Terms and Conditions

Contents

• Introduction
• Age Restriction
• Obligations
• Misuse of Our Web Sites
• The Heritage Mine Transaction Protection Protocol
• Unsolicited Communications (including Spam)
• Using information about other The Heritage Mine users
• Fees
• Content
• Liability
• Release

Introduction

The following describes the terms and conditions of use that shall apply to all users registering to use any of the websites owned by The Heritage Mining Company Limited for any purpose. These web sites include, but are not limited to, TheHeritageMine.com, TheHeritageMine.co.uk, HeritageMine.com, HeritageMine.co.uk,THMCL.com and THMCL.co.uk. Your acceptance of these terms and conditions is a pre-requisite of your being allowed to register at the site and acknowledges you’re agreement to be legally bound by them.

The terms ‘The Heritage Mine’ or ‘Heritage Mine’ or 'THMCL' or 'web sites’ or ‘the sites’ or ‘us’ or ‘we’ refers to the The Heritage Mining Company Limited whose registered office is Barclays Bank Chambers, 9 Main Street, Keswick, Cumbria,CA12 5BJ. Our company is registered in England and Wales under number 8563784 . The terms ‘you’, ‘yourself’ or ‘your’ refers to the user or viewer of our website.

The term ‘heritage item’ or ‘heritage items’ refers to items which may be offered for sale through the site that may have enhanced value by reason of their prior ownership.

The following describes the terms on which The Heritage Mine offers you access to our services. It is important that you understand the obligations that you are committing yourself to by agreeing to these terms and conditions, particularly regarding the buying or selling of merchandise through the The Heritage Mine web sites.

Your agreement to be bound be these Terms and Conditions does coinstitute the creation of any agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchiser-franchisee relationship between The Heritage Mine and you or any other third party.

We reserve the right to change these Terms and Conditions in any way that we see fit and at any time provided that we publicise that change in a manner which a would lead a reasonable person to understand that changes had been made and to be able to study the Terms and Conditions as so changed. Your continued use of the site after being so informed constitutes your acceptance to be legally bound to the Terms and Conditions as so amended.

Age Restriction

You may not purchase items or offer items for sale through the The Heritage Mine web sites if you are under the age of 18 or you are not able to form legally binding contracts for any reason or if your The Heritage Mine membership has been suspended.

Obligations

When purchasing an item advertised in the The Heritage Mine web site you will;

• provide an accurate delivery address including the country of delivery;
• not attempt to evade postage costs by misrepresenting the delivery country;
• only provide feedback that accurately reflects the service you received from the seller.

When advertising an item for sale in the The Heritage Mine web site you will not;

• provide feedback that does not accurately reflect your interaction with the buyer.
• upload image files larger than 300 kb in size;
• upload images or content which may be considered lewd or offensive or sexist or racist or which may incite racial hatred;
• advertise items in an inappropriate category;
• advertise items which breach any laws or otherwise infringe the copyright, trade mark or other rights of third parties;
• advertise items which you know or suspect are not associated with the person to whom they are attributed;
• alter or adulterate any item you offer for sale in order to falsely associate the item with any person;
• attempt to deceive a seller by any means as to the age or provenance of an item offered for sale;
• fail to deliver items purchased from you, unless you cannot identify the buyer's given delivery address or the delivery address requires a higher cost of postage than the buyer has paid. All sellers are advised to retain proof of delivery;
• avoid or attempt to avoid fees due to The Heritage Mine in respect one or more items sold through the web site;
• attempt to encourage purchase or payment by any means other than that provided through the web site and in particular cheque or bank transfer;
• post content on the site which may be deemed inaccurate, misleading, false, defamatory or libellous;
• introduce or attempt to introduce into the web site any malicious software including, but not limited to, spam, viruses, worms, trojans, malware, adware or root kits;
• circumvent or manipulate our fee structure, the billing process, or fees owed to The Heritage Mine;
• transfer your The Heritage Mine account (including feedback) and user ID to another party without our written consent;
• distribute or post spam or bulk electronic communications, chain letters, or pyramid schemes;
• distributev viruses or any other technologies that may harm The Heritage mine, or the interests or property of The Heritage Mine users;
• copy, modify, or distribute rights or content from our sites, services or tools or The Heritage Mine's copyrights and trademarks; or harvest or otherwise collect information about users, including email addresses, without their consent.

