Legal Terms, Conditions and errr Stuff

Oh dear, here’s the inevitable… we have tried to make it sensible, fair and readable…

Sections in this page:

1. Jurisdiction
2. Who are we?
3. How do you order?
4. What are we selling?
5. Sending out your order
6. Returns and refunds
7. Payment
8. Your right to cancel

1. Jurisdiction

All orders are governed by English Law in general, and The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 in particular.

They are a bit dull to start with, but start to warm up a little from about Regulation 7 onwards.

Nothing in these Terms and Conditions is designed to con you out of your Statutory Rights, which would always prevail.

2. Who are we?

We are Chocolala Ltd, and our details are as follows:

1. Company Registration No: 5518815.
2. VAT Registration No: We don’t have one, we not big enough to be registered… yet.
3. Registered Office: 19 Wood End, Hebden Bridge, HX7 8HF.
4. Trading Address: 38 Foster Lane, Hebden Bridge, HX7 8HJ.
5. Web Address: http://www.chocolala.co.uk.
6. Customer Service email: melt[replace this with ‘@’]chocolala.co.uk.
7. Customer Service Telephone Number: 01422 844779.

3. How do you Order?

Internet orders:

Most orders are placed via the online shop on our website. Payment is taken at the time the order is made. If you have any difficulties placing an order you can contact us by telephoning 01422 844779 (however, please be aware that we may be up to our elbows in chocolate and not able to get to the phone. If you get the voicemail, please try not to get too irritated. Leave a message and we will return your call soon as we can.)

All internet orders will be acknowledged as soon as practicable, by a confirmatory email to you.

Orders over £1000 and bespoke orders

Please contact us by phone or email to place your order and to organise payment and delivery details.

At the moment we don’t accept international orders. We can only post out chocolates to recipients in the UK (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England) and the Isle of Man.

4. What are we Selling?

Well, at the moment we are selling fresh, fairtrade chocolates over the internet. They really are fresh. We generally send them out within a few days of making them and they are at their very best eaten within a couple of weeks of reaching you. Chocolate is our starting point, but who knows what me might diversify into… we’re already fantasising about supplying fairly traded t–shirts, and then it’s just a hop and a skip to selling cotton sheets and pillows cases…

Getting back to the point, it may not always be possible to supply Chocolates that fit the exact description shown on our web-site. In these situations we will try to contact you before proceeding with your order. If we are unable to do so, or if it isn’t practicable to do so, in the worst case scenario we will cancel your order and give you a full refund. However, we will first endeavour to provide a substitute that we think is at least as good as whatever you have ordered*.

However, in this situation if you are not happy with the chocolates we have sent out, we will give you a full refund.

* We wouldn’t substitute chocolates with fairly traded cotton sheets.

5. Sending out your Order

1. Delivery is by Royal Mail First Class Post.
2. Our regular tin is posted out in a package 37mm high x 115mm wide and should fit through most standard letterboxes.
3. If two or more tins are being despatched to the same recipient we will generally wrap them together in one package… this is safer and more efficient, but probably won’t fit through your letterbox. If you would like each tin wrapped and posted individually, please make sure you click the appropriate check box when placing your order.

When ordering you will be asked to specify which week you would like your chocolates sent out. We will generally be posting chocolates out on Wednesday or Thursday of that week. However, when precisely in the week they are despatched may vary (depending on our workload and whether we get a better offer).

We also offer you the option of collecting your chocolates from Hebden Bridge.

Hot weather

Part of the joy of chocolate is that it melts at body temperature. The downside is that if the weather is too warm your chocolates will melt in transit.

If we think it is too hot to safely send out your chocolates, we won’t despatch them (unless you contact us and specifically ask us to). Instead we would post each recipient a card saying something like:

We have been asked to send you a fabulous tin of fresh, handmade, fairly traded, chocolates.

(we would then insert any name and message as requested in the order)

Unfortunately, at the moment it’s too warm for us to post them too you without risk of damage. We’d like you to experience our chocolates at their best so we’re not sending them to you right now. We hope you’re not too disappointed.

As soon as the temperature drops we’ll make you some chocolates and post them out to you. We think it’ll be worth the wait,

All the best…

Then we’ll do as we say and, hopefully, they’ll receive a tin of delicious chocolates rather than a tin of delicious goo.

6. Returns and Refunds

We endeavour to send out beautifully produced and packaged chocolates. Occasionally things can go wrong or the product can be damaged in transit. If your chocolates do not reach you in a satisfactory condition please send them back to us and we will give you a full refund (including the return postage cost).

If, for any other reason, you are not happy with your chocolates or the service you have received from us, please contact us and we will do our best to make amends. None of this affects your statuary rights.

Our address for returns is as follows:

Chocolala Ltd
38 Foster Lane
Hebden Bridge
HX7 8HJ.

You might also consider telephoning us so that we can make soothing noises to you over the phone in the hope that we don’t lose you as a customer forever. Give us a call on 01422 844779.

NB. Refunds on card transactions can only be made to the Card Account from which the initial payment was taken.

7. Payment

We take payment in advance by Switch/UK Maestro, Mastercard, Visa, Visa Debit, Visa Electron, Solo and JCB cards through our online ordering system.

All prices are in Pounds Sterling and all transactions are authorised by the relevant Card Company before the goodies are dispatched.

When you purchase from our online shop, we will ask you for your name, email address and full postal address. Once you have confirmed your chocolate order and the lucky recipients, you will be transferred to our payment service provider, Protx.

Protx specialises in credit/debit card transactions, and are regarded as a safe and secure. You will be asked for your card details: (which may include cardholder name [as it appears on the card], card type, card number, start/expiry dates, and the three digit security code shown on the signature strip)… we hope it’s not too boring, but your order can’t be processed safely without it. We at chocolala will see none of this information, and it is never held or stored by us.

Find out more information about Protx security procedures and systems.

8. Your Right to Cancel?

This is where The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, start to get a bit tricky to read. At first sight, it looks like all Distance Selling contracts are cancellable by the consumer (…that’s you) within specified time limits. You can read all about this in Regulation 10. There are however a number of exceptions found in Regulation 13, and Chocolates, being perishable food items, are covered by one of the exceptions.

The upshot of all this is that there is no automatic right to cancel your order once you have placed it.

That said, we think we are reasonable people. If you have placed an order and then want to cancel it, we are happy to agree to the cancellation so long as:

1. we have not already dispatched your order, or
2. a)we have not already made your chocolates (or if we have, we are not able to fulfil other orders with them), or
3. a)we haven’t turned away other customers to fulfil your order.

And finally

We have tried to be honest and fair, and none of the above is trying to con you out of your rights. We have tried to keep these terms and conditions easy and straight forward (and not filled them with lawyer-speak)… we hope they will serve both you us well.