FAQ

 Q: Do you offer tours of your warehouse?

A: Unfortunately, we are not set up to accommodate tours or sell products from our warehouse at this time. All products can be purchased on our website, or on Amazon, Etsy or Ebay. We do not currently have a physical retail store.

 

Q: What is your address if I want to pick up my puzzle at the warehouse?

A: Our address is: 3415 Miguelito Ct, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401. Choose the "Pick Up in Store" option in the shopping cart.

 

 Q: The puzzle I want says it's SOLD OUT, when will it be back in stock?

A: You can sign up to get an email when it comes back in stock. Go to the puzzle's product page and look for the green Email When Available button on the left hand side of the page. Enter your email to receive advance notification when the product is added to the website.

Most puzzles will be be back in stock in 5 - 10 days.

If you want a particular puzzle back in stock sooner or need it by a particular date, please email us at help@nautiluspuzzles.com and we'll try to meet your needs.

 

Q: How long will it take my puzzle to ship?

A: Orders received before 1 p.m. Pacific Time Monday - Friday will typically ship. Our warehouse is closed on Saturday and Sunday, so orders placed on Friday afternoon will not ship until Monday, or Tuesday if it is a holiday weekend. Our shipping carriers are USPS, UPS and DHL (International only). Orders that qualify for the free shipping discount, will ship via the cheapest available method and typically take 7 - 10 business days to arrive. If you would like your puzzle to get there faster, or want to specify a particular shipping carrier, please select that shipping method during checkout. 

 

Q: How do I contact you guys?

A: Please email us with questions at help@nautiluspuzzles.com. Our average response time is 4 - 8 hours.

 

Q: How much is shipping?

A: We offer Free Shipping on orders over $75 within the continental United States. Orders shipped free should arrive within 7-10 business days.

2-3 day Priority Shipping starts at $10.95.

The actual number of days to ship may be more than the stated timeframes even if you opt for Priority shipping, due to bad weather, COVID 19 challenges, and other factors the shipping carriers can't control. 

 

Q: Do you ship to places not in the USA?

A: On this website we now ship to the USA, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

International shipping is provided using DHL. We continually assess the viability of shipping the puzzles internationally, so if your country is not on this list please contact us at help@nautiuspuzzles.com and we may be able to add it.

You can also buy our puzzles on Amazon.com, eBay.com or Etsy.com and they ship to many more countries.

You can also order your puzzles for shipment outside the USA by using a Parcel Forwarding Service (PFS).  

They will provide a US address to ship to so you can shop as if you are in the US.

You order your items from US websites, and have them sent to the PFS, then the PFS consolidates the items and forwards all your purchases to you in your country.

Two services you may want to check out are:

Borderlinx  or NYBox 

Please understand that International shipping and customs can be unreliable and erratic, and you may experience delays in getting your items. Typical delivery times to countries during the non-holiday season are 2-4 weeks. At the holidays (October onwards) those times can increase significantly. You may be responsible for customs duties in your country of residence if those duties are not charged through the shopping cart.

 

Q: What ages do you recommend your puzzles for?

A: We recommend our puzzles for adults and teens over 13 years, and for putting together as a family with kids 10 yrs old and up. Be warned that puzzle pieces are a choking hazard for very small children and many of our puzzles have some sharp points and smaller pieces. Some of our puzzle images have skeletons, cartoon violence, cartoon nudity or fine art nudity which may not be considered appropriate for children so please take this under advisement before purchasing. 

 

Q: We're missing a piece/broke a piece from one of your puzzles - can you help?

A: Yes, we can typically provide a replacement piece. See our policy on Missing Pieces here.

 

Q: Can I cancel my order?

A: If your order isn't currently being processed, then yes, we can cancel your order. Email us that you want your order canceled (please include the order number) and we'll cancel it if we can and give you a full refund. If you aren't able to cancel your order in time you can still return it (see below).

 

Q: Can I return my order?

A: We are happy to accept returns of un-opened puzzles (shrink-wrap has not been removed), within 60 days. You can ship them back to us in California directly. Email us for the correct address and to let us know it's coming at help@nautiluspuzzles.com. We can also provide you with a pre-paid return label, which will allow you to take advantage of our shipping rates to send the puzzle back. The cost of the pre-paid return label will be deducted from your credit/refund.

 

Q: Can you guys gift-wrap for me? Can I include a gift message?

A: Unfortunately, we cannot gift wrap, but you can add a gift message by selecting gift in the shopping cart before checkout and filling in the appropriate information. Prices are not included on any of our invoices as so many customers send the puzzles as gifts.

 

Q: Where are your puzzles made?

A: All of our puzzles are made in the USA in sunny Central California.

 

Q: What kind of wood do you use?

A: We use a formaldehyde-free birch/basswood plywood which is sustainably harvested in Finland and FSC-certified. It is graded to European standards and is 4mm thick, which is slightly less than 1/4".

 

Q: What's a "whimsy piece"?

A: Pieces in wooden puzzles that are specially shaped are called whimsy pieces. It is a throwback to Victorian times, when jigsaw puzzles started. All of our puzzles contain many shaped whimsy pieces that are recognizable as something and match the theme of the puzzle artwork. For example - the Asakusa Rice Fields puzzle has pieces shaped like cats, rice bowls, Japanese temples, Mt. Fuji etc.

 

Q: Do you do custom puzzles?

A: As we are a very small company, we are not set up to produce custom puzzles for individual images, as with custom orders there are no economies of scale and so we would have to charge too much per item to make that work.

We can only do custom puzzles if the order is for 50+ puzzles for the same image.

 

If you're interested in ordering at least 50 puzzles, email help@nautiluspuzzles.com for pricing. If you are a museum, gallery, or artist interested in working with us to create a puzzle from your artwork, or that of one of your artists please email us at help@nautiluspuzzles.com.

 

Q: Can I change the shipping address on an order I already placed?

A: Yes, as long as it has not yet shipped. For assistance please email us at help@nautiluspuzzles.com and we will do our best to get this taken care of for you. Unfortunately, Shopify credit card processing does not allow us to change the billing address once an order has been placed.

 

Q: Can I order your puzzles for re-sale/wholesale?

A: We consider wholesale enquiries on a case by case basis. Minimum order quantities apply, and we do not offer free shipping or credit terms on wholesale orders.

 

Q: What if I want a puzzle that has been discontinued?

A: We may still be able to make a puzzle that has been discontinued as a special order for you, depending on the licensing situation. Please email us at help@nautiluspuzzles.com, with the name/information of the item you are looking for.

 

Q: Do you sell frames? Can I glue/frame your puzzles?

We don’t sell frames for the puzzles but here are some ideas.

Wooden puzzles are designed to be worked over and over and handed down through generations, so we don’t really recommend gluing them to frame (although people do) but there are also other creative ways to display them.
Try flipping the puzzle over and covering the back with clear packing tape, adhesive puzzle sheets from Eurographics or clear contact paper. To flip it over, slide it off the table onto a thick sturdy piece of cardboard, then put another piece of cardboard on top and hold them tightly together, and flip.
Then you can take the puzzle and display it on a tabletop easel, or in a shadow box frame, but still take it apart to work again or share, and rotate the puzzles in and out as you get more.
The best way to display it in a shadow box frame is to get some sticky Velcro buttons and put them on the back, that way it will float and you won’t have to worry about getting a frame the exact size. Custom frames get expensive. Most shadow box frames come with a fabric back that makes it easy to move the Velcro buttons around.
You can find easels here:
Eurographics puzzle sheets here (Packing tape is cheaper, but these are easier to work with):
Or here:
And the Velcro buttons here: