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; "the Service" means the diagnostic, repair, maintenance, or transplant 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 14 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; 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, connectors, 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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4GPU transplants

4.1A transplant is part of the Service for the purposes of these terms: we move the graphics processor and memory of your Device onto a replacement printed circuit board and cooler that we source and supply. The price shown on a transplant listing is the complete price for that job: the replacement board and cooler, the transplant work, and testing. Like a repair, a transplant is paid for only after it passes testing; return shipping on success is paid by us by Royal Mail Tracked 48, with the same upgrade option as section 9.

4.2A transplant requires the graphics processor and memory of your Device to be in working order. Board-level rework of this kind carries a small inherent risk of component damage even when performed with reasonable care and skill, in the same way as the rework described elsewhere in these terms; section 12 applies to it. If any of your memory chips test bad, replacements are charged at our published chip prices and itemised on your invoice, on the same basis as any other part.

4.3Where a repair in progress reveals that the board of your Device cannot reliably be repaired, you may choose to convert the repair into a transplant where a suitable listing is available. In that case the repair labour is not charged and you pay the transplant price instead.

4.4If you cancel a transplant before it is complete, you pay nothing for our work, the replacement board and cooler remain ours, and the return of your Device is governed by sections 9 and 10. Cancellation rights under section 10 apply to a transplant as they do to a repair.

4.5After a successful transplant, your original board and cooler remain with us as donor stock and ownership of them transfers to us. This is reflected in the transplant price. Your graphics processor and memory remain yours throughout and come back to you in the replacement board.

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5Booking and acceptance

5.1A 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.

5.2A booking or work request submitted through this website asks you to confirm that you have read and accept these terms; the version you accepted and the time of acceptance are recorded with it. A general enquiry, such as a contact message or a register-interest form, does not form a contract and does not ask for acceptance.

5.3Before 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.

5.4We may decline a booking at our discretion, and when we do we tell you why. The usual reasons: the Device falls outside our published intake; the repair would cost more than the Device is realistically worth; a required part cannot be sourced; the damage is too extensive for a repair to make economic sense; an earlier repair attempt elsewhere has damaged the board or made a reliable diagnosis impossible; the Device shows signs of counterfeit or tampered hardware; or our bench is at capacity. Where we decline, anything you have already sent is returned in accordance with section 9 and there is nothing to pay for our work.

5.5If you book but the Device does not reach us within 30 days, despite reminders from us, we may cancel the booking. There is nothing to pay when this happens and you are welcome to book again.

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6Pricing, parts, and payment

6.1Our published repair prices are fixed labour prices; the listed price is the maximum you will pay for our labour on that repair. Prices are quoted per device.

6.2Replacement 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 on your invoice. Where a required part is not in stock, sourcing it can take up to one month, so we tell you before you commit. To keep lead times down we sometimes fit a tested component recovered from a donor board rather than wait for new stock, and the price you pay is the same either way.

6.3Where the thermal pads on the Device have degraded and need replacing to complete the repair, we fit new ones and charge them at our published bundled maintenance price, itemised on your invoice like any other part.

6.4You choose how part approvals work for your repair: either we pause and confirm each chargeable part or higher-risk step with you before proceeding, or you authorise us to proceed without pausing and we itemise every part on the final invoice. Unless you choose otherwise, we proceed without pausing. You can set this on your repair page after booking, or tell us in a message, and change it at any time until diagnosis is complete.

6.5You are welcome to include your own donor board, memory chips, or thermal interface material with the Device; we will use suitable customer-supplied parts where you ask us to.

6.6Payment is due after the repair has passed testing and before the Device is returned. We retain the Device until payment has cleared.

6.7We accept card payments and bank transfer. The listed price is the price you pay whichever method you choose, with no surcharge on any payment method, in accordance with the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012.

6.8We are not registered for VAT. No VAT is charged and prices are not subject to VAT.

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7If we cannot repair it

7.1If the repair is not successful, you pay nothing for our work. You can have the Device returned at your expense, or donate it to us as unrepairable.

7.2Where our published testing for a service is limited, as with CPU pin and socket work that we cannot fully verify without your complete system, success is assessed against the testing we are able to perform, as stated on the service page for that work.

7.3Return shipping on an unsuccessful repair is governed by section 9; donation is governed by section 13. Donation is always voluntary and is never the default.

