Shipping, Returns & Refunds

Version 2.4 · Effective August 26, 2026

Shipping, Returns & Refunds

Q Fabrication Labs qfablabs.com

Version 2.4 Effective date: August 26, 2026 Last updated: August 26, 2026

This version supersedes all earlier versions. The version that applies to your order is the one shown to you and recorded when you placed it. Changes in v2.4: shipping described as passed through with no markup; carrier no longer named in-copy (we still choose it per order); finishing described generically; recital simplified.

This page summarises how we handle delivery, cancellations, and refunds. It's here to be easy to find and quick to read. The full detail lives in our Terms of Service — if the two ever disagree, the Terms of Service governs.

Where we ship

United States only. We do not ship internationally and we do not accept orders from outside the U.S.

How your order gets to you

You choose at checkout. Which options you see depends on your address and your order total.

Shipping — anywhere in the US

We ship anywhere in the US, and we choose the carrier and service unless we've agreed otherwise with you. Your shipping cost is calculated for your parcel and shown in your quote before you pay.

If actual shipping turns out to be dramatically more than we estimated — an unusually large or heavy order, or a remote address — we'll contact you before shipping. We won't quietly bill you more.

Local pickup (Tucson area) — no shipping fee, where offered

Where we offer local pickup for your order, you'll see Local pickup at checkout; select it and we waive the shipping charge entirely. We'll email you pickup instructions — where, when, and how — as soon as your order is ready.

Bring your order number. We may ask you to confirm your identity; we're not handing someone else's prototype to a stranger.

Local pickup isn't offered on every order. When you don't see it at checkout, it isn't currently available — use shipping, or local delivery if you qualify.
We may add, change, or withdraw local pickup at any time — but only for orders placed afterward, never one already placed.
When it's shown to you at checkout and you select it, we're bound to honour it for that order. Whatever options are shown to you at checkout govern your order.

Local delivery (Tucson area) — no shipping fee, on orders of $500 or more

For orders totalling $500 or more, delivered to an address inside our Tucson delivery area, you can select Local delivery at checkout and we'll bring it to you at no shipping charge.

How we decide if you qualify:

Your order total must be $500 or more. Below that, the option appears at checkout but is disabled, with a note telling you why — we won't leave you guessing. It's deliberate, not a bug: driving an order across town costs us real time, and it only makes sense on larger orders.
Your delivery ZIP code must be on our eligible list. We maintain a list of ZIP codes we deliver to in the Tucson area. If yours isn't on it, the option is disabled and we say so — again, no mystery.
Both conditions must be met. If either fails, use shipping or local pickup instead.

When the option is offered to you and you select it, we are bound to honour it for that order. This is a standing offer, not a favour.

We may change the $500 threshold, change the eligible ZIP list, or stop offering local delivery entirely — but only for orders placed after we do so. A change never affects an order you've already placed. Whatever terms are shown to you at checkout are the terms that govern your order, even if this page hasn't caught up.

Waiving the shipping fee does not waive sales tax

Pickup and local delivery are Arizona destinations. Arizona Transaction Privilege Tax still applies to your order exactly as it would on a shipped order. We're waiving a delivery charge, not a tax — and we're not allowed to waive a tax.

If we can't complete a local delivery

If nobody's there to receive your order, we'll contact you and arrange another time. After two failed attempts, we'll treat the order as awaiting pickup, and the 30-day rule below applies.

How long it takes

We are a small shop, and everything is made to order. There is no warehouse. Your part does not exist until we print it.

The promise: we dispatch within 14 days

We will hand your order to the carrier — or have it ready for pickup, or deliver it locally — within 14 calendar days of taking your payment. For orders that needed review, the 14 days runs from when we captured your final amount.
Most orders go out much faster. Fourteen days is our outside limit, not our target.
If we can't hit it, you decide what happens — not us. We'll email you before the deadline (not after) with the new date we expect. That email has a secure link with two buttons:
"Refund my order." Instant, automatic, full refund — or release of the hold. No argument, no restocking fee, no waiting on us to get round to it.
"I'll wait." You accept the new ship-by date shown in the email. That new date then replaces our original 14-day promise for your order, and it's the date we're held to.

If you don't click anything, you lose nothing: your order stays fully refundable right up until it ships. We will never quietly keep your money and carry on printing while you're waiting to hear from us.