Misuse of Our Web Sites

We will deem that you have misused your access to our websites if in our opinion you; 

• have not adhered to the spirit or the letter of our general policies or these terms and conditions;
• abuse your membership by any means including, but not limited to, embarrassing, harassing or abusing your fellow members or our staff;
• making unreasonable legal threats against The Heritage Mining Company Limited, or expose us or another The Heritage Mine user to financial loss or legal liabilities;
• misuse the internal messaging system by posting indecent, libelous or offensive messages or unsolicited commercial information ('spam');
• provide false information to us in your application or any of your dealings with us;
• you fail to comply with the The Heritage Mine Transaction Protection Protocol

We  reserve the right to cancel unconfirmed accounts or accounts that have been inactive for a long time or to modify or discontinue The Heritage Mine sites.

You agree not to hold The Heritage Mine responsible for any loss you may incur as a result of The Heritage Mine taking any of the actions described above.

The Heritage Mine Transaction Protection Protocol

In order to provide the Buyers and Sellers on the web sites with some level of protection against accidental or deliberate bad practice the following protocol will be followed when completing purchases through the site.

All payments conducted through the site will be completed by electronic means (by Paypal or other third party of our choosing) or by other means (as provided by The Heritage Mining Company Ltd.).

When a transaction for goods is undertaken the seller will be informed that the transaction has been completed and will be provided with details of the goods requested and the delivery address and any other details supplied by the buyer (collectively 'the purchase instructions'). When the goods are paid for the money paid for the purchase will be held by us. The seller will dispatch the goods to the buyer in accordance with the received instructions in a timely manner and no later than fourteen days after receipt of the purchase instructions (the dispatch period). We strongly recommend that the seller obtains a certificate of postage as a minimum though a greater level of protection is provided through a service that provides verifiable proof of delivery (see below). Any failure to obtain proof of postage and/or delivery is the sole responsibility of the seller.

Upon dispatch of the goods the seller should inform the buyer of the date of dispatch and any other relevant details, such as the name of the courier and any proof of postage and tracking number that may be relevant, through the means provided in the web sites (through the 'Dispatch' button on the Order Details page'). Only notification through this means constitutes notification of dispatch. Other methods of communicating dispatch such as email or the sites internal messaging system may be used in addition but do not in themselves constitute notification of dispatch. If no notification of dispatch is received from the Seller the order will be deemed to have been dispatched when the 14 day dispatch period ends.

Notification of dispatch or the expiry of the dispatch period instructs the web site to begin a countdown of fourteen days (the 'return' period) from the time of receipt of said notification or expiry. During this period the buyer can receive and examine the goods and at the end of it, if there is no alert raised in the meantime, the monies due to the seller that are held by the site will be transferred to the seller. Please note that the return period begins at the time that the notification was received not from the date of dispatch entered by the seller.

If the buyer is happy with their purchase they should leave feedback reflecting their experience of the purchasing process. This should reflect where possible those aspects of the purchase under the control of the seller such as the accuracy of the description, speed of response etc. rather than factors outside their control such as a parcel dropped in transit. The feedback response allows the site to gather an understanding of the quality of the seller but also receipt of any feedback other than the raising of an alert will trigger immediate release to the seller of the monies due to them.

If the buyer is not satisfied with their purchase for any reason they may return it within either the dispatch period or the return period to qualify for a full refund. In order to qualify for a full refund the goods must be returned in good saleable order at the buyer's expense. For the return to be covered by the Transaction Protection Protocol the buyer must raise an alert on the order by providing details through the section entitled 'Raise an Alert under the THM Protection Protocol' found on the order summary page at any time before the expiry of the return period. In the event of a buyer returning items we again strongly suggest that they obtain at a minimum proof of postage and where possible proof of delivery. Goods will be considered returned when;

• an alert is posted within the dispatch or return periods and the seller receives the goods within the same period and acknowledges such receipt;
• an alert is posted within the dispatch or return periods and the seller can provide evidence of proof of postal dispatch dated within the return period.

Please note that any items returned without proof of postage will require the seller to acknowledge receipt of the goods for a refund to ensue. The refund will be issued when the seller acknowledges receipt of the goods in good saleable condition or twenty eight days (the resolution period) have passed since the item was returned whichever is sooner.

In the event that an alert is posted over the non-arrival of returned items to the seller and is posted within the resolution period the following protocol will be followed;

• If the buyer has no proof of posting no refund will be given to the buyer;
• If the buyer has proof of postage no refund will be given to the buyer who may be able to seek a refund for loss from the courier. The seller should assist with thus process where possible;
• If the buyer has verifiable proof of delivery a full refund will be given and the seller should investigate the disappearance of the articles with the courier or the relevant law enforcement agencies. The buyer will agree to provide said verifiable evidence of delivery as required.