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8Diagnosis and the arrival record

8.1When the Device reaches us we make a record of the condition it arrived in, and that record is the reference point for anything either of us says later about its condition. We may photograph the Device and its packaging before any work begins, and we do so where the state of the parcel or the Device makes it matter, and we record our diagnostic findings in every case, because a documented diagnosis shows faults, such as a failed core, that photographs alone cannot. We let you know when the Device arrives, and any photographs we take go on your repair page for you to see, so that you can tell us at the time if you see its condition differently.

8.2We may also photograph and record video of the Device at any stage of diagnosis, repair, and testing, as part of this record and as documentation of our work, and we may publish that footage, for example on our YouTube channel. Recordings show the Device and our bench, and we remove or blur your name, your address, and the serial number of the Device before anything is published. Publication rests on our legitimate interest in documenting the work we do rather than on your consent, so you can object at any time, before or after we publish, and we will hold the footage back or take it down.

8.3Some repairs can only be tested with additional hardware that you send alongside the Device, for example a processor, memory, or a storage drive supplied so that we can power the Device up or bring it to a working state. Hardware sent for this purpose is sent to enable testing of the repair, and is not itself the subject of the Service. We photograph it on arrival where we photograph the Device, we record what our testing of it shows, and we share that record with you on your repair page alongside the Device’s.

8.4We cannot know how that hardware performed before it reached us, so we are not responsible for a fault that was already present in it when it arrived and that our testing did not reveal and could not reasonably have revealed from what was sent. Our arrival record and our documented testing are what we hold on the condition it was in and how it behaved for us; we share that record with you, without displacing any other evidence either of us may rely on. This does not affect your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015; it does not limit our responsibility to handle that hardware with reasonable care while it is in our possession.

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9Shipping and transit risk

9.1You 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.

9.2You 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.

9.3Carrier compensation is paid under the carrier’s own terms and exclusions. In particular, Royal Mail can refuse a damage claim where a breakable item has not been packed to its standards and marked FRAGILE, HANDLE WITH CARE above the address, which is why our packaging guidance asks for both. Where damage occurs in transit and is repairable, we repair it as a goodwill measure as part of the booked repair.

9.4Where we purchase a Royal Mail label on your behalf, the consignment travels under Royal Mail’s terms; 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; it does not limit any remedy for negligence in our handling of the Device after physical receipt.

9.5Where you arrange your own shipping, the contract of carriage is between you and your chosen carrier; 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.

9.6Our standing instruction to our carriers is that a parcel is handed over rather than left, and we do not nominate a safe place for deliveries. 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.

9.7A carrier marking a consignment as delivered is not by itself physical receipt by us. Where a carrier leaves a parcel without a handover, at a location we have not nominated and contrary to the standing instruction above, the Device has not reached us and the claim lies against the carrier under the service selected. Where we bought the label we make that claim ourselves, keep you informed of it, and pass on to you in full whatever the carrier pays; where you arranged the carriage the claim is yours to make and we give you our delivery records and any relevant CCTV to support it.

9.8On 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.

9.9On 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 13, in which case no return shipping arises.

9.10Local 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.

9.11If a shipping label we generate expires before you post the Device, we regenerate it at no charge.

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10Cancellation

10.1Where 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 and a clear statement that you are cancelling. You may use the model cancellation form in Schedule 3 to those Regulations, though you do not have to.

10.2When you accept these terms at booking you ask us to begin work as soon as the Device reaches the bench, which is usually inside that 14 day period, and you acknowledge that your right to cancel ends once the Service has been fully performed. We say this in plain words beside the acceptance tick in the booking form, so it is not something you have to find in here. If you would rather we waited until the 14 days have passed, tell us when you book and we will hold the Device unworked until then.

10.3Where you have asked us, at booking, to begin work before the end of the 14 day cancellation period, and we have begun, you may still cancel, and you pay for the work we have performed up to the point of cancellation together with return shipping under section 9. Once the Service has been fully performed the right to cancel ends, which is why we ask you to acknowledge that at booking. If you did not ask us to begin early, you pay nothing for any work carried out during the cancellation period.

10.4When we accept your booking we send you a written confirmation by email that carries these terms, the price or the basis on which the price is calculated, and your cancellation rights together with how to exercise them, so that you hold a durable copy of everything you agreed to. If that confirmation does not reach you, tell us and we will send it again.

10.5If you decline the quoted repair after diagnosis, there is nothing to pay for the diagnosis. Return shipping is governed by section 9.

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11The 90 day warranty

11.1A 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.

11.2The 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.

11.3To 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.

