Policies and Terms of Service

1Who we are

1.1In these terms, "we", "us", and "our" mean the trader identified above, trading as Blackstone Repair. "You" and "your" mean the customer named on the booking. "The Device" means the hardware you send or deliver to us for service, and "the Service" means the diagnostic, repair, or maintenance work you have asked us to perform on it.

1.2You can contact us at any time at repairs@blackstonerepair.co.uk. This is the address for bookings, questions, cancellations, warranty claims, and complaints alike.

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2These terms and your statutory rights

2.1These terms apply to every booking made through this website or by email. A "Consumer" is an individual acting wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft, or profession; a "Business Customer" is any customer who is not a Consumer. Section 13 applies additionally to Business Customers.

2.2Nothing in these terms excludes, limits, or restricts your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, or any other law that cannot be excluded by agreement. If anything in these terms conflicts with a right the law gives you, the law prevails.

2.3Our VRAM upgrade services are additionally governed by the Upgrade Terms and Warranty, which apply on top of these terms for those services.

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3The Service

3.1The Service consists of fault diagnosis and component-level repair carried out on the printed circuit boards of the Device, together with any maintenance work you request. We perform the Service with reasonable care and skill, as section 49 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires. Our commercial incentive is aligned with that duty: we are only paid where a repair succeeds.

3.2Diagnosis and repair may require removal of heatsinks, shields, thermal interfaces, seals, and stickers. Manufacturer warranty labels and seals may be damaged or removed in the process, and board-level work will generally void any remaining manufacturer warranty on the Device. A component removed during diagnosis may occasionally not be refitted where it has no effect on the operation of the Device.

3.3The Service addresses the fault you asked us to repair. Non-essential and accessory items, including fans, shrouds, covers, lighting, supplementary outputs and ports, and attached memory, storage, or wireless modules, are outside the scope of a repair unless the item is itself the subject of your request. Where the fault you reported is one of these items, that item is in scope and this exclusion does not apply to it.

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4Booking and acceptance

4.1A request submitted through this website or by email is an enquiry, not yet a contract. A contract forms when we confirm acceptance of your booking in writing.

4.2Before any chargeable work begins, we confirm to you the price or the basis on which the price will be calculated, your chosen shipping option together with its inclusive carrier cover stated in pounds, and these terms. We proceed only on your confirmation.

4.3We may decline a booking at our discretion, including where the Device falls outside our published intake. Where we decline, anything you have already sent is returned in accordance with section 8 and there is nothing to pay for our work.

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5Pricing, parts, and payment

5.1Our published repair prices are fixed labour prices, and the listed price is the maximum you will pay for our labour on that repair. Prices are quoted per device.

5.2Replacement parts are charged separately from labour. Memory chips are charged at our published chip menu, with fitting already included in the repair price. Some repairs also need another small component, such as a power management IC; these are modest in cost and are itemised and agreed with you. Where a required part is not in stock, sourcing it can take up to one month, and we tell you before you commit.

5.3You choose how part approvals work for your repair: either we pause and confirm each chargeable part with you before fitting it, or you authorise us to proceed without pausing and we itemise every part on the final invoice. You can state your choice at booking or in our confirmation exchange, and the second option can include authorising memory or core rework in advance where you select it.

5.4You are welcome to include your own donor board, memory chips, or thermal interface material with the Device, and we will use suitable customer-supplied parts where you ask us to.

5.5Payment is due after the repair has passed testing and before the Device is returned. We retain the Device until payment has cleared.

5.6We accept card payments, PayPal, and bank transfer. The listed price is the price for card and PayPal payments, with no surcharge, in accordance with the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012. Bank transfer receives a 3 percent discount, shown at the payment stage.

5.7We are not registered for VAT. No VAT is charged and prices are not subject to VAT.

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6If we cannot repair it

6.1If the repair is not successful, you pay nothing for our work. You can have your card returned at your expense, or donate it to us as unrepairable.

6.2Return shipping on an unsuccessful repair is governed by section 8, and donation is governed by section 12. Donation is always voluntary and is never the default.

