Frequently Asked Questions
General
What are the areas you serve?
We currently serve the following zip codes in the San Francisco Bay Area:
Do you have a storefront? What purchasing methods are available from The Daisy Refillery?
We currently do not have a storefront. However, there are many ways you can purchase with us, including:
- Markets - We operate at a number of markets throughout the areas we serve. Please see our Events page for market details.
- Local Online No-Contact Deliveries - When you place an order online, select a delivery date at check out, and we will come and delivery your order on the selected date! To learn more about our deliveries, go to the Deliveries section of this page OR go to our Local Deliveries page.
- Scheduled House Calls - To host your own refill event, we recommend you schedule a house call, for which we will drive our delivery van to you, and you can order in person. To learn more about our how our house calls work, go to the House Calls section of this page.
Do you take container donations? How can I donate? What kind of containers do you take?
We do! You can feel free to leave them out during your local delivery order with a note OR drop them off with us at one of our markets!
Containers can be glass, plastic, or metal, but they must have a cap or pump. Unfortunately, containers that have a strong scent are not recommended for donation as we currently do not have the manpower, budget, nor time to spend to remove the scent. All containers should also be empty and should be fairly clean. Please do not leave any food or anything else that will mold or smell in the containers.
We'll then further sanitize the donated containers and donate them right back to all of you! You can find containers at our markets, or add them to your online order!
Can I purchase a personal care refill on a "Cleaning Refills" market day, a cleaning refill on a "Personal Care Refills" market day, or ANY refill on a "Unit Products Only" market day?
Yes, you can!
As you know, we alternate which refill collections we bring due to the limited retail space we have at our markets. This means on some market dates, we bring our personal care refills, and on others we bring our cleaning refills. When our market space is really small, then we only bring our unit products. In all cases, you can still request that we bring a refill that is usually not available on said market date.
To do so, contact us using our Contact Form at least 48 hours prior to the respective market date you plan on attending. In your message, please list the refills you want us to bring and an estimated amount of what you want. There is no need to be precise about the amount, as we just need a way to decide if we should bring our larger refill container or our gallon-sized containers.
Unfortunately, if you do request the refill be brought at least less than 48 hours before the event, we may not be able to accomodate your request.
To find out which refill collection we are bringing for which market date, please visit our Events page!
Payments
What payment methods do you accept?
We are cashless business. However, we accept all major debit/credit cards.
At our markets, we also accept other tap, chip and swipe payments, like Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as Venmo.
Do you offer refunds or cancellations?
Due to the method in which we sell our products, we cannot offer refunds nor cancellations. However, cancellations may be made due to reasons out of our control, such as necessary maintenance of our delivery vehicle. As we are a small business with a small team, I hope you can understand.
To learn more about our policies, please read our Refund Policy page.
Products
How do you choose your vendors?
When looking for vendors, our company ensures they do the following:
- Create sustainable products that are not only good for our customers, but good for our planet
- Ethically source their ingredients and materials
- Use compostable or recyclable packaging OR provide package-free products
- Ensure all employees involved in the production process of product(s) have fair wages
- Contribute to environmental protection agencies/programs (i.e. 1% for the Planet Member, Certified B-Corporation, etc.).
- This is optional, but such contributions are a plus! This also lets us know that the company is not just green-washing.
Promoting opportunities for local businesses and minority groups is also important to us, so many of our vendors are also:
- Made in California/USA
- Small Businesses
- Family Owned
- Woman Owned.
How do you determine products are ethically and sustainably source?
Each vendor we work with is asked about how they source their ingredients and materials. If applicable, we also ask if they have trade certifications to certify their claims. However, please note that not all businesses, especially small businesses, have the finances to obtain such certification(s).
How do you determine what products are environmentally friendly?
If applicable, we work to ensure the following is true of the ingredients and materials used to create each product and its packaging, as well as the product as a whole:
- Ethically Sourced
- Cruelty-Free
- Compostable, Biodegradable and/or Recyclable
- Please note that the bristles of the Brush with Bamboo toothbrushes we sell are not considered biodegradable, as they take longer than a year to break down. However, they are biobased and will eventually return to the earth. They are made to be this way in order to keep the integrity of the bristles and thus be effective for your teeth-brushing needs. Unfortunately, there are currently no other toothbrush alternatives with bristles that will break down within the year.
