Terms and conditions Sale, hire, trade and servicing

Part A: General terms

A1. Who we are

We are Dofygate Limited, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 08131835, VAT number GB 139 1854 93. Our address is Manor Farm, Calthorpe, Norwich, Norfolk NR11 7QR. You can contact us on 01263 493102 or at sales@dofygate.co.uk. "We", "us" and "our" mean Dofygate Limited.

A2. Who these terms are for

These terms apply whenever we sell or hire products or provide services to:

• End users: businesses and organisations buying or hiring for use on their own sites;
• Trade customers: distributors, resellers and dealers buying products to sell on;
• Hire partners: hire and rental companies buying products for their hire fleet, or hiring them from us, to hire out to their own customers; and
• Consumers: individuals buying or hiring wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft or profession.

"Business customer" means any customer who is not a consumer. Some clauses apply only to business customers or only to consumers, and say so. If you are a consumer, nothing in these terms affects your legal rights, and Part F explains them.

A3. Words we use

"Products" means barriers, bases, accessories, spares and anything else we supply. "Hire equipment" means products we hire to you. "Services" means installation, delivery set-up, demonstrations, training, servicing and repairs. "Order confirmation" means our written acceptance of your order, which may be by email. "Contract" means the agreement between you and us for a particular order. "In writing" includes email.

A4. Quotes, orders and the contract

1. Our quotes are valid for 30 days unless they say otherwise. A quote is not an offer.
2. Your order, whether by email, purchase order, our website or by phone confirmed in writing, is an offer to buy or hire on these terms. The contract starts when we send an order confirmation or when we deliver, whichever happens first.
3. For business customers, the contract is made up of these terms, our quote and our order confirmation. It applies instead of any terms in your purchase order or elsewhere, even if they say they take priority. A change only applies if a director of Dofygate agrees to it in writing.
4. If documents conflict, a separate written agreement signed by us (such as a distribution, framework or exclusivity agreement) comes first, then the order confirmation, then these terms.
5. Our brochures, website, videos and specifications describe our products in general terms. For business customers they are not part of the contract unless the order confirmation includes them. We may make changes to products to meet legal or safety requirements, or changes that do not materially affect their quality or performance.

A5. Prices and payment

1. Prices are as stated in our quote or order confirmation. For business customers they exclude VAT and delivery unless we say otherwise. For consumers they include VAT.
2. Business customers with a credit account we have approved must pay within 30 days of the invoice date. Everyone else must pay in full before we dispatch products or the hire begins, unless we agree otherwise in writing.
3. Hire charges are invoiced in advance for each hire period shown in the order confirmation, or monthly in advance if none is shown. For business hires lasting longer than 12 months, we may review hire rates once a year by giving 30 days' written notice.
4. If a business customer pays late, we may charge interest and compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, currently 8% a year above the Bank of England base rate plus fixed compensation and reasonable recovery costs. We may also suspend deliveries, hires, services and warranty support until everything due is paid.
5. Business customers must pay in full without any set-off, deduction or counterclaim.
6. Before opening or increasing a credit account we may ask for references and run credit checks. We may set, change or withdraw credit limits at any time.

A6. Delivery and collection

1. We deliver to the address in the order confirmation, or you may collect from us by arrangement.
2. Delivery dates are estimates. If we are more than 30 days late for a reason within our control, you may cancel the affected part of the order by telling us in writing, and we will refund what you have paid for it. For business customers, that is your only remedy for late delivery.
3. You must provide safe access for our delivery vehicle, someone to receive the delivery and, for palletised products, suitable unloading equipment such as a forklift or pallet truck, unless we have agreed otherwise.
4. Please check deliveries when they arrive. Business customers must tell us about visible damage, shortages or wrong items within 3 working days of delivery, and note them on the delivery paperwork where possible.
5. If you do not take delivery when arranged, we may store the products at your cost and charge for redelivery. If a business customer has not taken delivery within 30 days, we may resell the products and charge any shortfall.

A7. Risk and ownership of products you buy

1. Products you buy are your responsibility from delivery, or from collection if you collect them.
2. For business customers, ownership only passes to you when we have been paid in full for those products and for everything else you then owe us. Until then you must keep them in good condition, insured and identifiable as ours, and must not remove our serial numbers or labels. Trade customers and hire partners may resell or hire them out in the normal course of business, but that permission ends automatically if you do not pay on time or an insolvency event in A11 happens. If either happens, we may recover products we still own, and you allow us onto your premises on reasonable notice to do so.
3. For consumers, ownership passes when we have received full payment.
4. Hire equipment always remains our property (see Part D).