11.4If a Device returned under warranty tests fully functional, our £30 diagnostic fee applies for the testing time and the return shipping is at your cost, both told to you before anything is charged or returned. Please verify the fault, including testing in another system where possible, before sending the Device back; a genuine fault costs you nothing to claim.

11.5A new fault unrelated to the original repair is not a warranty claim and is quoted as a new repair at the standard price.

11.6Maintenance-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.

11.7CPU 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; your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 in respect of that work remain unaffected.

11.8Structural crack repairs are not covered by the 90 day warranty. Where physical damage calls for microsoldering of a deep crack in the board or of a cracked PCIe tab, the repaired area remains structurally weaker than an undamaged board, so the weight of the card in its slot can re-open it in normal use, which is outside our control once the Device leaves us. This is stated in the booking flow when you select physical or liquid damage. We still perform the work with reasonable care and skill; your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 in respect of that work remain unaffected.

11.9The 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.

11.10To 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.

11.11In short: for 90 days, if anything seems wrong, leave the Device alone and talk to us first.

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12Risk and liability

12.1Board-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; 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 the repair before it goes back to you, to the extent the work allows.

12.2Where 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 7. Our interests are aligned with yours here: we are only paid for success.

12.3Where we damage the Device through a failure to use reasonable care and skill, we are responsible for that damage, and we do not try to exclude that responsibility.

12.4Where we are responsible, the loss we compensate is the value of the Device in the condition it was in when it reached us, which for a device sent in for repair is the value of a faulty device rather than a working one. The arrival record described in section 8 is our evidence of that condition, and we share it with you when the Device arrives so that you can tell us at the time if you see it differently.

12.5Alongside that we refund everything you have paid us for the Service, and we return the Device to you at our cost, or dispose of it if you ask us to. Where the law gives you a stronger remedy than the one set out here, that remedy applies.

12.6Where we owe you compensation under this section, we may settle it by supplying a replacement device of the same model and specification, or better, in working order, instead of paying you the value worked out above, because a working device is worth more to you than the value of the faulty one you sent us. Where we cannot supply a replacement within 30 days of accepting responsibility, we pay you the value instead, and nothing in this paragraph reduces a stronger remedy the law gives you.

12.7We are responsible for loss that is a foreseeable result of our breaking this contract or of our failing to use reasonable care and skill. Loss is foreseeable where it is obvious that it will happen, or where you told us before booking that it might. We are not responsible for loss that is not foreseeable in either of those senses. If the Device earns you money or is used in your business, please tell us before you book, because a loss of that kind is not foreseeable to us unless you do.

12.8Nothing 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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13Donated and uncollected devices

13.1Where 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, and the Device may be used for parts or resold.

13.2Where 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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14Business customers

14.1This section applies where you are a Business Customer, and it prevails over the rest of these terms to the extent of any conflict.

14.2All conditions, warranties, and terms implied by statute or common law are excluded to the fullest extent the law permits.

14.3Our total liability to you arising out of or in connection with the Service, whether in contract, in tort including negligence, for breach of statutory duty, or otherwise, is limited to the greater of the sums you have paid us for the Service and £2,500 for each device.

14.4We are not liable to you for loss of profit, loss of revenue, loss of anticipated savings, loss of data, loss of use, business interruption, or any indirect or consequential loss, whether or not foreseeable.

14.5A higher limit is available. Tell us before you book what limit you need and we will quote a fee for it, and where you accept that quote the higher limit replaces the figure above for that job. Where you do not, we ask you to insure the Device for its full value while it is with us and in transit, because the limit above is set on the basis that you know what the Device is worth to you and are better placed than we are to insure it.

14.6The 90 day warranty in section 11 applies to you as it does to any customer, and it is not your only remedy; this section sets the limits of the others.

14.7Where the Service is purchased in the course of business, you confirm that you have read these terms, that you purchase with a full understanding of the nature of board-level repair described in them, and that the way this section shares out risk between us is reflected in the price we charge.

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15Data protection

15.1How we collect, use, and retain personal data, including any 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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16Complaints, disputes, and governing law

16.1If 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.

16.2We are not a member of an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme. Where we cannot resolve a complaint between us, we will confirm that to you in writing; the routes above remain open to you.

16.3These 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; you may bring proceedings there.

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17If part of these terms cannot apply

17.1If any provision of these terms is found by a court to be unlawful, invalid, or unenforceable, that provision is severed and the remaining provisions continue in full force. Where a provision could be made valid by narrowing it, it applies with the least modification necessary to make it enforceable.

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18Changes to these terms

18.1We may update these terms from time to time. Each version is dated; 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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