FAQs
SHIPPING QUESTIONS
Q: Where do you ship from?
A: While we are an Australian based company, we have all our orders drop-shipped from China, including orders made from Australia.
Q: Why do you ship from China?
A: China is well known to be "the factory of the world". Most consumer goods are made there as China has invested billions over many decades into developing its manufacturing sector. We ship from there for sake of convenience. As our business grew it became too much to handle the shipping operation ourselves. We originally outsourced it to the USA, where most of our customers are based. The end result was an unmitigated disaster for all involved and nearly destroyed our company. Unable to handle that side of things anymore, and knowing about the issues we were facing with finding a reliable and trustworthy shipping partner, our main manufacturer offered to step in and fill that role in mid-2023. They have been doing an incredible job ever since. We pay them the same rates we paid the US company, so it's not about cutting costs with cheap labor, it's about reliability and trust.
Q: When can I expect my order to ship?
A: All orders placed Monday-Friday are expected to ship within 5 business days unless otherwise stated on the product description. Occasionally, it may be take as long as 10 days for an order to ship, particularly following a new drop, as we can get backed up, but we always do our best to ship as quickly as possible. All "preorder" items have their own unique shipping time frame, so please be sure to read the description before you checkout and keep in mind these are only estimates. We cannot predict manufacturing and shipping delays.
Q: When can I expect my order to actually arrive?
A: Asia - 1 to 2 weeks after shipment
Australia - 2 to 4 weeks after shipment
Europe - 2 to 5 weeks after shipment
North America - 2 to 6 weeks after shipment
Rest of World - 4 to 8 weeks after shipment
These are just estimates and delivery could come sooner or take longer. We have no control over international carrier services. Please check your tracking number for up to date information.
Q: How will I know when my order has shipped?
A: When your order has shipped, you will receive an email notification from us which will include a tracking number you can use to check its status. Please allow 48 hours for the tracking information to become available/for the postal courier to take an arrival scan of the package to update the status.
Q: Do you ship international orders?
A: Yes, we ship worldwide! Some International orders can take up to 6 weeks to arrive depending on the location, so please be patient.
Q: Who is responsible for customs, duties, and taxes?
A: You are as the purchaser. Your order may be subject to import duties, customs, and taxes (including VAT), which are incurred once a shipment reaches your destination country. Pull The Plug Patches is not responsible for these charges if they are applied and they are your sole responsibility as the customer. Please contact your local post office or customs office for exact rates.
Q: How much does shipping cost?
A: All shipping costs will be displayed at checkout. Costs depend on where you live and the weight of your order. The costs and methods that are provided at checkout include the cost of the postal courier themselves, the packaging, as well as the pick and pack fees charged by the 3rd party fulfilment team who handles all our orders. The shipping rate you see on an envelope you are sent is not reflective of the true costs incurred.
Q: Can you ship part of my pre-order by itself?
A: When you check out with an item on “preorder” in your cart, the entire order will ship as one complete package once all the items are available to ship. Remember you will have only paid for shipping once, thus If you want an item ready to ship immediately, it is important that you place a separate order from any other items on preorder.
Q: Items in my order were damaged/defective. Can I get a replacement?
A: If your product has arrived defective, destroyed, or otherwise unusable, please contact us via email at contact@pulltheplugpatches.com. We will be happy to find a solution to this problem.
Q: Is my package lost?
A: Probably not. Please feel free to contact us if you did not receive shipping confirmation after 2 or 3 weeks, or your tracking number is not visible through the online tracking portal. If your package is labeled as "delivered" and you have not received it, you'll have to contact your local post office with your shipping number. Once the package is deemed “delivered”, it is completely out of our hands. We are NOT responsible for lost or stolen packages after delivery has occured. This is a matter you will have to resolve with the post office and/or your local police.
Q: The second package I ordered arrive before the first one. Is my first order lost?
A: No. Just because you ordered something first does not mean it will arrive first. This is not the way that mail works. As strange as it may seem, this is completely normal. The mail system is not a conveyor belt system of first in first out. There are literally a million variables that go into shipping any given package. Think of it like this… If you and your next door neighbour work at the same place and he leaves for work 10 minutes before you but you still arrive first, there is no mystery to this. You drove faster, hit all the green lights, and took a shortcut. Same thing with sending parcels. So, no need to worry, your order is not lost and will get there soon enough, even if it takes the scenic route.
Q: What if my package is actually lost?
A: Orders will not be considered lost until a minimum of 2 months has elapsed since the shipping date. To give sufficient time for an order to arrive it is only at that stage that a refund will be given or replacement items will be sent.
Q: What happens if my order says it was delivered, but I did not receive the package?
