Terms and Conditions

Delivery to the EU
Due to the conclusion of long term idiot activity at No 10, we can no longer send trees to Northern Ireland, Gurnsey, Isle of Man, Jersey or the EU. If this aggrieves you, have Sovereignty as compensation i.e. you can plant our flag but not any of our plants. 

Delivery outside the EU
It is not possible to deliver trees to any country outside of Europe, for example the United States of America as transit times kill the tree.....so PLEASE stop placing USA orders! 

As a Guideline, the following postcodes attract a surcharge before they will be delivered:

Grampians: AB (not 37) click to view this product and then add it to your cart

Highlands: IV (Not 40-56), AB37, KW (not 15-17), PA21-40, PH19 to 41 and PH49, click to view this product and then add it to your cart

Scottish Offshore Islands: HS, IV40-56, KA27, KW15-17, PA20, PA41-49. PA60-78, PA80-88, PH42-44,ZE, click to view this product and then add it to your cart

We know this may seem unfair as you are attached to the UK physically however these are additional charges raised by our couriers, not Trees Online. We reserve the right to apply additional surcharges after you have made your order if our couriers refuse to take the consignment on our standard agreed rate for any reason. Their charges and postcode delivery rates change, sometimes without them telling us and therefore charges listed on our website maybe out of date. We will do everything we can to keep these charges to a minimum. 

Redirecting Your Parcels
Some couriers offer a service to redirect your deliveries to another location e.g. local post office and once selected will remain in place until you, the customer, change it back. This is not something we have any control over and cannot change any of your preferences. Should this occur and the plants die due to being boxed too long, we will not accept responsibility. 

Delivery Times
Estimated delivery times are listed on your confirmation email and/or the homepage. Most of the time, the estimated time of arrival is correct however delivery vans break down, traffic causes issue and many other forces work against us. We advise not to engage workers until you actually have the tree/plant on site. We cannot be held responsible for consequences arriving from delayed delivery.

Unable To Take Delivery
Should you be unable to take delivery for any reason e.g. holidays, you will need to let us know specific dates as we are unable to refund for plants dying while you are away. We will do our best to give you as much warning as possible but emails can go to spam and courier delivery time scales are mostly fiction. During national issues such as strikes, fuel shortages, protests etc delivery estimates can be wildly inaccurate so we advise making provision for all deliveries during your time away. 

Delivering To A Neighbour
There maybe times whereby it is better to deliver to a neighbour if no answer. This might be any reason the courier see's fit e.g. sloping drive and may fall over if left unattended. If this is NOT ok, mention at checkout. 

Us Cancelling Your Order
We reserve the right to cancel the order at any point. 

We do not take this decision lightly, taking and refunding your money actually costs us time and money but sometimes stuff happens and we have to resolve the situation. Some of the many reasons for cancelling your order include weather and pest control problems, change of rules and regulations, quality issues and many more.

We prefer to give 100% refunds where possible. Where they are not possible is when we have incurred an expense, examples given below.

1) Your address has security and they don't accept deliveries and so the order was returned.
2) You have a locked gate with no intercom and so could not be left safe. 
3) Your terraced house can only accept deliveries via the front door and no one is in or will take it i.e. not safe to leave.

In these instances and those like it, if alternative arrangements cannot be made without cost to us, we will cancel the order and deduct our costs which starts at £25 per tree going up to 40% of order value. 

You Cancelling Your Order

Custom Orders
We will do our utmost to give you 100% refund but custom or special orders can be very costly, sometimes up to 60% non-refundable as some are sent from nurseries across the EU. We usually have a few days after the order is placed to cancel before they are loaded on the truck after which costs increase. Custom orders are listed on the product page by having the text "custom order" next to the size/attribute options.

A special order will be one whereby you have paid for a product or attribute not listed on the website and/or paid via bank transfer and/or has "change order payment" or similar listed on your email confirmation. These are subject to the same conditions as "custom order". 

If you have received your custom tree order and cancel, collection costs start at £30 and go up to 60% of the value of the tree. Some trees can take up to 8 weeks to collect as these require oversized and specialist couriers. If the tree is not saleable or in the same condition you received it, on its return due to damage, pruning or neglect on your part, we cannot process the refund. You are welcome to use your own couriers but we advise taking out insurance against damage and neglect. We cannot accept any plants/trees that have been planted due to bio-security issues. 

Non-Custom Or Special Orders
You can cancel any non-custom or non special order up to 5 working days from ordering for a full refund UNLESS it has already been sent/loaded onto the truck by the grower/nursery/supplier. The charge for the courier to send it back whilst in transit is between £20 and £95 depending on size of tree/order. 

"Sent/loaded onto the truck" also covers, "processed and labelled/boxed up awaiting collection" although we have some room on this. Your order can be in a yard of many hundreds of trees waiting for collection and if we can find it in time, we can cancel the order at 100%. At busy times e.g. Spring and Autumn, we are unlikely to have enough people to search for your order. 

Correct Information on your order
Trees Online will only deliver to physical addresses, not to PO Boxes or incomplete addresses. Therefore, it is necessary to include a full and correct postcode otherwise the consignment may not arrive.

