Terms and Conditions

Last Updated: March 23, 2016

ORDERING AND PAYMENT
We are open for business 24/7 when ordering online. We also employ a staff of customer service representatives who are available to answer your questions and assist you with orders Monday - Friday from 8:00 am - 7:30 pm eastern time, excluding national holidays. Between November 15 - December 30 we also maintain customer service hours most Saturday's and Sunday's from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm eastern time. We accept all major credit cards for payment, as well as payments with PayPal. We do not accept payments by check at this time. If you have any problems using your credit card to complete an order, please call our customer service department at 877.236.9183 and we'll be happy to assist you.

We sell a number of products that are priced by the pound shipped. You’ll be able to easily notice these, as it will show the price per lb on the product detail page, your shopping cart, and in your order receipt. Any product priced by the pound shipped is charged by the stated price per pound by the actual weight of the item shipped. All of these priced per pound items vary in weight, just like different steaks, meats and cheese do when you buy them at the grocery store. We do provide estimated weight ranges, but even these can vary further at times – we do our best to provide items within the weight range. If you need a very specific (or minimum) amount of an item ship ed please email us after placing your order with instructions, or include it within the order notes found on the Your Order page.

When placing your order, we will be authorizing your credit card based on the total stated amount in your order summary. Your order will then be charged when it ships. If your order contains products priced by the pound, your final charge to your credit card may be more or less than this initial order summary total, as you are being charged based on actual weights being shipped.

If you choose to pay with PayPal, an additional fee may be initially assessed to you order to cover any potential for weight variation in your order for products priced by the pound. Once your order is shipped, your PayPal account will be automatically credited based on any differences. Should larger weights ship than what was anticipated for originally, you will be sent a PayPal payment request for the remaining balance.

WHERE WE DELIVER
At this time we are unable to offer delivery to P.O. boxes, or APO/FPO addresses. Perishable food items can only be delivered within the continental United States, Alaska and Hawaii. We will also deliver perishable food items to certain areas of Puerto Rico as long as FedEx offers overnight service to that zip code. Non-perishable food items we are happy to deliver worldwide. If you are looking to place an international delivery order to an address outside of the United States, please contact our customer service department at 877.236.9183 for further details and assistance with the order.

SHIPPING TO AN APARTMENT, CONDO, OR GATED HOME
If you are shipping to an apartment building or condo, the shipping carrier will not leave the package outside of your door. If you have a doorman or reception that typically receives packages the shipping carrier may leave the package with them. We cannot be responsible for a package if it is delivered to an apartment or condo and then not left at the door because nobody is home to receive the order. Also note that any order above $700 will require a signature, and someone must be home to receive the shipment.

If you are shipping to a gated home, you must make sure that someone is available to open the gate when the shipping carrier arrives, as packages will not be left at the front of the gate. We cannot be responsible for packages that are not left at a gated home because nobody is at the residence when the delivery is made.

SIGNATURE RELEASE OR SIGNATURE REQUIRED OPTION
Although we do provide the option for you to select whether you want an order to be left at the door if nobody is home to sign for it, the decision to leave the package or not is at the sole discretion of the shipping carrier's delivery driver. If your area is deemed to be a high-crime or unsafe area, the driver will not leave the package. If you are delivering to an apartment or condo that does not have a receiving area for packages, the carrier's delivery driver will also not leave the package outside of your door. We cannot be responsible for packages that are not left due to the named circumstances above. Please take care in having orders delivered to an address where you know someone will be home. Packages over $700 in value will require a signature and someone will need to be home to receive it.

SHIPPING OPTIONS
Packages are shipped using FedEx and we offer 5 shipping options, Priority Overnight, Standard Overnight, 2nd Day, Ground and Saturday Delivery. Please note that Priority Overnight service and Saturday Overnight service is not available in all areas, and an order that ships with a Priority Overnight service may arrive in the afternoon, depending on your delivery zip code, as determined by FedEx. We cannot offer any shipping refund for packages that miss their estimated delivery time by FedEx.

ORDER FULFILLMENT TIME FRAMES
Most orders placed before 2:00 pm eastern time, Monday through Friday are shipped the same day. During checkout, you’ll see an order summary window on the top right that will provide an estimated shipping date for your order based on the items in your order. Each product’s detail page also provides information on the expected lead time to ship that item.