- Locally Made
- While not all our products are made locally in California, we try to source as many products from nearby to account for the effects of the delivery of our inventory.
- Stable and Safe
- While natural ingredients are usually thought to be "better" for an individual, this is not always the case. Sometimes we need a bit of science to ensure the stability, effectiveness and safety of a product.
- For example, "Lauryl glucoside" certainly does not sound like a natural ingredient. However, this is used in a lot of hair care products as a type of surfactant. Surfactants are very important in hair care products as they are used to remove dirt and other impurities by breaking down the barriers between dirt, oil, and water.
- Synthetic Fragrance-Free
- Dye-Free
- Sulfate-Free
- Paraben-Free
- Septic-Safe.
We also offer many products that are:
- Handmade or Made in Small Batches
- Vegan
- Aluminum-Free
- Gluten-Free.
Online Ordering
How do I purchase refills online? Do the refills come in their own container, OR can I use my own containers?
*For a step by step guide, please visit our How to Order page.
Simply select how much of a refill, which we sell per ounce (not to be confused with fluid ounce), that you want, and click "Add to Cart." The refills themselves do not come sold in a bottle. If you want to purchase bottles, you can choose them from our container collection. Otherwise, we highly encourage you to reuse your own containers.
If you do choose to use your own containers, you can refer to the specific refill product's listing for the approximate bottle size (by volume capacity) for the refill amount you ordered.
We ask that you sanitize your containers prior to refilling. We are not responsible for the sanitation of your containers. Learn more about how to clean your own containers here. If you are topping off on a product, we still recommend you clean the container at least once a year to avoid contamination.
If you are using your own containers and ordering online for a local no-contact delivery, then make sure you also indicate where you will be placing your containers for us to find and refill during your no-contact delivery. Otherwise, we will not be able to complete your refill order. You can add notes under the "Order Special Instructions" field in the cart.
If you are purchasing our containers for refill, please also indicate this in the "Order Special Instructions" field in the cart.
If you are using your own containers and you schedule a house call, simply bring your own containers to the scheduled house call.
Is shipping available? Why is the cart asking me to add a delivery date if I want to ship my order instead?
All online orders are for local delivery only. We do not ship any orders and have chosen to only make local deliveries instead to avoid more carbon output. We ourselves get most of our orders shipped to us, so it does not make sense for us to ship products we are shipped.
When ordering online, you will be asked to choose a delivery date in the cart section before you can move on to the checkout section. Available delivery dates are first-come, first-serve. There is a flat delivery fee for each online order. Learn more about our delivery process in the Deliveries FAQ section OR go to our Local Deliveries page.
When I try to place an order online, I'm getting a "No delivery available" error message. Why?
Currently we only deliver to certain zip codes in the cities of San Francisco, South San Francisco, and Brisbane, California. If you are getting this message, it means you have entered an address that is outside our delivery zone. If you believe this is a mistake, please try the following steps:
- Clear your cache. This will remove the address that is currently saved and causing the error.
- Re-add the products you want to order to cart. Unfortunately, clearing the cache does delete all the items in your cart.
- Fill out the required fields on the cart page, and click the Check out button to navigate to the Checkout page.
- Under the Delivery Address section, start typing your address in the Address field. (IMPORTANT: As the address does auto-populate as you type, please make sure you are correctly selecting the address in the appropriate city. Sometimes your address may also exist in a different city/state/country that will thus have a different zip code outside our zone delivery area.)
- Continue filling out all required fields on the Checkout page to complete your check out process.
- If you find that you are still getting the same error message, please double check to see that we deliver to your area. You can do so by clicking here.
Unfortunately, Shopify does not currently have a function for you to directly edit your delivery address after you have encountered this error. While we wish we can remmediate this ourselves programmatically, we do not have access to the Checkout page. We have reported this issue to Shopify, and they are aware of this. However, they do not currently have a timeline for when this will be fixed. In the meantime, I ask for your patience and understanding while Shopify resolves this.
Deliveries
How much does a delivery cost?
Currently, deliveries are $3.99 per order, though prices are subject to change to ensure we have the funds and the means to deliver.
We priced our delivery cost to be lower than the cost of a round-trip ride with public transit for an adult ($5.00 for Muni and $4.10 for SamTrans with a Clipper card).
