Terms and Conditions – General
General Website Use Terms and Conditions
If you continue to browse and use this website, you are agreeing to comply with and be bound by the following terms and conditions of use, which together with our privacy policy govern Northumberland Honey Co’s relationship with you in relation to this website. If you disagree with any part of these terms and conditions, please do not use our website.
The term Northumberland Honey Co or ‘us’ or ‘we’ refers to the owner of the website whose registered office is Unit 6C, Haltwhistle Industrial Estate, Haltwhistle, Northumberland, NE49 9HA. Our company registration number is 09432006. The term ‘you’ refers to the user or viewer of our website.
The use of this website is subject to the following terms of use:
- The content of the pages of this website is for your general information and use only. It is subject to change without notice.
- This website uses cookies to monitor browsing preferences. If you do allow cookies to be used, the following personal information may be stored by us for use by third parties.
- Neither we nor any third parties provide any warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials found or offered on this website for any particular purpose. You acknowledge that such information and materials may contain inaccuracies or errors and we expressly exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors to the fullest extent permitted by law.
- Your use of any information or materials on this website is entirely at your own risk, for which we shall not be liable. It shall be your own responsibility to ensure that any products, services or information available through this website meet your specific requirements.
- This website contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. This material includes, but is not limited to, the design, layout, look, appearance and graphics. Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice, which forms part of these terms and conditions.
- All trademarks reproduced in this website, which are not the property of, or licensed to the operator, are acknowledged on the website.
- Unauthorised use of this website may give rise to a claim for damages and/or be a criminal offence.
- From time to time, this website may also include links to other websites. These links are provided for your convenience to provide further information. They do not signify that we endorse the website(s). We have no responsibility for the content of the linked website(s).
- Your use of this website and any dispute arising out of such use of the website is subject to the laws of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Returns and Refunds
Cancellations, returns and refunds
1.18 All customers have the right to cancel their order under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation & Additional Charges) Regulations.
1.19 Your right to cancel an order for goods starts the moment you place your order and ends 14 days from the day you receive your goods.
1.20 To meet the cancellation deadline, please notify us via email or phone about cancelling the order before the cancellation period has expired.
1.21 If you are in possession of the goods you are under the duty to retain them and take reasonable care of them. You must send the goods back to us to our contact address at your own cost (unless we delivered the item to you in error or the item is damaged or defective) as soon as possible once you have cancelled the order.
1.22 We reserve the right to make a charge not exceeding our direct costs of recovering the goods if you do not return the goods or return them at our expense.
1.23 Once you have notified us that you wish to cancel the order, any sum debited to us will be refunded to you as soon as possible and in any event within 14 days of your cancellation.
1.23a In the case of refunds being made, the refund will be the amount paid less administration costs for processing the refund. Administration cost will be equivalent to 20% of the order value.
1.23b There will also be the option on cancelling to use the value of the order against other purchases rather than refund, if using the cancellation amount against purchasing other goods, these goods should be requested and purchased within 14 days of notification of the wish to cancel. In the case of using the value of the cancellation against other goods, no administration charge will be applied, but if delivery costs are applicable these will be charged seperately.
1.24 You will not have any right to cancel an order for the supply of any of the following goods:
(a) the supply of goods that are made to the customer’s specification or are clearly personalised.
(b) Unfortunately we cannot accept refunds or returns of opened bottles of mead, or honey or beeswax products. Regarding food and drink, it is unreasonable to expect us to be able to account for everyone’s tastes. Different mead and honey tastes different. We wish we could make EVERYONE happy and enjoy ALL our products and we DO make a lot of people happy who absolutely love our products. But there has to be some understanding that you may not like the taste of something we produce and that is the risk that you enter into when purchasing something new or different.
(c) the supply of beekeeping courses, taster sessions, beekeeping experiences, where a specific date has been booked and cancelled at short notice by the customer. Full Ts and Cs for the beekeeping experiences and courses can be found here
(d) beekeeping courses and experiences which have lapsed in time (beekeeping courses and experiences are valid for 1 year from the date of purchase)
(e) please note beekeeping courses and experiences must be used in the beekeeping season – April to September.
1.25 In addition you will lose your right to cancel if you:
(a) unseal goods that are not suitable for return if they are unsealed, due to health protection or hygiene reasons.
(b) combine goods with other goods after delivery so that they become inseparable.
