Terms and Conditions

Last updated: 22 April 2026

This page sets out the terms on which The Helpful Things Company sells products through www.helpfulthings.co.uk. Please read it before placing an order. By placing an order, you agree to these terms.

These terms are intended to be fair and clear. If anything is unclear, please email us at support@helpfulthings.co.uk and we will be happy to explain.

1. Who we are

The Helpful Things Company is a trading name of Vectris Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales.

Company number: 08564476 Registered office: 50 Micklegate, Selby, England, YO8 4EQ VAT number: 167041518 Contact: support@helpfulthings.co.uk

In these terms, "we", "us" and "our" refer to Vectris Ltd trading as The Helpful Things Company. "You" and "your" refer to the person placing an order.

2. Eligibility

To place an order you must be 18 or over and have legal capacity to enter into a contract. If you are under 18, please ask a parent or guardian to place the order on your behalf.

3. Where we deliver

We deliver to addresses in the United Kingdom as standard. We will consider delivery to other countries on request, subject to additional delivery costs, import duties, and any applicable taxes, all of which are payable by you. Please email us before ordering if you need delivery outside the UK and we will confirm whether we can help and at what cost.

4. Prices and VAT

Prices shown on the website include VAT at the applicable rate. Delivery charges are added at checkout and shown before you confirm your order.

We try to keep prices and descriptions accurate, but errors do occasionally happen. If we discover a pricing or description error after you place your order, we will contact you before dispatch to confirm whether you wish to proceed at the corrected price or cancel for a full refund.

5. Placing an order

When you place an order on the website, you are making an offer to buy the goods at the price shown. A contract is formed between us when we send you a confirmation email stating that your order has been dispatched. Until that point, we may decline your order for any reason, including unavailability or suspected fraud.

Please check your order details carefully before confirming. We are not able to amend orders after confirmation, though you may cancel under the rights set out in section 9.

6. Payment

We accept payment through Shopify Payments (which processes card payments) and PayPal. Payment is taken when you place your order.

Your card details are handled directly by Shopify Payments or PayPal and are not seen or stored by us. Both providers are certified to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

If your card issuer declines or reverses a payment, we may cancel the order and notify you.

7. Delivery

We aim to dispatch orders within one working day and to deliver within three to five working days from dispatch for UK addresses. These timings are estimates, not guarantees.

If we cannot meet our estimated delivery time for reasons within our control, we will contact you to let you know. If the delay is significant, you may cancel the order for a full refund.

Once goods are delivered to the address you provided, risk passes to you. Ownership passes to you once we have received full payment.

Please examine your order on arrival and let us know within a reasonable time if anything is damaged, missing, or not as ordered.

8. Faulty or misdescribed goods

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods we supply must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, and as described. If they are not, you have the following rights:

Within 30 days of delivery, you can reject faulty goods and get a full refund.

Between 30 days and six months after delivery, we will repair or replace faulty goods at no cost to you. If repair or replacement is not possible or practical, you are entitled to a refund.

After six months, the same rights apply, but it becomes your responsibility to show that the fault was present at the time of delivery.

We do not offer an additional warranty beyond these statutory rights. Some products may carry a separate manufacturer's warranty, details of which will be supplied with the product.

To report a fault, please email support@helpfulthings.co.uk with your order number and a description of the problem. We will confirm the next steps, including return arrangements. We will cover reasonable return postage costs for faulty items.

9. Your right to change your mind

You have 14 days from the day you receive your order to let us know you want to cancel, and a further 14 days to return the goods. You do not need to give a reason. This right applies to most goods, with the exceptions set out below.

To cancel, please email support@helpfulthings.co.uk with your order number. We will confirm where to return the goods.

You are responsible for the cost of returning unwanted items and for their safe arrival, so we recommend a tracked, signed-for service.

You may open the packaging and examine the goods as you would in a shop. If the goods are returned with damage or missing parts beyond what normal inspection would involve, we may deduct a reasonable amount from your refund to reflect the loss in value.

Exceptions

The right to cancel does not apply to:

Goods that have been personalised or made to your specification;

Audio, video, or software products where the seal has been broken;

Goods that by their nature cannot be returned for hygiene reasons once unsealed;

Goods that deteriorate or expire rapidly.

Refunds

Once we receive the returned goods, we will refund you within 14 days. The refund will include the standard delivery cost you paid to receive the goods. If you chose a more expensive delivery option, we will refund the cost of our standard service only. We do not refund the cost of returning the goods to us.

Refunds are made to the original payment method.

10. Our liability to you

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes:

Our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence;

Our liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation;

Your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or other consumer protection law;

Any other liability which cannot be limited or excluded by law.

Subject to the above, our total liability to you for any loss arising in connection with your order is limited to the price you paid for the goods. We are not liable for any business losses, such as lost profits or lost opportunities, because the goods we sell are intended for personal and domestic use.

11. Complaints

If you are unhappy with our service or with any product, please email support@helpfulthings.co.uk and we will do our best to resolve the matter promptly.

If we cannot resolve a dispute between us, you may be entitled to refer the matter to an alternative dispute resolution scheme. We are not currently a member of any such scheme but will cooperate with any that you choose to use.

12. Events outside our control

We are not responsible for delays or failures in performance caused by events outside our reasonable control, including strikes, supplier failures, severe weather, power or internet outages, and government restrictions. If such an event occurs, we will notify you and work to resolve the situation. If a delay becomes significant, you may cancel the order for a full refund.

13. Your information

We process personal information in line with our Privacy Policy, which explains what we collect, why we collect it, and your rights. The Privacy Policy is available on the website.

All information you provide is handled in accordance with UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

14. Reviews

If you leave a review of a product you have purchased, we may publish it on our website and in related materials. By submitting a review you confirm that it is your honest opinion, factually accurate, and does not infringe any third party's rights. We may edit reviews for length or clarity, and we may decline to publish a review that is inappropriate or off-topic.

15. Website content

The content of the website, including text, images, and design, belongs to us or to our licensors and is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. You may view and print pages for your own personal use. You may not copy, reproduce, or use the content for commercial purposes without our written permission.

We try to keep the website available at all times but cannot guarantee uninterrupted access. We may suspend or change parts of the website without notice.

16. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The version that applies to your order is the version published on the website at the time you placed it. The date at the top of this page shows when the current version took effect.

17. General

If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest of the terms will remain in force.

These terms and any contract between us are governed by the law of England and Wales. Any dispute will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales, except that consumers resident in another part of the UK may bring proceedings in their local courts.

18. How to contact us

For any question about these terms, about your order, or about a product, please email support@helpfulthings.co.uk. We will respond as quickly as we can.