Trees Online Retail Terms and Conditions

1. Who We Are

These terms and conditions apply to retail consumer sales made by Trees Online.

Trees Online is a trading name of Internet Consultancy And Management Ltd, registered in England and Wales under company number 04914139, with registered office at 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ.

VAT number: 851 5644 20.

You can contact us by email at info@trees-online.co.uk or via our contact page at https://www.trees-online.co.uk/contact_us.php.

2. Scope of These Terms

These terms apply to retail consumer purchases only. They do not apply to trade or wholesale customers.

By placing an order with us, you agree to these terms and conditions.

3. Products

All products sold by us are living plants.

Plants are living products and natural variation in height, girth, branching structure, shape, leaf cover, colour and seasonal appearance is normal.

Images on our website are for general illustration only. Trees and plants supplied will be essentially similar to the product shown but will not be identical.

Product availability is subject to stock, season, supplier availability, and growing conditions.

4. Standard Stock and Special-Order Items

PLEASE READ AS CANCELLATION REFUNDS FOR SPECIAL ITEMS ARE SOMETIMES NOT 100%. 

Unless stated otherwise on the product page, products are treated as standard stock items.

Products marked Special Order are sourced specifically for your order from UK or EU growers and suppliers rather than supplied directly from our normal available stock.

A special-order item may involve supplier commitment, grower reservation, transport booking, pallet space, handling, and other costs being incurred specifically for your order.

This means a special-order item can usually be cancelled free of charge only before we place the order with the grower or supplier.

If you cancel a special-order item after that point, any refund may be reduced by our actual direct losses reasonably incurred. These may be substantial and may represent a significant proportion of the order value depending on where the order is in the supply chain.

We do not treat ordinary supplier-sourced items as bespoke or personalised goods unless expressly stated otherwise.

5. Placing an Order

Orders may be placed through our website using the payment methods made available at the Worldpay checkout, or by bank transfer where agreed.

All orders are subject to availability, delivery feasibility, and acceptance by us.

We may contact you if there is a stock issue, delivery issue, pricing issue, or surcharge affecting your order.

Where appropriate, we may offer a substitute, but only with your consent.

6. When the Contract Is Formed

Your order is an offer to purchase goods from us.

No binding contract is formed when you place your order or when payment is taken.

The contract between you and us is formed only when the goods are dispatched.

You may cancel your order at any time before dispatch, subject to the special-order provisions in section 12.

7. Payment

Payment must be made in full before dispatch.

We accept the payment methods shown at the Worldpay checkout and bank transfer where agreed.

We do not normally accept deposits or part payments.

8. Delivery Areas

We deliver to mainland UK addresses only.

If your delivery address falls within a courier surcharge area, we will contact you before dispatch.

If we cannot deliver to your address on commercially reasonable terms, we may cancel the order and refund any payment received.

9. Delivery Methods

Orders may be delivered by parcel courier or pallet delivery, depending on the size, weight, and nature of the goods.

We do not use our own delivery vehicles for retail orders.

Kerbside delivery is standard.

Pallets, packaging, and any delivery materials left with the order remain your responsibility for disposal or reuse.

10. Delivery Times

Typical lead times are as follows:

• small boxed plants: 2 to 4 weeks
• larger potted trees: 2 to 5 weeks
• special-order mature trees: 2 to 4 weeks
• bare root plants: 2 to 4 weeks

All delivery dates and times are estimates only and may change at short notice due to supplier, courier, weather, seasonal, traffic, access, or other operational issues beyond our control.

Please do not arrange landscapers, contractors, equipment hire, or other third-party services in reliance on an estimated delivery date.

11. Delivery Access, Safe Place and Failed Delivery

You are responsible for providing a complete and accurate delivery address and for telling us about any delivery or access restrictions before dispatch.

If access is unsuitable, restricted, unsafe, or materially different from what was disclosed, delivery may fail and we may arrange redelivery, cancellation, or return.

Unless you tell us otherwise before dispatch, we may allow the goods to be left in a safe or sensible place.

If no one is available to receive the order, the courier may leave it in a safe or sensible place.

If delivery fails because of bad access, refusal to accept delivery, incorrect address details, or other customer-caused issues, any refund may be reduced by our actual direct costs reasonably incurred, including outward delivery, failed delivery, re-delivery, pallet, storage, handling, collection, inspection, quarantine, return, and disposal costs where applicable.

If access is bad and delivery cannot be completed, redelivery or cancellation may apply and our actual direct losses may be substantial.

12. Cancellations and Returns

12.1 Standard Stock Items Before Dispatch

Standard stock items may be cancelled free of charge before dispatch.

12.2 Special-Order Items Before Grower Commitment

Special-order items may be cancelled free of charge only if cancellation is received before we place the order with the grower or supplier.

We usually place such supplier orders once each week.

12.3 Special-Order Items After Grower Commitment

If a special-order item is cancelled after we have committed the order to the grower or supplier, any refund may be reduced by our actual direct losses reasonably incurred.

