersonal but we still try to connect with our customers - we love it when people put comments in to their order about their preferences.  This can be anything ranging from something you couldn't find on our website but were wanting to order, or ok'ing substitutions, or just about anything you want us to know or answer.  (please don't ask us to explain nuclear fusion though, we are not rocket scientists) 

We also put a high priority on our staff and their needs.  This means that sometimes we are closed for extended holidays so that our people can travel and spend time with loved ones, or if the weather is bad and the roads are dangerous, we stay home.  We try to provide as much notice as possible when this happens.  Please always check our website FIRST for the most accurate information.  After that, we try to post an update in social media, and also we try to remember to update our google hours, oh and our phone system, the front door of the store, and anyplace else we can think of where people MIGHT look for information, but...well, there are so many these days.  Yesterday someone told us our hours are wrong on yelp....oops. 

OK, so if you're still with me and you are just looking for the answer to "how do I place an order."  Here you go - you can order on our website without logging in or creating an account or anything (but if you do, it will likely help out future you, and then future you can give past you a high five and just totally break the space time continuum, which could be fun...)  

***EDIT*** We actually now require you to login to place your order, but creating an account is easy.  

You can select pick up in store (if you live close or are driving through our flyover state of Kansas), or you can click ship/delivery.  (you can find out more about delivery options on our delivery page)  If you are within about 250 miles of us and you have met the weight minimum, you will see delivery service via our truck, otherwise you will see some variety of shipping options from USPS, UPS, FedEx, and possibly FedEx Freight.  For more on that, check our section on shipping.  You need to enter your complete address to get shipping rates (including your phone number).  THEN you need to enter your BILLING address, and that address has to match whatever is on file with your credit card company if you are paying by card (we also do PayPal and we're working on Venmo, and if we forget to update this little note once we have that set up, we may ALREADY support venmo.  depends on when you are reading this).  If you have any problems getting through checkout, you might visit the "help me" link that shows some commonly reported problems and their solutions.  OR, you can always call us or send a contact form.  Sometimes we even respond to contact forms in the evenings, but at some point, we all go to sleep....so if you are a midnight shopper, you may have to wait a bit for an answer.

You can also call us to place an order, but please don't ask what the shipping charge will be.  We don't know.  Our website has this fancy program that basically calls up the shipping company, puts all the details of your order in, and spits back out the rate.  Our brains don't have that call up program installed, so we have to wait until we pack it all up, weigh it, put in your address and then we know.  Sometimes we can guess, and we're usually close.  if you're good with that, (or if you are picking up) then ordering by phone may be a good choice.  You can also email in an order, or even send one in the US Mail.  We did, however, have to discontinue accepting orders by carrier pigeon, because they kept crashing into the glass windows and it's very messy. 

What happens after I place my order? 

CLICK HERE for specifics about pick up orders • CLICK HERE for specifics about shipments • CLICK HERE for specifics about delivery

First you will get an automated response from our website with a copy of your order via email. This lets you know your order has been received by our computers.  A live human being will then review your order.  We do this several times each day.  Once we have pulled down your order, and started to look at it, you will get an email through our order tracking system to let you know we are reviewing it.  This email may also include notes specific to your order in addition to general information.

How long does it take?

Well, that's one of the many "it depends" questions.  If you ordered a handful of tools and glazes and little stuff to ship out or pick up, we probably will have it ready in an hour or so once we look at it. (please don't hold us to that or we have to remove helpful information like this...you know the thing about the bad apples, right?  we like our honey crisps like we like our customers...sweet and worm-free...wait. that doesn't quite ...well anyway......

If you are getting a literal ton of clay but it's 3 boxes of this and 8 boxes of that, well, actually we're pretty quick with that too.  A lot of chemicals that need to be weighed out - that will take longer.  we may need 4 or 5 hours for a long list.  Not that it takes that long, but we are pretty serious about accuracy, so to ensure that, we make sure that we have an uninterrupted block of time to measure those out and double check our work.  

If your order has to ship freight, we need to get it early enough in the day to fully process it, build it AND have it shrink-wrapped and on the dock before about noon in order to have it picked up the same day...again, depending on how complicated it is, we often can do this lickety-split for you, but I would expect it to leave our building the next day.  

Deliveries are probably the biggest factor because we try HARD to fill the truck before we send it out - it's better for the environment and better for overall overhead which translates to better for your budge (lower delivery costs for you). More detail on that in our deliveries section.

