Terms & conditions

1.1 The Royal College of Music (“the College”) shall supply the goods and services listed on the College Online Shop website: https://www.rcm.ac.uk/shop (“the Site”) on the following terms and conditions (“the Contract”). Please note that separate terms and conditions may apply to goods or services ordered from any other page within the Royal College of Music website.

1.2 Please read these terms and conditions carefully and make sure that you understand them before ordering any goods or services from the Site. By ordering any of the goods or services on the Site, you are deemed to have accepted and agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. You may wish to print a copy of these terms and conditions for future reference.

1.3 The College has a right to revise and amend these terms and conditions from time to time without notice. These terms and conditions will be governed and construed in accordance with English Law. The English Courts will have exclusive jurisdiction to deal with any dispute which may arise out of or in connection with the Contract.

1.4 By placing an order through the Site, you confirm that:

1.4.1 You are legally capable of entering into binding contracts

1.4.2 You are the registered owner of any credit or debit card used for payment, or have legal authority from the card holder to make payment.

1. AVAILABILITY

1.1 The College shall supply or otherwise procure the supply of the goods or services available on the Site.

1.2 Your order constitutes an offer to the College to buy the goods or services. All orders are subject to acceptance by the College and the College will confirm such acceptance to you with a confirmation message and by sending you an e-mail confirming the order (“the Order Confirmation”). The Contract will only be formed once the transaction has been completed and an Order Confirmation dispatched to the email address you supplied.

1.3 The Contract will relate only to those goods or services which have been confirmed in the Order Confirmation. The College will not be obliged to supply any other goods or services which may have been part of your order until the order has been confirmed in a separate Order Confirmation.

2. PRICE

2.1 Unless otherwise agreed by the College in writing, the price for the goods or services will be the price as displayed on the Site from time to time in £Sterling, except in cases of obvious error (see 2.4 below). Should value added tax be payable, the price will clearly state that value added tax is included in the price. The price is subject to the addition of all costs or charges in relation to postage, carriage and insurance.

2.2 You must make all payments due, in advance, under the Contract, without any deduction and you will receive an email from the College confirming receipt of all sums due.

2.3 Prices are liable to change at any time, but changes will not affect order in respect of which the College has already sent you an Order Confirmation.

2.4 The Site contains a large number of goods and services and it is always possible that, despite the College’s best efforts, some of the goods or services listed on the Site may be incorrectly priced. The College are under no obligation to provide the goods or services to you at the incorrect (lower) price, even after the College has sent an Order Confirmation, if the pricing error is obvious and unmistakeable and could have reasonably been recognised by you as mispricing.

3. PAYMENT

3.1 Payments must be made by PayPal or debit or credit card unless otherwise agreed with the College.

3.2 All payments are subject to the following conditions:

3.2.1 The College cannot accept liability if payment is refused or declined by PayPal or the credit/debit card supplier for any reason;

3.2.2 If the card supplier declines payment, the College is under no obligation to bring this fact to your attention. You should check with your bank/credit/debit card supplier that payment has been deducted from your account;

3.2.3 The College does not accept liability for a payment being allocated incorrectly as a result of incorrect details being provided.

3.2.4 The data that you provide during this transaction will only be used for the purpose of recording your payment. We shall abide by the principles of the Data Protection Act 1998 and ensure that the data is used for no other purposes and is disclosed to no third party, except in respect of data that it is necessary to provide to the College’s e-commerce provider. PayPal and the College’s e-commerce provider will retain some personal information so that we can access payment records in the event of queries or incomplete payment information. Any credit/debit card details given by you will not be retained in their entirety. Information will only be retained for a reasonable period and then destroyed.

3.2.5 In no event will the College be liable for any damages whatsoever arising out of the use, inability to use, or the results of use of this site, any websites linked to this site, or the materials or information contained at any or all such sites, whether based on warranty, contract, tort or any other legal theory and whether or not advised of the possibility of such damages.