A8. Using our products safely

1. Dofygate barriers are traffic and access control devices. They control when vehicles move. They are not designed to physically stop a vehicle and must not be used as crash, anti-ram or hostile vehicle mitigation barriers, or instead of a separate route for pedestrians. The break-away clutch is designed to let the arm give way if it is hit.
2. You are responsible for assessing your site and deciding whether our products suit it, for your traffic management plan and risk assessments, for positioning and operating products in line with our user instructions, site rules and the law, for making sure operators are trained and competent, for keeping batteries charged and products maintained, and for keeping the area around the arm clear. We are happy to give advice, but the decisions are yours.
3. Stop using a product that is damaged or not working properly and contact us. Do not modify or repair products, except for routine care described in our instructions, or fit parts that are not Dofygate parts, without our written agreement.

A9. Our liability

1. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for breach of the terms implied by law about title, under the Consumer Protection Act 1987, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit or exclude.
2. For business customers, subject to A9.1: (a) we are not liable for loss of profit, revenue, business, contracts, goodwill, anticipated savings or data, or for any indirect or consequential loss; (b) our total liability under or in connection with each contract is limited to the price paid or payable for the products and services under it or, for a hire, the hire charges paid in the 12 months before the claim; and (c) the warranty in B2 replaces all terms implied by statute or common law about quality, fitness for purpose and description, which are excluded as far as the law allows.
3. For consumers, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking this contract or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss that was not foreseeable, or for business losses if you use a product for business purposes.

A10. Events outside our control

We are not responsible for delay or failure caused by events outside our reasonable control, such as extreme weather, shortages of parts or materials, transport disruption, industrial action by others, epidemics, war, power or communications failure, or government action. We will tell you as soon as we can and do what we reasonably can to limit the effect. If the delay lasts more than 60 days, either of us may cancel the affected part of the order, and we will refund what you have paid for anything not delivered.

A11. Suspending or ending a contract

We may suspend or end a contract with a business customer straight away by written notice if you do not pay on time, if you seriously break these terms and do not put it right within 14 days of our asking, if you become insolvent (including administration, liquidation, receivership, a voluntary arrangement or bankruptcy) or stop trading, or if we reasonably believe our products are being used unsafely. You must then pay everything you owe at once, and we may collect hire equipment and any products we still own.

A12. The Dofygate name and our intellectual property

1. All intellectual property in our products, designs, drawings, software, manuals, photographs, videos and the Dofygate name and logos belongs to us or our licensors.
2. Trade customers and hire partners may use the Dofygate name, logos, product photographs and literature only to promote genuine Dofygate products, in line with any brand guidelines we give, and must stop when we ask or when our trading relationship ends.
3. You must not rebrand our products, remove or cover our names, serial numbers or safety labels, register any company name, domain name, social media account or trade mark that includes "Dofygate", or copy or reverse engineer our products.

A13. Confidential information

Business customers must keep our trade prices, discounts, technical information and anything else we describe as confidential to themselves, sharing it only with employees and advisers who need it, or where the law requires.

A14. Personal information

We use personal information as set out in our privacy and cookie policy. If you give us personal information about other people, such as site contacts or your own customers for warranty and safety records, you confirm you are allowed to share it with us. Each of us is responsible for our own use of that information.

A15. Complaints, law and disputes

If you are unhappy with anything we have done, please contact us first and we will try to put it right. These terms and any dispute about them are governed by the law of England and Wales. For business customers the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction. Consumers living in Scotland or Northern Ireland may also bring proceedings in their own courts.

A16. General

1. We may transfer our rights and obligations to another organisation. Business customers may not transfer theirs without our written consent. We may use subcontractors.
2. Notices must be in writing and sent to the addresses in the order confirmation or to our address and email above.
3. If a court finds any part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still applies. If we do not enforce a right straight away, we can still enforce it later.
4. Nobody other than you and us has any right to enforce these terms, under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 or otherwise.
5. For business customers, the contract is the whole agreement between us, and you have not relied on any statement not set out in it. This does not limit liability for fraud.
6. We may update these terms from time to time. The version on this page when we accept your order applies to that order.

Part B: Buying products

B1. What you are buying

We supply the products described in the order confirmation. Delivery set-up, installation, commissioning and training are included only if the order confirmation says so.