We also offer zone deliveries! Every month, the zip codes in each zone are given a day for a reduced delivery fee cost. To learn more about zone deliveries, please click here.
How soon and how far out can I schedule a delivery for?
Deliveries can be scheduled for as soon as 2 days later and up to 16 days later. Please note that we have a limited number of orders that we make every day, so dates are first-come, first-serve.
What delivery dates are currently available?
Can I select a specific delivery time?
Unfortunately, we do not currently allow customers to select a specific time of delivery. As we are a small business, we also have to account for other deliveries that are to be made on the same day. We also want to choose the most efficient route to use less fuel (and thus produce less carbon with our delivery vehicle), so we have decided that we will not be allowing customers the option to select a delivery time. If setting a specific time is important, please learn more about our house calls here.
I ordered refills, and I want each refill to be filled in a specific bottle. Is this possible?
Most definitely! Simply label the bottles with what product you want each bottle to be refilled with, OR indicate in the "Order Special Instructions" section of your cart as best as you can which product should go in which bottle and describe the bottles to differentiate them for delivery.
How will I know my delivery has been made?
The day of your delivery, you will receive an email to indicate that your delivery is on the way. If you also signed up for text notifications in the cart page for your order, then you will also receive a text.
When your delivery is made, you will also receive an email (and text, if applicable) to indicate the success of the delivery.
If we were unable to make the delivery, you will receive an email (and text, if applicable) about our delivery attempt.
Why did I not receive my delivery despite a delivery attempt?
There may be many reasons why, but the most likely reason is that you ordered refills with your own containers, and we were unable to find your containers to refill. It is important that you make note of where you put your bottles when you are completing your order online. We have an "Order Special Instructions" section in the cart that you can use for this purpose. If we are unable to find your containers, then we will delivery all non-refill items and refund you on the refills. The delivery fee will not be refunded.
To learn more about your order's delivery attempt, please contact us here.
House Calls
What is a house call?
Simply put, it is a private refill event where we bring our inventory to you! If you are a business, you can schedule a session for your employees to participate in a refill event. You can also use this option to set up a family refill session or neighborhood refill session. To learn more, please go to Schedule a House Call in our main menu.
How do I schedule a house call?
Simply go to Schedule a House Call in our main menu, and put in a request! Be sure to include the date and time period for which you want the event in your message. House call dates and times are first-come, first-serve, so we may not be able to give you the time period you want. If your requested times are not available, then we will be sure to let you know.
As we are a small team, please allow up to 48 hours for us to respond to your house call request.
How early and how late can I schedule a house call?
House calls can be made 7 days in advance and up to 37 days later.
How much does a house call cost?
Please see our Schedule a House Call page for the latest pricing.
Why are the house calls so expensive?
The cost of the house call booking includes the cost of the car's fuel, time spent driving to the location, time spent setting up and breaking down, as well as time spent on the site. We understand that not all house calls will result in purchases, so to ensure that we are still making money to pay our employees and to keep our business going, we charge for the the house call.
For more inexpensive options, you can instead opt to make an online order OR you check our Events calendar to visit us in person at the specified location(s).
Do you have a storefront? What purchasing methods are available from The Daisy Refillery?
- Markets - We operate at a number of markets throughout the areas we serve. Please see our Events page for market details.
- Local Online No-Contact Deliveries - When you place an order online, select a delivery date at check out, and we will come and delivery your order on the selected date! To learn more about our deliveries, go to the Deliveries section of this page OR go to our Local Deliveries page.
- Scheduled House Calls - To host your own refill event, we recommend you schedule a house call, for which we will drive our delivery van to you, and you can order in person. To learn more about our how our house calls work, go to the House Calls section of this page.
Do you take container donations? How can I donate? What kind of containers do you take?
Containers can be glass, plastic, or metal, but they must have a cap or pump. Unfortunately, containers that have a strong scent are not recommended for donation as we currently do not have the manpower, budget, nor time to spend to remove the scent. All containers should also be empty and should be fairly clean. Please do not leave any food or anything else that will mold or smell in the containers.
We'll then further sanitize the donated containers and donate them right back to all of you! You can find containers at our markets, or add them to your online order!
Can I purchase a personal care refill on a "Cleaning Refills" market day, a cleaning refill on a "Personal Care Refills" market day, or ANY refill on a "Unit Products Only" market day?