Other factors include winter weather (many products can freeze and problems range from completely unusable after thawing to just inconvenient to no problem at all). You can read more details on our weather holds page (if this happens, you will also be informed via email that we are holding your order, and you do have the option to overrule our decision...you are in charge of that, we just provide advice), pre-ordering a product or ordering something that ships from the manufacturer - these are USUALLY (theoretically)  marked on the items themselves, and we try to give guidelines for lead-time), but sometimes those things are out of our hands because we're not processing them 

Here's a list of basic emails you will get during the process of placing and receiving your order. (You can reply to any of these emails you get and our whole staff will be able to see your response): 

We are preparing your order - we are starting to gather all of the items for your order

We have a question - something has come up that we need your input on 

Your order is ready for pickup -  For our local customers picking up their order, you will get an email when your order is ready for pickup along with instructions on where to pick up.  We'll also send you a friendly reminder if you miss your originally intended pick up day, or if your order has been here for about 2 weeks.  We just want to make sure you know.  :) 

-OR- Your order is waiting for the carrier to pick it up -If you live further away and are having it shipped, we will let you know when we have it all packed up and ready for the carrier.  (You should receive a separate email from the carrier with the tracking number so you can follow your package's progress on its way from us to you) 

-OR_ for deliveries: Your order is being scheduled for delivery//Your order is being finalized for delivery//Your order is being loaded for delivery - the first of these gives an estimate of when we hope to deliver, sometimes this email comes BEFORE we start pulling your order, sometimes after.  We deliver about 80% of orders in the original range given in this email.  After that, you will either get the email that we are finalizing your order (with the zeroed in delivery date) or you will get an email with a rescheduled date range.  Once you get that finalized for delivery email, you can expect the delivery to happen UNLESS something crazy happens alike a freak weather storm or an illness that strikes a large number of our staff.  In this case, you will get an email to let you know.  Lastly, once we are loading the truck for delivery, you will get that final email to let you know we are on the way and also what stop you will be (sometimes we are able to include this in the finalizing delivery email) 

For our local/regional customers, we offer an express pick up service, which you can take advantage of by selecting store pickup at checkout on our website.  We started this during the Covid Pandemic as a contactless pickup option when in person shopping wasn't avaiable. Many people still like to place an order in advance and then do some additional browsing and shopping up front.  

First and foremost, please wait for the FINAL EMAIL you receive informing you that your order is ready for pickup.  While we do have about 97.63% of orders ready in a couple of hours, sometimes things happen, (really - don't ask unless you actually want to hear the chronicles of crazy clay lady)

Now, here's what you can expect after you place your order:

Email notifications will come from sales@brackers.com and will contain your order number in the subject line

• First email lets you know we're looking at your order.  Sometimes we have a question or note for you, so do watch for that.

• Next, we'll let you know we are preparing your order (and we may have notes or questions at this stage too, so watch for that)

•••If we have a crucial question, you will get an email that will really directly tell you in the subject line that we have an important question about your order, so definitely read that one.  

• Probably the last email you will get will be the exciting email telling you to come on down!  

That email will also include the following important information:

Express pickup STANDARD hours are 10-3:30 Monday-Saturday.  pickup is also available between 9-10 and from 3:30 until 5pm on weekdays by advanced request.  (we just want to make sure someone is ready and available to load your order.  We have people in the building, but not necessarily in earshot of your honk. ) If you need to come after 5pm, we do have a limited supply of storage lockers and can place items outside for pickup, please contact us as soon as possible to arrange this.

 Click here to learn about lock box pickup

 When you arrive, please proceed directly to the garage door on the inside corner of our building to the sign reading "express pick up". You may honk your horn or ring our red doorbell to alert our staff you have arrived.  (please note it's a large building, so it may take a few minutes for someone to come out and greet you.)   

We ship nationwide via FedEx, UPS or USPS.  Our website is not set up to handle international orders, but we often can arrange this on a case by case basis.  It's just a little too complicated for us to trust a computer/website to get it right.   Generally, we prefer to send packages via FedEx for most packages because it is automatically insured up to $100, it's trackable, reliable, and in MOST cases, it's the most economical for the service method.  USPS is often the cheapest method, but even if it's insured, it might as well not be, because it's almost impossible to get them to pay a claim on a broken or lost item.  Our website actually is set to not allow USPS for orders over $60.  AND, we can't guarantee the package will get to you, and if it does get lost, we can not replace the items.  It's kind of risky, but for things that are small and inexpensive, it can be a good choice.  Also, damage or loss is RARE. it's just a pain when it happens.  Our website is also only set up to return priority mail rates.  We have a very small number of products that can ship in a padded envelope via regular mail for a dollar or two.  We can do that, but our website doesn't understand that.  If you are ordering somethign you believe can be sent regular mail, and you're ok with the risk, just add a note and we'll manually adjust your shipping cost down to regular mail before finalizing your payment.  UPS can also be a good choice, especially for commercial locations.   

