Terms & Conditions

The following terms and conditions apply to Erika McLean & Sheila Graham GbR. All references to “www.the-tea-ladies.com”, “The Tea Ladies” and /or ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’ shall be deemed to be references to Erika McLean & Sheila Graham GbR. References to ‘you’ and ‘your’ shall be deemed to be references to the hirer who is placing an order with The Tea Ladies. By making a booking, you hereby agree to the following terms and conditions in their current valid form upon conclusion of the contract.

 

§ 1 - Hire Period

The hire period for all items will be 1-3 days (allowing day 1 for delivery, day 2 for event and day 3 for return). Any extension to the hire period must be agreed with us in advance. Without prior agreement, hired items returned late will be charged per day at 50% of the total booking amount. Mid to long term hire periods can also be arranged with us subject to prior notice and approval.

 

§ 2 - Prices and Conditions of Hire

The total hire charges are valid for 3 days which equates to 1 hire period, regardless of whether items are returned earlier or not. The hirer will receive an initial quotation from The Tea Ladies with a breakdown of all charges for hire and other services. Our quotations are subject to change and non-binding. The end prices mentioned in our quotations are exclusive of VAT as we are a small enterprise (“Kleinunternehmer”) in accordance with paragraph § 19 of the German Value-Added Tax Act (UStG). Following proposed acceptance of the quotation by the hirer, the hirer must sign an order confirmation and return this to The Tea Ladies in order to guarantee the booking. The hire agreement is legally binding for both parties as from this point onwards. During the hire period, items remain the sole responsibility of the hirer. The hirer is liable for all theft or damage including but not limited to third party theft or damage during this time. Throughout the duration of the hire period the items will remain the property of The Tea Ladies. A damage deposit to the value of €100,00 and an initial down-payment of 50% of the total order value will be required from the hirer immediately after the order confirmation is signed and sent to us.  The remaining balance is due four weeks prior to the event. The deposit amount will be refunded back to the hirer providing that the items have been returned to us in full without damages or losses. All damaged or lost items must be paid for by the hirer (please refer to break & replace section below). The Tea Ladies accept no responsibility for damage or injury caused to person, persons or product as a result of the hire agreement.

 

§ 3 - Additional Services

A washing up service is included free of charge. Subject to availability, we offer a delivery & pick up service at a fixed rate of €20,00 per journey within a fixed 25km radius of our headquarters in Düsseldorf (NRW, Germany). Any distance thereafter will be charged for at a rate of €0,50 per km. We deliver our hire items in their full packaging to just beyond your first house door / ground floor only. Any additional service, work or waiting time required at the delivery location will be charged for at a rate of €17,50 per hour. Additional charges may apply if your booking is extremely large and/or placed at short notice. Alternatively, customers are encouraged to pick up and return items to us in person (free of charge) subject to prior agreement. We also offer an optional on site set up service, meaning that one or more representatives of The Tea Ladies will be available at your event location to unpack our hire items, sort together the sets, build together any cake stands and dress the table accordingly (i.e. as individual place settings on a long or round table or as a buffet). We charge for this event service at a rate of €2,00 per individual place setting as per your booking confirmation, i.e. 50 tea cup and saucers corresponds to 50 individual place settings. Set up for bookings with less than 20 persons / place settings will be charged for at a fixed rate of €40,00. Our set up service can only be booked in combination with a delivery by The Tea Ladies.  We also offer an additional pack up service, meaning that we will collect together the hired crockery and pack up the items ourselves after your event. We charge for this service at a rate of €1,00 per individual place setting as per your booking confirmation, i.e. 50 tea cup and saucers corresponds to 50 individual place settings. Pack up for bookings with less than 20 persons / place settings will be charged for at a fixed rate of €20,00. This service can also only be booked in combination with a collection by The Tea Ladies. Furthermore, we also offer a tea hostess service for preparing & serving tea, replenishing food and if necessary, washing up our vintage crockery. We usually recommend a minimum of 2 hours hostess service at an hourly rate of €17,50. This service can only be booked in conjunction with our set up & pack up service. We require a minimum booking amount of 10 persons for our set up, pack up and/or tea hostess service. All additional services are subject to availability and must be agreed with us in advance.

