Terms & Conditions
We advise you to read the details on this page before buying from this website.
VAT
Generally, VAT at 20% is due on all products featured on the essentialaids.com website.
Essential Aids is pleased to be able to sell the vast majority of products on this website without VAT to those entitled.
Items available under the scheme are clearly marked on the individual pages themselves.
For a step-by-step guide to the process, please click here.
If you are chronically sick or disabled, most items at essentialaids.com are available free of VAT if you are buying them for personal and domestic use and they are relevant to your condition.
To claim VAT relief, the individual or individuals living at the delivery address provided, must have a relevant disability.
This gives scope for relief to be claimed even if you are buying on behalf of of someone entitled to exemption.
If you are in any doubt as to your status, please check with your local Customs and Excise VAT office who will be able to confirm your eligibility or visit this Government website: www.direct.gov.uk.
For some extra details from Essential Aids about disability related VAT relief, please click here.
In many circumstances, charities in the UK do not have to pay VAT.
If you are buying on behalf of a registered charity and want to claim tax relief, please complete the declaration form as above as you make your purchase from essentialaids.com.
For more information, please visit this official website: www.hmrc.gov.uk.
Please feel free to contact us if you have questions about any aspect of VAT relief, and we'll do our best to help.
Delivery
The vast majority orders placed before 1pm are despatched on the same day.
Typically, delivery is within one or two working days.
Occasional delays caused by items going out of stock are possible, but we work hard to keep these instances to a minimum.
Orders are despatched by courier and will require a signature, while certain low weight items may be sent by Royal Mail.
Some orders may be delivered by third parties. In these cases any information passed on will only be used only for purposes of delivering the goods.
If you have a specific enquiry about your order, please email us at the email address above, quoting your order reference, and we'll be happy to help.
Handling, Carriage and Packaging
A £4.99 delivery charge is applicable to every order.
This charge is the same regardless of the number of items on the order.
Returns
If you need to return something you have bought from essentialaids.com, please contact us at returns@essentialaids.com.
You will then be issued with a returns reference specific to your order.
You must not return goods to Essential Aids before contacting us and arranging the returns details.
If you receive your goods and they have either been damaged in transit or are in some way faulty, we'll be happy to accept them back and send a replacement, or refund you in full.
In these circumstances, you must contact us immediately on the email address above and we will make the necessary arrangements on your instruction.
We also accept the return of goods even if they are delivered without fault or damage, but you assess them as unsuitable for your requirements.
Under these circumstances the price of the items concerned are refunded, but there may be charges to cover the handling and carriage costs involved.
Again, please contact us on returns@essentialaids.com and we will make the necessary arrangements.
Upon receipt of the goods we will refund the amount paid or issue an exchange credit as required.
Exceptions to this are as follows:
When the products have been made or customised specifically for you; the products can not be resold for hygiene reasons e.g. toileting and incontinence items.
Consumers have the right to cancel orders placed with essentialaids.com for up to 14 working days after the date on which the item(s) are delivered.
This right does not apply to:
Items made from materials that may be distorted if worn.
Toileting related items.
Items which requires us to provide a service before approving the item for supply, if we have begun to provide the service.
Any item that is made or customised to order.
To exercise your cancellation right, you should follow the instructions in our Returns section.
You have a legal responsibility to keep delivered items in reasonable condition and in your possession until they are returned to us. This includes keeping any hygiene seals and wrappings in place.
Under the Distance Selling Regulations you have the right to inspect items you receive from us.
Unless it is necessary to remove any hygiene seal or wrapping to inspect or assess an item, removal of such packaging shall be deemed a failure on your part to keep the items in reasonable condition and you will be in breach of your legal obligations.
Essential Aids Limited is entitled to exercise its statutory rights in recovering any losses incurred in this respect.
Once we receive notice that you wish to cancel your order, the items have been received back and been checked, we will refund the purchase price of that item together with the packing and the handling and carriage charge you paid to us for that item.
If you wish to cancel an item after the cooling off period, provided you return the item to us after 14 days but within 28 days of delivery and in re-sellable condition we will refund the purchase price you paid for that item.
We will not refund the handling and carriage charge for that item and you will have to pay the cost of returning the item to us.
None of the above affects your statutory rights.
Essential Aids Limited complies with the Consumer Protection Distance Selling Regulations 2000 and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013.
There is a standard warranty period of one year on goods bought from Essential Aids Limited.
Your Privacy and Data
You have the right to access and update your personal data or to require its deletion.
If you wish to correct details held by essentialaids.com, please email customerservice@essentialaids.com.
No charge will be levied for complying with a correction request, however, for all other requests we may charge a small fee to cover our costs.
Click here to read our full Privacy Policy. We comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018.
Anonymous Data and Cookies
Most of the information that we collect from this website is anonymous, such as visited pages and searches performed.
We do not collect any personal data unless without its clear authorisation by the user.
We process anonymous information with a view to improving essentialaids.com and to compile statistics about individuals using our site for internal market research purposes only.