3.2.6 Refunds, if applicable, will only be made to the PayPal account or credit/debit card used for the original transaction.

4. DELIVERY/COLLECTION OF GOODS

4.1 The College will use its reasonable endeavours to fulfil and deliver your order within a reasonable time period of the Order Confirmation. If due to exceptional circumstances the College is unable to fulfil your order within a reasonable time period, the College will e-mail or contact you to let you know.

4.2 In these terms and conditions, the Delivery Address means the delivery address specified in the personal details you have supplied.

4.3 Any date specified by the College for delivery/collection of the goods and/or services is intended to be an estimate, and delivery/collection will be within a reasonable time.

4.4 Subject to 4.1.5 below:

(i) The goods will be at your risk upon delivery;

(ii) Ownership of the goods will only pass to you when we receive full payment of all sums due in respect of the goods, including any delivery costs;

(iii) At any time prior to title to the goods passing from the College in accordance with these terms and conditions the College shall be entitled on demand to recover possession of the Products (without prejudice to any of its other rights) These conditions constitute an authority for any third party authorised by the College to exercise our rights hereunder.

4.5 If for any reason You will not accept the delivery of the goods when they are ready for delivery, or because the College is unable to deliver the goods on time because You have not provided appropriate instructions or You have not collected the goods from the collection point: -

(i) Ownership of the goods will pass to You;

(ii) The goods will be deemed to have been delivered;

(iii) The College may store the goods under delivery/collection, whereupon You will be liable for all related costs and expenses including, without limitation, storage and insurance.

5. NON-DELIVERY OF GOODS

5.1 The quantity of any consignment of goods as recorded by the College upon despatch from the College shall be conclusive evidence of the quantity received by you on delivery unless you can provide conclusive evidence proving the contrary.

5.2 The College shall not be liable for any non-delivery of goods (even if caused by the College’s negligence) unless written notice is given to the College within five (5) days of the date when the goods would, in the ordinary course of events, have been received.

5.3 Any liability the College has for non-delivery of the goods shall be limited to replacing the goods within a reasonable time, to providing a full refund or issuing a credit note at the pro rata contract rate against any invoice raised for such goods.

6. QUALITY/DEFECTIVE GOODS

6.1 The College confirms that (subject to the other provisions of these terms and condition) upon delivery the goods will be of satisfactory quality within the meaning of the Sale of Goods Act 1979. The College will not be liable for a breach of this Condition unless:

(i) The Buyer gives written notice of the defect to the College, and (if the defect is as a result of damage in transit) to the carrier, within fourteen (14) days after the time when the Buyer discovers or ought to have discovered the defect; and

(ii) The College is given a reasonable opportunity after receiving the notice to examine the Goods, and the Buyer (if asked to do so by the College) return the Goods to the College, at the Buyer’s cost, for the examination to take place there.

6.2 The College will not be liable for a breach of Condition 6.1 if:

(i) The Buyer makes any further use of the Goods after giving notice; or

(ii) The defect arises because the Buyer failed to follow the College’s instructions as to the storage, installation, commissioning, use or maintenance of the Goods or (if there are none) good trade practice; or

(iii) The Buyer alters or repairs the Goods without the consent of the College

7. CANCELLATIONS/RETURNS OF GOODS

7.1 If you are a consumer, you may cancel a Contract at any time within 7 working days from the date of ordering the services by giving written notice (by letter or e-mail) to the College. In this case you will receive a full refund of the price paid for the goods in accordance with the College’s refunds policy set out in clause 8 below.

7.2 To cancel the Contract, you must inform the College in writing and return the goods to the College immediately, in the same condition in which you received them, and at your own cost and risk. You are legally obliged to take reasonable care of the goods while they are in your possession and if you fail to comply with this obligation the College may have a right of action against you.

