terms and conditions

1. Prices on londoncleaner.com are:

- Always in pounds sterling and inclusive of VAT

2. Payment

- We accept payments by Visa Debit, Switch and Solo.

- For regular, household cleaning you may wish to pay your cleaner £6/hour directly (either in cash, by cheque or by standing order into their bank account) plus a monthly agency fee which covers administration and insurance costs. This fee is £2.40/hour and is charged to your payment card or via standing order on a monthly basis in arrears. If on the other hand you would like us to take care of your cleaner's wages on your behalf, the hourly rate is simply £8.90 and is charged on a fortnightly basis. This option saves you from having to remember to leave cash for your cleaner each week, as well as taking away your legal obligation to pay your cleaner pro rata holiday entitlement of four weeks a year.

- Payment is only taken AFTER the chosen service has been carried out. For dry-cleaning, this means that you will be charged according to the actual number and type of items received and cleaned, which may or may not correspond to the number and type of items you indicated when originally placing your order. For regular cleaning, payment is taken on a monthly basis, with written confirmation being sent via email each time funds are withdrawn to those customers who provide us with an email address.

3. Security

To ensure the privacy of your credit card details, your information is encrypted using state-of-the-art encryption over a secure server. No credit card details are stored online. The secure server software used, encrypts all your personal information, including credit card details, name and address using an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) system with 128-bit encryption. This means that your details remain scrambled when passing over the web. For more information you can contact us at security@londoncleaner.com or telephone us on 020 8537 0075.

4. Privacy Statement

The only information that we gather about you is that given at the time of ordering and is required for transactions to be carried out. This information is collected lawfully and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Which? Web Trader Code of Practice. It is the policy of londoncleaner.com to never send any marketing material and the only emails you will receive from us will be those confirming your orders. To enquire about matters relating to your privacy or to check the information that we hold about you, email us at privacy@londoncleaner.com or call us on 020 8537 0075.

5. Ordering

- We reserve the right not to accept an order.

- In all cases, you will receive written notification from us via the email address provided, confirming your order details.

6. Third parties

- In the case of dry-cleaning we are acting as an agent for a third party dry-cleaning company, however your contract is between you and us. Note that all dry-cleaning companies affiliated with londoncleaner.com have a proven track record of high performance and service. For domestic cleaning, we employ a team of dedicated cleaners each of whom have gone through a strict vetting procedure which involves a detailed application form being completed in person (a full employment history declaration being required in all cases) together with a comprehensive interview by fully trained interviewers. Thorough reference checking is carried out with a minimum of two references being required. In addition, identification and passport checks are made with original certificates being sighted in all cases.

- Your debit card details will never be passed to a third party and as such will never leave the fully secure environment to which they were entered.

- You undertake that all details passed to us for the purpose of booking your cleaning job are correct, that the debit card you are using is your own and that there are sufficient funds to cover the cost of the service.

7. Fulfilling your order

- All blitz cleaning services can be offered on a next-day basis during the week, whilst orders received over the weekend will have Tuesday as the earliest day for fulfilment (regular cleaning, may take several days to arrange. Dry-cleaning collections and deliveries are carried out on all days excluding Sundays and can be made from 06:30 until 22:00.

- Items to be dry-cleaned require a 24-hour turnaround period with the exception of suede, leather and wax goods and duvets which may require up to 2 weeks (for these items you are kindly requested to call us on 020 8537 0075 to arrange the necessary collection and delivery). On the very rare occasions that we may require more time to process your order, you will be contacted as soon as we are able to give you a revised delivery time.

- For the collection and delivery of dry-cleaning items, can we urge you to make sure that someone is at the address provided, to hand over or accept the goods during the time slot specified when placing your order, thank you.

8. Cleaning policies

The statements below apply to all the cleaning companies affiliated with londoncleaner.com.

- The vast majority of garments and household articles clean very satisfactorily. Occasionally however, our cleaning experts may recognise a potential problem and in this instance shall not proceed with cleaning the item or items in question without contacting you first. For dry-cleaning and laundry, any garments without washing instructions (i.e. washing labels) or items with intricate designs or other accessories being cleaned for the first time will be washed at your own risk. If, when ordering, you select a cleaning method that is not recommended on the washing instructions but the dry-cleaners are able to wash the items in the correct manner, they will proceed and you will be charged according to the method employed. However, a check-box is provided on the site that allows you to prevent the dry-cleaning company from proceeding with another cleaning method should you so wish and in this case the items will be returned to you unwashed.

- You are fully covered for any damage to goods that may occur during the cleaning process which is attributable to the dry-cleaning company or domestic cleaner employed, as well as for any losses. You are responsible for the first £250 of any claim. You are also insured for loss of keys and any consequential loss that may arise due to their loss, up to the value of £25,000. For such claims the excess payable is £100. Our insurance policy is held with Darwin Clayton (UK) Ltd. (Tel: 01892 511144) and our policy number is 3383403.

- Due to the nature of the service we provide, cancellation rights are not obligatory, however we would still like to offer you a cancellation period of one hour as a gesture of good will, should you wish to cancel a cleaning job. In such an event please email us at sales@londoncleaner.com or telephone us on 020 8537 0075. Note that as payment is only taken after a job is completed, you will not have to worry about funds already having been withdrawn.

- For domestic blitz cleaning, cleaners WILL NOT arrive with cleaning products unless you specify that you require such products (charged at a standard rate of £4.50) when ordering. For substantial cleaning equipment such as hoovers, you will need to contact us via blitzclean@londoncleaner.com or on 020 8537 0075 to arrange accordingly.

- If you have any problems with, or would like to discuss your order, please do not hesitate to email us at sales@londoncleaner.com and we shall endeavour to respond within 24 hours. Alternatively, you can call us on 020 8537 0075 during normal office hours (09:00-17:00, Mon-Fri) or on the company mobile telephone on 078767 05054 at all other times. All complaints will be treated as confidential and resolved as soon as possible.

- Please note that nothing contained in these terms and conditions affect your statutory rights as a consumer.

9. Force majeure

We shall not be liable for any failure to meet our obligations occasioned by circumstances beyond our reasonable control such as acts of God, civil commotion, riots, flood, fire and legislation. However you shall be entitled to a full refund in this unlikely event.