In the event that an alert is posted over the non-arrival of items to the buyer and is posted within the return period the following protocol will be followed;

• If the seller has no proof of postage a full refund will be given to the buyer;
• If the seller has proof of postage a full refund will be given to the buyer and the seller may be able to seek a refund for loss from the courier;
• If the seller has verifiable proof of delivery no refund will be given and the buyer should investigate the disappearance of the articles with the courier or the relevant law enforcement agencies. The seller will agree to provide said verifiable evidence of delivery as required.

Given that all buyer alerts must be posted before the expiry of the return period, when retained payments are released to sellers, buyers should be particularly aware when foreign postage is involved that they may have to post an alert before their items have arrived. This is the correct way to proceed as any alert raised after the return period cannot be dealt with by The Heritage Mine, though relevant consumer and distance selling regulations may be applicable. In this case the buyer and seller may resolve matters between themselves.

Likewise sellers should be aware that alerts regarding returned items must be opened before the expiry of the resolution period, when payments may be refunded to buyers.

Please note that the terms of The Heritage Mine Transaction Protection Protocol do not affect the statutory rights of either buyer or seller under relevant consumer and distance selling legislation, nor their obligations to maintain appropriate records for tax purposes including adjustments for refunds.

The Heritage Mine Transaction Protection Protocol is part of this Agreement and incorporated by reference.

The Heritage Mine Transaction Protection Protocol may be reviewed and its conditions changed, or it may be terminated in its entirety at the site owners discretion. 

Unsolicited Communications (including Spam)

We do not tolerate the use of the messaging facilities within our sites for the distribution of unsolicited commercial communications including so-called 'spam'. For clarity The Heritage Mine has been constructed to facilitate the collection and display of heritage items of potentially significant importance to those to whom the items may be of interest. Our understanding is that those who join genealogy sites through whom they publish data on their family history do so in the knowledge that others might contact them regarding persons in their family tree. For that reason we believe that informing such a person of the existence of material that is potentially valuable to them does not constitute unsolicited mail since they have given implicit consent to receive such mail through their membership of the site. Consequently communications to third parties relating to heritage items that you are offering for sale through the site when limited as far as reasonably possible to individuals who are likely to be interested in that item because of its heritage importance would not constitute unsolicited mail for the purposes of these Terms and Conditions.

For the purposes of these Terms and Conditions unsolicited communications will be taken to mean communications which are not restricted in their target to those who may have an interest in the information contained in said communication on the basis of their family history or other genealogical interest. For instance the offer for sale of general genealogy products such as computer software would constitute unsolicited mail.

You may not use our communication tools to send unsolicited communications or otherwise send content that would breach our User Agreement. We may automatically scan and manually filter email messages before they are sent via our communication tools for spam, viruses, phishing attacks and other malicious activity or illegal or prohibited content. We do not offer for rent or sale the email addresses entrusted to us by users of the site.

You may not add other The Heritage Mine users, even a user who has purchased an item from you, to your mailing list (email or physical mail) without their consent.

To report spam from other The Heritage Mine users, please contact The Heritage Mine Customer Support.

Using information about other The Heritage Mine users

Our sites and services enable users to share personal and financial information in order to complete transactions. When users are involved in a transaction, they may obtain access to each other's name, user ID, email address, and other contact information, postal information and financial information. We cannot guarantee that other users will respect the privacy or security of your information and therefore we encourage you to evaluate the privacy and security policies of your trading partners before entering into transactions and choosing to share your information with them. Similarly, we ask you to respect other users' privacy and disclose your privacy and security policies to them. In all cases, you must give other users a chance to remove themselves from your database and a chance to review the information you have collected about them.

You agree to use user information only in accordance with applicable laws and regulations (including, without limitation, data protection laws) and only for:

• The Heritage Mine-transaction-related purposes that are not unsolicited commercial communications
• using services offered through The Heritage Mine; and other purposes a user expressly agrees to.