 

§ 4 - Payment

 

To secure your order, a 50% down-payment of the total booking value (incl. any delivery or packaging fees) and a €100,00 deposit must be paid immediately. The outstanding balance is due four weeks prior to the event. The pre-paid deposit will automatically be refunded to you within two weeks of your event providing that all hire items are returned to us in full without any damage or breakages. Our payment terms will be displayed on the invoice. We accept payments via bank transfer into our account with the comdirekt Bank, Quickborn (account no. 6868699/IBAN DE23200411550686869900, sort code 20041155/BIC COBADEHD055). To save energy and paper resources, we offer our customers an optional electronic invoicing system, meaning that you will receive an invoice as a PDF attachment sent via email. If you wish to make use of this service, please tick, sign and date the clause about this on your order confirmation form. Alternatively, we are of course happy to send you a regular invoice by standard post.

Terms & Conditions

§ 5 - Packaging & Delivery

All items should be carefully checked by the hirer upon delivery and the delivery note must be signed by the hirer. It is very important that any discrepancies or issues be brought to our attention immediately upon receipt of the goods (i.e. at the time of delivery or self-collection). With the exception of tiered cake stands, which must be assembled / disassembled, all of our other items are ready to use immediately. The hire items will be provided to the hirer with sufficient packaging materials and when returning items to us, the hirer must use the original boxes and packaging. A standard 5% packaging surcharge (based on the total hire amount) will be added to all bookings to ensure that the hire items are packaged safely and sufficiently to prevent breakages. This charge may increase slightly if the booking is extremely large or contains very heavy items. Should our packaging be lost or damaged during the hire period, we will charge for this at full replacement cost. Please handle all bone china and glassware with care, especially when stacking and boxing up. Unless you have booked our pack up service, we require that all hire items are wrapped up sufficiently and packaged ready for collection. We reserve the right to count and check all returned hire items for damage, breakage or loss at our own premises following your event. All items should be returned to us in an un-washed state; however it is the responsibility of the hirer to remove any excess liquids and food residues from our crockery items. If the items are not returned in this way, we reserve the right to make a 10% surcharge on your total order. Under no circumstances should our crockery be washed in a standard or commercial dishwasher, as this can damage the lovely vintage products.

 

§ 6 - Products

Our vintage crockery collection consists of an extensive mixture of matching tea sets and also mismatched individual vintage pieces. We strive to meet the hirer’s needs and handpick items according to their brief, however we cannot guarantee matching sets and we actively encourage the hirer to choose mismatched items and colours for a more eclectic and vintage feel. Our bone china items (i.e. tea cups, saucers, plates, tea pots, cake stands, vases/jugs, sugar bowl and milk jugs) are authentic vintage pieces, produced and sourced in the United Kingdom. Some of the items originate from prestige British bone china producers such as Colclough, Paragon and Foley, however we cannot necessarily guarantee that items from these brands are available at the time of your booking. All of our vintage items are pre-loved and bring with them a wealth of history, so any minor imperfections, scratches or grazing have occurred over a long period of time and considered to be normal wear. Should any of our items show any signs of more extensive damage (i.e. major chips or cracks), we will always try to replace these where possible prior to your event.

 

§ 7 - Damages, Breakages & Loss

Our vintage crockery is very precious and delicate and we therefore ask the hirer to treat it with the respect and care that it deserves. By nature vintage crockery is more fragile than commercial catering crockery, so if you are working together with a caterer or special venue, it is your responsibility to inform them of this in order to reduce the risk of breakages. Assuming that there are no damages or losses, we will refund the hirer the €100,00 deposit in full up to 14 working days after the event date. In the unlikely event of any accidental breakages, loss or damages to our crockery, we request a “break & replace” fee from the hirer which enables us to lovingly search for new vintage china to replace the damaged items. This will cover any small breakages during your event and if applicable we will deduct this amount from the deposit. Our break & replace fees are listed below. Should the hirer break, damage or lose all items that were hired, we will retain the entire deposit amount. In the unlikely event that the breakages & damage caused by the hirer exceed the deposit value, we will be forced to charge for each additional item over and above this excess. To make this process easier, we will of course send the hirer an invoice listing all charges.

