Terms and Conditions
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These Terms and Conditions explain the rules that apply when you use the Custom Postal Boxes website, request a quotation or place an order with us.
We manufacture or print most of our packaging to an individual specification. Please check your quotation, artwork, specifications and final proof carefully before approval.
These Terms and Conditions should be read alongside our Privacy Policy and Returns & Refunds Policy.
1. About These Terms and Conditions
These Terms and Conditions apply to the Custom Postal Boxes website, quotations and orders when we incorporate them into the transaction. Custom Postal Boxes supplies custom-made and custom-printed packaging to customers across the United Kingdom.
Custom Postal Boxes is a project of Vertex Packaging. Vertex Packaging facilities in the UK or internationally may handle production for Custom Postal Boxes orders, depending on the packaging specification, manufacturing requirements and available capacity.
Email:[email protected]
Phone:01902 509 334
Office: Office 823, 85 Dunstall Hill, Wolverhampton, WV6 0SR
2. Business Customers and Consumers
We use these Terms and Conditions for both business customers and consumers where the wording is relevant. A consumer is an individual acting wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft or profession.
Consumer law may give you mandatory rights. No contract term can remove or reduce those rights. Where a provision in these Terms conflicts with a mandatory consumer right, the mandatory right takes priority.
The Competition and Markets Authority explains that consumer contract terms must be fair and transparent. See its guidance on fair consumer contracts.
3. Using Our Website
You may use our website to browse packaging, request quotations, submit project information, upload relevant artwork and communicate with Custom Postal Boxes.
You must not:
- misuse the website;
- submit false or fraudulent information;
- upload harmful files;
- attempt unauthorised access to our systems;
- submit unlawful material; or
- use our content in a way that infringes another person's rights.
Using the website or requesting a quotation does not, by itself, create a contract for the supply of goods.
4. Quotations and Orders
We prepare quotations from the information you provide. This can include dimensions, quantity, material, packaging style, print requirements, colours, finishes, artwork, delivery requirements and other information relevant to the order.
If we issue a quotation and the specification later changes, the price or production timeframe may also change.
We normally confirm an order once:
- we have agreed the final specification;
- you have approved any required artwork or proof;
- we have accepted the order; and
- the agreed payment requirement has been met.
Please keep a copy of the quotation, approved proof and any written changes that form part of your order.
5. Prices and Payment
We quote prices in pounds sterling (GBP) unless we agree otherwise. Your quotation or invoice will show the agreed price and any applicable VAT, delivery, proof, tooling or other separately agreed charges.
If we have not agreed credit terms, production normally begins once the required payment has cleared. Where credit terms apply, payment must be made by the date stated on the invoice.
6. Customer Specifications
You are responsible for providing accurate information about your packaging requirements. Relevant details can include dimensions, quantity, product size and weight, artwork, text, colours, logos, barcodes, material requirements, finishing requirements and any special technical or regulatory requirement.
If a requirement matters to how you will use the packaging, tell us before approving the order. We cannot reasonably manufacture around a requirement you did not disclose before approval.
7. Artwork Requirements
Where you supply print-ready artwork, prepare it in CMYK at a suitable print resolution and set it against the correct dieline. Raster artwork should normally be at least 300 DPI at the intended print size, with appropriate bleed and correctly prepared fonts and images.
If artwork is unsuitable, incomplete or low resolution, we may ask for a corrected file. If you choose to proceed after we have explained a known artwork problem, a defect caused solely by that supplied artwork may not qualify as a manufacturing fault.
8. Proof Approval
Please check every proof carefully before approval. You are responsible for checking spelling, dimensions, logos, colours, images, artwork placement, text, orientation, barcodes and other customer-supplied information.
After you approve the final proof, we may proceed to production. If the finished packaging accurately reproduces an error that clearly appeared in the approved proof, we will not normally treat that error as a manufacturing fault.
If the finished goods materially differ from the approved proof or specification, our Returns & Refunds Policy will apply.
9. Colour and Print Variation
Colours displayed on a screen may not exactly match the final printed result. Screen calibration, printing process, ink, material, coating, lamination, surface texture and other normal production factors can affect colour appearance.
Reasonable commercial colour variation is not normally considered a manufacturing defect. If precise brand-colour matching matters to you, tell us before approving the order so we can discuss an appropriate print or proofing option.
10. Materials and Product Suitability
We base material recommendations on the information you supply about your product and the way you plan to use the packaging. Where relevant, tell us about product dimensions, weight, fragility, moisture, temperature, storage conditions, transport requirements, grease or liquid exposure and direct food contact.
A material suitable for one product may not be appropriate for another. If you have a critical performance requirement, it should form part of the agreed specification before production.
11. Food-Contact Packaging
If packaging will come into direct contact with food, you must tell us before placing the order. Do not assume that every paper, board, coating, ink, adhesive, film or other packaging material is suitable for direct food contact.
