Delivery information and terms and conditions

For over thirty five years RHS Ltd has traded without written terms and conditions believing that honesty and goodwill between parties was the only way that we wanted to work.

Unfortunately modern times and modern attitudes have now required that we put in writing some conditions that we hope will protect both us and our customers from any future contractual misunderstanding.

Our approach has not changed. We will still treat everyone honestly, we would rather not sell than sell something that we think is unsuitable for a potential customers project. Unfortunately modern trends in purchasing seems to have robbed us in some cases of the opportunity to discuss in depth the customers requirements.

Delivery information

We give the following details of our standard delivery service, we ask you to consider the relevant points, and discuss with us at the time of order, anything that you see as a problem. We are more than happy to do this and can solve most things as long as we know about them at the right time.

RHS Ltd shall use their reasonable endeavours to meet any estimated delivery period but shall not be liable for any delay caused in delivering the product. RHS will not be liable to the customer for any indirect or consequential loss including but not limited to any loss of profit, loss of sales or any contractual time penalty clause costs caused by delayed delivery.

Standard Delivery

All Sterling prices include delivery to mainland UK. Euro prices include delivery to mainland R.O.I. This service operates by international carrier who deliver direct from the continental manufacturer to your door. This allows us to keep delivery costs to a minimum and reduces the price that you pay.

The delivery service is tried and tested and works very efficiently, particularly considering the size weight and distance that our products travel. Please bear in mind that stairs are big and heavy and cannot be delivered in the postman's bag, they require big lorries with offloading facilities.

Our standard delivery does not offer a tracking service, and we cannot guarantee any specific delivery day or time. You will be contacted by phone by the carrier (not us) when your purchase has reached their transport hub in your area. They will advise you of the intended delivery (usually the next day). You will need someone there to receive and sign for the delivery.

Please bear in mind that kit stairs are delivered in palletised crates which typically weigh over 150kgs. Your stair will be delivered to kerb side using tail-lift offloading vehicles.

Products can only be delivered to the address agreed at the time of order, for contractual reasons carriers will not deliver to another address. Should you wish to change delivery address, you must contact us at RHS as early as possible. We cannot guarantee late changes of address. The carrier will make a charge to us (passed on to you) for all changes of delivery address once the order has been placed.

It is also important that the phone numbers that you give us are contactable by the carrier, if they cannot make contact with you, we will be advised of this by them, and then the goods will be returned to the continental factory. A full delivery charge will be made for a re-delivery.

The carrier is also not in position to store your delivery in their depot, if for instance you are on holiday. Their high turnover operation requires them to either delivery or return goods. If you ask them to store it for you until you are ready, they may or may not offer to do this, but they will charge you for it .

The carrier will also make a charge to us (passed on to you) if an arranged delivery turns up and cannot be off-loaded because of the non-attendance of the customer.

The carrier will only deliver during normal hours on week days ( no weekend deliveries).

So some points to consider and discuss with us at order time.

• Are you going on holiday around the time of delivery?
• Can you be contacted by phone during the working day?
• Can an 18 tonne lorry access the road in front of your delivery address?
• Will you or your builder have the space available to store your stair safely a round the time of the delivery?
• Can you have someone on site able enough to carry the stair parts to safe storage?
• Can you or your builder get the stair parts from the ground floor to your 18th floor penthouse apartment?

If there are unsolvable problems with our standard delivery service we can arrange a special delivery.

Special Delivery

We can arrange other more specific date and time deliveries, and even get the stair to your 18th floor penthouse suite. We do not make a profit from this service but charge what it costs us plus VAT.

Unfortunately transport costs are ever rising and big heavy boxes are not the cheapest thing to get delivered on a bespoke service. Please contact us for a quote on your requirements.

International Deliveries

We have supplied products all over continental Europe, and can arrange international carriage. The price depends on the country and the distance, so you need to contact us for a quote. We have to add maritime insurance costs onto the standard INCO terms supplied by the carrier, and this puts the cost up.

In our experience the ex-pat communities in most European countries usually have better access than we do to small carriers who specialize in weekly deliveries to one country. This very often proves to be a cheaper option to explore.

Distance selling regulations 2000

If you are a private customer (not a business) ordering a ready made product direct by e-mail, fax or telephone, you have a statutory right to cancel the order within 7 days of receipt of the goods.

Should you choose to do this, our purchase contract requires that you return the goods in their original packaging and their original condition (unused and undamaged) to our premises in Coventry at your own expense.

You are not covered under this legislation if the product is made for you, it applies only to the prepackaged kits such as the Civic spiral kit, Klan spiral kit, but not to such products as Genius spiral, Portofino spiral or SAF electric loft ladder which are bespoke products.

The legislation does not cover commercial sales between businesses, or non distance sales such as a sale where the purchaser has visited our showroom.

Returns policy.

We do not accept returns of unwanted goods other than goods that are damaged in transit, have manufacturing faults or are covered by statutory rights under the Distance Selling Regulations

As you will be aware if you have dealt with us before our policy is to spend as much time as is necessary prior to order going over the details of your project to ensure that the goods that you are ordering are what you want. We can only offer advice based on what you tell us,and ultimately the responsibility has to rest with the purchaser to ensure that the goods they are ordering are suitable and required. However we will always offer practical and honest advice as to what in our opinion you will need to purchase for your project. If we can see anything that might be a problem we will always do our best to advise the customer of this and make recommendations accordingly.

Most products sold by RHS are imported from continental Europe and in most cases delivered direct to you from the manufacturing plant. This works well and keeps delivery cost to a minimum thus reducing the price you pay. This does however mean that it is uneconomic to accept returns. Returned goods would then have to go into stock at out premises which is not our normal system, then they would incur an extra delivery cost when repurchased. The costs for this make it unworkable.

Cancellations

Once you order from us we immediately order and pay our European manufacturers using their on-line facilities. Their systems then organize and dispatch your order usually within a week for boxed kit products and usually between two and five weeks for made-to-measure products.

Should you wish to cancel a boxed kit product prior to dispatch we will charge 20% of the total order value.

Boxed kit orders once dispatched incur a 100% cancellation charge.

The dispatch date being taken as the written notification of dispatch received from the manufacturer by ourselves.

Made-to-measure products once ordered go immediately into manufacturing and as such incur a 100% cancellation charge.

Damaged or missing parts

RHS will replace any damaged or missing parts from the products provided we are notified within seven days of the delivery date, and providing that it can be reasonably ascertained that these were damaged or missing prior to arrival at the delivery address.

RHS will replace such parts under standard delivery terms, but will not be liable to the customer for any installation charges or any indirect or consequential loss including but not limited to any loss of profit, loss of sales or any contractual time penalty clause costs.