FAQs

We are located in Leongatha, Victoria, Australia in a lovely part of the world, South Gippsland.

Although our studio does not have a shopfront, you can find us at various markets around the region.

We can also be found on Instagram, Facebook, Etsy and Pinterest, and we love receiving reviews of our business on Google.

Yes, we take photos and videos of all products we make and share those on our various social media accounts, Etsy, Google, print media, other websites and our own website. This includes using photos of products in product listings on our website.

For the purposes of advertising on social media, our website and other locations, we reserve the right to use any photos or videos we take of products we create, including those taken during the production phase and upon completion.

If your order includes an item that is a surprise, secret, etc and you would like us to delay posting photos/videos until a particular date, please be sure to mention this in the text box at the time of ordering. You may also message or email us to discuss prior.

If we are not alerted to any need to delay use of a particular photo or video, your item will be shown on our social media accounts, website or elsewhere at a time chosen by us, including before Mother's/Father's Day, a wedding or other celebration.

We work extremely hard to have orders made and shipped as soon as is humanly possible.

Most items are made within 5 business days during non-peak periods and within 10 business days during peak periods.

Once the design, production and packaging process is complete, you will receive a shipping confirmation email including tracking number (or for local pick up you will receive an email notifying you that your order is ready and the address from where you can pick it up).

Please note that selecting the Express Post shipping option at checkout does not expedite the design and production process.

All orders are sent by regular post via Australia Post from South Gippsland, Victoria. Please refer to the Australia Post website for estimated delivery times as these constantly change due to the time of year, significant events and network congestion. We cannot guarantee exact arrival times for any order. Australia Post does not guarantee an exact delivery time, only delivery within a reasonable timeframe.

Express delivery via Australia Post is only available within Australia. As our studio is located in South Gippsland VIC, we are not within a guaranteed next day delivery area so please be mindful of this when placing your order and selecting Express Shipping. 

Each order is sent with a tracking number, which is provided in the shipping confirmation email. You can use this number to track your package on the Australia Post website: https://auspost.com.au/mypost/track/

Please note, all orders are sent via Australia Post with ‘Authority to Leave’, meaning the delivery person may leave the parcel in a safe place (as determined by Australia Post). If no safe place is available, a calling card will be left for the parcel to be retrieved from the nearest Australia Post outlet.

We have a 24 hour turnaround service for an additional fee. This is only available for certain products on our website and not available for custom designs. However, if your required product does not have this option, please call us on 0488 632 810 and we will do out best to help.

If you are selecting the 24 hour turnaround option, please call us on the number above prior to finalising your order to ensure we are aware of its urgency and have capacity to help.

Absolutely! We’re located in Leongatha VIC and can arrange flexible local pick up.

If you’re elsewhere in South Gippsland or the Latrobe Valley, feel free to contact us prior to placing your order to see if we’re heading in your direction and can save you postage costs!

Every item is made with lots of love and care and is thoroughly inspected and packaged adequately before being dispatched from our premises.

If your order arrives damaged, you may be eligible for compensation from Australia Post. All claims for compensation must be lodged directly with Australia post within a specific timeframe. For damaged items, we recommend taking photos of the product and packaging. 

Please refer to our Returns & Cancellations Policy provided on our website for further information.

All orders are sent via Australia Post with ‘Authority to Leave’, meaning the delivery person may leave the parcel in a safe place (as determined by Australia Post). If no safe place is available, a calling card will be left for the parcel to be retrieved from the nearest Australia Post outlet. If you order has been stolen, please contact Australia Post directly.

You can find more information on claims for compensation and how to make a claim on Australia Post’s website: https://auspost.com.au/receiving/delayed-lost-or-damaged-items/compensation

Meridian Etch does not guarantee a claim for compensation will be approved nor the timeframe in which a claim will be assessed. 

Absolutely! Just give us a call on 0488 632 810 or send an email to hello@meridianetch.com.au ASAP. As we work as fast as we can, we are obviously unable to add to your order if it has already been dispatched. In this case, you will need to place another order online.

All orders are sent by regular post via Australia Post and can therefore be sent to a PO Box. If for some reason we opt to use another delivery service, we will contact you beforehand.

As we're committed to protecting our environment for future generations, we choose to send all correspondence electronically to save wasting paper unnecessarily. Our parcels are sent with a Thank You card included but no invoice, receipt or mention of price, etc so you can happily place an order and input the recipients delivery details.

You are prompted before checkout to ensure all personalisations and available choices are correct.

As all of our products are made to order according to your specifications, returns and re-makes are not possible. However, if you have made an error and contact us asap we will do our best to assist with an affordable re-run fee to have the error amended and the product remade before dispatch.