As you know, we alternate which refill collections we bring due to the limited retail space we have at our markets. This means on some market dates, we bring our personal care refills, and on others we bring our cleaning refills. When our market space is really small, then we only bring our unit products. In all cases, you can still request that we bring a refill that is usually not available on said market date.
To do so, contact us using our Contact Form at least 48 hours prior to the respective market date you plan on attending. In your message, please list the refills you want us to bring and an estimated amount of what you want. There is no need to be precise about the amount, as we just need a way to decide if we should bring our larger refill container or our gallon-sized containers.
Unfortunately, if you do request the refill be brought at least less than 48 hours before the event, we may not be able to accomodate your request.
To find out which refill collection we are bringing for which market date, please visit our Events page!
Payments
What payment methods do you accept?
At our markets, we also accept other tap, chip and swipe payments, like Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as Venmo.
Do you offer refunds or cancellations?
To learn more about our policies, please read our Refund Policy page.
Products
How do you choose your vendors?
- Create sustainable products that are not only good for our customers, but good for our planet
- Ethically source their ingredients and materials
- Use compostable or recyclable packaging OR provide package-free products
- Ensure all employees involved in the production process of product(s) have fair wages
- Contribute to environmental protection agencies/programs (i.e. 1% for the Planet Member, Certified B-Corporation, etc.).
- This is optional, but such contributions are a plus! This also lets us know that the company is not just green-washing.
- Made in California/USA
- Small Businesses
- Family Owned
- Woman Owned.
How do you determine products are ethically and sustainably source?
How do you determine what products are environmentally friendly?
- Ethically Sourced
- Cruelty-Free
- Compostable, Biodegradable and/or Recyclable
- Please note that the bristles of the Brush with Bamboo toothbrushes we sell are not considered biodegradable, as they take longer than a year to break down. However, they are biobased and will eventually return to the earth. They are made to be this way in order to keep the integrity of the bristles and thus be effective for your teeth-brushing needs. Unfortunately, there are currently no other toothbrush alternatives with bristles that will break down within the year.
- Locally Made
- While not all our products are made locally in California, we try to source as many products from nearby to account for the effects of the delivery of our inventory.
- Stable and Safe
- While natural ingredients are usually thought to be "better" for an individual, this is not always the case. Sometimes we need a bit of science to ensure the stability, effectiveness and safety of a product.
- For example, "Lauryl glucoside" certainly does not sound like a natural ingredient. However, this is used in a lot of hair care products as a type of surfactant. Surfactants are very important in hair care products as they are used to remove dirt and other impurities by breaking down the barriers between dirt, oil, and water.
- Synthetic Fragrance-Free
- Dye-Free
- Sulfate-Free
- Paraben-Free
- Septic-Safe.
- Handmade or Made in Small Batches
- Vegan
- Aluminum-Free
- Gluten-Free.
Online Ordering
How do I purchase refills online? Do the refills come in their own container, OR can I use my own containers?
Simply select how much of a refill, which we sell per ounce (not to be confused with fluid ounce), that you want, and click "Add to Cart." The refills themselves do not come sold in a bottle. If you want to purchase bottles, you can choose them from our container collection. Otherwise, we highly encourage you to reuse your own containers.
If you do choose to use your own containers, you can refer to the specific refill product's listing for the approximate bottle size (by volume capacity) for the refill amount you ordered.
We ask that you sanitize your containers prior to refilling. We are not responsible for the sanitation of your containers. Learn more about how to clean your own containers here. If you are topping off on a product, we still recommend you clean the container at least once a year to avoid contamination.
If you are using your own containers and ordering online for a local no-contact delivery, then make sure you also indicate where you will be placing your containers for us to find and refill during your no-contact delivery. Otherwise, we will not be able to complete your refill order. You can add notes under the "Order Special Instructions" field in the cart.
If you are purchasing our containers for refill, please also indicate this in the "Order Special Instructions" field in the cart.
If you are using your own containers and you schedule a house call, simply bring your own containers to the scheduled house call.
Is shipping available? Why is the cart asking me to add a delivery date if I want to ship my order instead?
When ordering online, you will be asked to choose a delivery date in the cart section before you can move on to the checkout section. Available delivery dates are first-come, first-serve. There is a flat delivery fee for each online order. Learn more about our delivery process in the Deliveries FAQ section OR go to our Local Deliveries page.
