Terms and Conditions of sale

PAYMENT
Payment for any item bought from us at Authentic Gifts must be received by us in Great British Pounds (GBP) - Sterling. If you are not able to pay for an item in this way then please do not attempt to bid for or buy an item from our shop.

WAYS TO PAY
Accepted methods of payment include: [a] via Paypal (This is the safest and our preferred method of receiving payment for an item, however you can also pay by way of a [b] personal cheque - Customers who wish to pay for their item by way of a personal cheque are more than welcome to do so but they should first please note that items bought will only be posted out once they have been paid for in full. This in turn means that all cheques received as payment for and item bought must have cleared in our account before any item is sent - this process can take up to 2 weeks to completed] and the lastly we will accept [c] Postal Orders providing the payment amount on them is made out in GBP (£ sterling) and for the correct amount (as no change can be given).Also - Authentic Gifts do not advise buyers to send money (cash) through the post for an item they have bought. This form of payment is untraceable and therefore seen as being unsafe However, collecting an item in person (to save on postage cost) is, of course, an option we are happy to consider but this should done once it has been pre-agreed and that should be an option discussed before you place a bid or buy an item from our shop. We are situated 5 minutes by car from junction 10 of the M4 and items should be collected within one week of the auction end or the date of purchase. [After this time we reserve the right to re-list any item that hasn't been picked up.]

In contrast to the above we do not / can not accept as way of payment for one of our items: *Cheques or Postal orders that are not made out in Great British Pounds, Sterling. *Euros, Dollar’s or any other form of non-British currency and therefore any envelopes received that containing foreign currency as way of payment will be returned to the buyer who sent it minus the item.

Payment for any item bought from us should be made/ received by us within one week of the auction end date or the date and time of purchase - If for whatever reason you are unable to meet this request then please let us know we are reasonable people and we'll work something out.

Owners of items that are not paid for within one week will receive a 'Non-Payment' email reminder

If payment has not been received within ten days of the auction end date or the date and time of purchase then an unpaid item dispute’ will be automatically opened up an against you (this is standard practice and as per eBay policy) once payment has been received any dispute will be closed and positive feedback left.

POTENTIAL NON-PAYERS PLEASE TAKE NOTE - it costs both time and money to list an item on eBay and I (like most people) have very little spare time (or money) to WASTE. Non-payers will be reported to eBay and negative feedback will be left. We don't exclude anyone from buying our items but if you do click to buy something we expect it to be paid for

POSTAGE & PACKAGING

The buyer is to pay the total postage costs for any item bought. Authentic Gifts, we are strongly against (what we believe is) an unfair sales tactic of advertising items at a lower that average price only to cover any shortfall in profits by attaching an abnormally high postal charge to that very same item when it's bought.

'Postage Costs'

We are happy to post any of the items 'listed' in our shop to any country in the world -providing the buyer is happy to pay the postage cost as quoted within each listing. Every item description will have the cost of posting that item to any and every country in the world please check the postage cost to your own before bidding on or buying an item from us.

(to find this you may need to go to the foot of this page, to the section marked 'Postage Costs' .There you will see a 'changeable text box' with a Country listed within it. If the country named within the box differs from the Country that you are registered with eBay as being in you will need to click on the black arrow (or triangle) next to name of the country who currently occupies the box. This should pull up some other options/names of other countries, find yours, click on it and the postal price in the bow just below it should change. If it doesn't then click on the 'UPDATE' button which should also by now be in view)

Please remember to add the purchase cost of any item that may interest you to the postal charge quoted for having that sent out to you whenever you are considering making a purchase.

Be wary of buyers who ask you to email them to get price of postage overseas and personally I would never buy an item from a buyer who fails to quote a postal cost on any item that they have listed for sale. if you buy an item before finding out the price of postage and on the premis that the buyer will find out for you once you have bought the item from them you are at their mercy when it comes to what they want to charge re. postage. On this issue we would like our customers to know that, at AG's we never, deliberately, aim to make additional profit from the postal charges attached to each item.

METHOD OF POSTING
The postage price on every item is calculated from the weight of the advertised item and the distance that item has to travel in order to reach your destination and it's important to note that the cost of posting an items to both here (within the UK) and abroad is set by the UK POST OFFICE (and not us)

Every item bought within the UK is sent to the buyer via FIRST CLASS post and Every item bought outside of the UK (i.e. abroad) is sent to it's new owner (the buyer) via Royal Mail's AIRMAIL SERVICE

Due to endless problems in the past with both the service provided and (if I’m honest) the impatient customers at the other end who have, if their lucky, saved themselves £1.20p we will not send any of the items for sale in our shop out to new buyers by using surface mail (so please don't ask) .

All of our item's are professionally packed and great care is taken to ensure the item you have bought from us get to you quickly and in one piece.

Our policy (and aim) is to post every item to bought out to it's new owner within 12hours of that item being paid for in full (statement excludes Sundays and Bank Holidays (BH)) To make this is possible the majority of our items, once they have been 'listed' - for sale, are partially packaged and made ready to be instantly sent.

Items that are paid for before 4pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday will be sent in the last batch to leave the post office on the same day they are paid for on and items paid for before 11am on Saturdays will be sent in the 11.45am (and last) postal collection, again that leaves our local post office.

Items that are paid for after the times quoted above (i.e. after 4pm Monday to Friday, after 11am on Saturdays) along with items paid for overnight or on a Sunday or BH will be sent in the first post (which is generally 11.45am) the following day.

