CHER's Frequently Asked Questions

We have partnered with Canpar Express to provide door-to-door courier service to all urban areas. Orders being shipped with Canpar should not experience any delays, and will be sent out as usual.

If your address is on a township road, rural route, or highway, and Canpar does not deliver directly to your location, we have the following options:

 

• Pick your order up in person from our Calgary, Alberta warehouse.
• Ship to a C/O address (a friend, family member, or business in town that can accept Canpar deliveries).
• We can ship to the closest Canpar SmartSpot for you to collect your package. We will contact you once your order has been placed to discuss the best available location, and send you the SmartDrop address and hours.

 

We are committed to taking necessary steps to ensure timely delivery and are available for any questions you have concerning shipping your order.

Our customers have affectionately called us CHER for over 30 years.  It is much easier to say than Canadian Home Education Resources. 

CHER is an online home school supply store whose mission is to assist, facilitate and encourage home schooling families through promoting and selling quality materials designed to help them achieve success in their home education endeavors.
CHER would be the home education equivalent of a teacher supply store for teachers and an educational toy store with all the fun but without the toys.

Most of our payment options are listed on our checkout screen, a more detailed breakdown is included here for your reference.

Mastercard or Visa

You can pay by adding in your Mastercard or Visa information directly at checkout. This only places a hold on your card, it does not immediately charge it.

Unfortunately we cannot accept Visa Debit or Mastercard Debit cards through this method.

Purchase Order

You can use your schoolboard-provided funds if they have set up a billing agreement with us. Enter the name of your schoolboard and your PO number in the box provided. If your schoolboard name is too long, you can use an acronym. Check with your schoolboard to see if you need to supply a Family ID number or a PO number.

When your order is ready, we will bill your school board and wait for them to approve your order. Once we receive approval from your school board, your order will be shipped /  ready for pickup. Special order items may be prebilled.

If your school board is not registered with us, have them contact us. We would be happy to set up an account for them.

Email Transfer

When we have received your request we will contact you to confirm the total order amount and provide a sales order number starting with 3026. Then you can send your E-transfer directly to CHER@CanadianHomeEducation.com. No security question is required, we just ask that you include your sales order number in the message field so that we can match your payment to your order.

Customer Service

The website will not require payment from you right away. Instead, we will contact you directly for a method of payment. This option is great if you have a Credit on Account or have CHER Customer Appreciation dollars you want to use.

Cheque or Money Order

Once we have given you your order total, mail your cheques or money order to:

Canadian Home Education Resources
#108 1289 Highfield Cr SE
Calgary, Alberta, T2G 5M2

Please include your name, order number, and a reference to what books are being purchased in your envelope.

PayPal

A PayPal popup will assist you with paying for your order. Similarly to the Mastercard / Visa authorization, this will not charge your card, only place a hold on it.

PayPal may also be able to accept other credit cards that the first Credit Card option is unable to process.

Debit or Cash

We are able to accept both debit cards and cash in person at our Calgary warehouse. Please select "Customer Service" at checkout and let us know that you would like to pay with debit or cash in the comments box before placing your pickup order. At this time we cannot take debit cards over the phone, all debit purchases must be made in person.

We charge your card once your order is ready to ship. This is to allow for small changes to your order. The exception to this would be Special Order Items where prepayment is required, or if we have asked you for permission to finalize payment early.

The hold on your card expires after 30 days. In the event that you have backorders that take longer than that time frame, we will either ask you to prepay, or we will contact you for a new method of payment once your backorders arrive. We do not keep your credit card information on file, and are unable to charge your card after the 30 days have passed.

We process all in-stock orders within a few days. During our busy season it may take slightly longer, and longer still if your order contains backorders. Watch for an email from CHER@CanadianHomeEducation.com confirming the exact time frame.

Pickup Orders

We will call you once your order has been processed and let you know that it is ready to be picked up. Our location and hours can be found on the Contact Us page

Shipping Orders

Processed orders are placed in our ship queue, and typically leave our warehouse within 1-2 business days. This time will increase during our busy season.

You will receive an email from Canpar or Canada Post with your tracking information when your package actually leaves our doors. For more information on how we ship orders, you can check here.

 

We are happy to find out about new items or to bring items in for you. Simply send us an email with the item you are looking for, or add it to the comments box when placing your order.

We will need as much information as possible about the item to find out if we can source it for you. Title and ISBN are required. If you know the Author, Publisher, or any other relevant information that would also be helpful. We will contact you if we have any questions for you, and let you know if we can bring the item in for you.

Requested items may be ones we are unfamiliar with. Once you have confirmed the item it will require prepayment and cannot be cancelled or returned. We will try to get your item in as quickly as possible for you, but new items can take 2 to 8 weeks to arrive.

Our website allows you to order items that we may not have in stock at the time. We try to keep our stock levels high, but demand for items fluctuates from season to season and year to year. We always fill our oldest backorders first, so rest assured that once your order is placed you are in line to receive your requested items.

If you have ordered items that are not in stock we will contact you with an ETA on those items. That period will range from 2-6 weeks in order to allow items time to come from our supplier, across the border, through customs, to our warehouse and out to you. Special order items may take 2 to 8 weeks, depending on the supplier.

Orders that are complete are sent as one shipment, or picked up all together. If your order has backorders you will be given the option to split your order, receiving the in-stock items right away and the backordered items once they come in.

Pickup Orders:

Pickup orders will not have any extra charge for this service. You have the freedom to pick up each individual item as it arrives, provided it is prepaid. We will enjoy getting to know you as you stop in!

