We hope that you are satisfied with the goods that you order. We take care to ensure that the goods are accurately and adequately described in our literature and on our Website. However, since Personalised items cannot be returned for a full refund, (as they have no resale value), if you have any doubts at all about the quality or suitability of a personalised item, we advise that you do not place the order without contacting our sales office first.

We employ a range of suppliers to produce the various gift ranges on offer. A multi-product order will therefore usually arrive in separate packages - directly from the suppliers that produce them.

Every effort is made to ensure that the goods reach you in satisfactory condition, and that the personalisation details are correctly copied onto the products you order. We recommend that you send us written instructions for any personalised item, and that you retain a copy for your own reference in the event of a dispute.

If you have any reason to contact us with regard to a complaint, you may contact us by phone, letter, fax or e-mail. If you contact us by letter, fax or e-mail, we will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and provide a likely timescale for resolving the complaint. We will also keep you informed if the timescale needs to be extended.

If you wish to make a general comment about our Website or the goods we offer, or simply make a suggestion about how you think we might improve our service, then please send us an e-mail from our Feedback page.

In spite of all our efforts, errors will sometimes be made, and damage does occur from time to time, so here is a guide through the various questions that may arise in this respect. If you have a question that is not answered here, please feel free to email us at info@personalpresents.co.uk.

Frequently Asked Questions:
1. What do I do if I do not receive all my items together?
2. What do I do if an item arrives damaged?
3. Can I buy goods on approval?
4. What if I just don't like an item?
5. How do I return goods?
6. I've placed an order and want to make a change to one or more of the details. What do I do?
7. The personalised item I've received has an error on it. What do I do?
8. Can I pay for the goods after I have received them?
9. If I only order a single item, why must I pay the £2.50 minimum postage, packing & administration cost?
10. Do I qualify for a discount if I have a large order?
11. Why can't delivery time estimates be more precise?
12. What do I do if 30 days have passed, and all my goods haven't arrived?
13. What happens if I do not collect my parcel from the Royal Mail Sorting Office, or contact the courier service to arrange for delivery at a future date?
14. Can I return personalised goods if they are not received within 30 days?

Technical Questions:
1. Is the Personal Presents Website secure?
2. How can I verify this?
3. Are there any other ways of identifying the site as secure?
4. What does "Sender Empty" mean?
5. How do I know if my order has been processed?
6. How is my order information stored?

1. What do I do if I do not receive all my items together?
This is almost certainly due to the fact that your order is a 'multi-product' order, and that your other goods will arrive separately within the 30 day waiting period we ask you to allow. However, if the enclosed delivery note lists an item which is neither enclosed nor marked as 'following separately', then please contact us.

2. What do I do if an item arrives damaged?
Please do not return the item until you have contacted us. There are a variety of procedures involved, depending on which particular item has been damaged. We will wish to have a description of the precise nature of the damage involved before we go about replacing the item for you.

3. Can I buy goods on approval?
No. If you are in any doubt about the suitability of an item, then we would recommend that you contact us first for a fuller description before you decide to purchase it. If you decide to go ahead with an order for a non-personalised item and then wish to return it, you will be required to pay for the return postage.

4. What if I just don't like an item?
If it is not a personalised item, you may return it to us - though you must contact us first - however it must reach us in re-saleable condition for a full refund to be granted. (See question below). Personalised items cannot be returned for a full refund, as they have no resale value. If you have any doubts at all about the quality or suitability of a personalised item, we advise that you do not place the order without contacting our sales office first.

5. How do I return goods?
Once you have contacted us, and we have confirmed that we want you to return the item(s), you must ensure that the goods are appropriately packaged to ensure that they arrive in re-saleable condition. We strongly recommend that you get a "Proof of Posting" certificate (free of charge) from your Post Office, as you will need this to make a claim from the Royal Mail should the package be lost or damaged on its journey back to us.

