This page updated May
2, 2006
PLEASE READ BEFORE SENDING ME AN E-MAIL!
- So that I can keep the web site
up-to-date, and to fill and ship orders as quickly as possible,
I must try to keep
- my incoming email to a minimum.
Just deleting spam (junk mail) each day is an exhausting task.
- Thank you for your understanding
and cooperation.
-
- QUICK LINKS:
- RESERVING
ITEMS - LOG-IN
PROBLEMS - PHOTO SUBMISSION
- GENERAL QUESTIONS - REPORT A BROKEN LINK or
ERROR
- GENERAL NOTES
- WHAT IS YOUR REASON FOR EMAILING ME?
- Select from the options
below.
- TO
RESERVE MERCHANDISE:
- When reserving items for purchase, your email
should include a complete list of all items, including item descriptions
and PRICES of each item. The email should also include your complete
shipping address, including the country you live in (this is
very important). If any of this information is missing, it could
cause VERY SERIOUS DELAYS in my response and/or the shipment
of your order (up to a 3-week delay) so please make sure all
necessary information is included! Please make sure the item(s)
you want are actually available for sale (those items listed
on the for sale pages) and not items
listed on one of the collector's guides or information pages.
-
- CLICK HERE to send me an
email to reserve merchandise (when writing, PLEASE include the
COUNTRY you live in). If you'd like to estimate your shipping
charges before you reserve items, go to this
page to begin.
-
- After you hear back from me (usually within
24 to 48 hours, but some order emails can take up to 2 weeks
for a response), I will tell you which item(s) is/are available,
how much it will cost to ship your order, and the payment methods
accepted (depending on the country you live in). If the PayPal
payment service is available in your country, you can immediately
send a PayPal payment to
me, and I can ship your order out RIGHT AWAY. In many cases,
this means you can go from reserving your order to actually RECEIVING
IT, all within 24 to 48 hours* Otherwise, you can print out the
online order form, and mail your
payment to me via "snail mail".
-
- *Depending on item(s) ordered, payment method
used, shipping method, and shipping location.
- PROBLEMS
LOGGING IN to the members-only area:
- Before emailing me with log-in problems,
please make sure you are entering both your username and your
password correctly. About 90% of log-in problems are caused by
either the CAPS LOCK key being down (or maybe not down) because
your log-in information is case-sensitive; or you tried to enter
more than 10 characters for either name (the system will only
accept the first 10 characters, so make sure you are not entering
more than 10 characters in either the username or password field,
even if you originally entered a longer name when signing up).
-
- Here are some other possible reasons why
you might not be able to log into the web site:
- 1) If you signed up within the past 24 hours,
your account might not yet have been activated. Please be patient
and try again a little later. Although 90% of the sign-up process
is automatic, I must manually activate your account before it
will work. I do try my best to activate accounts within minutes
of your signing up, but I do occasionally need to eat, sleep,
and watch Spongebob, so there will be times when I'm not at the
computer and can't activate your account. Please be patient!
- 2) Your account might have expired. If you
signed up for membership BEFORE June of 2004, or if you paid
for your membership via a "manual" PayPal payment or
snail-mail payment, your account will NOT automatically renew
at the end of your specific membership level, so it might have
expired.
- 3) Your PayPal funding source has expired
or failed. For example, perhaps the credit card you were using
to fund the PayPal payments expired, or the PayPal payment did
not clear for some other reason (such as a checking account that
does not have enough money in it to cover the payment). If this
happens, your web site access will automatically be disabled.
-
- If you are certain that your account is (or
should be) active, and you are entering your login information
correctly, and you still can't get into the site, please CLICK
HERE to send me an email. It is very important that you include
the following information in your email:
-
- 1) Your log-in name (username) AND your password
(if you forgot your username and/or password, CLICK
HERE to notify me via email)
- 2) Your first and last name
- 3) If writing to me from an email address
other than the one you used to sign up, please provide the original
sign-up email address
- 4) Please indicate how you originally paid
for your membership (PayPal, snail-mail, etc.)
- 5) If you know it, please tell me the exact
date that you signed up for a membership - this will help me
find you in my records.
-
- Failure to include enough information
so I can look up your account could cause serious delays of up
to 14 days.
- For questions or problems signing up for
membership, CLICK
HERE to send me an email.
- TO
SEND ME PHOTOS:
- If you'd like to send
me a photo for consideration in the web site, please read the
following guidelines:
-
- 1) Just because you send
me a photo, it does NOT guarantee that I will use it. My time
and disk space limitations strictly forbid me from using every
little thing that people send me. So please don't be disappointed
if you send me a photo, and I don't use it. There simply isn't
enough room on my web site to show every single item that exists.
I try to feature unique and exclusive items that appeal to the
largest variety of fans and collectors.
- 2) Photos MUST be in either
the JPG, GIF, or TIFF format.
- 3) The file can be PC or
MACINTOSH format, it doesn't matter. Multiple files can be compressed
into .SIT (macintosh) or .ZIP (PC) archives.
- 4) If you need to send me
any individual file that is larger than 300KB, I highly recommend
you use the yousendit.com
service (it's free
for both of us). It's very easy to use, just go to http://www.yousendit.com and fill in the necessary info.