We also ship by truck...usually FedEx Freight.  They have a service called Freight Direct which includes lift gate and residential (or school) delivery charges all wrapped in to one reasonable rate.  There are actually different levels of this service as shown below (copy/pasted from this webpage). As of writing this, our website doesn't provide all of these different service options, instead, it returns the basic fedex freight rates for economy and priority, and we have manually set up discounts within that calculator to APPROXIMATE the freight direct basic charge.  Lately, we have seen quite a bit of inaccuracy especially with heavier orders or orders further away.  We are working on solutions, but getting two sets of IT people to talk to each other is hard....did I mention we humans can do things websites can't?   Right now we have a disclaimer up alerting shoppers to the excessive rates, and when we process your order, we get the actual FedEx Basic rate and if you got caught by the shipping gremlin, we will update your shipping rate before we charge your card. BUT, please do note these options.  If you need more than basic, we can get you a rate for the upgraded service until our website learns how:

• Basic — delivery to the ground level (front or back door) or to the garage without an appointment3 (no signature required)
• Basic by appointment — delivery to the ground level (front or back door) or to the garage with an appointment3
• Standard — to the first ground-level room in the home or business with an appointment3
• Premium — those requiring a two-person delivery, and/or placement in room of choice with an appointment3 (with the options of packaging removal4)
• Customer pickup at a FedEx service center

Great, so now that you have figured out what you want and how to get it shipped to you, what happens next?  

Here's what you can expect after you place your order:

Email notifications will come from sales@brackers.com or shipping@brackers.com and will contain your order number in the subject line

• First email lets you know we're looking at your order.  Sometimes we have a question or note for you, so do watch for that.

• Next, we'll let you know we are preparing your order (and we may have notes or questions at this stage too, so watch for that)

•••If we have a crucial question, you will get an email that will really directly tell you in the subject line that we have an important question about your order, so definitely read that one.  

• Once we have it all packed up and ready to go, you will get an email letting you know and also telling you what day we expect it to be picked up (it's usually the same day, but if it's later in the day, and past our pickup time for the service you selected, it may be tomorrow.  Sometimes, we may switch your order from UPS or USPS to FedEx so that it gets picked up the same day and gets to you faster.  If we ever do that, we will still charge you the lower rate).

• Finally, we'll let you know when the order IS picked up by the carrier.  For Freight shipments, we will also send a picture of your order along with the tracking number separately, usually this comes from warehouse@brackers.com.  Please do verify the shipment looks the same upon arrival and inspect for damage before signing for the shipment.  For small package orders, you will receive a separate email with the tracking number from our shipping software, "shippo" 

 You can always respond to any of the message you get at any time with questions or concerns and we will address them to the best of our ability!  

Do you have a kiln, wheel or other piece of ceramic equipment you need help with? Fill out this form to get your repair started

When you fill out our online repair form and complete your repair consult payment, your repair will be triaged by one of our experienced staff members. 

1. An experienced staff member will review the information you provided and confirm your initial payment.  Your initial payment will cover the review of your stated problems and our initial response.

2. A tech (if you already know Dave, "tech" usually means Dave, but we're leaving that door open, as Dave does sometimes train other people out here. If you don't know Dave, click here) will be assigned to your repair ticket and will contact you with next steps.  This can happen in as little as a few hours or may take a couple of days, depending on whether the techs are out on service calls.  We strive for a next day response whenever possible

3. The next step may be

1. to request additional photographs, video or other information (covered by your initial payment)
2. to have you run a simple test to help them solve your issue without a diagnostic visit (covered by your initial payment)
3. to initiate a remote consultation to walk you through diagnostic steps (including a quote for this cost, MAY be covered in your initial payment)
4. to schedule an onsite diagnostic visit (including a quote for this cost)
5. a link directly to the part you need to solve your problem and installation instructions (covered by your initial payment)

4. Once you approve and pay for the quote to proceed, we will schedule the next step.  Please note that onsite diagnostic visits often take 2 weeks to schedule (more during busy times) 

5. If the diagnostic for your equipment (whether onsite or remote) indicates parts are needed, you will be provided with a quote for the parts and labor to install.  We do also offer remote installation assistance for MANY parts, which is a less expensive and faster option.  Please let us know if you are interested in being quoted that option.  

6. After you have approved and paid the quote, your parts will be ordered.  

7. When the parts arrive, your repair will be scheduled.  Due to a variety of factors, we can not schedule repairs until the parts arrive.  There have just been too many times where the universe decides to wreak havoc on plans made before all the pieces are in place.  

If at any time you have a question about the status of your repair, the best way to ask is to send an email to tech@brackers.com. Not only will this go to both of our repair techs, it will also be attached to your repair ticket in our monitoring system, which is reviewed regularly by other staff members at Bracker's.  Often, even if the techs are out of the building, city, or state, someone here can find some information and get back to you, or at least let you know when the techs will be back in the office.