When I try to place an order online, I'm getting a "No delivery available" error message. Why?
- Clear your cache. This will remove the address that is currently saved and causing the error.
- Re-add the products you want to order to cart. Unfortunately, clearing the cache does delete all the items in your cart.
- Fill out the required fields on the cart page, and click the Check out button to navigate to the Checkout page.
- Under the Delivery Address section, start typing your address in the Address field. (IMPORTANT: As the address does auto-populate as you type, please make sure you are correctly selecting the address in the appropriate city. Sometimes your address may also exist in a different city/state/country that will thus have a different zip code outside our zone delivery area.)
- Continue filling out all required fields on the Checkout page to complete your check out process.
- If you find that you are still getting the same error message, please double check to see that we deliver to your area. You can do so by clicking here.
Deliveries
How much does a delivery cost?
We priced our delivery cost to be lower than the cost of a round-trip ride with public transit for an adult ($5.00 for Muni and $4.10 for SamTrans with a Clipper card).
We also offer zone deliveries! Every month, the zip codes in each zone are given a day for a reduced delivery fee cost. To learn more about zone deliveries, please click here.
How soon and how far out can I schedule a delivery for?
What delivery dates are currently available?
Can I select a specific delivery time?
I ordered refills, and I want each refill to be filled in a specific bottle. Is this possible?
Most definitely! Simply label the bottles with what product you want each bottle to be refilled with, OR indicate in the "Order Special Instructions" section of your cart as best as you can which product should go in which bottle and describe the bottles to differentiate them for delivery.
How will I know my delivery has been made?
The day of your delivery, you will receive an email to indicate that your delivery is on the way. If you also signed up for text notifications in the cart page for your order, then you will also receive a text.
When your delivery is made, you will also receive an email (and text, if applicable) to indicate the success of the delivery.
If we were unable to make the delivery, you will receive an email (and text, if applicable) about our delivery attempt.
Why did I not receive my delivery despite a delivery attempt?
There may be many reasons why, but the most likely reason is that you ordered refills with your own containers, and we were unable to find your containers to refill. It is important that you make note of where you put your bottles when you are completing your order online. We have an "Order Special Instructions" section in the cart that you can use for this purpose. If we are unable to find your containers, then we will delivery all non-refill items and refund you on the refills. The delivery fee will not be refunded.
To learn more about your order's delivery attempt, please contact us here.
House Calls
What is a house call?
Simply put, it is a private refill event where we bring our inventory to you! If you are a business, you can schedule a session for your employees to participate in a refill event. You can also use this option to set up a family refill session or neighborhood refill session. To learn more, please go to Schedule a House Call in our main menu.
How do I schedule a house call?
Simply go to Schedule a House Call in our main menu, and put in a request! Be sure to include the date and time period for which you want the event in your message. House call dates and times are first-come, first-serve, so we may not be able to give you the time period you want. If your requested times are not available, then we will be sure to let you know.
As we are a small team, please allow up to 48 hours for us to respond to your house call request.
How early and how late can I schedule a house call?
House calls can be made 7 days in advance and up to 37 days later.
How much does a house call cost?
Please see our Schedule a House Call page for the latest pricing.
Why are the house calls so expensive?
The cost of the house call booking includes the cost of the car's fuel, time spent driving to the location, time spent setting up and breaking down, as well as time spent on the site. We understand that not all house calls will result in purchases, so to ensure that we are still making money to pay our employees and to keep our business going, we charge for the the house call.
For more inexpensive options, you can instead opt to make an online order OR you check our Events calendar to visit us in person at the specified location(s).
How will I know my delivery has been made?
When your delivery is made, you will also receive an email (and text, if applicable) to indicate the success of the delivery.
If we were unable to make the delivery, you will receive an email (and text, if applicable) about our delivery attempt.
Why did I not receive my delivery despite a delivery attempt?
To learn more about your order's delivery attempt, please contact us here.
House Calls
What is a house call?
How do I schedule a house call?
As we are a small team, please allow up to 48 hours for us to respond to your house call request.
How early and how late can I schedule a house call?
How much does a house call cost?
Why are the house calls so expensive?
For more inexpensive options, you can instead opt to make an online order OR you check our Events calendar to visit us in person at the specified location(s).
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.