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.