B2. Our product warranty

1. What it covers. We warrant that new barriers, bases and accessories will be free from defects in materials and workmanship for 12 months from delivery (the "warranty period"). If a defect appears, we will repair or replace the product, at our choice, free of charge for parts and labour. If we replace it, we deliver the replacement and collect the faulty product.
2. How to claim. Call 01263 493102 or email sales@dofygate.co.uk as soon as you notice a problem. Most faults can be fixed over the phone. If not, we aim to get a replacement to you within 48 hours through our pallet swap-out service.
3. What it does not cover. Faults caused by a discharged or flat battery; external damage to the cabinet, arm or covers, including vehicle impact; misuse, neglect, accident, fire, flood, vandalism or theft; use that does not follow our instructions; modification or repair by anyone other than us or someone we have approved; non-Dofygate parts; and normal wear and tear.
4. Who it covers. The original buyer, at the address where the product was first delivered. If either changes, tell us within 30 days of delivery and the cover will transfer. Products bought from a Dofygate reseller are covered as described in C5.
5. Parts and accessories. Parts supplied with a product, or bought later and fitted as we instruct, are covered for 12 months from their delivery. Fitting them never shortens the original warranty.
6. 30-day satisfaction return. If a product you bought directly from us for your own use does not perform to your satisfaction within 30 days of delivery, tell us, return it complete and in the condition it was delivered, and we will refund the price you paid, less the cost of any parts needed to repair external damage. This does not apply to products bought for resale or rehire, or to hire.
7. After the warranty period. We continue to support our products on a paid basis, and breakdown repairs are charged at a capped price, which we will tell you on request. You can also buy an extended warranty, on the terms set out in its quote.
8. For consumers, this warranty is in addition to your legal rights (see Part F) and does not replace them.

B3. Other returns

Apart from returns under B2, Part F or the law, we only accept returns of correctly supplied products by agreement. We may make a reasonable restocking and refurbishment charge, which we will tell you before you send the products back.

Part C: Trade customers, resellers and hire partners

C1. Trade accounts

Trade customers and hire partners can apply for a trade account. We may accept or decline an application. Trade prices and discounts are confidential, and we may change our trade price list by giving 30 days' notice. Orders we have already accepted keep their price.

C2. Buying as principal

You buy products for your own account and resell or hire them out as principal, not as our agent. You have no authority to make commitments on our behalf.

C3. Your prices

You are free to set your own resale and hire prices. Any price we suggest is a recommendation only.

C4. Your responsibilities

1. Describe our products accurately, using our current literature, and do not give any promise, warranty or specification on our behalf beyond what we provide.
2. Pass our user instructions, safety information and warranty terms to every customer who buys or hires a product from you.
3. Only sell or hire out products that are in safe working order. For hire fleets, inspect, clean, charge and test products between hires as our guidance describes.
4. Keep a record of the serial number of every product you sell or hire out, and of the customer and site it went to, for at least 6 years, so that safety notices and recalls can reach the people using them.
5. Tell us within 2 working days of any accident, injury, near miss or complaint involving one of our products, and cooperate with any investigation, safety notice or recall.
6. Comply with the laws that apply to you, including product safety, health and safety and consumer law. If you supply products outside the UK, you are responsible for local laws, certification, import duties and taxes there.

C5. Warranty on products you sell on

Our warranty in B2 passes to your customer. For products you resell, the warranty period starts when the product is delivered to your customer, as long as that is within 6 months of our delivery to you, and it ends no later than 18 months after our delivery to you. Your customer may claim through you or directly with us. If you give your customer any wider warranty, it is your responsibility and not ours.

C6. Products bought for your hire fleet

Products you buy to hire out become yours on payment (A7). The warranty period runs from our delivery to you, not from each hire. You are responsible for maintaining them between hires, and we recommend annual servicing (Part E).

C7. Exclusivity

Unless a separate written agreement signed by us says otherwise, your appointment is non-exclusive and we may supply anyone, anywhere, including your customers. A separate distribution, exclusivity or framework agreement takes priority over these terms.

C8. Ending a trade relationship

Either of us may end a trade relationship by giving 30 days' written notice. Orders already accepted are not affected. Afterwards you must stop using our name and logos, except to sell any remaining stock. We may, but do not have to, buy back unused stock at the price you paid less a restocking and refurbishment charge.

Part D: Hiring our equipment

This part applies when you hire equipment from us, whether for your own use or, as a hire partner, to hire on to your customers.

D1. The hire period

The hire starts when hire equipment is delivered to you, or collected from us, and ends when it is returned to us or we collect it. Any minimum hire period shown in the order confirmation is charged in full, even if you return the equipment early.

D2. Ending the hire (off-hire)

To end a hire, tell us by phone or email and we will give you an off-hire reference. Hire charges stop on the later of the day you tell us and the day all the equipment is ready for collection at the agreed place. If it is not ready when we arrive, charges continue and we may charge for the wasted journey.