Any food-contact, barrier or other specialist requirement must form part of the agreed specification. The Food Standards Agency provides official information on food-contact materials and chemical safety.
12. Production Facilities
Vertex Packaging may produce Custom Postal Boxes orders at facilities in the UK or internationally. We may allocate production according to the packaging specification, material, manufacturing process, machinery, finishing requirements, quantity and available production capacity.
If the UK facility is unavailable or cannot accommodate an order, production may take place at an international Vertex Packaging facility instead. A production-location decision made by us will not, by itself, change the delivery timeframe already confirmed for the order.
The approved artwork, specification and quality requirements remain the same regardless of the facility handling production. If the country of manufacture itself is important to you, tell us before placing the order.
13. Production and Delivery Timeframes
The applicable production and delivery timeframe will be confirmed with your quotation or order. Production normally depends on us receiving everything required to proceed, including payment, final artwork, proof approval and final specifications where applicable.
If the customer delays information, artwork, approval or payment, the confirmed schedule may need to change. A manufacturing-location change initiated by us does not, on its own, extend a delivery timeframe already confirmed for the order.
14. Delivery
We will deliver orders to the address agreed for the order. You are responsible for checking that the delivery information you provide is correct.
Where free UK delivery forms part of the agreed order, we will not add a separate charge for the standard delivery service covered by that confirmation. If you request a different delivery address, service or arrangement after confirmation, we will discuss any resulting price or schedule change with you.
15. Quantity Tolerance
Commercial packaging production can result in small quantity variations. Unless we specifically agree an exact quantity, the finished quantity may vary by up to 5% above or below the ordered quantity.
If an exact quantity is essential, tell us before placing the order so we can confirm whether we can accommodate it.
16. Manufacturing Tolerances
Custom packaging involves physical printing, cutting, creasing, folding, gluing and finishing processes. Minor variations may therefore occur in finished dimensions, board shade, print registration, cutting, folds, creasing, colour, glue position and finishing.
Reasonable commercial manufacturing tolerances are not automatically defects. Report any material difference from the approved specification under our Returns & Refunds Policy.
If a particular tolerance is critical to your product, you must agree it with us before production.
17. Changes After Approval
After you approve the final proof and specification, changes may no longer be possible. If you request a change after approval, we will first check whether production has reached a stage where the change can still be made.
An accepted change may affect price, artwork, materials, tooling, production or the delivery timeframe. Once printing or another irreversible production process has begun, the requested change may no longer be possible.
18. Cancellations
Contact Custom Postal Boxes immediately if you want to cancel an order. Whether cancellation remains possible depends on the stage reached and the nature of the custom work already committed.
Before Final Proof Approval
Where cancellation remains possible, separately agreed proof, tooling, material or other pre-production costs already incurred may remain payable where applicable.
After Final Proof Approval
If we can still stop production, we may deduct up to 20% of the affected order value for a cancellation made within 4 hours of final proof approval. A later cancellation may be subject to a deduction of up to 50%, depending on the production work, materials and capacity already committed.
We will apply any deduction subject to applicable law, and no deduction will remove mandatory consumer rights. Once printing or another irreversible manufacturing stage has begun, cancellation will normally no longer be possible.
For consumer contracts, cancellation terms and charges must remain fair and transparent. The CMA's current fair-contract guidance explains the relevant principles.
19. Consumer Cancellation Rights for Bespoke Goods
Many Custom Postal Boxes orders are made to an individual specification or clearly personalised. Under regulation 28 of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, the usual distance-selling cancellation right does not apply to the supply of goods made to a consumer's specifications or clearly personalised.
The position depends on the facts of the order. This exception does not remove statutory rights where goods are faulty, not as described or otherwise fail to meet mandatory legal standards.
You can read the official wording in regulation 28 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013.
20. Returns, Reprints and Refunds
If your packaging arrives damaged, materially defective, with a manufacturing or printing error that did not appear in the approved proof, or materially different from the approved specification, contact us promptly.
Depending on the circumstances, we may resolve an accepted claim by correction, replacement, reprint or refund. Full information about reporting problems, return eligibility and refunds is set out in our Returns & Refunds Policy.
Consumers retain statutory rights where goods do not match their description, fail the satisfactory-quality standard or are not fit for purpose. See the GOV.UK guidance on implied and statutory rights.
21. Customer Artwork and Intellectual Property
You retain ownership of artwork, logos and other intellectual property that you supply for your order. By providing these materials, you give us permission to use them only where reasonably necessary to prepare a quotation, check files, prepare proofs, manufacture the packaging, carry out quality checks and fulfil the order.
Placing an order does not automatically give us permission to publish your artwork publicly for marketing.
You are responsible for ensuring that you have the right to use any logos, trade marks, photographs, illustrations, fonts, text, graphics or other protected material that you ask us to reproduce.