6. I've placed an order and want to make a change to one or more of the details. What do I do?
If you have just placed an order, and realise that you've made a mistake - or just want to make a change - we will do our best to contact the appropriate supplier in time to effect the change. However, we cannot guarantee to make a change if we are notified more than 2 working days from receipt or your order. It will depend mainly on the particular item involved.

7. The personalised item I've received has an error on it. What do I do?
If an error has been made by Personal Presents Ltd., or any of our suppliers, we will have the item remade correctly and delivered to you at no extra cost. If the error can be shown to be yours, then we may be able to have the item amended, or remade at a discounted price, depending on the item(s) involved. In any case, you must contact us first to establish where the fault lies. (A supplier error can be identified easily whereby the details on the item differ from those on the Order Confirmation form).

8. Can I pay for the goods after I have received them?
In order to keep our administrative costs as low as possible we do not offer credit facilities, and because the majority of our goods are personalised for the customer, we take payment with order - invariably in advance of delivery.

9. If I only order a single item, why must I pay the £2.50 minimum postage, packing & administration cost?
Many of the costs involved in processing an order are fixed, regardless of the value of the item being delivered to the customer. Every personalised order must be checked manually for its accuracy to ensure we do not produce items incorrectly. We have set the costs based on what the 'average' customer purchases from us within each value band: because many of our goods are quite heavy (especially books, photo albums and crockery), the actual postage costs are quite high particularly since the Royal Mail have substantially increased their charges for small packets sine August 2006. Our aim is to break even on the postage, packing & administrative costs, and make our profits on sale of the goods themselves.

10. Do I qualify for a discount if I have a large order?
Larger orders generally benefit from savings in the postage & packing costs. We do not charge any more than £5.50 (including 82p which goes to HM Customs & Excise for VAT) for an order regardless of its size, so there is a significant benefit in placing a single large order rather than several small orders. Also, because our products are personalised, there are no economies of scale to pass back to our customers - as there would be if you were simply buying packets of cornflakes in bulk from a discount retailer, for example.

If you have any reason to contact us with regard to a complaint, you may contact us by phone, letter, fax or e-mail. If you contact us by letter, fax or e-mail, we will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and provide a likely timescale for resolving the complaint. We will also keep you informed if the timescale needs to be extended.

11. Why can't delivery time estimates be more precise?
Personal Presents uses a number of different suppliers around the UK, and one in Holland. Many of them are small family run businesses that close down for holiday periods. And like all businesses, sometimes supplies of raw materials run out, creating short-term delays.

We must take all of these issues into account, operating on a 'worst-case' scenario in order to avoid creating customer disappointment. The reality is that for 80% of the year items will arrive well within the specified delivery time, and customers will be pleasantly surprised with a speedier delivery time than anticipated.

However, in broad terms, here are the general guidelines for delivery times if an order is paid by credit/debit card or by Postal Order:

• Non-personalised goods (books, photo albums, DIY kits - but NOT Royal Mint Coins): 5 working days.
• Delft Blue gifts: between 6 and 7 weeks, but up to 9 weeks following factory closures at Christmas and Summer breaks
• All other gifts: between 2 and 3 weeks, but up to 4 weeks allowing for raw material shortages, holidays and postal delays

12. What do I do if 30 days have passed, and all my goods haven't arrived?
Before calling our enquiry line (+44 (0) 1753 783371) please consider the following:

• If the item you are awaiting is from the Delft Blue range, then please allow up to 8 weeks for delivery
• If you sent your order by Freepost, please remember to allow at least 2 working days for your order to reach us, and allow 30 days from that date
• If you have waited longer than 30 days, it would be worth checking in person at your local Royal Mail sorting office, as it is not uncommon for items to be there without your being aware
• If you have ordered from our Website but have not received an order acknowledgement, then it is likely that your order did not actually reach us: this could be for any one of a number of technical reasons (including giving us an incorrect email address to reply to).

