1. Our Native Video Format is NTSC, but PAL format DVDs are available elsewhere

Our programs are available from us directly in the USA in the NTSC video format only. This is the television standard for such places as the USA, Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, etc.

If you live in the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Africa etc., your video standard likely is the PAL format (with some SECAM countries here and there). If you wish to buy our programs in the PAL format, please contact us via email and we will let you know who our current PAL distributor is for you. We do not have a SECAM distributor.

We understand from others that some of the newer PAL format DVD players can play both PAL and NTSC formatted programs. If you live overseas and know that your machine can play the NTSC format (and you have a television that can play the NTSC format also) then perhaps you could order the NTSC formatted programs directly from us. It is your choice. As always, check your hardware manual(s) to know what your equipment playback capabilities are. We are not responsible for any video format incompatibility issues you may experience.

2. Printed Catalog

We no longer have a printed catalog due to cost issues. Everything currently for sale along with full product descriptions is on our website. For those customers in the USA and Canada who want a paper copy of our offerings, we can send you a printed list of our current video programs, books and any other services after you send us $2.00. As you can appreciate, it costs money to reproduce and mail the lists and the $2.00 fee covers that cost. When you order something later, you will be credited the $2.00 cost of the listing.

3. Ordering – General Order Process

Our products and services are listed online in several categories, such as “DVDs” or “Books.” You can also search via keywords such as: railroad names (e.g. Norfolk and Western), locomotive numbers (e.g. “4449,” “Frisco 1522”), or authors (e.g. Chapelon) or anything else that might work.

You may order online DVDs and Books only (see “Online Ordering” below). VHS orders must be made other ways (see below) due to limited VHS quantities in stock.

You may call us and we can take all your data that way. This is one of the only ways to order VHS programs which are in short supply, or handle specific shipping requests (e.g. UPS, FedEx or Express Mail) and so on. If we do not answer the phone in person, please leave a secure message including your preferred phone number. Include your area code, where you live, and a good time to call you back. Please repeat the phone number and speak slowly and clearly. We only make calls to the USA and Canada.

You may fax us with all the data we need, including your phone number and your credit card data. Our fax machine is also secure. (See data guide below).

You may mail us all the data we need, including your phone number and your credit card data. Our Post Office Box is secure. (See data guide below).

Ordering Data Guide - information we need when you call, fax, mail or email us.
Please spell anything you are dictating if it is not totally obvious.
Please speak clearly and slowly.
The data we need are:

• Your First and Last Names
• Your Shipping address:
• PO Box or Street Address (Note: UPS etc. require a street address)
• City
• State / Province
• Postal /Zip Code
• Country (if not USA)
• Your Billing Address - per the above (if different from the shipping address)
• Your Credit or Debit Card Data
• The type of card
• All 16 numbers on your card
• The expiration month and year.
• We take MasterCard and Visa only when you order by mail, fax, email or call us on the phone.
• When you order online, more credit cards may be used via PayPal along with your PayPal account).
• Your preferred phone number, including area code, and a good time to call you should we have any questions (we only call the USA and Canada). Please repeat your phone number.
• Your email address if you have one.

4. Online Ordering, Online Orders, Shopping Cart

We have selected the PayPal “Shopping Cart” and their secure server payment system for your use. It is a proven and secure system. When you use it, we will never see your credit card information. It is mouse friendly and intuitive.

If you are ordering from Canada, and from selected and approved overseas countries, please read the “Shipping Policy” below before using the Online Ordering feature. You may have to contact us directly as foreign shipping costs are high and our PayPal system is not geared to handle heavy shipments or special shipping methods. If you use the PayPal online ordering system in error, we will have to contact you. You then may be required to pay more shipping fees or, if we cannot reach an agreement, your order will have to be cancelled.

At this time, we only use the PayPal system for DVDs and Books.  VHS orders must still be telephoned in, emailed, faxed or snail mailed to us due to the diminishing quantities of VHS programs available.

For each DVD and Book you will see an “Add to Cart” button. When you click on this, you are taken to the “Shopping Cart” summary page which lists the item, quantity, price and total cost. You may change the quantity or delete an item at anytime. You must manually “recalculate” the dollar data every time you change the details of an order. When you are done with one item, you may “Continue Shopping” and repeat the process. You can see the status of your shopping cart at any time by clicking on a “View Cart” button. You may “Checkout” and pay via a variety of credit cards or your PayPal account at anytime.

At “Checkout” you will enter your Billing and Shipping addresses and other information that will allow us to get in touch with you if necessary. Basic shipping charges are added automatically for simple USA, Canadian and approved foreign country orders (see below for shipping costs) but you MUST contact us for any deviations from the basic order types to find out the appropriate shipping charges.

