T's
& C's
Terms, Conditions, Policies, Privacy,
and other Important Things
You'll find some disclaimers on this page, which mostly arise from
common sense, fair play for all (including us) and reality rather
than legal requirement. What follows is also How We Work, and how
we offer to trade with you. If you see something here you don't agree
with, well, fair enough - thanks for looking in, and sorry we couldn't
do business with you this time. Still reading? Good. Lets begin...
Our Web Site
Accuracy
We take great care in preparing our little presentations for you to
enjoy you via the might and power of The Internet. Sometimes mistakes
can happen, since there are Real People involved. Most of our information
is gathered from other organisations, so a great deal of it relies
on those sources being accurate. We can't be held responsible
for the accuracy of the information presented on our website or via
email, or any consequence arising from it. For super safety and to
avoid responsibility implications, we advise you to just take the
whole thing with a pinch of salt. Except for this
advice obviously.
Humour
We also write our site in a light-hearted and hopefully entertaining
way. Anyone choosing to do business with us is expected to appreciate
occasional sarcasm, irony, and outright world-class wit. People with
No Sense Of Humour should therefore not trade with us in case they
fail to understand our wording, or take humorous writings seriously.
This is how we choose to work and live, so either accept and support
that or don't do business with us. Smiling and laughter helps keep
you young, and extends your life. We can't back that up with paperwork,
but we think it's true.
Security
We proudly guarantee that your online ordering here is a safe and
secure transaction. Be sure to read the Factoids too, you might find
them interesting...
Our site uses the strongest commercially available level of web server
encryption, 256-bit Secure Socket Layers (SSL). The familiar padlock
sign is, however, only visible when you 'checkout' and personal info
is called for. Once you start entering personal information, whether
name and address or credit card details, you will notice the security
padlock inside the bottom of the browser window. If you are concerned
that you are seeing browser security messages too frequently, check
the security levels you have set in your browser, they may be set
a bit high for general web browsing and scripting. You can then comfortably
continue your online ordering.
This stuff ensures that your transactions are secured between your
computer and our web server. Your information is not stored permanently
on the web server, providing further safety from hacks. Further encryption
methods and physical security protect customer-specific information
once stored at Clarity Towers. We never even see your credit card
info any more. As of April 2003 card payments are passed through PROTX
and Lloyds TSB Cardnet directly, and we're never even exposed to your
actual card details at any stage. Perfect!
Factoid: Unlike so many other websites, allow us to be fully
open with you; Our server uses up to 256-bit encryption. The
actual strength of encryption depends on your browser. Your browser
may, for example, only be capable of 32-bit encryption (though it
would have to be a fairly old, clunky browser for that to be the case).
This is still extremely secure of course in real-world terms, requiring
an unrealistic effort of time, processing power, and technical sneakiness
to first capture, and then decrypt. It just annoys us to read websites
stating that your transaction is 256-bit secure when they simply can't
possibly know that, and make that claim. Oh, and most web stores
are currently 128-bit capable, but we thought the overkill of 256
wouldn't go amiss anyway.
Factoid: We are aware some poorly built websites process your
transaction between you and their web server safely and securely via
SSL encryption, then totally NULLIFY this by e-mailing the entire
transaction to their premises over the open Internet with no encryption
of any kind. This is a shameful practice, falsely projecting the
illusion to the customer that his naked credit card and personal details
are never exposed to the world. Oh dear. Needless to say WE DON'T.
We collect your already-encrypted information directly from our web
server via an encrypted connection of our own, but most importantly
as you'll see when ordering - we don't even handle your card details
on our own server! All done ultra-safely via our Protx payment
provider, meaning no human ever even sees the full card info!
Brilliant.
Card Security
Our level of credit/debit card authentication could in fairness be
described as paranoid. Every last purchase via our website undergoes
total authentication of the card details and cardholder identity via
PROTX/Lloyds TSB Cardnet who in turn verify these details direct with
the card issuer for us. We're rather proud of our procedures. Some
tricky goofballs actually have real credit cards in their hands which
have just been freshly stolen, yet still they fail to get past us.