Fees

Joining The Heritage Mine for the purpose of gathering information from listed items, or for purchasing items from our web sites, is free. Fees are charged, by means of a subscription, to members wishing to sell items or services through our sites. Once a member has obtained a relevant active subscription we do not charge for standard listing or photographs. A flat fee of 10% is levied on the total sale price (included any postage and packing charges) of any item or service sold through the site. The flat fee and other charges, including subscription charges, are liable to change as we see fit and the user will be offered the option to terminate their subscription without penalty should they not wish to continue it.you list an item or use a service that has a fee you have an opportunity to review and accept the fees that you will be charged based on our Fees policy, which we may change from time to time. Changes to that Policy are effective after we provide you with at least fourteen days' notice of them by email, by posting the changes on the The Heritage Mine site or via “My Messages”. We may choose to temporarily change the fees for our services for promotional events (for example, free listing days) or new services, and such changes are effective when we post the temporary promotional event or new service on the sites.

Unless otherwise stated, all fees are quoted in GB pounds sterling. You are responsible for paying all fees and applicable taxes associated with using our sites and services in a timely manner with a valid payment method. If your payment method fails or your account is overdue, we may collect fees owed using other collection mechanisms. (This includes charging other payment methods on file with us and retaining collection agencies and legal counsel, and for accounts over 180 days overdue, deducting the amount owed from your PayPal account balance.) You agree that we may issue you with invoices in electronic format by email.

Content

When you give us content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise the copyright, publicity, trade marks, database rights and intellectual property rights you have in the content, in any media known now or in the future. You grant us permission to change any images that you supply as content for any purpose including, but not limited to, resizing the image, reformatting the image to a different file type, adding a watermark to the image, obscuring the image in part or in whole. In addition, you waive all moral rights you have in the content to the fullest extent permitted by law.

For the convenience of sellers, we may offer catalogues of stock images, descriptions and product specifications, which are provided by third-parties. While we try to offer reliable data, we cannot promise that the catalogues will always be accurate and up-to-date. If you choose to include catalogue content in your listings, you are responsible for ensuring that your listings are accurate and do not include misleading information. You agree that you will not hold our catalogue providers or us responsible for inaccuracies in their catalogues. The catalogue may include copyrighted, trademarked or other proprietary materials. You may use the catalogues only for informational purposes and only in connection with your The Heritage Mine listings. You may not use catalogue content in a way that infringes or breaches anyone’s proprietary rights.

Liability

Nothing in this Agreement shall limit or exclude our liability for fraudulent misrepresentation, for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence or the negligence of our agents or employees or for any other liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law.

You will not hold The Heritage Mine responsible for any loss you may incur as a result of The Heritage Mine taking any of the actions described these Terms and Conditions nor for other users' actions or inactions, including, without limitation, things they post, items they list or their destruction of allegedly fake items. You acknowledge that the web sites offer a means for unknown third parties to offer for sale and to sell items of heritage interest and you agree that the owners of the sites are not to be held liable for the actions of these unknown third parties. You further acknowledge that the appearance of articles in the web sites does not in any way confer a legitimacy or provenance of such articles.

We do not review users’ listings or content and are not involved in the actual transaction between buyers and sellers. While we may help facilitate the resolution of alerts through various programmes, we have no control over and do not guarantee the quality, safety or legality of items advertised, the truth or accuracy of listings, the truth or accuracy of feedback or other content posted by users on our sites, the ability of sellers to sell items, the ability of buyers to pay for items, or that a buyer or seller will actually complete a transaction or return an item.

Please do not assume that the offer, sale, purchase, export or import of any item is valid and legal simply because it is listed on one of our sites.

You accept sole responsibility for the legality of your actions under laws applying to you and the legality of any items you list on any of our sites.

Although we use techniques that aim to verify the accuracy and truth of the information provided by our users, user verification on the internet is difficult. The Heritage Mine cannot and does not confirm, and is not responsible for ensuring, the accuracy or truthfulness of users' purported identities or the validity of the information which they provide to us or post on our sites.

We cannot guarantee continuous or secure access to our services, and operation of our sites may be interfered with by numerous factors outside of our control. While we will use our reasonable endeavours to maintain an uninterrupted service, we cannot guarantee this and we do not give any promises or warranties (whether express or implied) about the availability of our services.

We (including our parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, agents and employees) shall not be liable to you in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise for any business losses, such as loss of data, profits, revenue, business, opportunity, goodwill, reputation or business interruption or for any losses which are not reasonably foreseeable by us arising, directly or indirectly, out of your use of or your inability to use of our sites and services. Some jurisdictions do not allow the disclaimer of warranties or exclusion of damages, so such disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you.

Regardless of the previous paragraphs, if we are found to be liable, our liability to you or to any third party is limited to the greater of (a) the total fees you paid to us in the 12 months prior to the action giving rise to the liability, and (b) £100.