A: This is a very rare occurrence, and unfortunately we are unable to help you in this situation. When a package says delivered that is the end of our connection to and responsibility for the package. We are not responsible for packages that have been lost or stolen after delivery has occured. We suggest that contact your local Post Office as soon as possible as they may be holding it for you. You should also try contacting your neighbours, as perhaps it was delivered to the wrong address. Failing that you can try contacting the carrier and asking them for further information. If that does not result in anything then you can assume your package was stolen, which is an issue you will have to raise with your local police.
ORDER QUESTIONS
Q: Can I cancel my order?
A: Please make sure to carefully review your cart before placing any orders. In certain instances we may consider issuing a store credit or an exchange, but this will be done solely at our discretion. If a refund is agreed upon, a cancellation fee (i.e., 20% of the total purchase price including shipping and taxes + $1) will apply. The reason for this is because both Shopify and the payment provider (i.e. PayPal or Credit Card) still charge us their associated fees on the transaction regardless of whether an order is cancelled or not, and our fulfilment center also charges us a restocking fee.
Q: Can I remove/add an item to my order?
A: It really depends on how quickly you contact us. If your order has shipped, it’s obviously too late. If your order includes a “preorder” we may be able to assist you with adding items to your order, but this may incur additional shipping costs as it is calculated by weight.
Q: Can I change the size/variant/border color of my item after placing my order?
A: As long as your order has not shipped yet and this change does not accrue any additional cost or necessitate a refund, then we are more than happy to assist depending on item availability.
Q: When will I be charged for my order?
A: All orders will be charged at the time of purchase. “PULL THE PLUG” will appear on the statement description.
RETURN AND EXCHANGE QUESTIONS
Q: What is your return/exchange policy?
A: All returns must be made within 7 days of the delivery date. All items must be in original/unwashed/unworn/brand new condition to be eligible for a refund. Unless it is being returned due to a production defect, we cannot offer a refund on your original shipping costs. We are also not responsible for the cost of shipping to return the item to us, or to have a new exchanged item sent out. All returns for refund will be subject to a 20% restocking fee. Exchanges will not incur this fee. Please email contact@pulltheplugpatches.com for any returns BEFORE sending your item back.
Q: My item was returned to sender, can you ship it back to me?
A: Yes, if you see that your shipment is being sent back to us as a return to sender, please contact us at contact@pulltheplugpatches.com for assistance. A new invoice for shipping cost will be sent. Once the invoice is paid, we will then reship your package.
GENERAL QUESTIONS
Q: How long has your company been around?
A: We were founded on August 17th, 2018.
Q: Are you a big company?
A: No. While we have many “big” licenses, we are a very small and entirely independent team who are very passionate about Metal and patches. The company began as a hobby and we bootstrapped it to where we have been able to acquire the rights to work with world renowned artists. So, while we are now a for profit business, we remain committed to the same values we have always had. Approved by the bands. Made for the fans.
Q: What size are your patches?
A: Small patches are generally between 9.5cm and 12cm in any given direction.
Oversize patches are typically 24cm across, by about 16cm tall.
Strip patches are always 20cm by 6cm.
Backpatches are always 29cm by 36cm.
Keep in mind that there is some variation between items as an inevitable part of the weaving process.
Q: Do you make custom order patches?
A: No. Unfortunately, we have no capacity to do so. We are a retail brand, not a manufacturer.
Q: Are you patches limited edition?
A: For the most part, yes. Some are limited to strict numbers, but this depends on the license we hold. For most artists we work on a one-off basis, with no rights to make more. Occasionally these artists will ask us to make more and under certain circumstances we will agree if there is significant demand. For big bands we have open licenses where we can run as many copies as we want. However, even in these instances we still limit numbers. This is not set by a strict amount, but rather by a desire to keep our product more “boutique”. It’s much more interesting for us to make new designs than it is to make thousands of copies of one single design. But we do have to balance our business interests with our artistic desires as some licences are very expensive and it is difficult to recoup our advances.
Q: Do you do “reprints”?
A: Generally, no… but it really depends on the type of license we hold. For big bands it is very expensive to acquire a license and we are not a charity. We need to recoup our costs. In those instances where there is demand we will reissue things in an effort to both satisfy fans and to make the license financially viable. With that said, most bands we work with are done as one-off deals, where we don’t have the rights to print more copies. We have done some reprints in the past as new one-off deals, and in those instances, we have changed some minor details in the patch to preserve the limited nature of the originals.
Q: Why do I see things come back in stock sometimes?