If you have entered any data incorrectly, the “system” should pick up some errors (like invalid credit or debit card data) and alert you so you can make corrections. If you enter fraudulent but correct data, we have no way of verifying this other than what PayPal can do. We are not responsible for such errors or items shipped to a wrongly entered shipping address and so on.

When your order has been processed, both you and we will receive an email confirming your order and that payment has been made to us.

If you have any problems using the online ordering feature, or do not wish to use it, please contact us.

5. Payment Options, How to Pay Us

We take US dollars only.  Foreign customers, when paying via credit or debit cards, should be billed in your local currency via a conversion rate applied by your credit or debit card issuer. We have no control over and are not responsible for the currency conversion rates or any fees you experience.

Off-line payments may be made via Personal or Certified checks written on a US Bank, via a US Postal or other US Dollar Money Order (e.g. Wal Mart) or via MasterCard or Visa credit or debit cards. You may transmit your credit card information to us via several secure means: in person by telephone, via voice message machine, via fax or via snail mail to our secure post office box.

Online payments using our PayPal shopping cart are made via MasterCard and Visa and other popular credit cards, or your PayPal account. You do not have to have a PayPal account to use this service. We will never see your credit card information if you use PayPal.

Since there is fraud in the checking and money order worlds, we have the following policy in effect:

• Payments made via personal check or Money Order - the order must wait to ship until the check or money order has cleared. If your check or money order does not clear we are charged a fee by our bank. In that event, we will ask you to furnish a new payment that includes that bank fee as well, but we reserve the right to ask for a Certified Check or a credit or debit card number in lieu of a new check. We reserve the right not to accept any more checks or money orders from you. (If your check or money order bounces, we will notify the proper authorities as required to make us whole).

6. Sales Tax

New Jersey residents will be charged the current state sales tax rate, which at this time is 7%. This tax is applied, by law, to the SUM total of [the cost of the items ordered] PLUS [the cost of shipping]. The NJ sales tax is not applied just to the product cost total.

7. Privacy Policy

We do not sell or divulge any customer data you have given us to anyone except as required by law.

For those of you using PayPal, please see their website for their privacy policy.

8. Your Email Address

If you send or give us an email address, we may send you a short notice of new products or services or special deals from time to time, but this will be infrequent and not a deluge of emails to you. You can opt out at any time by emailing us your preferences. We do not intentionally give your email address to anyone else.

9. Shipping Policy, Shipping and Handling Costs

General

This can be endlessly complicated. We are trying to keep it simple and easy for you and us.

We do not charge your credit or debit card until we ship the order unless you use PayPal, in which case your account is charged as soon as you place your order.

We try to ship everything within a week of receiving your order, subject to certain payment types clearing, product availability and us being in town. You should receive your order within 2 - 3 weeks depending on how you hit the shipping cycle, what class of service your order is shipped, whether we are running low on some items and have to restock, and where you live. If we are out of town, your order can take an additional one or more weeks to process. Overseas orders follow these same comments but overseas mail service and timing of delivery is a whole other situation.

Everything is sent via regular, uninsured means unless you contact us and make other arrangements at additional cost to you. We have a post office (or other carrier) record of everything we ship so we can verify to you that your order was shipped. We do special requests such as insurance, delivery confirmations, signature required deliveries, registered mail, Express Mail, Priority Mail, 2nd Day Air UPS, DHL and so on, all at additional cost to the buyer. Without taking out extra services such as those listed above, the risk of a shipping loss is on you, the customer. Our experience has been that ~99% of all shipments get through to the correct address in the USA and Canada on the first try. Only you know your local and personal mail and express delivery circumstances and risks.

• Foreign customers should consider paying for insurance and/or registered mail to reduce the chances of loss or theft depending on your country.
• Items shipped to Canada and most Northern European countries have less need for insurance based on experience, but conditions can change.
• We have had poor success mailing uninsured and unregistered packages to South America and South Africa, for example.
• Any additional charges are billed to you at our cost.

Foreign customers are subject to paying import and/or customs duties which we cannot estimate and are not responsible for. We have no comment on this topic and make no guarantees as to such amounts or other issues that you may encounter.

The simple, basic, uninsured shipping rates are presented in the table below. More details are in the text following the table. These shipping charges are subject to change as US Postal Service rates rise.

Online Ordering, Online Orders - The PayPal shopping cart will add in the basic shipping fee below based on your country. Our basic shipping and handling fees are based on the dollar amount of your order and the high likelihood that you are ordering DVDs and not twenty hardcover books. If you have, in our sole judgment, an order heavier or different than our assumed basic order, you must contact us in advance to determine what the shipping costs will be -- do not use the shopping cart feature out of hand. If you do not have a basic order and prematurely use the PayPal shopping cart, we will have to contact you for additional payment as circumstances warrant.

Please note that we do not sell to every country in the world that PayPal serves. We only sell to a subset of countries per the list in the table below. If you live in a country not listed below, please email us.