The order details screen on the top right of the checkout process pages provide an estimated shipping date that your order is expected to ship on. Please note that this is only an estimate. Each product’s detail page provides an estimate of the lead time typically required before the item can ship. Most of our products can ship the same day. Cut to order items will always take at minimum one business day before they can reach our cut room to be cut.

Orders containing non-perishable items can ship out Monday – Friday. Orders containing perishable items will ship out using FedEx Standard Overnight or Priority Overnight service Monday through Thursday. After 2:00 pm on Thursday, there’s an option to ship perishable food orders for Saturday delivery, otherwise if your order contains any perishable items the order will ship on Monday. Also, please check the FedEx website to assure Saturday delivery is available to your zip code, as FedEx does not make Saturday deliveries to all zip codes in the United States. You can also use our delivery calendar on the shipping page during checkout to have your order delivered on a specific future date.

In the event that your order contains an out-of-stock item, we will follow the guidelines you requested on the Shipping Information page during checkout. If your order does contain an out-of-stock order, this could delay the fulfillment of your order. We suggest for faster fulfillment to select to SUBSTITUTE out of stock items.

PRODUCT AVAILABILITY AND OUT-OF-STOCK ITEMS
We regularly update our site so it shows the current availability of items. However, as we do also service wholesale customers who can make large purchases at times, sometimes we may run out of stock of an item. During the checkout process, on the Shipping Information page, we provide you with 4 options of how you would like us to handle your order in the event that an item is out of stock. We provide the options of:

• SUBSTITUTE - we will select a similar item from our inventory to replace the missing item, assuming a similar item is available. Please note that by accepting this option you are also agreeing to accept what we send as a replacement. Although this option does mean your order will always ship quickly, if you are really only wanting what you've ordered, please don't select this option.
• DELETE - delete any out-of-stock items and ship the remaining items. Your order will then be credited for any out-of-stock items.
• HOLD - we will hold the order until all items are available. We will update you with an ETA on missing products once we are aware. Most out of stock items we can typically acquire within 2 weeks, however at times there can be manufacturing shortages or other delays out of our control which could delay the order further.
• CALL OR EMAIL ME TO DISCUSS - we'll do just that. If something is out-of-stock we'll give you a call to discuss how to handle the missing item, and provide some available substitutes for you or an ETA on when we expect to receive the missing item again. Selecting this option will delay the fulfillment of your order until we have reached you, so please make sure you provide a correct order.

PRODUCT FRESHNESS
We hold the highest quality standards of freshness and quality. To ensure that you receive all your products in optimal condition, we carefully pack them in an insulated Styrofoam box with dry ice, or frozen gel packs, depending on the products included in the order. This packaging is designed to maintain full product freshness while in transit.

Our stringent packing methods and temperature control packaging allows our products to remain fresh and in their original condition even if ambient temperatures fall below zero or over 95 degrees Fahrenheit, regardless of carrier or transit times.

All orders that include perishable items require Overnight shipping. We strongly encourage that you or someone else be available at the delivery address to sign for the package and refrigerate perishable items upon delivery. You may choose for the package to be left at your door, but we cannot take responsibility should the items spoil while being left at your door. To safeguard against unforeseen and unlikely delays in the transportation process, part of the product may be frozen to preserve freshness. Some products have been subjected to thermal treatment to preserve their freshness and taste.

COMBATING FRAUD AND THEFT
We take a very active approach to combating fraud and theft, both with orders placed for our products and keeping your information safe and secure. It is a violation of State and Federal law to place orders under a false name or with an invalid or stolen credit card. We will take all steps possible to prosecute all people placing fraudulent orders to the fullest extent of the law possible. We actively work with the U.S. Secret Service, the FBI, and local law enforcement to prosecute anyone committing fraud online. If we deem any order as a potential for fraud, we may require additional information to confirm the validity of your order, including a picture of the credit card used along with a valid government issued identification.

We take equal steps to ensure that when you order with us your information is protected and secure. We employ advanced encryption methods and use SSL technology to ensure that any information you submit to us is safe and secure. We also work with independent third party companies that monitor our website daily and notify us of any potential vulnerabilities that a hacker could exploit, which, if found, we then immediately correct.