As trees are living, they require constant watering and maintenance, more so depending on the time of year. In our experience it is often under-estimated as to how much water a tree requires. We make sure our trees leave us well-watered for the expected journey but sometimes the unexpected occurs. As a result, all trees need to be checked immediately and we need to be notified within 24 hours of delivery if the tree(s) appear to be dying. Watering the tree immediately on arrival is essential within the growing season (Spring and Summer). 

Claims against trees damaged during transit are required within 7 days of delivery and are not to be disposed of unless agreed with us. We will require photographs clearly showing the damage and the whole tree.

Some damage/drying out may occur during transit. For the most part this can be pruned out with no negative effects on the tree. If the leader is damaged, this can be pruned out and another branch will take over.  The tree will only be replaced/discounted if we determine that the damage cannot be pruned out. 

If you have a claim for any other reason e.g. tree lost in transit then we need to be notified within 14 days of the expected due date. This is a restriction imposed by our couriers.

The tree warranty does not cover any damages caused by transit issues and the warranty is listed here https://www.trees-online.co.uk/Tree-Warranty. 

Returns
If you are unhappy with the tree for any reason please contact us first by going here https://www.trees-online.co.uk/contact_us.php to either arrange carriage back to us or alternative actions. DO NOT SEND PACKAGES TO OUR HEAD OFFICE ADDRESS as they need to be returned to the nursery.

Refunds Frustration
We share it, we are normal people that purchase over the Internet too. The fairest we can be is as follows: If it is our fault, we will take care of it, if it is your fault, you take care of it.

As an example of our fault, if your order turns up terminally damaged (as decided by our tree consultant), we are happy to refund you or send you a replacement. We define "terminally" as the plant will likely die. 

If it is not our fault and the product needs to be returned, you will be liable for carriage and packaging costs. Typically these "not our fault" reasons include, but not limited to, not enough branching, don't like the shape and not what you expected. Squashed branches from transit are unavoidable and the plant will recover or can be trained back into shape and is not an "at fault" reason for return. 

All images on the website are only a very rough approximation of what you will receive so if you have specific expectations, please clarify with us first. 

We will replace a tree only once. If the same problem occurs, it is most likely a local issue causing the problem. 

The courier will not collect unless suitably packaged and the original packaging is most likely the only acceptable method. Either way, the plants will need to have been looked after e.g. watered.  We understand this takes effort on your part and we thank you in advance for that. If the tree cannot be sold on again due to lack of watering, damage or other reason, we cannot refund.   

Issues that Mother Nature creates are no fault issues e.g. Powdery mildew, Shothole etc these are purely aesthetic issues and not a cause for concern or return and will not be refunded or discounted.

There is a minimum of £18 inspection/quarantine fee for most returns. This is to maintain bio-security and on site standards required for certification and/or other reasons.  

Bank Chargebacks
Should we receive a chargeback request from your bank, we will withdraw our support which includes the tree warranty. 

Plant Heights
We sell plants mostly by expected height which is a range it should be in for the age, species and pot size. Although best efforts are made to ensure you get what you ordered, unusual weather can mean some plants are outside of expectations. A 10% difference covers a prolonged poor season and we find acceptable. It is unreasonable and not possible to measure every plant and update the website, this is why heights are a guideline. A 3 year old tree at 150cm is the same value of the same tree at 135cm, it just means one of them grew a little less than the other one which is what plants do. 

Die Back
This is usually a problem caused by frost and beyond our control. Sometimes plants maybe delivered with some die back whereby the outer foliage has died. This is either because it wasn't as noticeable before loading and has became apparent during the 3-5 day courier run or has been deliberately left on with plants sold by height to show you are not being "cheated". We would prefer to sell by age as this represents the true value of the plant but market forces dictate otherwise. Simply prune out as you would if it were in your own garden. The age of the plant is not reduced therefore the true value of the plant remains. No refunds or discounts are offered due to die back issues.  

Returning Cell Grown Plants
These are usually in the 10-60cm, Volume Trees, Hedging Trees or another category. These cannot be returned to the nursery for phytosanitary reasons. Basically, the nursery cannot guarantee where the plants have been so it affects their health certification. 

Photos
Should there be an issue with the tree, we will ALWAYS ask for a photograph to allow us the chance to identify the problem to ensure you are not sent another tree with the same problem. 

Refusing delivery
You are within your rights to refuse delivery of the tree for any reason however there is a return carriage fee for doing so unless the products you ordered are terminally damaged or incorrect. This is a fee charged to us by the couriers and is outside of our control and depending on what you have ordered can be 20-70% of the original order price. 

Recipient different to Purchaser e.g. a gift   
Please also make sure that if the order is going to someone who may not be aware that a tree is on its way to them e.g. a gift, that they will be able to receive them. Our couriers will leave your order without a signature so please check with the recipient asap that all was received. The sooner you check, the more rights you have and the easier it is for us to correct mistakes, make changes etc. If you do not check within 7 days of delivery, it is likely we can only offer good will gestures. 

Extended delivery times
Trees-Online cannot be held responsible for delayed deliveries due to factors such as public holidays and/or postal strikes and other factors beyond our control, for example, adverse weather conditions which may occasionally cause delays. We will endeavour to notify you if this is the case.