Shipping Methods

Image Management, LLC Shipping Methods

Facts about our shipping methods:

For standard product shipping, we offer ground shipping, 3-day, 2-day and next-day shipping options.

You will be able to pick your desired shipping timeframe as you check out.
Each shipper has multiple next-day with choices for early, mid-morning and afternoon delivery.

These choices vary based on the recipient's location and whether the location is residential or commercial.

Remember to take weekend days into account, when estimating the arrival of your package.

We use tracked delivery methods and we send shipment confirmations containing tracking numbers for each order.
We use these major, standard-package-delivery shippers:

USPS (When possible, we use USPS Priority Mail.)
UPS
Fedex

Military Mail? We do ship to military destinations -- both domestic and overseas. Read more about military mail below at the bottom of this page.
Some products (such as software and certain documents) are downloadable.
Some products ship by ground delivery at no charge and these products are clearly marked on a per-product basis.
Where do the products ship from?

Some products ship from our location in Raleigh, NC, USA
Some products are drop-shipped from the manufacturer or a distributor for the manufacturer.

For large items that don't ship via standard package delivery methods, we utilize the freight divisions of the listed shippers or freight companies. If you order a large item, we will research the best way for your item to ship and provide all shipment/tracking/bill of lading information.

Please ensure your address is complete and valid. What?/how?/why?

We all have received mail that had a hand-written, slightly-wrong address, yet USPS somehow corrected the sender's poor/incomplete addressing and you received it anyway. This is the exception and not the norm. Valid addressing is so important.

Your shipment address will always be entered and processed through the major shippers' computerized address-verification systems.

When an address is entered into the major shippers' systems, the address must be correct or the shipper's address-verification system will refuse the address as not valid.
Some of the shipper's address-entry systems will allow you to force an unverified address and use it, even when their system believes there is a problem with the address.
But, overriding a shipper's address-verification safeguards is not a good idea because, best-case, the shipment may be delayed and, worst-case, the address may never be decipherable/deliverable and the package may be lost or returned as non-deliverable.
When the sender forces an address against the "advice" of the shipper's address-verification system, the sender also forfeits the right to some remedies if the package is lost.

What can you do to make sure your address is complete and valid?

Verify your official address:

Check with your shipping/logistics department to get the official address for your location.
Be aware that, for large sites, the address used for GPS/travel/location purposes is typically NOT the official shipping address. And, for large sites/campuses such as military bases, there may be multiple addresses for regions of the site, so confirm your address.
To verify your address on your own, go into the USPS Click-N-Ship System as if you are going to ship to yourself and verify that your address is accepted/verified.

You can stop the "ship a package" process after the address-verification step. You do not actually have to complete the click-n-ship process.

Be aware that your address is frequently different when delivered by USPS vs. UPS vs. Fedex.
And, don't forget to fill in the "attention to" fields, phone number and use the extra address lines to include building names/numbers, suite numbers, etc. to help the delivery go more smoothly.

Military Mail

We do ship to domestic and overseas military destinations.

Domestic military destinations are treated as standard US addresses.

Please verify your domestic military address as you would any large site address. Check with your shipping/logistics department to get the official address for your location.
Be aware that, for large sites, the address used for GPS/travel/location purposes is typically NOT the official shipping address.

Overseas military destinations are addresses to major military "states" such as AA - Armed Forces Americas, AE - Armed Forces Europe, and AP - Armed Forces Pacific where mail is routed/sorted/delivered via the military post offices: APO - Army Post Office, FPO - Fleet Post Office, and DPO - Diplomatic Post Office.

All APO/FPO/DPO shipments will ship via USPS (United States Postal Service) Priority Mail.
You will be able to enter your US military APO, FPO or DPO shipping address just like you would any other United States postal address.
IMPORTANT: Please verify or ask your overseas mail recipient to provide and/or verify their official US military shipping address for their unit and location.
The overseas military addresses will have a format like the following example:

SGT Jane Smith
Unit 12345 Box 1234
Camp XYZ
APO AE 01234

Overseas military mail is delivered domestically to a US-based departure city (AP - San Francisco, AA - Miami, AE - New York City) where it is sorted and forwarded overseas. The USPS-provided tracking information shows delivery through the APO/FPO/DPO but progress through the military mail system will not be communicated back through USPS.
Please verify that the recipient will be stationed at the address long enough to receive the shipment. As mentioned, APO/FPO/DPO shipments are delivered to a US central consolidation point and then are forwarded to the final destination point. This process takes longer than normal shipping.
Please notify the recipient of an expected shipment so they will be expecting the shipment and/or pick-up notice.

Please see the USPS Publications/FAQs for additional information about military mail. Examples:

https://www.usps.com/ship/apo-fpo-dpo.htm
https://about.usps.com/publications/pub640.pdf