USA Orders – Shipping Cost Details

• We add a flat $6.00 per order for shipping almost any order to any USA address via basic means.
• We use the US Postal Service as much as possible since they are the cheapest overall in this age of fuel surcharges added by other package shipping companies.
• The class of shipment is up to us and depends on the weight of what you buy. Examples:
• One or two DVDs probably will go First Class Mail.
• Three DVDs may go Priority Mail or Media Mail.
• Weightier orders will go Media Mail (e.g. many DVDs, any VHS tapes, and any books).
• Media mail delivery times vary widely but coast-to-coast, the longest time, normally takes 10 business days. The delivery time guaranteed/estimated by the post office has generally been longer than it has taken in practice we find. Media Mail is similar to Parcel Post except that books and videos qualify for this cheaper rate.
• If you want other shipping, such as UPS or FedEx, or Priority or Express Mail, please do NOT use the online ordering facility. Instead call, email or fax us with your order so we can discuss it with you and compute the proper shipping charges. Note that UPS and similar carriers require a physical address and not a post office box.
• If you want your shipment insured or with another service option, please do not use the online ordering facility. Instead call, email or fax us with your order so we can discuss and compute the proper shipping and insurance charges with you.

Canadian Orders – Shipping Cost Details

• One to Three DVDs would cost $8.00 US flat shipping rate for airmail shipping for an order less than $93.00.
• (If your order is more than $93.00, we set the online shipping charge at $500 to encourage you to contact us).
• There is no more surface mail to Canada, at least as far as the rates go.
• Any order OTHER than one to three DVDs, please do not use the online ordering facility. Instead call, email or fax us with your order so we can discuss and compute the proper shipping and any insurance charges with you before we ask for payment. Shipping books via an airmail rate is expensive, so you must contact us.
• It used to be that mail to Canada went surface OR airmail. Today, it all goes at an airmail rate. Depending on the weight it can be quite pricey.
• Shipping to Canada via UPS or FedEx is possible but the costs are normally higher than using regular mail services. Note that UPS and similar carriers require a physical address and not a post office box and they can add fuel surcharges.
• You may have to pay duties and taxes on your imported envelope or package and we have no control over this. We must, by law, fill out a customs declaration slip here telling what the contents of your package are.
• If you want your shipment insured or shipped via registered mail, then please call, email or fax us with your order so we can discuss and compute the proper shipping and insurance charges with you before we ask for payment.

Orders from Austria, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, New Zealand, Sweden, Liechtenstein, Belgium, France, UK, Luxembourg, Australia, Netherlands, Japan, Norway – Shipping Cost Details

VIDEOS

• One – Three DVDs would cost $15.00 US flat shipping rate for airmail shipping for an order less than $93.00.
• (If your order is more than $93.00, we set the online shipping charge at $500 to encourage you to contact us).
• All of our video programs are available from the USA on the NTSC television standard ONLY.
• We do not sell PAL or SECAM versions of our programs from the USA.
• If you wish a PAL version of a DVD, please contact us and we can place you in contact with the current distributor(s) of our PAL products overseas.
• Any order OTHER than one to three DVDs, please do not use the online ordering facility. Instead call, email or fax us with your order so we can discuss and compute the proper shipping and insurance charges with you.
• We have had problems shipping mail parcels to South America and South Africa – some arrive and some do not. Other countries seem to work most of the time.
• We really must advise you that to ensure that you get your order, that the order be sent via insured and/or registered mail (per circumstances), at your additional cost.
• You do not have to make use of insurance or registered mail and you may place an order without paying the additional fees. In the event you decline insurance or registered mail, we will be able to prove that we sent the package to you (via a mailing receipt issued in the USA), but if you do not receive your order, the risk of loss is on you.
• Alternatively, we can ship via express carriers (e.g. FedEx or DHL) but these carriers are very expensive versus regular mail services.
• If you wish only one NTSC DVD, we have had some luck sending them in a padded envelope (not in a box) via the mail and most have gotten through.
• Any concerns, please contact us before placing an order.
• You may have to pay duties and taxes on your imported item and we have no control over this. We must, by USA law, fill out a customs declaration slip here declaring what the contents of your package are.
• If you want your shipment insured and/or sent registered mail, then please call, email or fax us with your order so we can discuss and compute the proper shipping and insurance charges with you before we ask for payment.

BOOKS

• Shipping books via an airmail rate overseas is extremely expensive, so you must contact us first. Please do not use the online ordering facility. Please email, fax or snail mail us so we can discuss and compute your total shipping costs before you pay.

Orders from ANY other country not listed above

You MUST CONTACT US FIRST – we may not sell OR ship to your country for a variety of reasons and/or the shipping charges will be high.

To urge you to contact us, the Online Ordering shipping fees have been set extraordinarily high.