YOUR INFORMATION AND PRIVACY
INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE TO US
In the course of doing business with either by shopping on our website or by talking with our customer service representatives, you will willingly provide us with some personal information, such as your name, address, contact information and shopping choices. By providing this information to us, you authorize us to store this information, use it to complete the fulfillment of your order, use it to provide suggestions to make your shopping experience better, and for following up with communications regarding your order. We may also use this information for future marketing to you. At times we work with other third-party companies and we may share information about you with them, such as with FedEx to complete the fulfillment of your order, or with companies in a cooperative marketing effort. Any credit card information you provide to us for completing your order is never shared with anyone and is only ever used to complete an order transaction. If you only wish to have your information used by us and for the fulfillment of your order and not shared with any third-party companies, simply email us to let us know.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT FROM YOUR SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
Our system automatically collects and stores certain pieces of information about your visit to our site. Like many web sites, we use cookies and obtain browser information like referring pages, browser brand and version, and date and time information. Cookies are small files that reside on your computer that identifies your computer uniquely to a website. This allows us to enhance your shopping experience by storing certain information about you. For example, if you start placing an order with us but then leave our site, when you return your order will be stored so you don't have to start again from the beginning. We will also record your IP address when placing or attempting to place an order.

We may use third party advertising companies to serve ads (e.g., banners or links) on its behalf. These companies may employ cookies and action tags (also known as single pixel gifs or web beacons) to measure advertising effectiveness. Any information that these third parties collect via cookies and action tags is anonymous.

ORDER CANCELLATION / MODIFICATION
We will honor all order cancellation and modification requests as much as possible. However, we do pack many orders a day, and if your order has already been packed it may be impossible to cancel or modify it simply because it can be one box out of hundreds shipping out and we might not be able to find it. During November and December simply due to the sheer volume of holiday orders, we are not able to cancel or modify orders once they are placed.

RETURNS
We cannot accept returns of any perishable items. We just wouldn't feel comfortable reselling a perishable food item that hasn't always been in our control, and we hope you'll feel comfortable knowing that you're only ever going to receive products that are always within our control. Many other food companies do allow their customers to return perishable food items - that just doesn't feel "right" to us. Do you want to eat a piece of cheese that was in a stranger's house for a couple of days? We don't! We can however accept the return of any non-perishable, canned or packaged food item. If you are looking to make a return though you must contact us within 2 business days of receiving the product to request a return. Any returned merchandise can only be accepted if it is in perfect resalable condition. Note that there will be a 5% or $5 restocking fee, whichever is greater.

DEFECTIVE OR DAMAGED MERCHANDISE
We take all measures possible to assure your order is received intact and in proper condition. Sometimes though the route to your house gets a bit more bumpy than anyone can control. In the event that you receive a defective or damaged product, please contact us immediately after receiving your order. Do not throw anything out or discard any items, as we may require them to be sent back. The easiest way to help us resolve any defective or damaged merchandise is to take a picture of the item and then email it to us at orders@GourmetFoodWorld.com. Please then call us at 877.236.9183. Depending on the issue, order issues may be resolved with a replacement product being issued, a store credit, a credit to your order, or any other means we feel is appropriate.

PRICING CHANGES
Our products are subject to availability due to weather and seasonal variations. We reserve the right to make changes to its pricing to reflect changes in market supply. We pledge to make the customer aware of any changes as soon as it is possible.


ARBITRATION
PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY AS IT AFFECTS RIGHTS THAT YOU MAY OTHERWISE HAVE. THIS SECTION PROVIDES FOR RESOLUTION OF MOST DISPUTES THROUGH ARBITRATION INSTEAD OF COURT TRIALS AND CLASS ACTIONS. ARBITRATION IS FINAL AND BINDING AND SUBJECT TO ONLY VERY LIMITED REVIEW BY A COURT. THIS ARBITRATION CLAUSE SHALL SURVIVE TERMINATION OF THIS AGREEMENT.

Election for Binding Arbitration
This provision is intended to be interpreted broadly to encompass all disputes or claims arising out of our relationship. Any dispute or claim made by you against Gourmet Food World (or against any of our parent or affiliate companies) arising out of or relating to this purchase or your use of the Gourmet Food World website (whether based in contract, tort, statute, fraud, misrepresentation or any other legal theory) will be resolved by binding arbitration except that (a) you may take claims to small claims court if they qualify for hearing by such a court, or (b) you or we may choose to pursue claims in court if the claims relate solely to the collection of any debts you owe to us. However, even for those claims that may be taken to court, you and we both waive any claims for punitive damages and any right to pursue claims on a class or representative basis.