8. REFUNDS

8.1 If you return the goods:

8.1.1 If you are contracting as a consumer, because you have cancelled the Contract within the 7 working days (see clauses 7.1 and 7.2 above), the College will process the refund due to you as soon as possible and, in any case, within thirty (30) days of the day on which you gave notice of cancellation. In this case, the College will refund the price of the goods or services in full, and any applicable delivery charges. In respect of goods, you will be responsible for the cost of returning the items to the College.

8.1.2 For any other reason (for instance, because you have notified the College in accordance with clause F that you do not agree to a change in these terms and conditions, or because you consider in respect of goods, you consider that they are defective), the College will examine the returned goods and will notify you of your refund via e-mail within a reasonable period of time. The College will usually process the refund due to you as soon as possible and in case, within thirty (30) days of the receipt of the e-mail confirming that you are entitled to a refund. The College will refund the price of defective goods in full, any applicable delivery charges and any reasonable costs you incur in returning the item to us.

8.1.3 Refunds, if applicable, will only be made to the debit/credit card used for the original transaction. If the debit/credit card used to make the original purchase has expired when You request a refund, we will apply credit to your account with the College, valid for merchandise purchases for 12 months from the date of the credit being applied.

The Royal College of Music takes data security extremely seriously and understands the need to adhere to the strictest levels of checking and auditing around storing and transferring cardholder data. All payment details are automatically encrypted when they are entered. The Shop is secured using a recognised third party SSL Web Server Certificate to offer secure communications by encrypting all data to and from the Shop.

Please read the Privacy Policy available on the College website for details of how the College will use information about you. By agreeing and accepting these terms and conditions you hereby agree and accept the terms of our Privacy Policy.

The College may terminate the Contract with immediate written notice if you fail to pay the price of the goods or services in accordance with these terms and conditions.

Notwithstanding termination of the Contract for any reason you will continue to be liable for that proportion of the price attributable to those goods and services provided up until the date of termination.

The College has the right to revise and amend these terms and conditions from time to time.

You will be subject to the terms and conditions in force at the time that you order goods or services from the College, unless any change to the 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 the College notified you of the change to the terms and conditions before the College sends you the Order Confirmation (in which case the College has the right to assume that you have accepted the change to the terms and conditions, unless you notify the College to the contrary within seven (7) days of receipt by you of the goods or services).

Applicable laws require that some of the information or communications the College send to you should be in writing. When using the Site, you accept that communication with the College will be mainly electronic. The College will contact you by e-mail or provide you with information by posting notices on the Site.

For contractual purposes, you agree to this electronic means of communication and you acknowledge that all contracts, notices, information and other communication that the College provide to you electronically comply with any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. This condition does not affect your statutory rights.

The College will give notice to the Buyer at the e-mail address they provide to the College when placing an order. Notice will be deemed received and properly served immediately when posted on the Store and 24 hours after an e-mail is sent.

The failure of either party to exercise or enforce any right conferred on that party by the Contract shall not be deemed to be a waiver of any such right or operate to bar the exercise or enforcement thereof at any time or times thereafter.

If so far as any part or provision of these conditions is or becomes void or unenforceable it shall be deemed not to be or never to have been or formed a part of the Contract and the remaining provisions of the Contract shall continue in full force and effect.

The College 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 events outside our reasonable control (Force Majeure Event) A Force Majeure Event includes any act, event, non-happening, omission or accident beyond our reasonable control and includes in particular (without limitation) the following:

• Strikes, lock-outs or other industrial action.
• Civil commotion, riot, invasion, terrorist attack or threat of terrorist attack, war (whether declared or not) or threat or preparation for war
• Fire, explosion, storm, flood, earthquake, subsidence, epidemic or other natural disaster.
• Impossibility of the use of railways, shipping, aircraft, motor transport or other means of public or private transport.
• Impossibility of the use of public or private telecommunications networks.
• The acts, decrees, legislation, regulations or restrictions of any government.

The College's 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.