Having issues requiring tech support? Read this form or email us at gbead_tsup@yahoo.com

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1."What are your store hours?"

San Diego Hours:	San Francisco Hours:
Tuesday- Sat: 10:30am - 5:00pm	Tuesday-Saturday: 10-5
CLOSED SUNDAYS & MONDAYS	Saturday: 10-6 Sunday: 12-5 CLOSED MONDAYS

2. "How Do I get to your stores?" Driving Instructions: San Diego Store 317 National City Blvd National City, CA 91950-1110 Easily accessible from Freeways 5, 805 and 54. The store is NORTH of the famous Mile of Cars in National City. It is a few blocks from the entrance to the 32nd Street Naval Station on Main Street. As Main Street crosses over into National City, it becomes National City Boulevard. From points NORTH From 15, exit onto 5 SOUTH. Exit MAIN STREET, NATIONAL CITY BOULEVARD. At bottom of ramp turn left. Continue to next signal. Here, turn RIGHT onto National City Boulevard. Our building is located to the left of 3rd St. From 805, Exit Plaza and turn right. Continue toward NATIONAL CITY BOULEVARD and make another right. General Bead is located at the right corner of 3rd St. From points SOUTH: From 5, Exit Division, continue past signal. Our building is located to the left of 3rd St. From 805, Exit Plaza and turn left. Continue toward NATIONAL CITY BOULEVARD and make a right. General Bead is located at the right corner of 3rd St. From points EAST Take 54 WEST to NATIONAL CITY BOULEVARD exit. Continue NORTH on National City Boulevard. General Bead is at the corner of 3rd and National City Boulevard on the right side of the street. Building is clearly marked. From 94, take any 5 or 805 South Bound connector and follow the above instructions. San Francisco Store 637 Minna St. San Francisco, CA 94103 From EAST BAY on I-80, I-580: Take 5th ST EXIT Keep LEFT coming off ramp Go TWO BLOCKS on Harrison to 7th ST Turn RIGHT on 7th ST Continue past HOWARD MINNA ST is 2ND ALLEY on LEFT From SOUTH on 280, 101 Take 7th ST EXIT Turn LEFT coming LEFT off ramp, putting you on 7th ST Continue on 7th ST past HOWARD MINNA ST is 2ND ALLEY on LEFT From MARIN on GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE: Follow signs to DOWNTOWN, taking you to LOMBARD ST Turn RIGHT on GOUGH - LEFT on EDDY - RIGHT on HYDE HYDE ST will turn into 8th ST at MARKET Go past MISSION, turn LEFT on NATOMA Turn LEFT onto 7th ST - then LEFT onto MINNA ST

3. "Does General Bead have a printed catalog?" General Bead no longer has a printed catalog. Essentially, our website is our catalog and can be used in the same way as a printed one.

4. "What is the return policy at General Bead?" Our entire shipping and return policy can be found at http://www.genbead.com/shipretorderinfo.htm

5. "Does General Bead do special orders?" Yes! We do special orders, but each one is handled individually. On imports, it can take months for the products to arrive and the minimums can be very high. If it isn't a product that we want to stock the minimum will be the minimum wholesale quantity which varies considerably between product lines. For more info on orders only, contact us at genbead@sbcglobal.net Please note: this email is NOT for tech support!! If you send tech issues to this email, you may not get proper response regarding your issue.

6. "The shopping cart isn't working! What do I do?" Our shopping cart currently comes up as a pop-up. We are working on a new and improved shopping cart that does not use pop-ups. This is a time consuming process because we have to configure it custom for our website and all of our items. Until this new technology's completion is configured and uploaded, we are still using the previous format shopping cart. The first thing one should do if having trouble bringing up the shopping cart is check your browser's settings! If your popup blocker is on, disable it or set it to allow popups from our website.  If you need more help with this, here are some links to various browser supports: Fire Fox/Mozilla Help Netscape Help Internet Explorer Help For all other browsers, we suggest doing a Google search for instructions on your specific browser. If the problem still persists, try clearing out the cookies from your browser's settings. This usually solves the problem. Please contact our web staff at gbead_tsup@yahoo.com if there is further difficulty.

7. "I'm not sure if my order went through! How will I know?" Make sure when you are checking out that you click on "check out" and fill out ALL of the information fields, even the ones that require an "n/a." At the end of the checkout process, a pink confirmation page should appear. If it is a blank pink page, your order DID still go through. General Bead ALWAYS confirms orders via email AND verbally over the phone once we recieve it. It may take up to a couple of days for us to give you a phone call. Emails usually happen the same day. The exceptions are when orders are placed over a weekend. We never charge your credit card until your item(s) is/are in stock and ready to ship. A new shopping cart is on the way. Please bare with us!

8. "What is this warning 'All HTML code and images are property of General Bead?' Why can't I see the picture when I click on it?" You are most likely right clicking on the thumbnail images. That warning is in place due to copywrite bandits downloading copywritten material and using it for their monetary gain. If you use your regular left click button on your mouse, the larger image will appear in a popup on your screen. If the larger image isn't showing, refer to FAQ #5 for instructions about popups.

9. "I don't see an item I am looking for on the website? Does that mean you don't carry it?" NOT NECISSARILY! We have over 30,000+ items and we are working around the clock to make sure as many of these items are available online, with photographs, for our customers' conveinience. If there is an item you do not see, or if the item is on the website but does not as of yet have a photograph, please email our web and tech support staff at gbead_tsup@yahoo.com and we will email you a photograph and whatever information we can about the item you are seeking. We usually are able to photograph and email customers with such inquiries the same day (and most of the time, the same hour) that we recieve the email.

10. "How long will it take for my stuff to get here?" Please make sure you specify your preferred shipping method. We offer many options, including United Parcel Service (UPS), United States Postal Service (USPS) which includes First Class, Priority, Global, and Air Mail. We also offer DHL, and FedEx by request, using the customer's FedEx account. For faster shipping, use Air Born, Express Mail, or 3,2, or next day UPS. Otherwise, your shipment will get to you in 3-9 business days within the United States. For internetional orders, it might take sizably longer depending on customs. When we call and confirm, we always give you a general time frame for your package, depending on the shipping service you choose and the location. It generally takes 2-3 days after you place your order for us to send it out. Then, after that, the shipping method of your choice's time applies.

11. "Where is the wood? Where are the venentians? Why do they not even come up when I search for them? Are the links just not working?" Currently some things, like the wood and the venetians for example, have been taken down because these sections are being revamped in our wherehouse as well as undergoing massive reorder. These links are not broken and they are workin as intended. Because of this, they are not available on the web at this time. Hence, if you search for them even in our search function, you won't find them. It wouldn't be fair to our clients if we had them on the web while we were running such maitenence. It would simply lead to more frustration and confusion. Now, as per FAQ #9, might we have these items? It is definately possible. Therefore, if you are looking for items that fall into these catagories and they seem to not be available on the web, always email us or give us a call and we can give you information regarding availability and even send you images.