Sales Terms and Conditions
THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY TO EVERY CUSTOMERS WHO ORDERS WITH US.
ONLINE ORDERS
All our cakes and treats which you can order via our webshop are freshly baked in the morning and posted to you in the afternoon. They have a shelf life of 6-7 days from production day. We produce your goods the next weekday after your order has been placed. Please allow up to 72h from placing your order to production and shipping. We ship via DX Courier Mondays to Thursdays. The shipping method is signature next day tracking, means in 98% of cases you will receive your order the next day after it has been posted. Please be advised that it may take an extra day, especially during a pandemic.
SHIPPING*
We send our parcels via DX Courier or Royal Mail with the shipping method chosen by the customer or equivalent. The shipping method is signature next day tracking, means in 98% of cases you will receive your order the next day after it has been posted. Please be advised that it may take an extra day, especially during a pandemic. Some places like the highlands or off shore isles require an extra day too and are subject to a surcharge. Please make us aware if you are living in such an area if it is not detected by our shopsystem. Please make sure you are available to receive your goods. The seaside cake parlour can not be held responsible for any delay caused by no one beeing at the adress to receive the order, the courier, the pandemic, the weather or any damage in transit but we are happy to help with complaints in case something arrives broken. No refund will be given in such an event. If the customer missed a Delivery the customer is responsible to contact us for the Tracking Information and DX to rearrange Delivery on the next Business Day (only Monday to Friday). Saturday Delivery Subject to extra charge.
ORDERING & PAYMENT
Cakes: We require 2 weeks notice to order a celebration cake (sometimes less depending on our workload, just contact us) and catering and at least 3 weeks for a wedding cake (again sometimes less depending on our workload and what is required - please contact us).
Orders are taken on a first come first served basis so the more notice you can give us the better. All of our cakes are decorated by hand and are unique and we therefore require sufficient time to be able to complete each commission. For this reason there may be times when we cannot accept orders because we are unable to meet demand.
Catering:
For a catering a £500 booking fee is payable at the time of booking. This fee includes all consultations, email support, admin costs and secures your date. The booking fee acts as a deposit and will be returned within 7 days after the event. In case of any breakage or extra costs like late fees or extra hours caused to the party running late those will be deducted. A charge of £200 per additional hour will be applied.
Cutlery, Crockery and Linen will be charged at the price to replace the damaged or lost goods.
If the total is below £500 a 50% of the total is taken as booking fee. The booking fee is non-refundable, with the total catering balance payable in three installments if the customer prefers to spread the costs. If the cake/catering is to be delivered the final balance must be paid at least 30 days before the delivery date. We will not accept payment on delivery, our staff, chefs and delivery drivers do not carry cash.
We accept payment by cash, card (in shop only) or bank transfer.
Please note that your booking is not a confirmed order until the booking fee has been paid and no work will be undertaken until payment has been received.
Custom cakes need to be paid in full when ordering.
Products ordered via our onlineshop are especially made for you, please allow up to 7 days for them to be available after ordering, depending on the product.
EQUIPMENT HIRE
Any equipment hired (ie but not exclusive cake stands, chafing dishes, cutlery & crockery, cake cutting knife sets...) from the Seaside Kitchen & Cake Parlour has to be returned within 4 days from the day it was delivered, including weekends. Clean on return, if additional cleaning is needed we charge a £25 cleaning fee per item. We charge a deposit of £50 per hire item in addition to the hire charges. The deposit will be fully returned within 7 working days if the item was returned clean and without any breakage within 4 days incl. weekends. We are charging £2.50 per item per day late return fee until the sum of the deposit has been reached. The item can not be returned then any longer as it had to be replaced to offer it to other customers in an acceptable timeframe. The customer has been informed of their hire period and the day of return and a follow up email will be issued if not returned in time. The customer is responsible to arrange the return and for any late return fees. Late return fees will be deducted from the deposit.
CANCELLATIONS
When ordering your cake/catering you will be required to pay a booking fee. This is non-refundable. If you wish to postpone your cake/catering until a later date or put monies paid towards any future cake order we offer one free date swap for 2020 and 2021 bookings. If any work has been take out already the costs will be added to the total.
Please be aware that if you pay for your cake/catering in full at the time of booking and the catering/cake is subsequently cancelled, the maximum refund given will be 50% of the total cost unless, in the case of celebration cakes and catering, it is cancelled 7 days or less before the due date then there will be no refund if payment has been made in full.
If a celebration cake is cancelled with more than 7 days to go we will refund up to 50% of the total cost minus a £10 cancellation fee and the cost of any work already undertaken towards your cake. In the case of wedding cakes, if the cake is cancelled one month or less before the due date then there will be no refund if the cake has been paid for in full. If the wedding cake is cancelled with more than one month to go we will refund up to 50% of the total cost minus a £25 cancellation fee and the cost of any work that has already been undertaken towards your cake.
COLLECTION/DELIVERY
All of our cakes and caterings can be collected from our premises in Margate. All of our cakes come boxed and should be transported on a flat surface e.g. the boot of the car not on a car seat where they will be tilted and could become damaged.
We offer a delivery service anywhere in the Kent, Essex or the London area for custom orders and our onlineshop orders are delivered via DX Courier (please see SHIPPING). For celebration cakes we offer morning or afternoon deliveries.
Wedding cakes are normally delivered on the day of the wedding unless otherwise specified. We will endeavour to deliver as near to a specified time for wedding cakes as possible, however we cannot be held accountable for unexpected traffic delays etc.
We will deliver cakes on a Sunday but this will incur an extra charge of £10 on to the delivery cost.
Please note that once a cake has been collected or has been signed for at the delivery address the full responsibility for the cake is then held by the customer and the seaside cake parlour cannot be held responsible for any damages thereafter.
STORAGE
Cakes will come boxed and should be left in the box at room temperature ( below 21 degrees celsius) on a flat surface. Do not refrigerate unless temperatures are over 21 degrees celsius. It is also not a good idea to store cakes in places such as a garage, conservatory or in the kitchen where it could become susceptible to steam, condensation & cooking odours.
If you damage your cake after you have collected it from us and you wish us to repair it, minor repairs maybe able to be carried out on the same day but will incur a charge of not less than £10. (Acceptance of repairs of this nature will be at our discretion and will depend on whether a cake decorator is available that day and our workload at the time).
COMPLAINTS
Complaints are rare so when they do occur we take them seriously. Corrections to inscriptions & minor changes when things are wrong can usually be carried out on the same day in most cases and you are required to give us the opportunity to do this. You must notify us of the problem within 2 hours of collecting your cake or after delivery in writing (email) or in person (phonecall). Messages on our answering machine or mobile Mailbox (Voicemail) are not accepted.
Some complaints may need further investigation and an immediate refund (in case of a major issue) may not always be possible. The cake, or substantial part of cake, must be returned to us within 24hours so that we can fairly assess the nature of the complaint.
Photographs of cakes will not be accepted.