This page (together with the documents referred to on it) tells you the terms and conditions on which we supply any of the products ("Products") listed on our websites www.cousinsfurniture.co.uk and www.cousinsbuyonline.co.uk ("our sites") to you. Please read these terms and conditions carefully before ordering any Products from our sites. They do not affect your statutory rights. You should understand that your continued use of this Website constitutes your agreement to be bound by these terms and conditions which shall also govern all transactions on our sites to the exclusion of any other terms and conditions.
You should print a copy of these terms and conditions for future reference.
You must click on the button when prompted to accept these terms and conditions otherwise, you will not be able to order any Products from our sites.
www.cousinsfurniture.co.uk and www.cousinsbuyonline.co.uk are sites operated by Cousins Furniture Stores Limited ("we"). We are registered in England and Wales under company number 01763756 and with our registered office at Springfield Industrial Estate, Manchester Street, Oldbury, West Midlands, B69 4HH. Our VAT number is 416967715.
our sites is only intended for use by people resident in the United Kingdom. We do not ordinarily accept orders from individuals resident outside the United Kingdom.
By placing an order through our sites, you warrant that:
You are legally capable of entering into binding contracts;
You are at least 18 years old;
You are resident in the United Kingdom; and
All information that you have provided to us, including, without limitation, your name, payment details, delivery address, e-mail address and telephone number are genuine and accurate.
After placing an order, you will receive an e-mail from us acknowledging that we have received your order (“Order Acknowledgement”). Please note that this does not mean that your order has been accepted.
After we have sent you the Order Acknowledgement, we will check the availability of stock. Subject to clause 5 below, we will then process payment of the purchase price (or of the 25% deposit where applicable) in accordance with the payment terms set out in clause10.
Once your payment has cleared, we will notify you of the expected date for the delivery of the Products to you. Acceptance of your order and the creation of a legally binding contract between us will only occur when we send you this second e-mail (“Order Confirmation”).
The Contract will relate only to those Products we have referred to in the Order Confirmation. We will not be obliged to supply any other Products which may have been part of your order until the expected delivery date of such Products has been confirmed in a separate Order Confirmation.
We reserve the right not to accept any order requested if:
we have insufficient stock to deliver the Products you have ordered;
we do not deliver to your area;
one or more of the Products ordered was incorrectly described or priced on the Website;
the payment transaction is not authorised; or
you have not complied with the terms of paragraph 3 of these Terms and Conditions.
If we do cancel your contract we will notify you by e-mail and will refund to you any sum paid by you to us in respect of the contract as soon as possible, and in any event within 30 days of the cancellation of your order. We will not be obliged to offer any additional compensation for disappointment suffered.
Your Statutory Right to Cancel
If you are contracting as a consumer, you may cancel the Contract no later than seven working days after the date upon which you receive the Products. In this case, you will receive a refund in accordance with the terms set out below.
To cancel a Contract, you must inform us in writing.
You will not have any right to cancel a Contract for the supply of certain Products which, by their nature, are exempt from the normal seven day cooling off period, for example mattresses which have been taken out of their sealed packaging, special order or bespoke items and items which have been partially assembled.
If you have not received the Products at the time of cancellation of the contract and we have not processed the Products for delivery, we will refund to you all the monies paid by you for the Products in question including the delivery charges in the same form of payment originally used for the purchase as soon as possible, and in any event within 30 days of your cancellation being accepted.
If you have not received the Products at the time of cancellation of the contract, but we have processed the Products for delivery and they are en-route, you must not unpack the Products when they are received by you. You are the owner of the Products once they have been delivered to you and you are liable for their loss or destruction. Upon receipt of your notice of cancellation we will contact you to arrange collection and return of the Products and pending collection you must retain the Products and take reasonable care of them. Provided that the Products are received by us in the condition that they were in when they were delivered to you, we will refund to you all the monies paid by you for the Products in question, excluding the original delivery charge and the cost of collection and return of the Products. The refund will be made in the same form of payment originally used for the purchase, as soon as possible and in any event within 30 days of your cancellation being accepted.
