Shop FAQs

If you don’t find the answer to your question(s) below, please feel free to contact us directly. 

Ordering FAQs

All orders must be paid in advance. We accept payment by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, checks and Purchase Orders. Written and signed Purchase Orders are an acceptable form of payment, and may be sent to orders@intercambio.org. Purchases made by purchase order must be paid within 30 days of receipt of product.  Accounts with unpaid purchases will immediately be placed on hold after 60 days and no new products will be shipped until payment on original order is received. For additional questions, please contact resources@intercambio.org

Invoices generated from Purchase Orders may be paid here.

To create a quote, please place the order through our online shop and then select “create quote” as your payment type. 

Once you are ready for the order to process, please email a completed purchase order template to orders@intercambio.org.

Your quoted order will be automatically canceled if the purchase order is not received in 30 days.

For additional questions, please contact orders@intercambio.org.

To pay by purchase order (PO), shop for your materials on our website and proceed to checkout where you will select “pay by purchase order.”  

Then, email orders@intercambio.org with the order number and purchase order documentation. Once we have received both your order through our website and your PO, we will begin processing your order and issue an invoice. 

New purchase orders will not be processed until outstanding invoices are paid. We reserve the right to request payment by credit card, dependent upon timely payment history. 

Orders are charged a processing and handling fee of $1.50 per print product title.

Shipping costs are based on package weight, destination and shipping method. Costs are calculated automatically by the online ordering system.

To find exact shipping costs for your order, please create an order on the website. If you do not click “checkout” your order will not be processed, nor will you be charged.  

Our orders are fulfilled directly by our printing company. Unfortunately, we do not offer local pick-up. All orders must go through our online shop page. Please reach out to orders@intercambio.org for questions about this.

Intercambio does not pass applicable sales tax charges on to customers; no documentation of tax-exempt status is needed. 

All products offer a quantity discount.
Confidence and Connections is based on your total book purchase: 1-49 and 50+.
The Immigrant Guide and Pronunciation Fun quantity discounts occur at a quantity of 100 and 500 books. 

Please send the necessary paperwork to orders@intercambio.org and we will respond shortly. 

Orders cannot be modified after they are placed.

All modifications (including address changes, shipping methods, or product quantities) require that the order be canceled. Due to the nature of our shipping system, orders can only be canceled for no additional charge the same day they are placed. Only Intercambio staff are able to cancel an order. 

Orders canceled after that point incur a $15 cancellation fee. Orders that have already shipped cannot be canceled, exchanged, or refunded.

If you need to make a change during business hours on the same day the order is placed, email orders@intercambio.org with urgent in the subject line, and we will cancel the order for you so that you can place a new one.

Our system saves billing/shipping addresses and shopping carts. Therefore, please double-check your complete order before you click purchase as orders are nonreturnable and nonrefundable.

We no longer offer expedited order processing. However, we do offer three shipping options that we hope meet your needs. 

If you would like to view or print lessons from the Confidence and Connections series before your order arrives, we provide access to the first three lessons of each level here 

INFORMATION UPDATED JANUARY 2023

We offer three different shipping methods:

– USPS Media Mail: Orders will arrive in approximately 10-25 days from when the order is placed.

– UPS Ground: Orders will arrive in approximately 7-9 days from when the order is placed.

– UPS Select: Orders will arrive in approximately 7 days from when the order is placed. 

Please note that while shipping duration is not guaranteed for any of the three shipping rates we offer, UPS is generally the more reliable shipping option as compared to USPS.

Once your order ships, you will find tracking information at the bottom of your confirmation email and also by reviewing your account

For questions about your order, please contact orders@intercambio.org with your order number. 

We strive to provide affordable, quality, and accessible materials. We are unable to exchange books or materials and cannot accept returns or exchanges.

As such, we are happy to provide suggestions or advice on which products or levels would be best for your program before you make your purchase. Contact orders@intercambio.org with questions.

Additionally, please be sure to confirm that the shipping address you enter is correct before placing your order. Intercambio will not be responsible for orders shipped incorrectly to the address provided in the order. 

You will receive an email with tracking information when your order ships. (Note: as this tracking email is auto-generated, it may end up in your junk mail.)

Our shipping time estimates are not guaranteed; please plan accordingly. 

If you have paid for UPS and have not received your order 9 days after it was placed, contact us to make arrangements. 

If you have paid for USPS Media Mail, and have not received your order in 4 weeks from date of shipment, contact us to make arrangements. Please use this email address: orders@intercambio.org. We do not refund shipping costs.

Orders that are not received due to incorrect shipping addresses entered while placing the order will not be refunded, and a new order will need to be placed at full price. 

Please send the following information to orders@intercambio.org

  • Order number
  • Count of materials you received
  • Count of missing materials

We will follow up shortly.

 

When subscribing to a product with automatic recurring payment (e.g. Network membership, or Confidence and Connections Digital View), your credit card will be charged automatically for the renewal amount (monthly or annually, depending on the product) and can be used for other purchases on the account. 

Intercambio does not store your credit card number but does store the authorization token to charge the credit cart. 

You can remove your credit card from your account at any time via your My Account > Payment Methods Page. Please note: If there is currently a subscription product associated with the credit card you wish to remove from your account, you will need to first turn off automatic renewal for that product (My Account > Orders) before you will be able to remove the credit card. 

Product FAQs

View descriptions of each level and other useful details about the series here.  

