Our Plants are grown under prime conditions. Occasionally they're treated with Neem oil, an organic insecticide, to control pests. Only the healthiest specimens are shipped to you. Customers ordering live cacti will notice that sometimes they arrive with some skin scab. This is normal, especially with plants rooted from cuttings and Ariocarpus fissuratus plants. After some years of T.L.C. the scab will heal. If your goods don't arrive in satisfactory condition please return them immediately upon arrival for a refund or exchange. You'll also be credited for the return postage. Persons who wait more than 5 business days to return goods will receive only a 40% refund; after 7 business days 0% refund. So if you think you might be away when the goods arrive authorize a friend to pick them up and inspect them. During my 14 years owning Rivers Source 99.9999% of all products arrived in excellent condition.

How long to expect an order to arrive?
Most orders paid for by cash, money order or credit card will be shipped within 2 business days of our receiving it. Orders paid for through checks sent by way of Post will be sent within 14 business days of our receiving it. Best not to send payment in cash bills, we won’t be held responsible if payment is lost in the mail.  All orders under 10 or 11 ounces are shipped via the US Postal Service First Class with delivery confirmation.  Orders over these amounts go 2 Day Priority with delivery confirmation.  As a general rule most orders will be received by you within 10 business days of our shipping them. Allow 7 to 21 days for orders going over seas.  Albeit many overseas Air letter Post Packages are received within 5 business days of our shipping it; some take a full 3 or 4 weeks for delivery.

Our Seeds are checked periodically for good germination. All seeds and dried herbs, unless otherwise mentioned are untreated. Seeds are shipped to you in bubble wrap. Occasionally seeds get crushed in the mail, if this happens please return them for an immediate exchange, as mentioned above.

Orders outside the US
Unless otherwise noted we can ship seeds and dried herbs anywhere in the world, no special import permit is necessary. However, we can not ship live plants outside the US.

Shipping during different seasons
The United States Postal Service, we discovered, is the best hot and cold protected shipping service hence your goods will be sent via them. Plants that aren't listed as being available seasonally can be ordered and shipped year round.

Confidentiality
Whatever business you do with us will stay between us only. We don't sell or give our mailing list to anyone. Anyone requesting to not be on our mailing list wont be. Unless you've actually ordered something you aren't on our mailing list. Receiving a catalog doesn't count as an order.

Refunds
These are given if something arrives damaged, if we've incorrectly identified something, we're out of what you ordered, or if you don't comply with the terms of our disclaimer (see top of this page). We warranty only accurate identification of each species, and that all seeds can germinate.

Occasionally someone request to have their goods shipped in an unmarked package; your goods are shipped with a self adhesive address label which bears a small color photo of a cartoon cactus beside our return address which reads: RSB, HC 74 Box 21614, El Prado, NM 87529 USA ; About one person in 10,000 has remark that this is to “suspicious” of a return address, our reply is that we won’t send goods unmarked because we desire that any under aged persons who might order will have their mail noticed by their parents, who should take note if they are receiving goods not approved of in the home.  RSB firmly believes that a few of our products should only be purchased by persons old enough to make an informed of decisions about them.

If you submitted and order and afterwards changed you mind and didn't make payment by going through the credit card check out page, or send payment by snail mail then you've no need to write requesting your order be canceled.  Albeit, the thoughtfulness is appreciated, this just ads to the unnecessary overload of mail we already receive; all incoming orders are carefully screened and a submission without payment is the same as a non existent order, and therefore there's no need to cancel it. 
If for some reason you are curious about the status of an order you submitted, we encourage you to check your credit card records before inquiring to be sure the order payment went through before writing us.  Occasionally  customers don't notice their payment was declined after going through the check out and entering their card information.  Address verification mis match is the most common reason for this; some times people misspell something in their address, and sometimes our online card accepter doesn't have your correct data on file.  Sometimes the cardholders bank will put a hold on online payments for any number of reasons, lack of funds is the most common one.