Please Read Our Order Fulfillment Policies

CURRENT FULFILLMENT TIMES:

Orders without Perishable Products:
Your order should ship within 3-4 days after receipt.

Orders with Perishable Products
Orders containing perishable products (sausages, cheese, cold cuts, refrigerated herring, pretzels, pretzel buns), will ship on a Monday or Tuesday. Selecting 1-3 Day Express Guaranteed Delivery with UPS, FedEx or USPS is mandatory for all shipping zones, except 1-Day, to ensure product integrity.  We will not issue any refund for orders with perishable products that arrive late or have no Route transport insurance. Please note: you may want to place two separate orders containing perishable and non-perishable products to reduce shipping costs. We will then combine these orders during fulfillment. 

SHIPPING

Free Shipping:

Free shipping applies to ground transportation only.  Please note: wholesale, food-service, perishables and packages over 30 lbs.  are not included in Free Shipping. Free Shipping does not apply when coupons are used. We reserve the right to choose a carrier of our choice to ship orders free of charge.

  • $  80.00 for 1-day shipping zones:  CT, DE, DC, MD, NJ, NC, PA, VA;
  • $100.00 for 2-day shipping zones:  AL, GA, IN, KY, MA, MI, NH, NY, OH, RI, SC, TN, VT, WV;
  • $120.00 for 3-day shipping zones:  AR, CO, FL, IL, IA, KS, LA, ME, MN, MS, MO, TX, WI;
  • $140.00 for 4 day shipping zones:  AZ, CA, ID, MT, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, OR, SD, UT, WA, WY.
  • $180.00 for 5+day shipping zones: AK, HI, PR, Pacific Islands

Local Pick Up Option:

Customers living within a 50 mile distance from Rockville, MD (essentially the Greater Washington DC/Baltimore/Northern Virginia Metro area) are welcome to pick up their orders from our warehouse. Please choose the Pick Up shipping option during checkout. There will be no shipping charges.  

Route Insurance: 

We're working with the well-reputed third party e-commerce insurance company Route to provide you with a convenient option to insure your package against theft, damage or loss. Every order will be insured by default. You can opt out of the insurance during checkout. However, we will not issue any refund for uninsured orders in the case of loss, damage or theft. Filing an insurance claim is easy and convenient. We will gladly help you with the process.


Sourcing and Handling Variances:

A flat 2.5% charge is added to all orders to offset fluctuations in our costs to source, handle, pack and ship your order.

US and Canada:

The Taste of Germany.com warehouse is located in the Washington DC area and we ship our products to all destinations within the continental US, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and Canada. Our mission is to get you your order as quickly as possible. We source from the leading US importers and distributors and even purchase from other retailers. Some parts of your order may be shipped directly from our import partner.  Orders may ship in multiple boxes and arrive separately.  We take great care to ensure that your products arrive in good condition. 

For shipments to Canada, any applicable duties, taxes and customs processing fees are the responsibility of the customer.  Generally, we're only shipping products to Canada with US Postal Services. The costs per shipment start at $50.00.

Please call toll-free 1-800-881-6419 for more information.

APO/FPO:

Shipments to an APO/FPO address must be sent via standard USPS Priority Mail and cannot be guaranteed to arrive by a specific date. Perishable food products are not suitable for APO/FPO shipments.

International:

At this time, we do not ship outside the USA and Canada.

Packing and Shipping Timing:

We are a small business and do not offer same- or next-day fulfillment services.  On average, it takes us 3-4 business days to pack and ship an order. During our peak holiday season (October - December), it may take us up to 12 days to pack and ship your order. Orders may ship in multiple boxes and arrive separately. We take great care to ensure that your products arrive in good condition.  If you need a specific delivery window please send us an email to info@germanfoods.org, leave a note at checkout, and select a 1-2 day delivery method.

Choice of Service:

We offer USPS, UPS or FedEx delivery services.  We are located in the Washington DC area, so shipments to  the West Coast will take anywhere from 3 business days (USPS Priority Mail) to 5 business days (FedEx or UPS Ground). We reserve the right to choose the most cost effective and reliable shipping carrier, even if you selected a different carrier during checkout.

Peak Season:  October - December:

In peak season, carrier delivery times may take up to 2 weeks. We do not guarantee the prompt delivery of any shipping methods and will not issue a refund if a package arrives late due to carrier delays.  Orders may ship in multiple boxes and arrive separately. We take great care to ensure that your products arrive in good condition.  If you need a specific delivery window please send us an email to info@germanfoods.org, leave a note at checkout, and select a 1-2 day delivery method.

Perishables and Heat-Sensitive Products: 

Please read our Shipping Perishable Products page for more information. All of our sausage products are smoked or pre-cooked and kept frozen. Freezing sausages will extend the stated shelf life by 2-3 month. We only ship perishable items Monday through Wednesday to ensure that your order arrives the same week we ship it. All perishable and heat-sensitive items (sausages, cheese, pretzels, chocolates) will be packed with ice and thermal insulation. A surcharge for extra packaging will be applied at checkout and we only ship perishable orders with 1-, 2-, or 3-Day Express.  Orders may ship in multiple boxes and arrive separately. We take great care to ensure that your products arrive in good condition.  At certain times (during weather events, for example) we may delay the shipment. All sales of Perishable Products are final. We will not issue any refunds, if the products do not arrive in time or to your liking.  Orders may ship in multiple boxes and arrive separately. We take great care to ensure that your products arrive in good condition.