Those cards also get barred as soon as we report them, so we're actually
preventing fraud against people who aren't even our customers. Yet.
We don't hesitate to require additional verification if ANY part of
the authentication process returns a negative result. If you can't
accept that this minor inconvenience is for EVERYONE'S good, then
that's too bad. Again, this is how we do business.
If you aren't prepared to accomodate our security levels, then Au
Revoir.
Your Privacy
Marketing
At Clarity we despise spam and junk postal mail with an indescribable
intensity. So any and all personal contact information
which you give to us will be jealously guarded for our own records
and uses only, and never, ever, released to any
third parties for their evil marketing purposes. You'll notice we
don't even bother to ask for your preference in this regard, we
just default all customer info to Not For Marketing Disclosure,
and that's the end of it.
Necessary Disclosures
There are of course some organisations to whom we have to give your
details during the course of carrying out our business, such as
your chosen payment service provider, carriers and so forth. None
of these entities use such information outwith the job in question.
All credit card transactions will have their full details verified,
via PROTX/Lloyds TSB Cardnet, with the card issuer. We usually check
for your entry on the electoral role too if a large value is involved.
To date, Clarity has had let through NO fraudulent
purchases. We intend to keep it that way, and we need your co-operation
and care to help us do it.
Historical Records
We naturally keep a record of all our transactions and enquiries.
We therefore have a history of your dealings with us. All communication
by e-mail is archived and kept until the Sun burns out.
Anonymous Info
We sometimes use information gathered from our customers to help
us plan our website, products and prices. This kind of information
is always generic and non-personal. It might extend to statistics
like how many male vs female clients we have, what ages do certain
products seem to mostly appeal to, and so forth. Our web server
tracks visitors' paths through our site, again so we can see what
directions are appealing to people and which are rarely viewed.
We don't see individual visits for this though, only summaries over
a period of time.
By submitting any kind of private information to us, you consent
to our use and storage of the information for OUR use in the normal
course of business, and the disclosures as described above.
Notes on specific product lines
Telephony
Telephony installation parts are sold on the condition that a suitably
knowledgable and qualified person will use them. We do NOT intend
ANY installation hardware article to be used by people with no real
clue what they're doing. Any person unsure of what they're doing
when working with hardware connected to the Public Switched Telephone
Network, should PAY A PROFESSIONAL!
"Monkeys with machine guns..."
As a fundamental term of supplying this genre of product, the customer
accepts full and total responsibility for the use of the products,
and for ensuring any and all relevant knowledge is gleaned prior
to use. Clarity may provide with certain items an instruction leaflet,
and has published informal guides and articles relating to using
them on our web site. These are for casual help ONLY and are not
to be regarded as professional advice, training, or definite statement.
Contract Of Sale
To avoid any foolishness, we wish to make this clear statement;
All prices and goods displayed on our web site(s) by Clarity are an
OFFER to sell those goods. Further, all orders placed with Clarity
are an OFFER from you to us to purchase those goods from us. The offers
are deemed to become a contract of sale only as and when we take your
payment by whatever method or despatch your goods. Automated replies
and confirmations that you receive from our online ordering process
shall not be deemed as our acceptance of your offer
to purchase goods, only as acknowledgement of your offer.
We reserve the right to decline to enter into a contract of sale with
anyone, for anything, ordered at any time.
This statement is unfortunately a necessary disclaimer these days.
We do of course in practice always endeavour to fulfil all orders,
unless there's been some really silly mistake made which has accidentally
offered a product for a price which we just can't realistically
provide. We operate with honour.
All kinds of trickery is possible with websites, and if we find any
order has been attempted or submitted with inappropriately adjusted
details or prices, or fraudulent information, we'll reject it with
no further obligation to contact the offending party, and we reserve
the right to publish security related violations as we see fit for
the benefit of the security of others. Any person attempting deception
with us is therefore deemed to be choosing to waive their rights of
privacy as noted above.