Please note, However: Buyers who paid for their item by way if a personal cheque will need to wait for that cheque to clear before the item get posted out to them (please see the section marked 'PAYMENT, Via personal cheque' if you haven’t already done so (SECTION B/ PART 2[b]))

To help you save a bit of money We are always more than happy to combine the postage costs on two or more items bought at roughly at the same time but (and its a very big BUT) in order to receive the discount in postage costs you will need to follow these very simple rules

Firstly, PLEASE DO NOT PAY for any of the items either [a] separately or together or [b] straight away and [c] please don’t try to combine the postage costs yourself. If you do either of these four it will then makes it impossible for me to combine the items together and reduce the overall postage cost, instead all that I need you to do is WAIT!

As you buy each item an invoice will be sent (this is generated by the system and not us) - IGNORE THEM When you have finished buying or bidding or whatever all I need you to then do is to is 'click' on one of the items you have bought from us then 'click' on where it says ''Request a total from the seller'. when we see that you have requested a total from us we will know you have finished bidding. We will then Combined your items onto one invoice Reduce the postal price (as promised) and then Re-invoice you with a combined invoice slip with the discounted postal price added. After receiving that you can then go ahead and pay.

You will not be penalised for not paying straight away if you wait and remember! ignore any invoices sent out to you whilst you are still bidding (these are system generated responses sent by the system and not us).

Any problems with this or if you are unsure then please feel free to e-mail us, we will help to sort it out for you.

ADDITIONAL POSTAL INSURANCE
Additional Postage Insurance (API) or having your item sent via registered post is an added option we offer every buyer who buys an item from our shop and the facts about it are these.

API is offered with every purchase made but it is not added automatically > you have to select it as an option on the invoice we sent out to you.

it is not compulsory to take out the API but it is an optional choice and it is entirely up to you as to whether you take it or not on your item on the invoice we sent out to you.
it is not compulsory to take out the API but it is an optional choice and it is entirely up to you as to whether you take it or not on your item

If you take the API there is a cost implication involved> The additional cost is set by the post office and not us and the extra amount should be clearly marked on your invoice.

The API (if you decide to take it) must be paid for at the same time as you pay for the item(s) detailed on the same invoice.

We would like you to know that we gain nothing (except for extra piece of mind) from offering this service to you and we take nothing from you for doing it

If you choose to go with the option offered and you pay for it we will know from your returned invoice & we will do the rest.

DISCLAIMER:

Whether you take out API on your item or not we still cannot be held responsible for the type of handling and the treatment your item / one of our packages might receive during it’s time in the post. Therefore once a parcel has left our care (i.e. has been safely posted out to you) we relinquish any form of responsibility for its time spent in the post and its journey out to you. So should the item be in anyway damage or lost after it is posted out to you then these are all issues that you will need to take up with the Post Office and not us.

We will assist in whatever way we can (e.g. passing on postal receipt no’s etc) but the risk to the item whilst it is in the post is with you which is why we advise all of our purchasing customers to take out the additional postal insurance which is offered as standard on every invoice sent to winning bidders/buyers [see Section E, below for full details].

PACKAGING

The methods and types of packaging we use are:
Before being posted all paper items (books etc) are sealed in a water tight wrapper to reduce the risk of damage to the item should its package get wet in the post.

All hardback books are fitted with protective cardboard corners to help reduce the risk of being bumped during its postal journey.

Records are packaged and posted in a professional cardboard mailer (The brand we currently use is 'WRAPRO') Before being packaged they too [like paper items] are sealed in a waterproof wrapper to help protect it from damp.

China, pottery and breakable items are ALWAYS well packaged and great care is taken and an increased effort is put in to ensure that any package sent out to you gets to you in one piece.

As well as being carefully packaged to a professional standard (in most cases) your item will also be clearly labelled with 'Send To” address label on the front & a senders address label on the back but

RETURNS POLICY

We offer a fully refund on any item bought from our shop - Authentic Gifts if the item received

[a] differs significantly from it’s description when sold (the description is taken from that written in the 'Item Description' in the listing) or

[b] is in some way, faulty or broken but this does not include any damage that the item may have incurred in the post [for damage caused to the item whilst in the post [see ‘Disclaimer‘ above].

If you wish to claim a refund because of one of the two reasons above then there are three simple things you should do.
Upon realising there’s a problem with the item sent out to you, you should

[a] Contact us immediately about the problem - this must be within the first 7 days after the item was posted out to you.

[b] Notify us of the problem. - we maybe able to help fix the problem or offer a replacement without the need for you to post the item back to us). If a resolution to the problem cannot be found and your intention still is to return the item to us then you will be invited to return the item to us.

[c] Finally you should return the item to us within one week of the notification -
Items should be returned in its original packaging whenever possible. Once the returned item has been received we will organise a full refund of your costs.

FEEDBACK

Feedback on the sale or purchase of an item is great idea, we support the idea fully and we are very proud of the feedback comments other eBay customers have left for us but the only problem is with a system like a feedback system is the 5% of people who get to use it but have no idea how it is supposed to work.

PLEASE DON'T ABUSE THE FEEDBACK SYSTEM.

If you are unsure how the feedback system works eBay are there to help . Visit: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/tutorial/feedbacktutorial/intro.html for their online tutorial.

We will leave feedback for you once you have left feedback for us. If you fail to leave feedback once you have received an item from us your file within our system will stay open (because it is incomplete and therefore unable to shut) very soon (or so I am told) three open files on your account here on eBay will mean you will be unable to buy or sell until they are shut.

Please remember to leave us your feedback, its important to us, its how we improve our service etc.

Thanks for looking at this item, we hope you place a bid and we hope you win