- 5) I normally automatically
give "credit" to you if you submit a photo. However,
please keep in mind that this means your name (and email address)
might appear on my web site below or near the photo. The credit
usually appears something like "photo courtesy of John Doe
<johndoe@aol.com>. This means that you could possibly get
a TON of emails from people asking you about (or asking you to
purchase) the item you sent me a photo of. If you do not want
to possibly receive a ton of emails about the item, just tell
me NOT to mention your name and/or email address.
- TO
ASK A GENERAL QUESTION:
- Due to the huge amount of email I receive
each day, I often have to delay answering "general question"
emails until my other daily tasks are completed (running errands,
packing and shipping orders, leaving feedbacks, paying bills,
etc.). I do try to answer all emails as quickly as possible,
but sometimes I just can't get to your question. This entire
web site and mail-order catalog is a "one-man-show"
run by a single fan, it is NOT some huge operation run by a large
company. Please try to be patient and understanding. To email
me with a general question, CLICK
HERE
- TO
REPORT A BROKEN LINK or ERROR on the web site:
- Please copy and paste the complete URL of
the actual page the broken link or error appears on, then CLICK
HERE to notify me via email. The more information you give
me, the faster I can solve the problem.
- GENERAL
NOTES:
- To receive the fastest
and most accurate response, please read the following guidelines.
-
- AOL USERS: If
you are sending me an e-mail message from within your AOL (America
Online) account, and you expect a response back from me, PLEASE
don't forget to set up your mail controls so that you can ACCEPT
e-mail from the address "steve@madonnacatalog.com."
I get so many messages each day from AOL users, and I spend lots
of time responding to them, only to have the messages returned
to me, because the AOL user doesn't accept e-mail from anybody
outside of AOL (in an attempt to filter out junk mail). If you
don't get a response back from me, it's because your AOL e-mail
is set up to accept e-mail ONLY from other AOL users (which I
am not), or ONLY from certain addresses.
-
- CUSTOMERS OUTSIDE THE USA: Please write to me ONLY in English. Please do not
write in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS (which is considered "shouting"
and is very hard for me to read). You'd be surprised how many
messages I get that are all in Spanish, Italian, German, French,
and Greek! I'm sorry, but I can ONLY read and understand ENGLISH.
So if you want a response form your e-mail message, please be
sure it's completely in ENGLISH. I regret that I will simply
delete and NOT respond to any messages that are not entirely
in English. There are several free language translation services
available on the internet.
-
- Before you write to me, please check to see
if your question(s) can be answered somewhere on my web site.
Below are some really helpful links that will probably answer
any questions you may have - please check out ALL of these areas
before sending me an e-mail:
-
- MADONNA CATALOG - News
and announcements
- MADONNA
CATALOG - Frequently Asked Questions
- MADONNA CATALOG Payment
Policies Page
-
- If an item is not listed as FOR
SALE on my web site (with a PRICE), that means that it is
NOT available. ONLY items listed in the FOR
SALE pages are for sale. Any items listed in the "collector's
guides" pages are NOT available for sale. If you ask me
to buy an item that is not listed as FOR SALE on my web site,
I most likely will not even have time to respond to the message.
All I can tell you is that you can generally find rare Madonna
items in places like the eBay
auction web site, used record stores, auctions, record shows,
conventions, friends and family, and things like that. I'm sorry,
but I no longer have the time to help people find specific items
that aren't listed on my site.
-
- Just because I might not respond to a message
you send me, it does not mean that I haven't read it. I do read
ALL of my e-mail - every single message. However, since I'm the
ONLY person running this entire web site and catalog, I do not
have time to respond to every single message I get. So if you
e-mail me to tell me that you've sent a payment, or that you've
received your merchandise, I appreciate it, but I usually don't
respond to such messages, unless there's a problem with the order,
or something. Likewise, I generally do NOT have time to email
you when I've received your payment, then again when I send out
your merchandise. A lot of customers request this, and it takes
up a LOT of my time! Please just assume that I got your payment,
and I sent your items out in a timely manner. If I spend less
time responding to emails like "did you get my payment yet?"
I can spend MORE time actually filling orders, and sending them
out!
IF YOU
DO NOT GET A RESPONSE:
- If you do not hear from
me within 30 days, it means that one of the following probably
occured:
-
- 1) I did try to send the message, but it
got "returned" to me as undeliverable, for one reason
or another - this happens quite often; where I spend sometimes
an hour or more gathering the information necessary to properly
respond to a message, then it gets RETURNED to me just seconds
after I send it! This is extremely frustrating! So if you do
not hear from me within 4 weeks, and your message is very important,
please try to send it from another email account (like a friend's),
otherwise you will NEVER hear back from me!
-
- 2) You have asked me a question that is clearly
answered somewhere on my web site - I simply don't have the time
to answer every single email I get, so I try to minimize this
by putting ALL information I know about a particular subject
on the web site - so if you don't see what you're looking for,
chances are, I don't have that information!
-
- 3) I am away on vacation - although I usually
have occasional access to email when I'm away on vacation, a
vacation is just that - I try to relax and enjoy myself when
I'm away, which means I'm not always sitting at the computer
to answer questions or fill orders. To see if I am (or will be)
away on vacation, please check the site
outages page.
-
- You know I'll take you there........
Links to ALL other
areas of this web site can now be accessed
-OR-