Shipped Orders:

Orders that are being shipped will have a second shipping and handling fee applied to the second shipment. We recalculate the shipping and handling for both your first and second shipments so you are being charged accurately. You can find more information about our shipping policies here.

In some cases, the item will have either gone up in price or may no longer be available. If an item has increased by over 10% we will get your approval before ordering it in for you. If an item is Out of Print or Out of Stock Indefinitely we will cancel it from your order, let you know, and recommend alternatives or substitutions.

Special Order Items are items that we do not bring in very often, or that are difficult to bring in. When you order a SOI you will be contacted to confirm the item and quantity, and you will be asked to prepay that portion of your order. This is one of the few cases where we will capture your payment or bill your schoolboard before your order is ready to ship.

Since we do not keep your payment information on file (unless you are billing a schoolboard), we will contact you once your entire order is complete for payment to cover the remaining balance of the order. If you want to prepay the whole order when confirming the SOI you may, but cannot make any further changes to your order.

Special Order Items are often ordered by request only and cannot be cancelled or returned once confirmed. We will try to get your item in as quickly as possible for you, but SOIs can take up to 8 weeks to come in.

CHER will not sell, rent, or give your information away.

We use your information to contact you about your order. We may need to contact you regarding confirmation, updates, or changes to your order. You are not able to unsubscribe from emails relating to current orders.

You can subscribe to CHER newsletters managed securely through a 3rd party. You will be sent Staff Picks, information about our Annual Customer Appreciation Sale, sales and promotions, and other tidbits that we hope will enhance your homeschool journey. You can easily unsubscribe from these emails; we know how easily an inbox can get full and we do not want to spam you.

Your payment information is encrypted and only available to us for a maximum of 30 days or until your order is complete and we capture the payment. Utmost care is taken to protect both your payment information and your privacy. To help us protect you, please never send us an email containing your credit card information. We will be happy to assist you with that over the phone.

We all love a good sale! CHER has a Customer Appreciation Sale each year. We email information about the sale to all our customers subscribed to our newsletter. We also post the information here on our website, on our Facebook Page, and our Instagram. This sale is a great way to stock up on fun and educational birthday gifts, Christmas gifts and stocking stuffers. Please feel free to share information about our Customer Appreciation Sale with a friend - they will thank you!

Enjoy browsing the Specials Section on our website to score on many sweet deals. These frequently updated categories include discounted bundles and a sale bin with slightly damaged items, older editions, or materials we are discontinuing.

Occasionally we are also able to offer periodic promotions for a certain publisher or supplier, and flash pop-up sales on a variety of items we carry. We tell you about these in the same ways we tell you about our Customer Appreciation Sale - make sure you are subscribed to the email list so that you don't miss out!

Watch the website, your inbox, Facebook and Instagram for updates!

CHER has a list of education groups and boards (Alberta Home School Programs, British Columbia Home Education) on our website. You have a choice as to which board you register with. Some boards will match your family's needs better than others. It is a good practice to write out your philosophy of education and make a list of what you are looking for in a school board before you approach them. This makes it easier to continue the conversation with a certain board or cross them off your list. Our hope is that home school boards will continue to work well with families into the future.

Of course not! If you are having trouble with the website, call or email us, we would be happy to walk you through the process! Ordering online makes the ordering process easier and faster, but if you feel more comfortable ordering another way, please do! You can find our office hours on our Contact Us page, and can order any of the ways below:

Email

Send your order to CHER@CanadianHomeEducation.com Please include all of your information, and the title, ISBN, and quantity of the items you want to order.

Phone

403-243-4443
800-345-2952

Fax

403-243-9727

Mail

Canadian Home Education Resources
#108 1289 Highfield Cr SE
Calgary, Alberta, T2G 5M2

Enter the number of CHER dollars you earned / would like to redeem in the Comments Box when you place your order. We will apply your CHER $$ to your order.

Exceptions:

• Applies to the Subtotal of order. Does not apply to Shipping & Handling.
• Non Transferable.
• Minimum order for redeeming CHER Dollars is $50.00.
• Provide your CHER Dollar invoice number if possible.

 

We hope we have provided enough information on the our website to help you make an informed decision, and that the materials we offer meet your needs, but we know that sometimes you need to return an item. We ask:

• Contact CHER for a Return Authorization (RA) number before returning the product.
• Items are returned within 14 days of receipt of product.
• No returns are accepted on eBooks, Subscriptions, CDs, DVDs, MP3s, multimedia, novels, Special Order Items, or items with downloadable components.
• Returned items arrive at CHER in 100% resalable condition.
• You are responsible for shipping and handling charges on your return. No refunds will be given for shipping and handling on the original order once the items have left our doors.
• A credit will be kept on your CHER account for a future purchase. If you choose to have the amount refunded directly to the original payment method there will be a 5% processing fee.

 

If you have returned an item you may be left with a Credit On Account (COA). To use your credit on account:

• Go though our website as normal and put your requested items in your cart.
• Head to the checkout page.
• Let us know in the comments box that you have a COA you want to use.
• Select "Customer Service" as your payment method.
• We will contact you and let you know what your remaining balance is after applying your COA.

If you have any questions about our prices, policies, or procedures, please contact us at CHER@CanadianHomeEducation.com.

If you have any suggestions about improving our online shop, or if you like the CHER website and would like to let us know, please email us or leave us a positive Google Review. Hearing from you makes our day. Has something gone wrong? Let us know! Give us a chance to make it right.