If you have received the Products at the time of cancellation of the contract, you are the owner of the Products once they have been delivered to you and you are liable for their loss or destruction. Upon receipt of your notice of cancellation we will contact you to arrange collection and return of the Products and pending collection you must retain the Products and take reasonable care of them. Provided that the Products are received by us in the condition that they were in when they were delivered to you, we will refund to you all the monies paid by you for the Products in question, excluding the original delivery charge and the cost of collection and return of the Products. The refund will be made in the same form of payment originally used for the purchase, as soon as possible and in any event within 30 days of your cancellation being accepted.
If the Products have suffered damage or wear and tear whilst in your care we reserve the right to deduct the cost of repair from any refund due to you.
Regrettably, once Products have been delivered to you and any statutory cooling off period has expired, no Products will be accepted for return other than (i) in our absolute discretion or (ii) where such Products are damaged or defective.
Every effort will be made to ensure that the Products that you have ordered arrive undamaged and without defect.
If the Products are found to be either damaged or defective in any way at the time of delivery, you must complete an incident form immediately, which will be provided by our delivery team. If such damage or defect is discovered after delivery, you must contact us within three days of delivery of the Product or, in the event of a latent defect, within three days of the date upon which you discovered the defect.
Upon receipt of notification of alleged damage or defect from you, we will arrange to inspect the Product concerned. You must not make any use of it, not make any alteration to it nor return it or arrange for its return before we have been provided with the opportunity to inspect and investigate.
If upon inspection we agree that the item is damaged or defective and we are unable to repair the item to manufacturing standards, we will arrange for collection of the item and we will then contact you to arrange delivery of a replacement item to you as soon as replacement stock is available and/or offer you a full refund (including delivery charges). We are only able to hold such replacement stock for a reasonable period and reserve the right to levy a restocking charge in circumstances where you are unable or unwilling to accept such delivery within a reasonable time.
If as a result of an inspection, we determine that we have no legal liability in respect of the matters complained of, then we reserve the right to levy our standard call out charge and to reject any claim in respect of alleged damaged or defective Products.
Once unwrapped, beds/divans with mattresses and mattresses are excluded from our returns policy for health and hygiene reasons. Regrettably self-assembly and flat pack furniture cannot be accepted for return once assembly is partly or fully completed unless the Product is proved to be defective.
Please note the following Product information which forms part of our Returns Policy:
Surface fillings of mattresses may flatten. This is called dipping or settlement and is normal with use.
Furniture manufactured from natural materials (e.g. leather, wood and marble) will all have an individual appearance and may have a slight variance in colour and texture. A perfect match to the furniture on display on the Website cannot be guaranteed and a reasonable tolerance level will be applied. This adds to the individuality and character of each item manufactured.
Leather furniture will display natural characteristics such as scarring and variations in grain. In the cases of semi-aniline and aniline leathers, there will also be colour variations.
Solid wood furniture will display a variation in grain, knots and there may also be colour variation.
Marble furniture will display veining and there may also be colour variation.
We operate a continuous policy of Product improvement and we therefore reserve the right to vary the specification of any Product from that displayed on the Website, provided that the overall quality of the Product shall remain unaltered.
Availability and Delivery
We aim to deliver your Products within the time quoted on our Order Confirmation. If circumstances change we will contact you and in any event when the Product is available for delivery we will contact you to book a delivery Date (“Delivery Advice”). If however, delivery is delayed due to circumstances beyond our control, then we cannot accept any liability for consequential loss.
The delivery times quoted on the Website are for delivery to postcodes which fall within our normal delivery areas of 40 miles radius from our distribution centres. Should your postcode fall outside our normal delivery area, delivery times and costs may vary. We will inform you of this when issuing our Order Confirmation.
We regret that we cannot schedule deliveries for a specific time of day nor will we under any circumstances assemble any Products that are supplied on a self-assembly basis.
Special arrangements with assembly, movement or fitting of Products will be subject to a special charge. Details of this service will be provided upon request at the point of order.
It is your responsibility to ensure clear and sufficient access for Products delivered to the required location in your dwelling.
As part of the checkout process you will be requested to confirm that you have checked access thoroughly.
In the event of us not being able to gain access to the required location, we reserve the right to levy a charge in respect of such abortive delivery and the costs of any subsequent redelivery of the Product. Where the Product is a special order item and access is not possible then we reserve the right to levy a charge in respect of the costs of restocking the item.