A: We generally hold back a number of any given design to account for defects and lost items. When it is clear that everyone who ordered a copy has received it, we will put the remaining extra items into stock. In addition, for items that were sold as preorders, there are many instances where an item did not sell out during the preorder window. In those cases, the unsold items will be added into stock and sold off.
Q: Are all of your products officially licensed?
A: Yes. All of our products are approved directly by either the band members themselves, management, the record label, or an approved licensor.
Q: How much of the profits do the bands receive?
A: We pay an industry leading royalty rate that is much higher than the typical rates paid. After all our overhead and expenses, the bands actually receive the majority of the profits on any of the products we make. We remain committed to supporting the scene as our first priority.
Q: Do you make bootlegs?
A: No. Before this business began, regrettably one of our team members did make a few bootlegs, but did so without a profit motivation and in very small numbers. Although Pull The Plug Patches Pty Ltd. is an entirely separate legal entity, we retroactively paid royalties on all of these items as a matter of good faith. In addition, we made once made an unlicensed patch as a joke, but we did not profit from in any way at all. Finally, against our better judgement, we did make some movie themed patches in our very early days that were not licensed. This was short-sighted and we recognize it as a mistake that will not be repeated. As we learn, so too do we grow.
Q: What’s wrong with bootlegs? Do you hate DIY culture or something?
A: Most of the bootleggers you see in the scene today are not simply making a few patches here and there because they want one for their vest when one does not exist and selling a few extras to simply recoup their costs as one of our team members once did many years ago before this business was founded. They are emphatically making them for profit, in significant quantities, and at the direct expense of the bands. This has nothing to do with DIY culture. We love the DIY ethos and see no problem with that, but we are all smart enough to know that there is something very different going on in the patch scene today that extends far beyond DIY. All that most bootleggers are doing is ripping off your favorite bands and telling you “It’s free promotion” while lining their own pockets. Most people with a solid head on their shoulders recognize that in 2024 bands make very little money. Album sales have dried up in the form of streaming. Touring has become prohibitively expensive. They don’t need promotion. They need actual merch sales. We are doing our part to help them and we make no apologies for that.
Q: What about your "tribute" logos, are those copyright violations?
A: Making tribute logos and artwork is a common theme in Metal and has been used by many bands (i.e., The Black Dahlia Murder did Metallica, Gama Bomb did Motorhead, Full Of Hell did Sepultura, even Cliff Burton has a Dawn of the Dead parody etc.). Such tributes are not a copyright violation as there is no mistaking the tribute logo for a product by the actual band itself. It is clear what is what and there is no attempt to mislead the public. In both the US and in Australia it is considered fair use under the law. This is protected by the First Amendment as a form of expression in the US, and likewise in Australia it is considered a form of satire that is legally protected. Otherwise, many of the bands we made tribute logos for have written to us thanking us for doing it because they felt honoured, and we have sent them some patches in return.
Q: What about when you used artwork by Jean Delville and Eugène Delacroix to make patches, did you have permission?
The artwork in question by these two artists both rest in the public domain, which by its very definition is just that, public. The art was used in the past by various bands without payment to the artists and the same goes for us. The public domain refers to creative materials that are not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright, trademark, or patent laws. The public owns these works, not an individual author or artist, and are thus free to use.
Q: Did you invent shaped patches?
A: No. While most vintage patches from the 1990s were squares, there were some notable exceptions like a Bolt Thrower shield shaped patch, and a skull shaped Asphyx patch. In addition, a number bootlegs existed in various shapes. Beyond these examples, as far as we know, we were one of the first companies to bring shaped official patches to market. So, while we did not invent the form, we definitely charted a new and innovative path for what official patches could be and our name became synonymous with different shaped patches. Despite opposition from some Metal fans, we love the new possibilities that shaped patches provided, and this is a formula that has proven to be very successful for us. Of course, this success has led to numerous companies attempting to make products that look exactly like ours. While we’re not so impressed with the blatant copycats, we appreciate and respect those companies that have taken this idea and developed their own unique style and niche. We view this as something that is ultimately healthy and positive for battle vest culture.
Q: Is the customer always right?
A: No, not in our store. In 2021 Business Insider reported that the adoption of this motto has "created a sense of entitlement among shoppers that has led to aggression and even violence toward retail workers". We do not adhere to the shallow capitalist idea that we must be willing to be abused in the pursuit of an income. We have a policy of respect being a two-way street. We will bend over backwards to help you if you treat us with respect. If you don’t, then honestly, we don’t want your business. It’s really that simple. We don’t owe you anything, and you don’t owe us anything. Our relationship is completely voluntary.
OTHER QUESTIONS
Q: I do not see my question here. Can I contact you directly?
A: Yes, of course! You can email us at contact@pulltheplugpatches.com and we will be happy to assist you.