D3. Our equipment stays ours

Hire equipment remains our property. You must not sell, lend, sub-hire (unless D9 applies), charge or part with it, move it from the site in the order confirmation without our agreement, or remove our labels and serial numbers. If anyone else, such as a landlord or an insolvency practitioner, claims an interest in it, you must tell them it belongs to us and tell us straight away.

D4. Looking after hire equipment

1. Use it in line with our user instructions and A8, by trained and competent people.
2. Keep it secure and protected against theft and vandalism, keep the battery charged as our instructions describe and carry out any daily checks we ask for.
3. Tell us straight away about any fault, damage, loss or theft, and stop using faulty equipment.
4. Do not modify or repair it, and let us inspect, maintain or recover it on reasonable notice.

D5. Breakdowns

If hire equipment develops a fault, tell us straight away. We will try to fix it over the phone; if we cannot, we will repair or replace it, and we aim to do so within 48 hours. You do not pay hire charges for any time the equipment cannot be used because of a fault that you or your users did not cause, from when you told us until it is working again. For business customers, that is your only remedy for a breakdown.

D6. Loss and damage

You are responsible for hire equipment from delivery until it is returned or collected, whatever the cause, except for fair wear and tear or damage caused by us. You must pay the reasonable cost of repair and of any cleaning beyond normal use. If equipment is lost, stolen or beyond economic repair, you must pay our current list price for equivalent new equipment, and hire charges continue until we receive notice of the loss. Report any theft to the police within 24 hours and give us the crime reference number.

D7. Insurance

Business customers must insure hire equipment for its full replacement value against loss, theft and damage, and hold public liability and employer's liability insurance, from delivery until the equipment is returned. Please show us evidence if we ask. If we offer a damage waiver, its terms will be set out in the quote.

D8. Returning equipment

Return hire equipment complete, with all transmitters, keys and accessories, in the same condition as when you received it apart from fair wear and tear, and free of excessive dirt. We will inspect it and tell you of any charges for cleaning, missing items or repairs within 14 days of its return.

D9. Rehire by hire partners

You may hire our equipment on to your own customers only if we have agreed in writing, for example in the order confirmation or a trade agreement. If we have:

1. your hire terms with your customer must protect the equipment at least as well as this Part D, including our ownership, safe use, insurance and return;
2. you must pass on our user instructions and safety information;
3. you remain fully responsible to us for hire charges, loss and damage, whatever your customer does or pays you;
4. you must not tell anyone that you own the equipment; and
5. when our hire to you ends, you must recover the equipment from your customer and return it to us.

D10. If we end a hire early

If A11 applies, we may end the hire and recover the equipment. You must give us access to the site to do so, and pay hire charges up to the date of recovery and our reasonable recovery costs.

Part E: Servicing, repairs, demonstrations and training

1. We carry out services with reasonable care and skill, at the times we agree with you.
2. You must give us safe access to the products, a safe area to work in, and any site induction or permit we need. If we cannot get access at the agreed time, or you cancel or rearrange a visit with less than 2 working days' notice, we may charge for the visit.
3. An annual service includes the inspection and tests in our service checklist and a written report. Repairs and parts found to be needed are extra, and we will ask for your approval first. If we find a safety-critical fault, we may make the product safe or take it out of use and will tell you why.
4. Equipment we leave with you for a demonstration or trial remains ours, and Part D applies to it while you have it.

Part F: If you are a consumer

F1. Your legal rights

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, products must be as described, fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality, and services must be carried out with reasonable care and skill. If a product is faulty, you can reject it for a full refund within 30 days of delivery. Within 6 months, if a repair or replacement does not put things right, you are usually entitled to a refund. Up to 6 years (5 years in Scotland), you may be entitled to a repair, replacement or some money back. Nothing in these terms affects these rights. For more information, contact Citizens Advice.

F2. Your right to change your mind

1. If you order from us without meeting us at our premises, for example by phone, email or online, or away from our premises, you can cancel within 14 days. For products, the 14 days start the day after you receive them. For hire and services, they start the day after the contract is made.
2. To cancel, tell us clearly in writing, for example by email to sales@dofygate.co.uk. You can use the cancellation form below, but you do not have to.
3. You must return products within 14 days of telling us you are cancelling. You pay the direct cost of returning them unless they are faulty or not as described.
4. We will refund the price and our standard delivery charge within 14 days of receiving the products back, or evidence that you have sent them, using the method you paid with. We may reduce the refund to reflect any loss in value caused by handling them more than you needed to see what they are, how they work and whether they suit you.
5. If you ask us to start a hire or service before the 14 days end and then cancel, you must pay for what we provided up to the time you told us.
6. You cannot cancel an order for products made to your specification or clearly personalised.

Cancellation form