22. Unlawful Content
We may refuse an order if we reasonably believe customer-supplied material is unlawful, infringes another person's rights, contains fraudulent material, promotes illegal activity, contains prohibited content or would cause us to breach applicable law.
The customer remains responsible for the legality and accuracy of customer-supplied content.
23. Product and Packaging Information
Unless specifically included in our agreed scope of work, you are responsible for determining what legal or regulatory information needs to appear on your product packaging.
Depending on the product, this can include ingredients, allergens, nutritional information, product warnings, safety information, product claims, regulatory marks, barcodes or other mandatory information.
Printing customer-supplied and approved content does not mean that Custom Postal Boxes or Vertex Packaging has independently verified its legal accuracy.
24. Website Content
Unless stated otherwise, Vertex Packaging owns the original text, photography, graphics and other content on the Custom Postal Boxes website or uses that content with appropriate permission. You may use the website for normal browsing, enquiry and purchasing purposes.
Do not copy, republish or commercially exploit protected website content without permission where the law requires permission. This does not give Vertex Packaging ownership of customer artwork submitted for an order.
25. Liability
Nothing in these Terms and Conditions excludes or limits liability where doing so would be unlawful. Consumer statutory rights remain unaffected.
For Business Customers, where the law permits, we will normally limit our total liability relating to an affected order to the amount paid or payable for that order. Where the law allows exclusion, we will not normally accept responsibility for indirect or consequential business losses such as loss of profit, revenue, opportunity or goodwill.
Nothing in these Terms excludes liability for fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, or death or personal injury caused by negligence.
26. Events Outside Our Reasonable Control
Circumstances outside our reasonable control can occasionally affect production or delivery. Examples can include severe weather, transport disruption, courier problems, industrial action, government action, major infrastructure failure or another event that no one could reasonably have prevented.
Where such an event materially affects an order, we will take reasonable steps to reduce the disruption and keep you informed.
27. Privacy
We handle personal information supplied through quotation forms, artwork, orders, payment administration, delivery details, marketing subscriptions or other communications in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Where an international production facility needs relevant order information to manufacture or fulfil an order, any personal-information handling must follow the applicable data-protection requirements described in that Privacy Policy.
28. Governing Law
These Terms and Conditions and contracts to which they apply are governed by the laws of England and Wales, subject to any mandatory rights that apply to consumers.
For Business Customers, the courts of England and Wales will have jurisdiction over disputes unless both parties agree another arrangement in writing. Nothing in this section removes any court rights that a consumer is legally entitled to exercise.
29. Changes to These Terms and Conditions
We may update these Terms and Conditions where our services, website, operations or legal requirements change. An updated version will apply to future transactions from the date it takes effect.
Unless the law requires a change or both parties agree one, changing the website Terms and Conditions will not automatically alter a contract formed under an earlier version.
30. Contact Custom Postal Boxes
For questions about these Terms and Conditions or an existing order, contact Custom Postal Boxes:
Email:[email protected]
Phone:01902 509 334
Office: Office 823, 85 Dunstall Hill, Wolverhampton, WV6 0SR
You can also use our contact page or request a packaging quote.
Terms and Conditions FAQs
Do these Terms and Conditions apply when I only request a quote?
Requesting a quotation does not by itself create a contract for the supply of goods. These Terms and Conditions become relevant when we incorporate them into an order or transaction, together with the agreed quotation, specification and proof.
Can I cancel an order after approving the final proof?
Contact us immediately. If we can still stop production, cancellation may remain possible, subject to fair and lawful deductions for costs, work and production resources already committed. Once printing or another irreversible manufacturing process has begun, cancellation will normally no longer be possible.
Do consumers always have a 14-day cancellation right for custom packaging?
Not necessarily. The Consumer Contracts Regulations exclude goods made to a consumer's specifications or clearly personalised from the usual distance-selling cancellation right. Statutory rights for faulty or non-conforming goods are different and continue to apply.
Can my order be produced outside the UK?
Yes. Vertex Packaging may produce Custom Postal Boxes orders at facilities in the UK or internationally. If the country of manufacture is important to you, tell us before placing the order.
What happens if there is a mistake in my approved artwork?
You are responsible for checking the final proof carefully. If an error clearly appeared in the proof you approved and the finished packaging reproduces it accurately, we will not normally treat it as a manufacturing fault.
Can printed colours differ from my screen?
Yes. Screens, materials, inks, coatings and finishes can affect colour appearance. If precise colour matching matters to you, tell us before production so we can discuss the available print or proofing approach.
Can the final quantity vary?
Yes. Unless we specifically agree an exact quantity, the finished quantity may vary by up to 5% above or below the ordered amount.
What happens if my packaging arrives faulty or damaged?
Contact Custom Postal Boxes promptly. Depending on the circumstances, an accepted claim may result in a correction, replacement, reprint or refund in accordance with our Returns & Refunds Policy.