INVENTORY

Availability:

It is characteristic of the specialty food industry that not all items are available at all times. We do not automatically indicate on The Taste of Germany.com if items are out of stock because we buy them from a number of suppliers - even other retailers - to be able to complete your order. Depending on product availability, your order may ship in 2-3 days or in 1-2 weeks; we will alert you to any delays.  We will let you know if an item is out of stock and will give you an estimated time of delivery, suggest a similar item of equal value as replacement or we will refund the payment of this item and ship the remaining items.  In some cases, we reserve the right to replace out-of-stock products with similar products from the same manufacturer that are of equal or higher value, or issue a partial or full refund of the order without prior notification. We don't ship parts of orders or ship back-orders free of charge.

Best By/Best Before Dates: 

By definition, a packaged food product retains its quality until the Best By/Best Before Date. For most of these products, it will take another 4-6 months to loose some flavor or texture qualities.

Throwing out perfectly safe and tasty products as they near their stated Best By Date is a huge waste of valuable resources and contributes to environmental hazards. In fact, the EU, the UK and US food regulatory agencies are currently considering to modify or ban the Best By Date all together and replace it with a more realistic safety and quality indicator.

This is why we sell our shelf stable, imported products:

  • within 1 month of the stated shelf life at regular prices;
  • during the last month of the stated shelf life (listed in the ON SALE section of The Taste of Germany.com) at reduced prices;
  • 3 months beyond the Best By Date - indicated by BB added to the product name -  at significantly reduced prices, below our purchase cost. The Best By Date will be indicated in the product description.

Pre-Orders (only relevant between July and October)

Many of our products are seasonal and are available only in limited quantities, for example our German Christmas goodies or new product introductions. Generally, before we have physical inventory in our warehouse, these products can be pre-ordered. This guarantees that you'll receive this item on a "first-come-first-served" basis. When your order contains both everyday and pre-order items (for example, bratwurst sausages and Christmas gingerbread), we will ship your order when we have received all products and let you know accordingly. If you need the everyday items sooner, please let us know and we'll refund the pre-order. You can then place a new order for the seasonal items. 

There will always be a chance that some of our import partners did not receive some of the hard-to-find products that we had ordered back in spring of this year, due to last-minute manufacturer cancellations or shipping delays. We'll refund your payment for these products as soon as we know that they are not available this year. We greatly appreciate your understanding in these cases and apologize for the inconvenience.

Product Pictures:

Manufacturers frequently change the packaging and/or the name of products (even if the product inside does not change).  What we display on The Taste of Germany.com, therefore, may not always reflect the most current appearance of the product. We do not refund orders with packaging and/or product names that are different from what is shown on The Taste of Germany.com.

Accuracy of Product Listings:

We do our best to keep all product listings as accurate and as current as possible. However, due to our frequently changing assortment, unannounced packaging changes and deviations of package weights by suppliers, some product or pricing information on The Taste of Germany.com may be inaccurate or outdated. We regret the inconvenience, but cannot be held liable.

Fighting Food Waste:

Throwing away safe and edible food is not only an economic loss, but also contributes to the depletion of natural resources and environmental damages caused by mass agriculture. We are committed to doing our part to reduce food waste through recycling and best practices inventory management.

ORDERING

Coupon Codes:

We offer coupon codes from time to time which can be redeemed at checkout. Coupon codes can only used once per customer per calendar year. We do not accept coupon codes for Wholesale Purchase or Special Deals.

Promotions:

Unless otherwise stated, any promotion, special deal or discount advertised in newsletters, social media or on The Taste of Germany.com are good for 4 weeks after publication and subject to available inventory.

Sourcing and Shipping Variances:

A flat 2.5% charge is added to all orders to offset fluctuations in our costs to source, handle, pack and ship your order.

RECEIPT OF PRODUCTS

We consider all orders fulfilled when they leave our warehouse and cannot guarantee that packages will be delivered without delay, damage, or loss.  For these unexpected event that are beyond our control, we strongly urge you: do not opt out of the Route Insurance offered automatically at checkout. This insurance will cover loss and some damages of packages and a claim can easily be filed on the Route Website. P{lease check your order confirmation email for more information.

Receipt of Shipment:

Please use a ship-to address a recipient will be available to receive the delivery. Only USPS ships to P.O.Box addresses. If you or your gift recipient is not present at the time of delivery and damage occurs (i.e. melting, breakage or theft of the package), The Taste of Germany.com accepts no responsibility and will issue no refund.

Damaged products:

We pride ourselves on our packing skills and pack shipments as securely as possible. Despite our best efforts, however, some products may break or leak during delivery. If you've received damaged products please take a photo and send it to info@germanfoods.org within 24 hours. The Taste of Germany.com will issue a refund for the damaged items or send a replacement.

Lost or stolen packages:

Once a shipment shows "Delivered" on a carrier's tracking website, we consider it delivered.  We strongly urge you We will not issue a refund if packages are delivered to a neighbor, are subject to porch theft or are returned to us as undeliverables.  If a package gets lost in a carriers system and the Status remains "Undelivered" on a carrier's website, the Route Insurance may refund your payment or place another order with us to replace the lost products. On occasion we may issue a store credit or send a coupon to offset the part of the costs for a replacement, if Route insurance will not cover a lost package.. The Taste of Germany.com will not refund shipping costs for any orders.

RETURNS

All purchases are final.

Please check your order carefully.  We do not offer refunds or store credits when:

  • products were delivered intact and as described, but don't match the personal taste of the recipient;
  • an incorrect shipping address was provided;
  • products or quantities were selected in error;
  • the recipient was not available to take packages when the order was delivered;
  • packages were stolen after delivery;
  • the problem was not reported within 24 hours of delivery;
  • the problem or missing package was not reported after 30 days when the order was placed;
  • the order is fraudulent;

If you have any questions or concerns about your order , please contact us by email or call 1-800-881-6419.