1.25
Queens & Bees
a) The return of queens & bees is only accepted if they are returned alive and by royal mail special delivery within 14 days of receiving. Any returns outside of this time are at our discretion. – Please note terms and conditions for the sale of bees for more thorough information. Queens that are dead on arrival must be reported to us via the queen return/refund form on the day of arrival.
To request a return or refund on Queen Bees please use the designated return/refund form
Customer Behaviour Policy
To enable us to deal with unacceptable customer behaviour this policy enables us to set out how we expect to be communicated with and treated in our business transactions. This policy aims to deal with unacceptable customer behaviour professionally and consistently. It applies to all our customers interacting with our business and employees.
What behaviours are unacceptable?
Although difficult to predict all types of behaviour that could be unaceptable, examples are given under these 2 broad headings.
Aggressive or abusive behaviour
This consists of behaviour (written or verbal) that we consider might cause employees to feel intimidated, offended, bullied or harassed.
For example:
- threatening emails and telephone calls, threatening reports to authorities when no grounds for doing so.
- inappropriate comments on social media.
- inappropriate or false comments on reviews.
- Threats of negative reviews if we don’t submit to your requests
- Threats of negative reviews if we don’t financially or otherwise re-imburse you
- inappropriate banter, including innuendo
- malicious allegations with no basis of fact
- any form of physical violence or threats of physical violence
- derogatory racial, sexist, ageist or homophobic remarks
- comments relating to disability, perceived gender, religion, belief or any other protected characteristic
Unreasonable demands and vexatious complaints
Customers might make unreasonable demands on Northumberland Honey Company, some examples of these include but are not limited to:
- seeking compensation outside of the scope of the returns policy.
- nature and scale of service they expect, for example claiming for queen bees when introduction has been unsuccessful.
- seeking compensation for products that have been already used
- volume of correspondence they generate
We accept that persistence is not necessarily a form of unacceptable behaviour. What amounts to unreasonable demands will depend on the circumstances of the complaint and the seriousness of the issues raised by the customer.
However, customers who will not accept a decision taken in relation to their query, or persistently contact us about the same issue, can generate unreasonable demands – taking up a disproportionate amount of time and resources. This can affect our ability to provide a service to other customers.
Examples of behaviour that would fall within unreasonable demands and vexatious complaints include but are not limited to:
- refusing to follow our complaints procedure
- excessive volume of contact without allowing sufficient time for a response to previous correspondence
- insisting on seeing or speaking to a particular member of staff when a suitable alternative has been offered
- not accepting that an issue in relation to a legal requirement cannot be resolved by Northumberland Honey Company despite having been informed that this is the case
- inappropriate visits to our offices
- excessive contact because of an unwillingness to accept or agree with a policy decision adopted by Northumberland Honey Company.
If a complaint is considered to be vexatious, we’ll take the actions outlined in this policy. We’ll inform you that future correspondence will only be reviewed to ensure no new issues have been raised – if not, it will be filed without acknowledgement.
Actions we may take as a result of unacceptable behaviour
Our employees have a right to not have to tolerate unacceptable or vexatious behaviour when communicating with our customers. When this occurs, all our employees have the right to:
- place callers on hold
- end the call
- not reply to an abusive email or letter
However, before taking such action, it is reasonable to expect you are warned that your conduct is considered to be offensive to allow you the opportunity to moderate your behaviour.
Where these circumstances arise, we may take the following steps:
- We’ll ask you to modify your behaviour and explain why.
- If behaviour continues our employees will remove themselves from the situation.
- If the communication is by telephone you will be informed the call will be terminated.
- The employee will inform a manager and the incident will be recorded.
- In all cases a manager will investigate the situation and decide what action to take – which could include limiting your contact with us and refusing further orders from you.
- We’ll refer the matter to the police where a criminal offence has been threatened or committed.
Communication restrictions
If you continue to display unacceptable behaviour, a manager can authorise the decision to place a temporary or permanent communication restriction.
When communication is being restricted you will be told of the decision. Where possible, we will tell you in writing – but we may also tell you by telephone, supported by relevant notes on our records.
Communication might be:
- limited to being conducted in writing
- limited to a specific individual
- removed from social media and access to these channels blocked
- contact might be limited to a specific email address or telephone number
- placed on file without a further response if correspondence has previously been answered
Where circumstances are serious enough to warrant legal restrictions, we may refer to the police, apply for an injunction or court order to prohibit contact/poor behaviour.