The estimate: helpful, but not a promise

Before you order, the Site shows an estimated delivery date. It is built from two very different things:

Part of the estimate	Who controls it	Is it a promise?
Dispatch time — how long until your part is made and out the door, based on how busy our queue actually is right now	Us	Yes — capped at 14 days
Carrier transit time — how long the carrier takes to get it from us to you	The carrier	No

We show you the combined figure because it's the number you actually care about. But please understand what it is: our honest best guess, not a guarantee.

Carrier transit time is expressly outside our 14-day commitment. If we dispatch on day 3 and the carrier takes a week longer than its own estimate said it would, that is not a broken promise on our part, and it isn't grounds for a refund. We'll help you chase them, but we can't make a truck go faster.

What is a broken promise: we fail to dispatch within 14 days and didn't tell you. Then you get your money back.

For local pickup and local delivery there's no carrier, so the 14-day limit covers the whole thing — we'll have it ready for you, or in your hands, inside 14 days.

Things that affect timing

Orders needing review (finishing or hand-work, or anything we flag for a manual price) take longer, because a human prices them before printing begins.
The "rush" option moves you up our queue. It does not speed up the carrier, and it is not a delivery guarantee.

Once it ships

Risk of loss passes to you when we hand your parts to the carrier (or, for pickup and local delivery, when they're handed to you).

We are not responsible for carrier delays, loss, theft, or damage in transit. If you'd like insurance or signature confirmation, ask us before we ship and we'll arrange it at your cost. If a package goes missing, tell us — we'll help you chase the carrier, but we can't guarantee a replacement.

Cancellations

You can cancel for a full refund within 12 hours of placing your order, or before we start printing — whichever comes first.

Two ways to do it, and both count the same:

The cancellation link on your receipt — self-service and instant. You don't have to wait for us.
Email us at [email protected].

The deadline is identical either way. What matters is when your cancellation reaches us, not which route you used. If the link doesn't work for any reason, email always works and we'll honour it on the same terms.

After that, your parts are custom-made to your specification and have no resale value, so we generally can't cancel or refund. If we haven't started your job yet, we'll usually still let you cancel — just ask, and we'll tell you honestly whether the printer has started.

We often start printing quickly. If you've made a mistake — wrong file, wrong material, wrong settings — email us immediately rather than waiting.

We may also cancel your order, for the reasons set out in the Terms of Service (an unprintable file, an oversized part, an obviously wrong quote, a prohibited item). If we cancel before printing, you get a full refund.

Returns

Custom-manufactured parts are not returnable just because you changed your mind, ordered the wrong thing, uploaded the wrong file, picked the wrong material, or chose print settings you now regret. Nothing we make can be resold to anyone else.

Please don't send anything back unless we ask you to.

If something's actually wrong with your part

Tell us within 10 days of delivery, with photos. Email [email protected].

If your part is genuinely defective — materially different from your model, printed in the wrong material, printed at the wrong settings, badly delaminated or under-extruded, or damaged by our process — we'll either reprint it or refund what you paid for it, at our option.

But please know what 3D printing looks like first. The following are normal characteristics of FDM printing, not defects, and aren't grounds for a refund:

Visible layer lines. Every FDM part has them. Finer settings reduce them; nothing eliminates them.
Dimensional variance of roughly ±0.5%, with a floor of ±0.5 mm. A 100 mm feature may measure 99.5–100.5 mm.
Holes printing undersized by 0.1–0.5 mm. Design your clearances accordingly.
Support witness marks — rougher patches or small scars where supports were removed.
Slight warping, shrinkage, stringing, or minor colour variation between spools.
A part being weaker across the layers than along them. That's how the process works.

If you need tighter tolerances than the above, FDM isn't the right process for your part — talk to us before you order.

How refunds are paid

Refunds go back to your original payment method, via Stripe.

We'll be straight with you about timing: the part we control is fast, the part your bank controls is not.

We submit your refund to Stripe promptly — normally within one business day of approving it, and immediately for automated cancellations and delay refunds.
Then it's up to your bank. Money typically appears on your statement in 5–10 business days, occasionally longer. We can't speed that up, and neither can Stripe. Anyone who promises you a faster number is guessing.
If it's been more than 10 business days, email us. We'll send you the Stripe confirmation so you can take it to your bank.

If your order was on an authorization hold, releasing the hold isn't a refund — no money ever left your account. Your bank may still take a few business days to drop the pending charge from your statement. That's your bank's timing, not a charge. Read how holds work →

Before you file a chargeback, please just email us

We're a small operation, a person reads every email, and we'd much rather fix a problem than fight about it. [email protected].

Questions? [email protected]

Q Fabrication Labs is the trading name of Q Fab Labs LLC, an Arizona limited liability company — Tucson, Arizona