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7Diagnosis and the arrival record

7.1On receipt of the Device we photograph it and its packaging before any work begins, and we record our diagnostic findings. Together, the photographs and the documented diagnosis form the record of the condition in which the Device arrived, including faults, such as a failed core, that photographs alone cannot show.

7.2Where a requested repair carries elevated risk to the Device, we tell you before proceeding and we proceed only with your approval.

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8Shipping and transit risk

8.1You choose the inbound shipping method from the options we offer, or arrange your own. The cost of each option and the inclusive carrier cover for that option is shown in pounds at the point of selection. Our current options are set out below; actual prices follow Royal Mail rates current at the time of booking.

8.2You are responsible for packaging the Device in accordance with our published packaging guidance on the mail-in repair page, and for marking the parcel FRAGILE. Damage that pre-exists receipt, or that arises from packaging that does not follow the guidance, is not our responsibility; where such damage is repairable as part of the booked repair, we address it at no additional charge as a discretionary goodwill measure.

8.3Royal Mail does not provide compensation for internal damage to electronics under any service tier, including Special Delivery. We disclose this here and at the point of shipping selection. Where internal damage occurs in transit and is repairable, we repair it as a goodwill measure as part of the booked repair.

8.4Where we purchase a Royal Mail label on your behalf, the consignment travels under Royal Mail’s terms, and our recoverable liability for transit loss or external transit damage is limited to the Royal Mail compensation actually paid for the service tier you selected, you having been informed of the cover figure in pounds at the point of selection. This clause does not affect your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and it does not limit any remedy for negligence in our handling of the Device after physical receipt.

8.5Where you arrange your own shipping, the contract of carriage is between you and your chosen carrier, and any transit claim lies against that carrier under your arrangement with it. Our duty of care for the Device begins on physical receipt at our premises.

8.6Our delivery preference with our carrier is a handover rather than a doorstep drop, and our receiving area is monitored by CCTV. Until physical receipt, transit risk sits with the carrier arrangement chosen; from physical receipt, responsibility for the Device is ours.

8.7On successful completion of a repair, we pay the return shipping by Royal Mail Tracked 48. You may select a higher service at the payment stage by paying the difference in cost, having been shown the cover figure in pounds for each option alongside the value of the repaired Device.

8.8On any outcome other than a successful repair, including an unsuccessful repair or a cancellation, return shipping is paid by you, by Royal Mail Tracked 48 unless you select and pay for a higher service. You may alternatively donate the Device to us under section 12, in which case no return shipping arises.

8.9Local drop-off and collection in Milton Keynes are by appointment only. A repaired Device collected in person incurs no return shipping; if you prefer it shipped, the return shipping terms above apply.

8.10If a shipping label we generate expires before you post the Device, we regenerate it at no charge.

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9Cancellation

9.1Where you are a Consumer and the contract is made at a distance, you have the right under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 to cancel within 14 days of the date the contract forms, without giving a reason. To cancel, email us with your booking reference.

9.2Where you expressly request that we begin work within the 14 day period and we do, you may cancel but you pay for the work performed up to the point of cancellation, together with return shipping under section 8.

9.3If you decline the quoted repair after diagnosis, there is nothing to pay for the diagnosis. Return shipping is governed by section 8.

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10The 90 day warranty

10.1Every successful repair carries our warranty for 90 days from the date the courier records delivery of the returned Device to you, or from the date of collection where you collect in person. The warranty covers the fault we repaired, the area and components we worked on, and every part we fitted.

10.2The warranty is personal to you as the original customer and does not transfer with the Device. It is a contractual benefit provided in addition to your statutory rights, which are unaffected by anything in this section.

10.3To claim, contact us first, before anyone opens or works on the Device. On a valid claim we repair the Device again at no charge and return it to you at our cost by Royal Mail Tracked 48, with the option to upgrade the return service by paying the difference. You arrange and pay for sending the Device to us, using the standard shipping options. If we cannot make the repair good, we refund the original repair fee. Nothing in this section reduces your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

10.4If a Device returned under warranty tests fully functional, we cover its return to you once at no charge. A repeated submission with no fault found incurs a £30 diagnostic fee, so please verify the fault, including testing in another system where possible, before sending the Device back.

10.5A new fault unrelated to the original repair is not a warranty claim and is quoted as a new repair at the standard price.