We are unable to store goods awaiting delivery to a customer for periods in excess of 14 days after the latest estimated delivery date. Any goods stored at your request after this period must be paid for in full and will be subject to a storage charge of £15 per week.
The Products will be at your risk from the time of delivery.
Ownership of the Products will only pass to you when we receive full payment of all sums due in respect of the Products, including delivery charges.
The price of any Products will be as quoted on our sites from time to time, except in cases of obvious error.
These prices include VAT but exclude delivery costs, which will be added to the total amount due as set out in our Delivery Guide.
Prices are liable to change at any time, but changes will not affect orders in respect of which we have already sent you an Order Confirmation.
our sites contains a large number of Products and it is always possible that, despite our best efforts, some of the Products listed on our sites may be incorrectly priced. We will normally verify prices in our Order Confirmation so that, where a Product's correct price is less than our stated price, we will charge the lower amount when dispatching the Product to you. If a Product's correct price is higher than the price stated on our sites, we will normally, at our discretion, either contact you for instructions before issuing an Order Confirmation, or reject your order and notify you of such rejection.
We are under no obligation to provide the Product to you at the incorrect (lower) price, even after we have sent you an Order Confirmation, if the pricing error is obvious and unmistakeable and could have reasonably been recognised by you as a mis-pricing.
Delivery charges are calculated as part of the checkout process, based on the proximity of your delivery address to our nearest distribution centre.
Payment is accepted by credit or debit card or by satisfactory completion of a Finance Agreement. If you wish to pay by other methods (e.g. cash or cheque), then please contact us for further information by phone on 0845 901 4000 or using the online form here.
If you have chosen to pay by card, we will process the payment for your Order by way of the credit or debit card details you have provided as part of the online checkout process. If your Order contains any item with a lead time of less than four weeks, we will collect payment in full at this time. Where lead time is more than four weeks a minimum deposit of 25% is required.
If you have chosen to pay by Finance Agreement, a hard copy of the application form which you have submitted online will be posted to you for you to sign and return to us. We will then submit it to the Finance Company for processing and only after we have obtained their approval to your application will we proceed to process your Order and issue any relevant Order Confirmation.
At the time when we issue our Delivery Advice, you will (unless you have satisfactorily completed a Finance Agreement) be required to make a payment of any balance outstanding on your Order before final delivery is made.
We will advise you if your payment details cannot be authorised for any reason and we may then invite you to pay by another method.
Please be aware that where you pay by any other payment method (e.g. cash or cheque) then cleared funds will be required before we issue our Order Confirmation or Delivery Advice, as the case may be.
We warrant to you that any Product purchased from us through our sites is of satisfactory quality and reasonably fit for all the purposes for which products of the kind are commonly supplied.
Our liability for losses you suffer as a result of us breaking this agreement is strictly limited to the purchase price of the Product you purchased and any losses which are a foreseeable consequence of us breaking the agreement. Losses are foreseeable where they could be contemplated by you and us at the time your order is accepted by us.
This does not include or limit in any way our liability:
For death or personal injury caused by our negligence;
Under section 2(3) of the Consumer Protection Act 1987;
For fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or
For any matter for which it would be illegal for us to exclude, or attempt to exclude, our liability.
We are not responsible for indirect losses which happen as a side effect of the main loss or damage, including but not limited to:
loss of business
loss of profits or contracts
loss of anticipated savings
loss of data, or
waste of management or office time however arising and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable;
provided that this clause 11.4 shall not prevent claims for loss of or damage to your tangible property that fall within the terms of clause 11.1 or clause 11.2 or any other claims for direct financial loss that are not excluded by any of categories 11.4.1 to 11.4.6 inclusive of this clause 11.4.
Please also note the terms of our Website Use Policy which apply to all contracts entered into between you and us.
If you order Products from our sites for delivery outside the UK, and we accept your order, we shall deliver the Products to the point of embarkation requested by you. You will be responsible for arranging shipment and delivery to you thereafter. There may be import duties and taxes which are levied when the delivery reaches the specified destination. You will be responsible for payment of any such import duties and taxes. Please note that we have no control over these charges and cannot predict their amount. Please contact your local customs office for further information before placing your order.