 

Break & Replace Charges

Vintage-Tea Wagon (white) 50x72x60cm: €90,00

Vintage Candy-Bar-Ladder (white): €100,00

Wooden boxes (white) 50x30x40cm: €15,00

Hot water boiler, 10L: €95,00

Vintage frame: €40,00

Cake stands (1,2 or 3 tier)/glass cake stand: €30,00

Textile accessories large (i.e. bunting, picnic blanket): €30,00

Teapots (all sizes): €30,00

Bird cage size XXL / L / square: €30,00

Bird cage size S / M: €20,00

Wicker picnic basket: €30,00

Vintage Typewriter: €30,00

Jug or vase: €25,00

Teacup candle: €20,00

Teacup and saucer: €15,00

Scone or cake tongs: €15,00

Decanter or large glass jar: €15,00

Round or oval plate/plate / sandwich platter: €15,00

Vintage tablecloth / tablecloth white: €12,50

Pearl necklace /costume jewellery / Mr & Mrs mini bunting:€10,00

Textile accessories small (lace doily, table runner vintage style, hanging net): €10,00

Milk jug / sugar bowl: €10,00

Glass bottles / glass pitcher: €5,00

Vintage Wine glasses / champagne flutes: €10,00

Large glass sugar bowl / bon bon bowl: €15,00

Large glass bowl: €15,00

Candy bar sign: €12,00

Vintage keys: €9,00

Mini frames cream: €6,00

Champagne-Flute Premium (non-Vintage): €3,00

Sugar nips / cake knife or server: 10,00

Hard-back vintage book (English): €7,00

Gold pearl chain (matt/shiny): €7,00

Side plate: €5,00

Bon-bon jar in various designs S / M / L: €5,00 / €8,00 / €12,00

Hanging hearts large: €5,00

Serviettes white 50x50xm: €4,00

Marmalade / butter dish / glass coaster (glass): €2,50

Vintage cutlery per individual item (1 fork, 1 spoon, 1 knife etc.): €3,00

Premium cutlery in vintage style (1 fork, 1 spoon, 1 knife etc.):€2,50

 

Hanging hearts (small): €2,50

 

Based on status 26th October 2017

 

Terms & Conditions

§ 8 - Cancellations

Should there be a change in plan and you decide to cancel your order, the following charges will apply:

 

Notice given prior to event date / Cancellation charges

Earlier than 30 days: No charge

15-30 days prior to the event: 50% of hire fee due

8-14 days prior to the event: 75% of hire fee due

Less than 8 days prior to the event: 90% of hire fee due

 

We also reserve the right to cancel your order if the hirer fails to make payment in time and/or due to exceptional circumstances beyond our control, e.g hazardous weather and major road accidents.

 

§ 9 - Withdrawal rights

Withdrawal statement

The hirer has the right to withdraw from the contract in writing (by email or letter) within the first 14 days of the hire agreement without giving any reason. The period shall commence after receipt of these instructions in a written form, albeit not before conclusion of the contract and also not before fulfilment of our duty to inform according to Article 246 § 2 in combination with § 1 sub-section 1 and 2 Introductory Act to the German Civil Code (EGBGB) and our obligations according to § 312g sub-section 1 Sentence 1 German Civil Code (BGB) in combination with Article 246 § 3 Introduction to German Civil Code (EGBGB). The timely dispatch of the withdrawal declaration shall be deemed sufficient for compliance with the withdrawal period.The period shall commence for the hirer with dispatch of the declaration of withdrawal and for us with receipt thereof. All withdrawal declarations should be made in writing addressed to:

 

The Tea Ladies

Erika McLean & Sheila Graham GbR

Lotharstrasse 19

40547 Düsseldorf

Email: info@the-tea-ladies.com

 

Consequences of your withdrawal

In the event of an effective withdrawal, any goods or payments already received by both parties shall be returned and refunded and any benefits derived from this (e.g. interest) must also be returned. If the hirer is unable to return the received benefits or goods to us in full or if only partially returned or returned in a deteriorated condition, we will be obliged to seek compensation to cover this loss. This may result in the hirer nevertheless having to satisfy the contractual payment obligations for the time period up until the point of withdrawal. Your right of withdrawal expires prematurely, if according to your explicit wish, the contract is completely fulfilled by both sides before you have made use of your right of withdrawal.

End of the withdrawal statement.

 

§ 10 - Applicable law & Place of Jurisdiction

The applicable law and place of jurisdiction valid for all contractual relationships between the hirer and us is the legislation of the Federal Republic of Germany. Exempt from this applicable law are the mandatory rules on consumer protection in the state/country in which the hirer has his/her habitual residence. The application of the United Nation sales convention law is excluded. The place of jurisdiction for all disputes arising from the contract between the hirer and us is Düsseldorf, unless the hirer is classed as a registered trader or legal entity under public law or special public assets. The valid contract language is English.

 

§ 11 - Severability Clause

If any provision or provisions of this agreement shall be held to be invalid or unenforceable, the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions shall not in any way be affected or impaired thereby.

 

 

Version from 26th October 2017