Arbitration Procedures
You must first present any claim or dispute to Gourmet Food World by contacting our Customer Service department to allow us an opportunity to resolve the dispute. You may request arbitration if your claim or dispute cannot be resolved within 60 days. The arbitration of any dispute or claim shall be conducted in accordance with the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) as modified by this agreement. The AAA Rules and information about arbitration and fees are available upon request from the AAA (call 1-800-778-7879) or online at adr.org. You and we agree that this agreement evidences a transaction in interstate commerce and this arbitration provision will be interpreted and enforced in accordance with the U.S. Federal Arbitration Act and federal arbitration law. Unless you and we agree otherwise, any arbitration will take place in Palm Beach County, Florida and will be conducted in the English language. An arbitrator may not award relief in excess of or contrary to what this agreement provides, order consolidation or arbitration on a class wide or representative basis, or award punitive damages or any other damages aside from the prevailing party’s actual damages, except that the arbitrator may award on an individual basis damages required by statute and may order injunctive or declaratory relief pursuant to an applicable consumer protection statute. In any arbitration applying the AAA Rules applicable to large/complex cases, the arbitrators must also apply the Federal Rules of Evidence, and the losing party may have the award reviewed in accordance with the review procedures set forth in the AAA Rules. Any arbitration shall be confidential, and neither you nor we may disclose the existence, content or results of any arbitration, except as may be required by law or for purposes of enforcement of the arbitration award. Judgment on any arbitration award may be entered in any court having proper jurisdiction. If any portion of this arbitration clause is determined by a court to be inapplicable or invalid, than the remainder shall still be given full force and effect.

Costs of Arbitration
All administrative fees and expenses of an arbitration will be divided equally between you and us. In all arbitrations, each party will bear the expense of its own counsel, experts, witnesses and preparation and presentation of evidence at the arbitration.

Waiver of Punitive Damage Claims and Class Actions
By this Agreement, both you and Gourmet Food World are waiving certain rights to litigate disputes in court. If for any reason this arbitration clause is deemed inapplicable or invalid, you and Gourmet Food World both waive, to the fullest extent allowed by law, any claims to recover punitive or exemplary damages and any right to pursue any claims on a class or consolidated basis or in a representative capacity.

Governing Law – Florida
This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Florida notwithstanding any conflict of law rules.

Disclaimers and Limits of Liability
It is understood by both parties that consuming undercooked seafood or meat products may make you sick. Please make sure you cook all raw meat and seafood products to the correct temperature prior to consuming.

In the event that Gourmet Food World is found liable to you, you shall only be entitled to recover actual and direct damages and such damages shall not exceed the dollar value of the order that you had placed or the value of the product that came into question. Gourmet Food World shall have no liability for any incidental, indirect or consequential damages (including without limitation loss of profit, revenue or use) arising out of or in any way connected with this Agreement, whether in contract, warranty, tort (including negligence, whether active, passive or imputed), product liability, strict liability or other theory, even if we or our authorized representatives have been advised of the possibility of such damages.

The laws of certain states or other jurisdiction do not allow limitations on implied warranties, or the exclusion or limitation of certain damages. If these laws apply, some or all of the above disclaimers, exclusions or limitations may not apply to you, and you may have rights in addition to those contained in this agreement. In such jurisdiction, our liability is limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.

Assignment
Gourmet Food World may assign all or part of this agreement without such assignment being considered a change to the agreement, and without notice to you. We are then released from all liability. The assignee shall have the same rights and obligations as the assignor and shall agree in writing to be bound by the terms and conditions of this agreement.

ENTIRE AGREEMENT
This agreement is the complete and exclusive statement of agreement between you and Gourmet Food World, and supersedes and merges all prior proposals and all other agreements. In the event that any provision of this agreement shall be determined to be illegal or unenforceable, that provision will be eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that this agreement shall otherwise remain in full force and effect and enforceable. Headings herein are for convenience of reference only and shall in no way affect interpretation of this agreement.

CONTACT US
Monday to Fridays
8:00 am to 7:30 pm ET

For inquiries by mail:
GourmetFoodWorld.com 3212 NW 64th St | Boca Raton, FL 33496
Please note this address is our corporate address, and is not a retail store.