Please also note that you must comply with all applicable laws and regulations of the country for which the products are destined. We will not be liable for any breach by you of any such laws.
Where requested, upon export of the Products, we will supply you with the requisite documentation to reclaim any VAT paid to us.
Applicable laws require that some of the information or communications we send to you should be in writing. When using our sites, you accept that communication with us will be mainly electronic. We will contact you by e-mail or provide you with information by posting notices on our website. For contractual purposes, you agree to this electronic means of communication and you acknowledge that all contracts, notices, information and other communications that we provide to you electronically comply with any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. This condition does not affect your statutory rights.
All notices given by you to us must be given to Cousins Furniture Stores Limited at online@cousinsfurniture.co.uk. We may give notice to you at either the e-mail or postal address you provide to us when placing an order, or in any of the ways specified in clause 13 above. Notice will be deemed received and properly served immediately when posted on our website, 24 hours after an e-mail is sent, or three days after the date of posting of any letter. In proving the service of any notice, it will be sufficient to prove, in the case of a letter, that such letter was properly addressed, stamped and placed in the post and, in the case of an e-mail, that such e-mail was sent to the specified e-mail address of the addressee.
The contract between you and us is binding on you and us and on our respective successors and assigns.
You may not transfer, assign, charge or otherwise dispose of a Contract, or any of your rights or obligations arising under it, without our prior written consent.
We may transfer, assign, charge, sub-contract or otherwise dispose of a Contract, or any of our rights or obligations arising under it, at any time during the term of the Contract.
We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or delay in performance of, any of our obligations under a Contract that is caused by any act, event, non-happening, omission or accident beyond our reasonable control including, without limitation, as a result of Act of God, war, strike, lockout, labour dispute, fire, flood or drought ("Force Majeure Event").
Our performance under any Contract is deemed to be suspended for the period that the Force Majeure Event continues, and we will have an extension of time for performance for the duration of that period. We will use our reasonable endeavours to bring the Force Majeure Event to a close or to find a solution by which our obligations under the Contract may be performed despite the Force Majeure Event.
If we fail, at any time during the term of a Contract, to insist upon strict performance of any of your obligations under the Contract or any of these terms and conditions, or if we fail to exercise any of the rights or remedies to which we are entitled under the Contract, this shall not constitute a waiver of such rights or remedies and shall not relieve you from compliance with such obligations.
A waiver by us of any default shall not constitute a waiver of any subsequent default.
No waiver by us of any of these terms and conditions shall be effective unless it is expressly stated to be a waiver and is communicated to you in writing in accordance with clause 14 above.
If any of these terms and Conditions or any provisions of a Contract are determined by any competent authority to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable to any extent, such term, condition or provision will to that extent be severed from the remaining terms, conditions and provisions which will continue to be valid to the fullest extent permitted by law.
These terms and conditions and any document expressly referred to in them represent the entire agreement between us in relation to the subject matter of any Contract and supersede any prior agreement, understanding or arrangement between us, whether oral or in writing.
We each acknowledge that, in entering into a Contract, neither of us has relied on any representation, undertaking or promise given by the other or be implied from anything said or written in negotiations between us prior to such Contract except as expressly stated in these terms and conditions.
Neither of us shall have any remedy in respect of any untrue statement made by the other, whether orally or in writing, prior to the date of any Contract (unless such untrue statement was made fraudulently) and the other party's only remedy shall be for breach of contract as provided in these terms and conditions.
We have the right to revise and amend these terms and conditions from time to time to reflect changes in market conditions affecting our business, changes in technology, changes in payment methods, changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements and changes in our system's capabilities.
You will be subject to the policies and terms and conditions in force at the time that you order products from us, unless any change to those policies or these terms and conditions is required to be made by law or governmental authority (in which case it will apply to orders previously placed by you), or if we notify you of the change to those policies or these terms and conditions before we send you the Order Confirmation (in which case we have the right to assume that you have accepted the change to the terms and conditions, unless you notify us to the contrary within seven working days of receipt by you of the Products).
Contracts for the purchase of Products through our sites and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) will be governed by English law. Any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with such Contracts or their formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.