When you do contact us, we will require either your Customer ID number, or your postcode (not the delivery address postcode if the goods are being shipped to a different address) so that we may trace your order details.

As long as a full 30 days have elapsed from the date that we received your order for personalised goods (or 9 weeks for Delft items), we will contact the appropriate supplier to get a confirmed dispatch date. We will then contact you to provide this information and to advise you how to proceed.

13. What happens if I do not collect my parcel from the Royal Mail Sorting Office, or contact the courier service to arrange for delivery at a future date?
In both instances the delivery service should put a card through your letterbox to advise you a) they have made a delivery attempt, and b) the address and contact telephone number where can pick up your parcel (Royal Mail) or have it delivered on a more convenient date (courier).

The Royal Mail will hold your package at your local sorting office for approximately 3 weeks before returning it to us. Courier services will wait for approximately 10 days for you to contact them to arrange an alternative delivery date.

If the parcel(s) is/are returned to us, we will contact you to arrange the re-shipment of the item, but there may be a further delivery cost involved, dependent on the size, weight and number of parcels involved. We will enclose the original packaging and any documentation available to us, in order to show the stickers indicating the date of the original delivery attempt. (You may then wish to pursue a claim with the Royal Mail separately for the additional delivery costs incurred if you are sure that they did not in fact put a card through your letterbox. If it is determined that the courier did not 'card' the correct address, the parcel will be re-shipped to you free of charge.)

Orders may only be cancelled if the goods are not personalized in any way, and the item(s) have reached us in re-saleable condition. The post, packing & administration charge is non-refundable in these circumstances.

14. Can I return personalised goods if they are not received within 30 days?
We do not accept orders for personalised goods contingent upon a delivery date, as the items cannot be re-sold to any other customer. We do of course strive to ensure that delivery is achieved well within the timeframes specified (as indicated in the answer to Q11), and this is usually the case.

However, where a customer specifies that a delivery date is critical (particularly if it within the usual delivery timeframes), we can only offer to do our best to meet that delivery date, but this does not constitute a guarantee. Consequently the customer must decide whether to proceed at their own risk.

IN ALL CASES WHERE THE ISSUE HAS BEEN RAISED WITH US, OUR CUSTOMER HAS UNDERSTOOD THAT PERSONALISED GIFTS ARE 'SPECIAL', AND ARE THEREFORE WORTH WAITING FOR - EVEN IF IT CAN SOMETIMES MEAN GIVING A GIFT A LITTLE LATE.

Technical Questions

1. Is the Personal Presents Website secure?
Yes. Our Website is hosted by Shared Knowledge Ltd. in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. Their SQL Server is secure as is the Personal Presents Ltd Server located at our premises in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire. We are currently developing an upgrade to our software that will increase the security of the information being relayed from our Website host to our offices where the order data is processed.

2. How can I verify this?
ur SecureServer Certificate has been issued by Thawte. The Thawte Secure Site Seal can be found on our Home Page, and full validation can be done online if you simply double-click on the seal. This is a level of security that we must pay for each year.

3. Are there any other ways of identifying the site as secure?
Yes. Once you enter the shopping cart on our site, you will see that each page address begins with "https" rather than just "http". The 's' at the end indicates that the page you're on is secure. However, please remember that not every page needs to be secure - just those upon which you input your personal details. In addition, you will also see a yellow padlock at the bottom of your screen for most pages.

4. What does "Sender Empty" mean?
The "Sender Empty" message usually appears if you have forgotten to put in part of your address details, including your e-mail address so that we may acknowledge your order.

5. How do I know if my order has been processed?
As long as you have given us your correct e-mail address, an order acknowledgement will be e-mailed back to you within 3 working days of receipt of your order. If you do not receive this confirmation, then please contact us.

6. How is my order information stored?
The Personal Presents website uses a Microsoft SQL Server database to store information on all of the products displayed on the site and your order information. This database is C2 security compliant and password protected and can only be accessed by a limited number of authorised personnel.