Watch a brief introductory video here. 

We offer a Placement Test that is free to download from our website. This has been designed to place students in the Confidence and Connections levels as accurately as possible. You can view and download our Placement Test from here 

Yes and no. While our series does not formally align with a nationally recognized standardized testing framework (e.g. CASAS STEPS, TABE, CEFR, etc.), our levels correspond closely to the National Reporting System for Adult Education: Test Benchmarks for NRS Educational Functioning Levels (Updated August 2024).

In addition, we have created informal descriptors and alignments that outline the estimated correlations between Confidence and Connections and the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR), Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems (CASAS), and National Reporting System (NRS) scoring frameworks.

For levels 1-5, we split each level into two books to create shorter completion cycles for students. This proves effective in building confidence and improving retention and completion success rates. Students can start with either the L or R book within a level and should complete both before advancing to the next level in the series. 

Learn more about the Confidence and Connections curriculum and how it is structured here.

Once a learner is placed into a level, there are two Progress Checks to assess progress with the course. The Midterm Review and Progress Check is in Lesson 8 and the Final Review and Progress Check is in Lesson 16. Learners who pass the final progress checks of both the Left and Right books with 70% or greater are generally ready to progress to the next book/level. Teacher input on a student’s progress is also highly valued and encouraged as progress is individual and not always demonstrated by one final assessment.

Listening tracks for Confidence & Connections are available on the Intercambio app, which can be used on tablets and smartphones. To download the free app, visit:

Intercambio.org/AppleICApp (Apple products)

Intercambio.org/AndroidICApp (Android products)

Once the app is installed and opened, you will select the appropriate Level (number and letter). You will then see the track list for the book and be able to play the listening track for your lesson.

For more detailed guidance on this, view a brief how-to guide here 

The only way to access the listening tracks outside of the Intercambio app is through the Teaching Slides, which are available for free with the purchase of a teacher book, or independently for $33.

To access these, log into your account by clicking the icon of the green person at the top right of any page on our website. Then, click “memberships” on the menu on the left hand side. Lastly, click the grey “view” button next to the product you wish to access. 

Alternatively, if you are already logged into our website, you can use this direct link.

As a proud partner of English Language Training Solutions, our curriculum features the Color Vowel® Chart in many of the pronunciation activities embedded into each Confidence and Connections lesson.

The Color Vowel® Approach is a way of teaching that helps learners of English recognize and organize the vowel sounds of North American English. Created in 1999 by Karen Taylor and Shirley Thompson, the Color Vowel® Chart is a unique graphic image with keyword phrases that provide English learners and teachers with an accurate, efficient way to explore the vowel sounds of English. More information on using the Color Vowel® Chart can be found at learn.colorvowel.com.

First, please make sure you’re logged in to the website. If you are logged in, you are likely not a registered user for the product you wish to view. If you made the purchase, this typically happens when “take up a seat” is not selected upon purchase. You or your program administrator will need to add you as a user. To do that: 

  • Log into our website.
  • View your groups on the menu on the left. 
  • Click the group name created when the order was placed.  
  • Click “add member” from the menu on the left.  
  • Enter the email address of the member you would like to add. (Choose “manager” only if they should have the ability to add/remove members.)  
  • An email should automatically be sent that, once clicked, will connect to the Member Portal and prompt joining the group.   
  • After joining and logging in, access the slides here.   

Intercambio offers several group products where one purchase affords access to multiple users: Intercambio Network Membership, Confidence and Connections Digital View Annual, and Confidence and Connections Teaching Slides.

You will need to provide individual user access to these products. To do so, follow the steps outlined here.

Intercambio offers several group products where one purchase affords access to multiple users: Intercambio Network Membership, Confidence and Connections Digital View Annual, and Confidence and Connections Teaching Slides.

Your organization will need to provide you access. You will find the instructions here

Yes! The Confidence and Connections series is available as a digital view subscription product. For information about the subscription options, please visit the subscription products themselves.

Student and Teacher Books Annual Subscription

Student Books Monthly Subscription

You’ll find FAQs associated with the digital view products if you scroll down to review the associated product details. Please note, digital view access is now only provided through one of the two subscription options. Purchasing individual levels of the digital view is no longer an option.

Pronunciation Fun and select languages of The Immigrant Guide are also available for purchase as a digital view product on the Issuu.com website and not at Intercambio.org. For details, visit our shop page. You will need to create an account at Issuu.com in order to access your purchases.

Please note, our digital products are not downloadable.

Knowing that many immigrants have a basic understanding of English, we have written this guide with the most basic vocabulary possible while still providing important information. We have added pictures to the English and Spanish versions of the guide to illustrate certain topics.

Our Resource Hub is a great place to find a variety of free resources for instructors – including videos, teacher tips, and worksheets.  

For additional training opportunities, including access to our comprehensive online volunteer teacher training, consider becoming a member of the Intercambio Network 

We developed the Intercambio Network for programs seeking more opportunities for program and teacher support, networking, and training. As members of the Network, programs have access to an extensive library of teaching resources and customizable program tools. The Intercambio team hosts events for members throughout the year that include live online webinars, teacher coffee/connection hours, networking calls for program administrators, and admission to our virtual annual Summer Conference.  

You can learn more and purchase your membership on our website, here. You’ll have the option to join us at the Friend or Family level – which each include different benefits. For a quick comparison of benefits, download our guide here. 

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