These may include supplier cancellation charges, outward delivery costs already incurred, failed delivery charges, re-delivery charges, return shipping, collection costs, pallet charges, inspection, quarantine, storage, handling, and disposal costs where resale or safe return is not reasonably possible.

Such losses may be substantial and may represent a significant proportion of the order value depending on where the order is in the supply chain and what costs have already been incurred.

12.4 Living Plants After Dispatch

All products sold by us are living plants. Living plants are perishable goods and may deteriorate rapidly depending on handling, transport, watering, storage, temperature, exposure, and time out of controlled nursery conditions.

For that reason, once living plants have been dispatched, there is no general change-of-mind cancellation or return right.

If we choose, in our sole discretion, to accept a voluntary non-fault return of living plants after dispatch or delivery, any refund may be reduced by our actual direct costs reasonably incurred, including outward delivery costs already incurred and any other costs listed in section 12.3.

12.5 Condition of Any Accepted Return

Any return we agree to accept must be kept unplanted, in original packaging where possible, in good condition, and in a re-saleable state.

Plants that have been planted, neglected, damaged, pruned by the customer, repotted, exposed to disease, or otherwise altered from their delivered condition will not qualify for refund or replacement unless required by law.

13. Claims on Arrival

You must inspect the goods promptly on arrival.

The following reporting windows apply:

• transit damage: within 48 hours of delivery
• wrong item supplied: within 48 hours of delivery
• poor condition or defect on arrival: within 48 hours of delivery
• shortages: within 2 working days of delivery

Claims must be made in writing to info@trees-online.co.uk and must include clear photographs.

You must keep the packaging until the claim is resolved.

You must also keep the plant itself unplanted and in its original delivered condition until we have assessed the claim and told you what to do next.

Planted trees are treated as accepted.

14. Faulty, Damaged, Wrong or Misdescribed Goods

If goods arrive faulty, damaged, wrongly supplied, or materially not as described, please contact us promptly with photographs and order details.

If we agree that the goods were faulty, damaged on arrival, wrongly supplied, or materially misdescribed, we may offer a replacement, refund, credit, or other appropriate remedy in accordance with your statutory rights and our assessment of the circumstances.

Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights.

15. Tree Failures and Warranty

For plant failures after planting, our replacement policy is governed by our limited warranty terms available at https://www.trees-online.co.uk/After-Buying-Your-Tree/Tree-Warranty.

Where our warranty applies, remedy is by replacement tree only, subject to the terms of that warranty.

16. Product Measurements and Variations

Quoted heights are approximate and may vary with season, pruning, transport preparation, and growing conditions.

Where trees are sold by girth, the tree will be supplied within the stated girth band, measured at the usual nursery point.

Deciduous plants may be supplied without leaves in season. Plants may be supplied in dormancy, recently potted, or pruned for transport, and appearance will vary with the time of year.

17. Aftercare, Weather and Site Conditions

Once goods have been delivered, risk passes to you.

We are not liable for loss, damage, decline, or failure caused after delivery by weather, frost, drought, wind, flooding, heat, poor planting, poor watering, unsuitable soil, drainage problems, exposure, neglect, pests, disease, or unsuitable site conditions, unless the issue was clearly present on arrival and reported promptly in accordance with section 13.

We are also not liable for post-delivery issues caused by poor maintenance, delayed planting, incorrect staking, planting too deep or too shallow, inappropriate pruning, or other aftercare failures.

18. Delivery Risk and Responsibility

Delivery is treated as successfully completed once the goods reach the delivery address and are delivered to you, left with your authority, or left in a safe or sensible place where delivery without signature has been permitted or is standard practice.

After that point the goods are your responsibility.

19. Refund Method and Timing

Any refund due will be made back to the original payment source.

Where a refund is due, we aim to process it within 14 days.

20. Complaints and Written Notices

Complaints, cancellations, returns requests, and legal notices must be made in writing.

Our email address for these purposes is info@trees-online.co.uk.

Phone cancellations are not accepted.

21. Chargebacks

If a bank or card chargeback is raised and approved, the contract is treated as terminated.

All warranties, guarantees, replacements, credits, and after-sales support immediately cease.

22. Limitation of Liability

We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses, including loss of profit, loss of business, wasted contractor costs, wasted labour costs, accommodation costs, or other knock-on expenses arising from delay, failed delivery, plant failure, or any other issue connected with the order.

Our total liability to you in relation to any order is limited to the amount paid for the goods affected.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability where it would be unlawful to do so.

23. Force Majeure

We are not responsible for failure or delay caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including adverse weather, road closures, strikes, vehicle breakdown, courier failure, disease controls, plant health restrictions, customs delays, supplier failure, shortage of stock, crop failure, government action, or other events outside our reasonable control.

24. Governing Law and Jurisdiction

These terms are governed by English law.

If you are a consumer living in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you may also bring proceedings in your local courts where mandatory law allows.

25. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms from time to time by publishing a revised version on our website. The version in force at the time of dispatch will apply to your order.