PRICES:
Our prices and quantity discounts are calculated at their finest point, to allow our clients to benefit from the fact that we create, produce, import, store and sell exclusive products of traditional manufacturing or produced in small series, without trade intermediaries. Shipping costs, as well as taxes or import costs due in the country of delivery and banking fees, are all included in our prices.
PAYMENT:
A minimum 50% deposit upon ordering, the balance payable upon collection from our warehouse in Cape Town, or before any delivery (to the customer’s site at the client’s expense). All the bank fees due for payments by bank transfer are on the client’s charge.
EFFECT OF THE DEPOSIT:
The order comes into effect starting from the moment when the deposit was received. The deposit represents the first part of the payment, and the buyer cannot renounce the purchase and abandon the deposit. The buyer must pay the balance and take possession of the merchandise. Equally, we cannot fail to honour an order, except if a fortuitous situation occurs. The fact that one of our suppliers has not delivered the order, entirely or partially, or that the merchandise delivered by our supplier is faulty, is a fortuitous situation. By paying the deposit, the client is also marking his acceptance of our general conditions of sale. The client is supposed to have verified the mentions, in a detailed way (quantities, colours, dimensions, shapes, patterns etc.). Except in case of obvious mistake, these written mentions prevail on any verbal agreement and on any previous written agreements.
COLLECTION:
If no other place is specifically mentioned on the order document, the normal collection place is our warehouse in Cape Town.
SHIPPING:
On request, we can organise the transport of the merchandise by a professional carrier, for a price that will be announced to the client in advance. No insurance whatsoever is included in this price. We cannot be held responsible for any delays due to the transport. A person must be present on site and available by telephone at any time for the delivery. If the delivery address is not accessible by a vehicle the size of a public transport bus, the client should have made this known before the delivery. If a person is not present for the delivery, or if the delivery could not be made due to inaccuracies in the conditions of accessibility, the cost of the new delivery will also be charged to the client and must be paid before the new delivery takes place.
DAMAGE:
Any damage to the merchandise shipped to the client is presumed to be caused by the client or by the carrier. If the merchandise was damaged during the transport, the client must state this in writing to the shipping company, upon receipt of the merchandise. General mentions like “subject to unpacking and checking” have no value and do not cover any damage noticed later. Written statements concerning the visible damage must be precise and detailed.
RETURNS AND EXCHANGES:
Upon presentation of the invoice or of the receipt. Our merchandise normally cannot be returned nor exchanged, except for the cases stated below:
- Returns to the Cape Town warehouse within one month from the purchase and on the customer’s charge if they are intact in their original packaging.
- Plain 10x10cm, 10x5cm and 5x5cm zellige tiles, plain 20x20cm floor cement tiles may be taken back at 70% of the price stated on the sales invoice, if returned in their full original boxes and in good condition. A full original box is understood to mean filled with the original tiles and possibly opened to check conformity. Under no circumstances will we take back a box that has been assorted or contains tiles other than the original ones, nor will we take back individual tiles.
- No returns will be allowed for retailers or private clients ordering specific designs or more than 20m2 of a specific model.
LEADTIMES:
The prices mentioned in our quotations are valid for one month. The merchandise available in stock is prepared within a maximum period of 3 working days. In case of orders for merchandise normally in stock based on our listings, exceptionally the merchandise may be unavailable due to being sold on the same day or due to an error. In this case, the client will be notified within 3 working days starting from the preparation of the order. For merchandise that is not available in stock, the lead time stated on the order document is an approximate indication of the estimated time of availability, that can only be confirmed after we have received the merchandise from our suppliers. However, we consider that any order takes 30 days to manufacture and 30 days for shipping. Opia Design receives several containers per year. Our limits for orders and expected arrivals date are indicated in quotations.
DELAYS AND NON-CONFORMITY:
The tiles and other merchandise not in stock are delivered to us regularly in containers from our suppliers, who we have been working for many years and delivered across the world. Delays, errors, and non- conformities in deliveries are therefore rare. Nevertheless, considering the specificity of our merchandise, handcrafted, or manufactured in small series, it is virtually impossible to certify that all orders will arrive on time.
Delays: Therefore, in the event of a delay of more than 30 working days from the date stated on the order form, the client may, at his discretion, either cancel the part of the order that is being delayed and recover the concerning part of the deposit, or ask for a discount of 5% of the value of the delayed merchandise, and 1% per additional week of delay after the first month. The cancellation or the indemnity must be requested by the client, at his own initiative and in writing (e-mail), before collection of the delayed merchandise. No other indemnity may be demanded in the event of a delay or cancellation of the order. Unless otherwise stated in advance, merchandise ordered and not collected 3 months after the order was ready, may be put up for sale. In this case, the paid amounts (deposit or full price) will not be returned. We may also request the client to collect the merchandise and pay the balance for the warehousing of the order.
Non-conformity: The client agrees on the characteristics of the products, their dissimilarities and colour variations are an entire part of the items. All clients are aware of this, and the clause of non-conformity cannot be applied to these characteristics. If the collected merchandise does not conform to the order (colour palette or size), and if conforming merchandise is not available for exchange within 30 working days, the client may, at his discretion, either renounce the non-conforming part of the order and recover the concerning deposit, or have the nonconforming items replaced by other items of his choice and of equal value. In the event of a delay exceeding 30 working days starting from the date estimated for collection on the order document, the client may request the delay indemnity referred to above. No other indemnity may be demanded in the event of non-conformity. The non- conformity and the solution chosen by the client must be notified upon collection from our stores or warehouse or upon delivery. If the problems were not apparent at the time of collection or delivery, the non-conformity and the solution chosen by the client must be brought to our attention as soon as possible. We nevertheless reserve the right to assess by ourselves whether the merchandise conforms, in the light of the particularities of the merchandise that we sell, its small production runs and the craftwork nature of the products. Under no circumstances can we refer to any criteria usually used for standardised industrial productions. For custom made tile carpets, size differences of around 3% and slight differences in colours are possible.
Regarding our cement tiles: they will acquire their final aspect after treatments with the appropriate products. It is strongly advised to order a safety margin of 3 to 8% of tiles in addition. Otherwise, in case of complementary order, differences of colour between the initial and the complementary order are all more possible and the lead-times cannot be shorter for the new order, than for any regular order. The
particularities, conformity criteria and laying constraints of our tiles are described in detail in our documentation, available online.
Complaints: Any complaint concerning the conformity of our products must be documented with detailed and overall photographs, and if necessary, sending of a sample of the non-conforming product. We do not visit clients’ sites to observe laying faults or conformity problems. We do not accept any claims after the tiles have been laid. Laying the tiles is equivalent to acceptance of the merchandise. Our potential remarks on the placement of our products on clients’ sites should not be considered as a report of experts.
APPLICABLE LAW AND JURISDICTION:
All our contracts issued in South Africa are governed by South African law and in the event of a dispute the courts of Cape Town shall have sole jurisdiction
