Buying from us

Changing your mind

Everything we sell is made after you order it, in the size you choose. That changes your cancellation rights, and the law says we must tell you so before you pay rather than after. Here it is.

The short version

• You have 24 hours from payment to cancel for any reason and get every penny back. No form, no explanation.
• After that your carpet is on the loom, and because it is made to your measurements the usual 14-day cooling-off period does not apply.
• Bedding, table linen and mats are sold from stock, not made to order. You keep the full fourteen-day right to cancel those, whatever the carpet's position is.
• If it turns up faulty, damaged or not as we described it, none of the above matters. You are covered by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and we will replace or refund in full.

1. The 24-hour window

We deliberately do not send the order to the workshop for 24 hours. During that time you may cancel for any reason at all and we will refund the full amount to the card you paid with, normally within three working days and in any case within fourteen.

To cancel, reply to your confirmation email, or write to orders@saracenthreads.com quoting your order number. That is the whole procedure.

This is something we offer, not something the law requires of us. We offer it because a carpet is a considered purchase and sleeping on it is reasonable.

2. Why the 14-day right does not apply afterwards

Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, a consumer buying at a distance normally has fourteen days from delivery to cancel without giving a reason. Regulation 28(1)(b) removes that right for goods made to the consumer’s specifications or clearly personalised.

That is what a carpet is. You choose the size, and the carpet is woven and bound to it. Nothing is cut from stock. Once the loom is set for your measurements the piece cannot be sold to anyone else without loss, so the exemption applies and the fourteen-day right ends when the 24-hour window closes.

We say this on the product page, above the button, and you tick a box confirming you have read it before you can pay. We keep a record of what you were shown and when. That is not there to catch you out; it is there so that neither of us has to rely on memory if something goes wrong.

3. Bedding, table linen and mats are different

Everything in this section so far concerns carpets, which are woven to your measurements. Bedding, table linen and mats are not. They are finished pieces sitting in our warehouse in Malwa, and we simply take one off the shelf and put it in your box.

That means the exemption above does not reach them. You keep the full fourteen-day right to cancel any bedding, table linen or mat in your order, counted from the day after it is delivered, for any reason or none. We will refund what you paid for those items, including the delivery element, within fourteen days of being told.

You are entitled to return them to us to get that refund. In practice we will almost never ask you to, because posting a bedsheet to central India costs more than the bedsheet. Write to us and we will tell you what we actually want you to do, which is usually nothing.

So, in one line: the carpet is yours once it is on the loom; the bedding you can send back for a fortnight. We say which is which on every product page, on the basket and again on the tick-box at checkout, and we keep a record of the exact wording you were shown.

4. What you are always entitled to

The exemption above concerns changing your mind. It has no effect whatsoever on your statutory rights if something is wrong with the goods. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 every carpet we sell must be:

• Of satisfactory quality — properly made, properly finished, free from defects beyond the small irregularities inherent in handwork.
• As described — the composition, the colour and the dimensions on the page must be the composition, colour and dimensions that arrive.
• Fit for purpose — including any particular purpose you told us about before buying.

If it is not, you have thirty days from delivery to reject it outright and take a full refund. After thirty days you may ask for a repair or replacement, and if that fails you can still claim a refund or a price reduction. These rights cannot be signed away and nothing on this site attempts to.

In practice: send photographs to orders@saracenthreads.com. Because return carriage from Britain to central India costs more than the carpet, we will not normally ask you to send it back. We refund or replace and you keep it.

5. Dimensions and the nature of handwork

Finished sizes are as measured and may differ from the stated size by up to two centimetres. Colour varies slightly between dye lots, and a hand-dyed ground carries visible bands of tone — weavers call it abrash, and it is the mark of yarn dyed in batches rather than by machine. Neither counts as a fault. If a variation is beyond what is described here, it does, and clause 3 applies.

6. If you cancel within the window

We refund to the original payment method, in full, including everything you paid us for delivery. We make no deduction and no restocking charge.

Import VAT and the carrier handling fee are not ours to refund, because they were never ours. If you cancel within the 24-hour window nothing has shipped and no import charges will ever arise. If import VAT has already been paid on a consignment and the goods are subsequently returned, you may reclaim it from HMRC directly using form C285 — we will supply whatever paperwork you need to do it.

7. Model cancellation form

You do not have to use this. An email saying you wish to cancel is enough. It is reproduced because the Regulations require us to make it available.

Open a printable copy.

8. Complaints

Write to orders@saracenthreads.com. A named person answers within one working day, and we aim to settle anything within fourteen. If you are not satisfied with how we have handled it, you may take the matter to the courts of England and Wales; as an overseas seller to UK consumers we accept that jurisdiction. We do not currently subscribe to an alternative dispute resolution scheme, and we are required to tell you so.

Terms of sale