If the order has already been dispatched, you will need to place a new order online.

As all of our products are made to order with a lot of time spent designing, crafting and processing each order, refunds are not available where you change your mind or the recipient already has the item.

Please refer to our Returns & Cancellations Policy.

Every item is made with lots of love and care and is thoroughly inspected and packaged adequately before being dispatched from our premises. We do not provide returns, refunds or exchanges for orders that have been lost, stolen or damaged during transit.

If your order arrives damaged, you may be eligible for compensation from Australia Post. All claims for compensation must be lodged directly with Australia post within a specific timeframe. For damaged items, we recommend taking photos of the product and packaging. 

Please refer to our Returns & Cancellations Policy provided on our website for further information.

All orders are sent via Australia Post with ‘Authority to Leave’, meaning the delivery person may leave the parcel in a safe place (as determined by Australia Post). If no safe place is available, a calling card will be left for the parcel to be retrieved from the nearest Australia Post outlet. If you order has been stolen, please contact Australia Post directly.

You can find more information on claims for compensation and how to make a claim on Australia Post’s website: https://auspost.com.au/receiving/delayed-lost-or-damaged-items/compensation

Meridian Etch does not guarantee a claim for compensation will be approved nor the timeframe in which a claim will be assessed. 

Delays to standard or express delivery due to network congestion or other issues experienced by Australia Post or other delivery service providers are out of our control. Therefore, we are unable to offer a refund or exchange.

As per our Shipping Policy, selecting Express Shipping does not expedite the order and production process.

Where your item has been lost in transit, you can find more information on claims for compensation and how to make a claim on Australia Post’s website: https://auspost.com.au/receiving/delayed-lost-or-damaged-items/compensation

Prior to finalising an order, each customer is prompted to agree that they have checked all personalisation and available choices to ensure there are no errors or omissions.

All custom designs also include one or more revisions. This means we send the design proof to you by email for you to check the design layout prior to production.

We then combine the approved design layout with your colour selections and other choices that you confirmed prior to finalising your order.

As a result, we do not offer refunds where your final product is not as you expected.

We also specify on our website that natural wood varies in colour, pattern, texture, blemishes, imperfections, and darkness and consistency of any engraving, and that colours on a digital screen may vary to their appearance in real life.

We work extremely hard to have orders made and shipped as soon as is humanly possible.

Most items are made within 5 business days during non-peak periods and within 10 business days during peak periods.

Once the design, production and packaging process is complete, you will receive a shipping confirmation email including tracking number (or for local pick up you will receive an email notifying you that your order is ready and the address from where you can pick it up).

Please note that selecting the Express Post shipping option at checkout does not expedite the design and production process.

Personalised products are ones created from designs available on our website, where we alter the colour(s) of the material and the wording or name (as specified in the product description). These do not include alterations to images, layout or shape of the item.

Non-personalised products are those which do not require any alterations. What you see is what you get.

Custom designed products are custom designed by us based on your specific instructions. We create them from scratch using your own imagination or ours, based on the description, images, fonts and examples you provide. Sometimes you know exactly what you want and can draw your idea on paper and send a photo to us. Other times you have a rough idea but need a little help with the creativity side of things. Where you have seen a design online and want us to replicate it, we are required by law to make sufficient alterations to avoid breaching copyright laws. Therefore, custom designed products will always be as close to your requested design as legally possible. With all custom designs, we send you a proof for review and approval prior to production to ensure you are happy with it.

As all designs are created and owned by us, we reserve the right to reuse a custom design and add it to our product range as a personalised or non-personalised option for other customers to purchase.

This is very common for name tags, Christmas decorations and other gifts. Please ensure you do not add 10 of an item to your cart with the same lot of personalisation as you will receive 10 of the exact same thing (although we will often check with you beforehand just in case, we cannot guarantee this every time as some people actually do want multiples of the exact same thing!).

To purchase multiples of the same item with different personalisation/name on each, please create them individually and therefore add them to your cart individually.

If you are unsure or would like to check with us before finalising your order, please give us a call or send us an email.

Unless specified in the product description, all wooden items are created from 3mm plywood.

Please note that due to the natural materials used in many of our products, each item is unique and will vary in colour, pattern, texture, blemishes, imperfections, and darkness and consistency of any engraving.

All personalised products use a standard design template with colours, fonts and wording personalised as mentioned in each individual product listing.

Personalised products do not include an option to review the design prior to production due to their affordable price not accounting for this and the sheer volume of orders we receive.

Custom designed products are priced to include a minimum of one design revision prior to production. The number of revisions is specified in each product listing.

