How come I can't add items outside the pre-order page (i.e. in-stock items) to my pre-order?

We have limitations with our internal systems. Plus we are a small team in a small space trying to deal to keep our inventory counts straight, so we are not able to hold additional items with pre-orders.

If you want to add any items to your order past the items that are offered on the pre-order page, we suggest waiting until you receive our email letting you know that your pre-order is ready to ship and then placing an order for any additional items, from there we'll be able to combine those orders and ship them together.

Can you give me a quick summary of how pre-order works?

Yes. And if you have questions, keep reading the FAQ or emailus@tombihn.com

• We offer a new design or design from the vault for pre-order for 1-2 weeks or until the first pre-order batch sells out.
• The expected ship date of your pre-order bag is listed as part of the name of the bag.
• Your credit card is charged for the total amount of your order the day that you place your order. We highly encourage you to make any cancellations during the pre-order period, but we understand circumstances can change, so we allow cancellations up until three days before it ships (we will send an email usually ~one week before bags are ready to ship!) and receive a refund.
• Once the pre-orders are completed, we’ll send an email your way letting you know that your bag is shipping soon. We’ll get pre-orders shipped out within a week.

Can you customize my pre-order bag?

We totally get why you'd ask, since we're making your bag just for you! That said, our factory in Seattle is optimized to work as efficiently as possible; due to those optimizations, customizations aren't possible. Hope this is understandable.

How do you define “pre-order”?

We may choose to offer a bag for pre-order because:

• It's a new design offered for the very first time.
• It's a new design that's already been offered for pre-order but we don't plan to offer the design on a long term basis.
• It's an uncommon batch of a retired design.
• It is a one-time only offering of a design, fabric, or color.

Please note that not all new designs will be offered for pre-order. For example: debuts of new designs before the holiday season typically won't be offered for pre-order because there's a shorter timeline -- most folks want to receive orders they place in early December ASAP.

When is my credit card charged for a pre-order?

Your credit card is charged for the full order total at the time you place your order. That means we charge you before your order ships, which, depending on the bag being pre-ordered, can be anywhere from two to eight weeks.

To charge you before your order ships isn’t our preference; in fact, we’d prefer to postpone charging you until the day your order ships. That's how we used to do it back when we took pre-orders before: our system would authorize your credit card for the total, but we wouldn't actually charge you until the day your order shipped. However, since then, charging folks in advance of shipment of goods has become such the norm that most shopping carts and payment systems don’t allow for an alternative.

Rest assured that we see charging in advance of shipment to be a serious responsibility and a matter that calls upon our integrity.

And you’re welcome to emailus@tombihn.com at any time up until three days before your pre-order ships to cancel your pre-order and receive a full refund.

Can I ask you for updates on the progress of my pre-order?

Totally. Of course. Feel free to emailus@tombihn.com

We also might send you an update or two on your pre-order with some insights on the design and manufacturing process.

We will also send you an email about a week before your pre-order is ready to ship!

Can I cancel my pre-order and receive a refund?

You bet. emailus@tombihn.com or give us a call and we’ll make it happen.

Can I return the bag that I pre-ordered once I receive it?

Yes. You can find our return instructions here. Note: part of what makes pre-order great is that we can more efficiently manage our limited production capacity by building exactly to order. Sometimes folks will order multiple colors and return the ones they don't like, which makes total sense for In-Stock items but less so (at least for us internally) when we're building to Pre-Order.

Can I change the color of the bag I pre-ordered?

We aren’t able to change the color of a pre-ordered item. You’re welcome to emailus@tombihn.com and request that we cancel your existing pre-order. If the pre-order is still open, you can then place a new order for the color you’d like instead. 

Can I place one order that includes both pre-order and in-stock bags?

When you place a pre-order, please only add items to your order that are on the pre-order page's drop-downs.

If items not on the drop-downs are ordered along with the pre-order, we will contact you to see whether you want us to remove and refund those items or whether you want us to ship them (we will send you an invoice for the additional shipping in that case).

Can I add a pre-order item to my existing order, even after the pre-order has closed?

I’m afraid not: because we order, cut, and sew exactly what folks order, we aren’t able to accommodate additions after the pre-order has closed.

How can I make changes like removing an item or updating my address?

emailus@tombihn.com -- we'd be glad to help.

Can I have my order items shipped to multiple locations?

Here’s the best way to do that: place each order to each different shipping address as its own separate order.
Otherwise, our system isn’t set up to split a single order and ship it to multiple locations.
Additional shipping charges will apply.

Can I request to have my order shipped on a particular day during the shipping window?

No, sorry! Our shipping crew rallies to get many, many orders shipped in the window, and it’s a bit of a logistical challenge for the crew to track a specific day for a specific order to be shipped. Hope that’s understandable.

Can I request to have my order shipped after the shipping window?

We can usually accommodate that! Feel free to emailus@tombihn.com

Will all new designs be introduced for pre-order?