10.6Maintenance-only services, including thermal interface replacement and cleaning where no repair is performed, are not covered by the 90 day warranty. Your statutory rights in respect of that work remain unaffected.

10.7CPU pin and socket repairs are not covered by the 90 day warranty at present, because we cannot fully test this work without your complete system. This is stated on the service page before you book. We still perform the work with reasonable care and skill, and your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 in respect of that work remain unaffected.

10.8The warranty ends where any of the following occurs after the Device is returned to you:

• the Device is opened, or further board work or a repair attempt is carried out by anyone other than us;
• the Device suffers physical, drop, liquid, or accidental damage;
• our repair, or the Device more generally, is removed, altered, or tampered with;
• the Device is operated outside manufacturer specification, including any overclocking, overvolting, or use of performance-altering software such as MSI Afterburner or a manufacturer tuning suite, or any BIOS or VBIOS modification, flash, or update;
• the Device is damaged in transit, installed incorrectly, or damaged through user error.

10.9To keep the warranty intact during the 90 days:

• do not have the Device opened or reworked anywhere else;
• if the original fault was caused by a faulty power supply or host system, resolve that before reinstalling the Device;
• keep the Device dry and handle it by the edges;
• if the fault returns, contact us first and do not attempt a fix yourself.

10.10In short: for 90 days, if anything seems wrong, leave the Device alone and talk to us first.

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11Risk and liability

11.1Board-level repair carries inherent risk. A device that arrives with a failing core, degraded memory, or damage from a prior event may not survive even careful, correctly performed work, and it is not always possible to know in advance which devices these are. We mitigate this risk by diagnosing before we repair, following established rework procedure, and testing after every repair.

11.2Where a Device does not survive the Service despite reasonable care and skill on our part, you pay nothing for our work, in line with section 6. Our interests are aligned with yours here: we are only paid for success.

11.3Our total liability arising out of or in connection with the Service, however arising, is limited to the amounts you have paid us for the Service.

11.4We are not liable for loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of data, loss of use, business interruption, or any indirect or consequential loss.

11.5Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law. Where you deal as a Consumer, nothing in this section reduces your statutory rights.

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12Donated and uncollected devices

12.1Where a repair is unsuccessful, you may choose to donate the Device to us instead of paying for its return. Donation is voluntary and is never presented as the default. On your confirmation of donation, full ownership of the Device transfers to us, the serial number is logged at the point of donation, and the Device may be used for parts, repaired further, or resold.

12.2Where an outcome has been communicated to you and you do not arrange return shipping, collection, or donation within 90 calendar days despite at least two written reminders, we may treat the Device as uncollected goods. In that case we may sell or dispose of the Device in accordance with the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977, after giving you written notice of our intention to sell. If the Device is sold, we account to you for the proceeds of sale less our reasonable costs of storage, handling, and sale.

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13Business customers

13.1This section applies where you are a Business Customer, and prevails over the rest of these terms to the extent of any conflict.

13.2The 90 day warranty in section 10 is the sole remedy in respect of the quality of the Service, and all conditions, warranties, and terms implied by statute or common law are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law. The liability cap in section 11 applies, and we are in no event liable for loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of data, loss of use, business interruption, or any indirect or consequential loss, whether or not foreseeable.

13.3Where the Service is purchased in the course of business, you confirm that you have read these terms and purchase with a full understanding of the nature of board-level repair described in them.

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14Data protection

14.1How we collect, use, and retain personal data, including the photographs we take of your parcel and Device, is set out in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms.

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15Complaints, disputes, and governing law

15.1If something is wrong, contact us at repairs@blackstonerepair.co.uk and we will work with you to put it right. If we cannot reach a resolution, you may seek advice from Citizens Advice (citizensadvice.org.uk) or pursue a claim through the County Court, including Money Claim Online.

15.2These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. Where you are a Consumer, you additionally benefit from any mandatory protections of the law of the part of the United Kingdom in which you live, and you may bring proceedings there.

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16Changes to these terms

16.1We may update these terms from time to time. Each version is dated, and the version in force when your contract formed is the version that applies to your booking. The date of the current version appears at the top of this page.

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