How you hang an item on the wall depends on its weight and whether you want to permanently or temporarily afix it to the wall.

We recommend standoffs attached to the wall, Command brand mounting strips or double-sided tape secured at multiple anchor points as these come in different sizes for different weight items and have a range of options for damage-free hanging.

Please ensure you follow all instructions that come with your chosen mounting method to prevent items falling from walls and causing damage or injury. In particular, we recommend that you ensure the wall is clean and free from dust and moisture before mounting any item to the wall.

For further information on how to care for your item, please refer to the relevant information on our Product Care & Safety page.

Our items do not come with mounting equipment as everyone has their own personal preference as to how they like or need their item displayed.

Some items have the option for holes to be cut for the item to be hung. Items may be displayed on our website with holes. These are for display purposes only as an example of how you may choose to mount your item. Holes are only cut for items where this option is selected at the time of placing an order.

Items do not come with double-sided tape.

Some of our wooden products have space for you to write your preferred details (eg: birth announcement plaques). Due to wood being a natural material with a grainy porous surface, textas and other markers and paint pens will bleed.

We recommend using a ball point pen to prevent the ink bleeding and ruining the product.

We strongly recommend you test your chosen pen on the back of the item to ensure you are happy with its appearance before proceeding to write on the front.

For further information on how to care for your item, please refer to the relevant information on our Product Care & Safety page.

Any product advertised on our website as a chalkboard is to be used with normal everyday chalk only.

Do not use chalk pens, chalk markers or liquid chalk of any kind as these are often manufactured for permanency so they will be difficult to remove, often requiring you to paint over it with chalkboard paint (which is an option if you choose to do so).

If a dry duster has not sufficiently removed the chalk, you may choose to wipe over it with a clean damp cloth, ensuring not to get any surrounding timber surfaces wet. Allow to fully dry before storing for next use.

For further information on how to care for your item, please refer to the relevant information on our Product Care & Safety page.

Each item is crafted with so much love and care to ensure it is clean when dispatched and all parts are secured properly.

As mentioned on each product listing, you must ensure that you read and understand the information relevant to your product and material type on our Product Care & Safety page. This will ensure the quality and longevity of your item.

Please contact us asap if you have any questions, need clarification or do not understand anything on our website as the safety of your product, all people and all pets is our priority.

We do not sell toys.

All products listed on our website are not toys and should not be given to or left within reach of children or pets.

For further information on how to use and care for your item, please refer to the relevant information on our Product Care & Safety page.

Sometimes our giveaways are created using excess stock or end of line products/materials so to ensure consistency and fairness to all winners, swapping products is not possible.

Urgh, this happens to us sometimes too!

To be consistent and fair to everyone, we cannot apply a discount to orders that have already been paid for.

We strongly recommend you sign up to our mailing list and turn on notifications for our Facebook and Instagram posts to keep up to date with sales. Sometimes our mailing list subscribers get early access to our sales so it is worth signing up (bottom right of every page on our website).

All winners for our giveaways are chosen at random by a random comment picker website.

Where the giveaway is running across both Facebook and Instagram, all comments from both platforms are combined together to choose the random winner.

To be eligible to win any of our giveaways, you must follow all instructions in the giveaway post. Not completing all steps given in the instructions will prevent you from being an eligible winner.

If the giveaway instructions state that you must share the post, you need to ensure you are sharing it publicly, not privately, otherwise we won't be able to see it to confirm you have completed that step. If you are unsure how to do this, please search on Google for images and instructions.

It really is the luck of the draw and we are excited to see which random name is chosen as the lucky winner so keep trying and you may have some luck!

Depending of the item you have won, the time it would take to design and produce, and our workload at the time, paying a small priority processing fee may be possible. You may also wish to pay the difference between standard and express postage to get the item(s) to you sooner.

Please email us and we will do our best to assist.

NO!

Do not click any link, do not confirm your identity and do not input any payment details.

Unfortunately, in the online world there are many scammers looking to take advantage of hopeful giveaway entrants. They create fake Facebook and Instagram accounts, copy a business' logo and images, and contact entrants in the hope that someone will fall for their trick. And unfortunately, people still do.

We will never message you privately if you win.

We will never send you a link to click on, not in a message nor in a comment.

We will never ask you to verify your identity.

We will never ask you for payment details.

If you are a lucky winner, we will reply to your comment on our giveaway post and tag you to let you know that you are a winner. In that comment we will simply ask that you contact us to arrange your prize. Once you send us a message, we will ask for your address to send the prize to and that is it. No identity verification. No payment details.

Please report any fake accounts or scammers to Facebook/Instagram. We too report them and also block them from our page when we are alerted to their comments. Unforutantely, that is all we can do.