Some, but not all. Whether we choose to offer a design for pre-order or make it a stock bag depends on a variety of factors — most importantly, production efficiency. We probably won't offer new designs released close to the holiday season for pre-order.

What’s the best way to be notified once a new design is available for pre-order?

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media!

Can you accept pre-orders (backorders) for stock items?

Not at this time. It’s just too logistically complex at this point for our small company.

Hey, didn’t you used to offer backorders and pre-orders?

We did, so we have a lot of experience doing so. As with anything, there’s pros (for us and for you) and cons (mostly for us in the added complexity). Read our post Pre-Orders: Past, Present, and Future to learn more about that.

Is it possible for a pre-order to “sell out”?

It is possible for a pre-order to “sell out”. If that happens, the product page for the pre-ordered item will be updated to indicate that the pre-order batch has sold out. You will also be able to sign up via email to our newsletter to be notified when the next pre-order batch is available for order.

Our production department is at its most efficient when we produce a batch of bags that’s not too big and not too small — the “just right” quantity in a batch depends on the design (and, occasionally, other factors, such as the production capacity available at that point in time).

When we offer a bag for pre-order on our website, we will set what is basically a total inventory number that equals the maximum production batch quantity. When that number of pre-orders sells, the first pre-order batch will be "sold out".

Additionally, we promise a specific shipping time frame for each pre-order batch. If we accepted an unlimited number of pre-orders as opposed to constraining the quantity in batches, it is unlikely we could meet the shipping time frame originally promised. We don't want that to happen.

How long will a pre-order be open?

We will take pre-orders for a new design for one week or until the first pre-order batch sells out.

If a pre-order sells out, when will you offer the next pre-order?

It is likely that we will offer the next pre-order batch *after* the first pre-order batch has shipped — that could be two weeks or eight weeks or longer. This gives all of us a chance to catch our breath and make sure we’ve delivered what we’ve already promised. It also allows us some time to make In Stock bags, which is the majority of what we offer. Sometimes, we might not be able to offer a pre-order immediately after due to supply chain limitations.

Rest assured you can sign up to be notified / reminded via email when the next pre-order batch is available for order.

Why can’t you make enough bags to satisfy all pre-orders?

We’re a small company of 60 people. Our entire company -- production, shipping, website, design, IT/programming, production engineering, accounting, HR, customer service -- all works together under the same roof in the same 16,000 square feet in Seattle. We can’t possibly make, or be, everything for everyone. We’re not trying to be the next big company. We are doing what we love -- and we make sure that, besides the very rare exception, no on has to work more than 40 hours a week.

The options that would allow us to radically increase our production capacity aren't appealing to us. For example, if we moved production offshore, we'd lose the connection that's created by all of us working together under the same roof. Not only does that connection make our work more enjoyable, but we think it results in a better bag and overall experience for you.

That said, we know our business model won't work for everyone. While the majority of our bags are In Stock and ready to ship, it's possible that the bag that you want in particular is Pre-Order or In Production. And if you need the bag right away, that's going to be a bummer. Sorry about that: we know how it can feel to find the perfect item and not be able to get it right away. That said, it's one of those "it is what it is" type situations.

How, and when, does a pre-order design become a stock design?

That depends on a variety of factors, including but not limited to: the complexity involved in manufacturing the design, its popularity, our production capacity, what other new designs we have waiting in the wings, and, well, whether we want to make it a stock design or not.

When a bag is offered for pre-order, will there be any distinction made between limited run and stock items? That is, will it be clear which items will only be offered for a limited time, vs. those you expect to have on hand for the foreseeable future?

Sometimes we'll know the answer to this from the outset and we'll make that clear. For example, we may have a limited quantity of a particular fabric or color, or may want to try offering a current design in a new configuration (see: The Guide's Edition Synapse 25) without committing ourselves to offering yet another bag on a continual basis -- in those two cases, we will do our best to communicate that we won't be able to make the bag in question on an ongoing basis without hyping the "limited edition" part.

Or, to give another example, our design team may put a considerable amount of time and effort into a new design and be absolutely in love with it themselves -- so much so that our plan is to offer it as a stock bag after pre-orders are over. It may be a design you love too from the outset or it may take a few years of being out in the world to catch on.

Will the color options for pre-orders be the same as a regular run? For example, say I really want Bag X in Steel/Sangria, but the pre-order colors don't include that combo. Can I find out if the regular run will have it?

We usually offer more color combinations in the first production runs or pre-orders of a design than we do when it becomes a stock design. That said, we offer a lot of different fabrics and color combinations, and it's possible that down the road we may offer a new color in said bag that we didn't offer at the time of pre-order. When we choose new color combinations, we let our inspiration guide us, your feedback influences us, and we always make room for new colors or fabrics that we've since added to our line up. That means we don't produce a list years in advance of decided-upon color combinations. You're always welcome to ask us about specific color combinations but more often than not, our answer will be: maybe, maybe not.

What’s all this about some retired designs possibly being offered for pre-order at a later time?