This process may involve the installation of 'cookies' that collect the first level domain name of the user and the date and time of access.
A cookie is a small piece of information which is sent to your web browser and stored on your computer's hard drive.
These are commonly used and do no harm to your computer.
Browsers can be set to notify you each time one is received.
WEE Directive
The Waste Electrical or Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive requires countries to maximise separate collection and environmentally friendly processing of these items.
In the UK, distributors must provide a system which allows customers buying new electrical equipment the opportunity to recycle their old items free of charge. Those establishing their own take-back scheme must as a minimum offer all customers buying new electrical equipment free take back of their old electricals on a like-for-like basis.
You can recycle electrical items with Essential Aids on like for like basis if you buy a new one from us. Contact us before sending back the old item within 28 days to: Essential Aids, 52 The Droveway, Hove, East Sussex, BN1 3LW.
Please note that the customer is responsible for all carriage charges incurred.
To remind you that old electrical equipment can be recycled, it is now marked with a crossed-out wheeled bin symbol. Please do not throw any electrical equipment (including those marked with the crossed out wheeled bin symbol) in your bin.
More information on WEEE recycling is available from recyclenow.com.
Spamming
Essentialaids.com is against spamming - the practice of sending unsolicited emails in large numbers and repeatedly to individuals with whom the sender has had no previous contact or who have declined to receive such communications.
Where we believe that certain information could be of importance to you we reserve the right to inform you by email while giving you the choice to opt out of such services.
Personal Information and Children
We will not knowingly collect, use or disclose personal data from any individual under 18 years of age without obtaining prior consent from a parent or guardian through direct, offline contact.
We abide by laws designed to protect children.
Links to Other Websites
This website features a number of links to other sites we believe might be of interest to our users.
The policies detailed on this page do not apply to any website but essentialaids.com, and we are not responsible for the content of third party sites.
Online Payment Security
Essential Aids is committed to taking every precaution to ensure that when you buy from us, you do so with complete peace of mind.
It is of paramount important to us that our customers are sure that they can shop with us with total confidence.
For this reason, all transactions through this website are handled in a secure environment by the global leader in onlilne payment security, Sage Pay.
Formally known as Protx, it has a worldwide reputation in maximizing the safety of online payments.
All transaction information is encrypted using 128-bit SSL certificates. No cardholder information is ever passed unencrypted.
You can be completely assured that nothing you pass to Sage Pay’s servers can be examined, used or modified by any third parties attempting to gain access to sensitive information.
For more information about Sage Pay and their transaction security measures, please visit this page of their website: Sage Pay.
Payment
We accept payment by most major UK-issued debit and credit cards. Orders are positively card sanctioned prior to despatch.
Please ensure any details you enter are correct as essentialaids.com can accept no responsibility if the order is delayed as a result of incorrect details being given.
Cheques are accepted by post and should be made payable to essentialaids.com.
To place an online order via this website, your web browser must be set to accept cookies (above for details).
Most browsers do this by default, but if you're having trouble ordering, you may need to change settings. Contact your ISP if you have difficulties.
Liability
To the extent not prohibited by law, in no event shall we be liable for personal injury, or any incidental, special, indirect or consequential damages whatsoever, arising out of or related the use of our website essentialaids.com or produce supplied, however caused, regardless of the theory of liability (contract, tort or otherwise) and even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages, some jurisdictions do not allow the limitation of liability for personal injury, or of incidental or consequential damages, so this limitation may not apply to you.
We are not responsible for any losses resulting from your use or the inability to use essentialaids.com or resulting from unauthorised access to, or alteration of your transmission or data in circumstances which are beyond our control.
Essentialaids.com is not responsible for your wasted expenditure, loss of profits, corruption or destruction of data or any loss which does not directly result from error on our part.
You will be responsible if you use this website in breach of these terms of use and will reimburse us for any loss that you cause to us as a result of your misuse. We do not promise that our website will be uninterrupted or entirely error free at all times.
The nature of the Internet dictates that shopping on essentialaids.com is provided on an 'as is' and 'as available' basis. We are not responsible to you if we are unable to provide our services for any reason beyond our control.
Complaints
Essential Aids will always do our upmost to deliver goods which conform with consumer rights.
However, if you do have a complaint, please contact us.
If you are unhappy with the outcome of a complaint and you are dissatisfied with our responses, you can approach the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) for mediation and ultimately, arbitration.
As a member of the association, we will participate fully in this process.
BHTA can be contacted at New Loom House, Suite 4.06, 101 Back Church Lane, London E1 1LU. Tel: 020 7702 2141; Email: complaints@bhta.com; Web: http://www.bhta.net/home/complain.html.
Prices
While we endeavour to keep prices accurate we may be unable to supply the goods at the price shown due to unforeseen circumstances.
In this instance we will contact you and you will have the opportunity to modify or cancel your order.
Please be aware that essentialaids.com reserves the right to refuse bulk orders.