Delivery
Time
We aim to have your goodies sent within two working days of your
order date at most. We usually manage that, indeed most often
it's sent out same or next day. However, it's important that you
understand that we are NOT a fully manned and equipped mail order
box-shifting warehouse, and that processing, packing, and shipping
of orders can and does vary depending on available manpower, and
surges in order volumes. Please therefore allow up to 5
WORKING days for despatch. If for any reason it's likely
to take any longer, we should be aware well in advance of that timescale
and be able to advise you and check that you still wish to keep
your order active.
Carriers
For mail order deliveries, we usually use Royal Mail's Special Delivery
Service for a guaranteed next-day, before-noon delivery for higher
value orders, and Recorded Delivery for most smaller values. Sometimes
we might use a courier service such as NightSpeed, UPS or ANC if the
type of goods, value or destination indicates the need. All at our
decision and discretion, unless you specifically request a particular
method in advance. There may well be additional charges for alternative
methods of course. We'll never use Citylink
because of extremely poor performance in the past including inability
to operate accounts correctly and stolen packages. <ouch!>
Returns
It's an ugly fact of life that sometimes people buy the wrong thing.
Heck, it's even feasible that you might just not be happy with your
product for some reason. Can't imagine why certainly, but in theory
it's possible.
If you need to return something for exchange or (HORROR!) refund,
your first course of action is to mail us at to
find out exactly what to do in your specific case.
Of course, in returning an item that's not at fault, you're really
admitting you made a mistake! So we'll probably laugh at your error
here at Clarity Towers and mock your lack of wisdom among ourselves.
Heh heh...
Refunds
Refunds will be refunded directly to your original payment card, or
by the same method you used to pay, except if you've paid by cheque
- refunds for cheque payment will be by direct funds transfer to your
nominated bank account. If a refund to the original card is not possible
(for example, if it has since expired) then we refund by a direct
funds transfer to a bank account of your choosing ONLY. We do not
issue cheque refunds at any time.
The refund amount will be for the GOODS amount of
your original purchase excluding our original shipping/packing/handling
charge, and less 10% of the order value to offset our own global administration
costs, which includes banking/card-processing costs which we're charged
for both the sale and the refund processing and transmission. To expand
- we're charged by the banking world for every transaction, and of
course it takes human time and resources to process, and it's not
really fair that we should be out of pocket for no fault of ours.
We're not a big company, and every penny counts, sorry. The cost of
returning is the customer's responsibility.
Cancellations
As above, except the shipping/packing/handling charges ARE of course
still included in the refund amount. 10% global administration charge
still applies where the cancellation is through no failure on our
part and costs have been incurred.
Faults
Unless we state otherwise, a regular 12 month guarantee applies
to all major and/or branded products. If a product fails due to
a fault in manufacturing process or materials, it's warranted. Brand
Name products carry manufacturer warranties, and will be honoured
direct with the manufacturer as per the enclosed warranty information
- of course if you prefer to have us handle it for you, you can
always return items direct to us to pass on, but of course that
adds extra stages to the operation. Small or unbranded products
such as telephony installation parts and engineer's consumables
will be handled directly by Clarity.
In all cases, you should contact us right away at quoting
your original order number or your Clarity sales receipt/invoice number.
Faulty telephony/ADSL installation parts and consumables will be REPLACED,
and are subject to inspection and fault verification by us. User inflicted
damage is of course NOT covered by guarantee - for example, incorrect
use or operation of connector blocks or tools.
If for some reason the product isn't stocked any longer, we'll arrange
individually with you how to proceed regarding alternatives and/or
refunds.
And Finally...
The above terms are the default terms, for the record. We are of course
happy to, and most often do, work outside some of these terms at our
discretion and pleasure to make life easier for folks with genuine
problems. Timewasters are not accomodated, genuine people are welcomed
and helped with open arms, and can expect to be thoroughly delighted.
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