10. Inventory and Product Availability, Backorder Situation

Video Programs –

• We attempt to maintain all DVDs on our website in stock at all times, but sometimes we may run out for a “short” period if demand is abnormally high.
• VHS programs are subject to availability and when they are gone, they are gone. That is why you cannot order VHS online.

If we are out of stock we will notify you when you place the order and we can jointly figure out if you want to wait, do something else or get a refund. We prefer to ship an entire order at one time and not split-ship an order.

Books –

• Some of our book titles are not stocked in large quantities. When the titles are gone, they are gone. Hopefully we can keep our web site current so these situations do not arise.
• You may order online of course but if you wish to be certain of availability, contact us first.
• If you order online and we are out of stock, we will refund your order or mutually agree on a substitute product you find acceptable.

11. Return Policy

Defective video tapes or DVDs that suffer from a manufacturing or duplication defect are returnable for an exchange only, of the same title (assuming availability), after contacting us to discuss the matter and only when (1) a copy of our original invoice to you is included along with the defective item and (2) we have determined that the customer has not ruined the original tape or DVD via negligence or mishandling.

All requests for returns must be made within 45 days of the original order and you should contact us first to discuss the situation and have the return approved. If a replacement item is no longer available, we will offer you an alternative program that is in stock or a refund (see policy below).

We cannot inspect 100% of every item that we make and ship, but rest assured that we make every effort to ship only perfect products. However, every now and then a defective item may slip through. We have had less than five returns or complaints over many years, and three of them were problems on the customer’s end, one of them a weird DVD player compatibility issue that we worked through on the phone. We will attempt to work with you on any problems you experience in a professional manner to the amicable resolution of any issues.

12. Refund Policy

Refunds will be handled on a case by case basis. Examples of possible refund circumstances:

• If you make an error in your online order (e.g. use the online PayPal shopping cart to order books shipped to an overseas address against our instructions) we will have to cancel your order and issue a refund unless we communicate and you pay us the additional shipping fees required (see above).
• If you order something that becomes permanently out-of-stock, we will refund the amount of that item.
• Refunds that arise out of approved product returns (see above).

13. DVD Player Compatibility Issues

Once or twice a year someone will contact us and say a DVD does not play on their player. This is possible, but more likely than not these days the problem is with the DVD player. Old (pre-1999) or very inexpensive DVD players sometimes have problems playing certain DVD formats. There are various websites that purport to show what players are compatible with what DVD format. This data can change often and goes out of date as DVD player models change. When you buy a DVD player, you should make certain that it plays “DVD-R” format DVDs. “Regular” DVDs, otherwise known as ‘replicated’ DVDs [like Hollywood sells] should play by default with no problems as this was the original DVD format. “DVD-R” format DVDs are the most common format after the Replicated / Hollywood format and are widely used these days. If your DVD player will not play a “Hollywood” (‘replicated’) DVD, then the likelihood of your DVD player being at fault is very high.

Some of our DVDs are ‘Replicated’ (also so-called ‘pressed’) and some are ‘Duplicated’ via the DVD-R format. We have never sold DVD+R or DVD+/-RW DVDs. Replicated DVDs should play on any machine as this is the default standard DVD format. Replicated DVDs are produced generally only when anticipated sales justify the higher cost to run the large, minimum order quantities (e.g. Hollywood productions, railroad videos of subjects known to sell to many customers). A number of railroad video producers today sell DVD-R format DVDs. DVD-R DVDs generally are the next best thing to a replicated DVD in terms of being able to be played on the widest number of DVD players. With the improvements in technology over the years, the DVD-R format has taken over for a number of railroad programs made for sale in our hobby quantities. Whether a railroad DVD is sold in the ‘replicated’ or DVD-R format is all a matter of economics. We use only top quality DVD-R blanks.

Our DVD-R programs are region free and will play anywhere in the world on players that have an NTSC standard capability. In recent years, we have been told that more and more PAL players sold in Europe, Australia and New Zealand have NTSC playback capability as well so you may be able to play our NTSC programs without hassle. But even if your DVD player plays the NTSC format, we understand that your television set / monitor must be able to play (receive) the NTSC signal. We are also told that DVDs should play on many personal and laptop computers, as another viewing option. As they say, read your instruction manuals to ensure that your equipment can play what we sell. We are not responsible for playback format incompatibility issues.

14. Dealer Orders, Store Orders and Wholesale Orders

All pricing on our website and all shipping and handling charges are geared towards retail customers.
If you are a dealer, store, museum, catalog company or similar, please contact us directly for pricing and shipping related to wholesale orders.

15. Contact information:

Goodheart Productions
P.O. Box 591
Convent Station
New Jersey  07961   USA

Phone:
Voice:              973 – 683 – 1218    
Fax:                 973 – 683 – 0091

Please call between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time for the USA
If there is no answer, please leave a secure, recorded message.

Email: