SHOPPING 411
What forms of payment do you accept?
How and where do I search for products on your site?
Now that I searched and found the item I want, how do I pick the color and size?
How do I add or delete items from the Shopping Cart?
How do I complete the “Check-Out” process and pay for my items?
When does my credit card get charged?
How do I change and/or cancel my order after it’s already done?
Can I pick up my items in one of the stores?

• What forms of payment do you accept?
• We accept credit cards from Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.  We currently do not accept wire transfers or PayPal, but we might in the future.
• How and where do I search for products on your site?
• In today’s internet age we all want to be able to find things quickly on a site.  If we stock what you’re looking for, you will never be more than three clicks away from finding it.  We also want you to be able to search for a product in more than one way.  We have multiple search functions that will help you get there.
• Searching by Department / Sub-Department and Category / Sub-Category
• Department / Sub-Department
  Our products are all organized within broad “Departments” in green & white running across the upper part of the site underneath the cute, little, white trees.  We first have two specific Mens and Womens Clothing, Footwear & Accessories departments.  That should be self-explanatory we hope.  Think of the rest of the departments – Snowboard, Ski, Wake/Surf, Skate, Footwear, Shades/Goggles, and Packs/Bags – like stand-alone stores that you’d walk into that ONLY carry things related to that activity.  You’re not going to find auto parts in a Bed, Bath & Beyond.  Likewise, you’ll help yourself looking for that new Burton Audex iPod Hood Jacket by starting your search in the Snowboard department.  As you “mouse over” the departments “drop-down” menus appear.  These allow you to pick a more specific “Sub-Department” – like Mens Clothing – as you start your search for the jacket.
• Category / Sub-Category
  After choosing the appropriate sub-department, you’ll then see ALL of the products we carry in that sub-department.  There might be multiple pages of items, so this is where the “Category” and “Sub-Category” search functions come in handy.  Over on your upper left you’ll now have more options to search by underneath the header “Categories.”  That Burton Audex iPod Hood Jacket would be under Outewear Tops – it’s not “Underwear” or a “Bottom” the last time we checked.  After clicking on the category you then are able to search by a detailed sub-category.  In the case of our Mens Snowboard Outerwear Tops, we have 8 sub-categories.  Back to our example, knowing that this is a jacket narrows your options down to 5 sub-categories.  Knowing that this jacket has waterproofing / breathability Like Gore-Tex – but not being Gore-Tex – would allow you to pick that final sub-category.  
• Searching by Brand (within category), by Brand (within Brand Search Menu), and by Featured Brands
• Brand (within category)
  Whenever you are browsing items in our category pages (see Category / Sub-Category), you will also see what brands we carry in those categories over on your left underneath the header “Brands.”  In your quest to find, for example, the Mens Snowboard Burton Audex iPod Hood Jacket, you might get to the correct Mens Outerwear Tops category page but then aren’t sure what sub-category to search.  It might be easier to click on “Burton” and see only items in that category from them – especially in categories with a dozen brands when you’re not sure what sub-category you’d put that iPod jacket in.
• Brand (within Brand Search Menu)
  You can always look for what brands we carry online (FYI – not all brands we carry in our stores are on the site – call or email if you’re curious what else we stock) in the “Brand Search Menu” located to the upper right of the site just under the department menus (see Department / Sub-Department).  This is a “quick ‘n easy” method to see ALL products we carry from a certain brand.  This doesn’t, however, allow you any additional search functions (see Searching by Department / Sub-Department and Category / Sub-Category).  While this might work for a smaller brand we carry like SKULLCANDY, you’d have to sift through hundreds of pages if you chose someone like BURTON.
• Featured Brands
  A handful of brands are VERY important to us.  They either represent the core of our business and/or we feature them because of their influence on the very direction of the snow / surf / skate / wake action sports industry.  You will find these brands on the right side of our site under the banner “Featured Brands”.  Not only do these hold a special place in our hearts at Porters, but when you click on one of the icons you’ll see why we say they’re “featured.”  Unlike the generic brand search function (see Brand (within Brand Search Menu)), this search gives you both a detailed, icon-based, product category search in the middle of the page or a word-based, product category listing to choose from on the left side of the page.  We also include an informative history of the brand so you’ll better understand its importance to us, you, and the action-sports industry.
• Searching for a Specific Product when you already know the Brand / Style
  Do you already know exactly the brand and model name of what you’re looking for?  Go ahead and just type it in the “Search” tool box on the upper left of the site just under the Home button and Mens and Womens departments (see Department / Sub-Department).
• ADVANCED SEARCH – Searching for Specific Product Categories / Sizes / Text / Price-Points / Availability
• Category
  The “Category” search feature in ADVANCED SEARCH lets you choose in quick, drop-down menus all of the departments, categories, sub-categories, and brands that we carry.  Click “Search” in the lower right to take you there.
• Size
  Got a size 14 foot?  Only XXL for you?  Or maybe you’re always looking for extra small stuff.  Utilize the “Size” feature in ADVANCED SEARCH to weed out all the junk and see only things in your size that we have in stock.  Click “Search” in the lower right to by-pass the line at the door.
• Search Text
  Can’t remember where that funny story about your favorite Tahoe pro is on our site?  Just go to the “Search Text” feature in ADVANCED SEARCH and type in the words like in Google and choose either “any order” or “exact phrase” to see what we’ve got.  Still can’t find what you’re looking for?  Call us toll free at 866. YO.PORTERS (866.967.6783) or email us at help@porterstahoe.com and we’ll help you out. 
• Price / Availability
  Don’t worry.  Only got $20 to spend on a gift for someone?  Go to the “Price/Availability” feature in ADVANCED SEARCH to use this feature to only show items we carry under or over a certain price.  Another simple, easy way we help you find what you’re looking for. 
• Now that I searched and found the item I want, how do I pick the color and size?
• Once you’ve located a specific item, click on its picture or name to show the “Product Detail Page.”  This gives you a bigger picture of the item (you can make it even bigger by clicking on the “Zoom View” just underneath it).  The color, size, brand, style number, and price are displayed to the right of the image.  When there are multiple colors or sizes to choose from, a drop-down menu also appears.  Select the appropriate size and/or color.  You can now click “Add to Cart.”  This will take you to your “Shopping Cart” page where you can choose the quantity you’d like to buy, remove the item from your cart, continue shopping, or finish shopping and proceed to the next step in the buying process (see How do I complete the “Check-Out” process and pay for my items?)
• How do I add or delete items from the Shopping Cart?
• There is always a “Remove From Cart” button to the left of the product description in your shopping cart page.  You can always access your shopping cart by clicking on the SHOPPING CART link in the top right corner of the site.
• Payment / One Page Checkout
• Porterstahoe.com uses a one page checkout. After either logging into your existing account, or creating a new one you will be brought to our one page checkout. During the checkout process you will be asked to either fill in all the necessary shipping and billing information or to check the current ones we have on file, these steps must be completed before your payment details. Next you will verify the shipping method and tax information. Now that all the details are correct you will be prompted to choose a credit card type and our secure payment processing portion will open at that time. (which is 100% PCI compliant) Enter your credit card information and hit submit. Your card will be pre-authorized at that moment and we will immediately send you an email confirmation for you to verify your purchase. When we ship your items you will receive an email from “UPS Quantum View” containing your tracking number, this can also be viewed in your customer profile by logging back in at anytime.
• Payment Type / Confirm Order
• After entering your credit card information you will be taken to the “Confirm Order” page.  This is your LAST CHANCE to make any changes to your order before your credit card is charged for the “Total” amount you see on the right-hand side of the page for your items.  If all the items are accurate and the shipping address is correct, then click “Place Order” on the right side.  We will immediately send you an email confirmation to verify your purchase as well as another one once we actually have the items boxed up and away on the UPS truck.
• When does my credit card get charged & what’s a pre-authorization?
• Upon receiving the Porterstahoe.com order confirmation your credit card is pre-authorized.  Our system automatically checks the availability of an item to see if it’s “in stock” and pre-authorizes the purchase amount. A pre-authorization is a “pending” charge, think of it more as a place holder for your items, when we confirm we actually are shipping the items we settle that pending charge and it’s now an actual charge. In the rare case where the system and/or we screw something up and the item is really not in stock when we go to ship it, we will reverse the charge and notify you immediately via email of the unfortunate circumstance.  We’re really nice folks here so we’ll probably send you something like a “we’re-terribly-sorry-please-accept-this-extra-discount-the-next-time-you-shop-with-us” coupon to hopefully make up for it. Note: pre-authorizations take up to 48 - 72 hours to drop off your card in the event we do not fulfill the order.
• How do I change and/or cancel my order after it’s already done?
• We ship items 24 to 72 hours after they’ve been placed (see How long after I place my order do you ship it?).  If, before that time, you want to change and/or cancel anything about your order, please either email us at help@porterstahoe.com or call us immediately toll-free at 866.YO.PORTERS  (866.967.6783).  Once you receive an email confirmation of your items being shipped, though, it’s too late.
• Can I pick up my items in one of the stores?
• Yes, simply choose the store location in the shipping drop down menu.
• What is this “Credit Card Verification” stuff all about?
• So here’s what happens, if you fall into one of these three categories’ you will receive an email or a phone call stating we need to verify your credit card information. From there you will be asked to place another order for a product we call “Shipping Verification”.You now must place an additional order using this product, when checking out use the “shipping verification” shipping method. There is no shipping cost with this product and it is non-taxable.  When we receive the order for the verification we then randomly charge your card a dollar amount between .01-$5.00 USD. After this charge is completed you will need to respond to our initial email or call our 1-866-967-6783 customer service line and tell us the random amount we charged. The best way to find the random amount is to contact your bank or login to your online banking. The process can take 24-48hrs to complete and we retain the right to hold your items until this process is complete, it’s for the safety of the card holder and us the merchant. Once you complete this verification process you will be refunded the difference of the verification against your order and you will not be asked to do this process again when shopping with the verified credit card. If you have any questions please call 866-967-6783 or email help@porterstahoe.com. SHOPPING TIP! – Place the order for the verification prior to placing your actual order and we can process the actually shipment faster!