T&C – Furniture Repair in Hitchin

Terms of Trading:

Introduction
These Terms and Conditions constitute a legally binding agreement made between you, whether personally or on behalf of an entity (“you”) and 3 restorers (Tom McDougall trading as 3 Restorers) (“we,” “us” or “our”). In accepting a quote/estimate with us you recognise and accept these terms.

Estimates & Quotations
Estimates and quotes may be provided free of charge by us via email/WhatsApp if there is sufficient, accurate information and photographic evidence provided by you via email/WhatsApp. In some instances it may not be possible to quote based on the information supplied by email/WhatsApp. If this is the case, it may be necessary to visit you to view a piece of furniture or for you to bring the item to us and leave it with us to quote – there may be a charge for this, if there is, we will tell you via email/WhatsApp and ask you to confirm in writing via email/WhatsApp that you wish to proceed on this basis before visiting you or arranging for you to leave your furniture with us to quote.

Due to the nature of furniture restoration work, sometimes further faults/damage/previous bad repairs/disguised materials can present issues only after work on the item has commenced. For this reason we reserve the right to adjust our quoted costs accordingly after work has begun. However, we would always inform you of this before continuing work, ask you to confirm via email/WhatsApp that you’re happy to continue with the work at the revised price and give you the option to terminate the job and collect your item in it’s current state if you prefer. In the case of the latter option, the item may be in worse condition than it was when the original work was commissioned – it will likely not be possible to return the item to it’s previous condition free of charge.

All quotes and estimates must be accepted in writing via email/WhatsApp before work can commence. In instances where work is commissioned verbally, we will always additionally require you to accept our quote/estimate via email/WhatsApp so both parties have a written account of our agreement.

Quote Duration
Quotes are valid for one month (30 days) from the issue date.

Limitations (Restoration)
with any refinishing/cosmetic repairs/touch-ins/’stain removal’ to furniture, there is never a guarantee that the furniture will look ‘like new’, that stains/paint will be 100% removed from the grain – especially end grain, or that touch-ins of damage will be literally invisible. In instances of refinishing or partial refinishing; the new finish may not be an exact match with the original/surrounding finish in tone and/or sheen – UV damage among other conditions over time can dramatically change the appearance of both finishes and timbers from their newly applied/freshly felled and seasoned states. However, we will of course do everything possible to get your furniture looking as good as we can.

In instances where structural repairs are needed, please be aware that there is no guarantee that once repaired, the item will be as strong as it was when originally made – although we will of course use our professional judgement, we do not have the means to mechanically stress-test furniture as would be done in a large commercial furniture manufacturing setting. If we feel that a potential structural repair would be unsafe, we will always advise you that the item can only be repaired for aesthetic purposes and not for use. With any ‘not new’ piece of furniture it is impossible to know if there are hidden structural defects for example; historic repairs with failed glue, badly carried out old repairs, breaks hidden by upholstery etc.

In instances where upholstered furniture is booked-in for structural/refinishing work, we strongly recommend that upholstery fabric is removed beforehand to avoid the risk of marks from clamps, glue, stain, finish, masking tape etc. Although we will take considerable care to avoid these kinds of damage, if furniture is supplied with upholstery intact, it is at the client’s/your own risk of the aforementioned damage and we can not be held responsible if upholstery is damaged.

Acceptance of our quotations/estimates and subsequent use of furniture repaired by us is with full acknowledgment of the above limitations and at the clients/your own risk.

Payment Terms & Storage Fees
In most cases we do not require a deposit or payment from you, the customer until the work on your furniture is completed. In some cases, particularly if a project has high materials costs, is very large, time consuming and/or costly, we may require part/full payment before work begins. If this is the case, we will always inform you and ask you to agree to this. Once the work is complete, we will notify you via email/WhatsApp and send photo/video evidence of the completed work if required. An invoice for the work carried out will be made out to the you, the customer personally (payable by bank transfer or cash only). We will also email you a proposed date and time slot to return/for you to collect your restored furniture.

We require invoices to be settled in full before furniture leaves our workshop. If our proposed date and time to return your furniture is not convenient for you, we will provide an alternative date and time at some point during the 7 days following our initial, original proposed ‘date and time slot’ email. Due to space restrictions, if we’re still holding your furniture beyond this second proposed date, we will invoice you for storage at a rate of £15 per day per item. Any such invoices for un-scheduled (in writing via email) storage of your furniture will also need to be settled in full before your item/items can leave our premises. Please note; we may be lenient in certain situations if we feel it’s appropriate but this is entirely at our discretion and we reserve the right to enforce the above policy. Please inform us at the point of accepting our quote if you are due to be going away during the weeks following the start of the restoration of your item.

In instances where a third party such as an insurance company is involved, we will NOT address invoices to, or take payment from them – we will ONLY address invoices to and accept payment from you, the customer who has commissioned work from us directly.

Third Party Craftspeople
In some instances we may enlist third party craftspeople to carry out specific specialist tasks on a restoration project – for example; basketweaving, stringing, or gilding. We will always inform you if we’re going to do this and ask you to confirm that you’re happy to use them. If we do enlist a third party, we will not take any fee for doing so and any payments will be made directly between you and them. We would obviously only ever suggest/recommend using a third party if we believe them to be reputable however, we cannot accept liability for any issues arising from the use of third party companies even if we have suggested them.

Intellectual Property Rights
Unless otherwise indicated, the Site is our proprietary property and all source code, databases, functionality, software, website designs, audio, video, text, photographs, and graphics on the Site (collectively, the “Content”) and the trademarks, service marks, and logos contained therein (the “Marks”) are owned or controlled by us or licensed to us, and are protected by copyright and trademark law.The Content and the Marks are provided on the Site for your information and personal use only.

Privacy & Data Collection
In order to find out about your restoration project and what services you may require from us we may need to ask you to provide certain information which could identify you, this could include; your name, address, email address and phone number. We will only ever use this information to contact you and for our own records. We will never intentionally pass on your personal information to anyone or sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission to do so or are required to do so by law.

We may use photos/videos we have taken of clients/your furniture before, during and after restoration to showcase our business on our website, business listings, social media and/or printed promotional material. If you do not want images of your furniture to be used by us in this manner please email us to let us know.

Guarantee & Issue/Complaint Handling Code
On completion of restoration work carried out by us it is your responsibility to fully inspect your item of furniture in person before it leaves our premises to make sure that you’re happy with the work carried out. As outlined in the ‘Limitations (Restoration)’ section; Due to the nature of restoration work, our work is not under guarantee or warranty. If you have an issue with your restored furniture after it has left our premises, contact us as soon as possible and we will of course endeavour to resolve the situation. However, please note that any further work/aftercare provided free of charge by us is entirely at our discretion and may not be forthcoming if an issue is not highlighted by the client/you until months or years after our work was completed.

Legal Notice
Name of company:
3 Restorers (Thomas McDougall trading as: 3 Restorers)

Registered office:
36 Tilehouse Street,
Hitchin,
Herts
SG5 2DY

Contact details:
tel: 07831 710099
email: 3restorers@gmail.com