Paying for your order

You are paying Joseph Schembri, trading as Dickens, of Bisazza Street, Sliema SLM 1640, Malta (info@dickens.com.mt, VAT number MT10611512). "We" means him.

1. The ways you can pay

We never add a fee for how you pay. Not for cards, not for cash on delivery, not for anything. We also never pass on what the card processor charges us.

Every price on the site includes VAT at 18%. The total you will pay, including delivery, is shown before you place the order.

Sources: Consumer Rights Regulations (S.L. 378.17), reg. 21: a trader may not charge a fee for the use of a means of payment exceeding what that means costs the trader. Reg. 9(3): the site must say which means of payment are accepted at the latest when the ordering process starts.

2. Card and Revolut Pay

Your card is charged when you place the order. It is a payment, not a reservation of funds taken later.

That is worth saying plainly, because we check stock afterwards. We have one shop and one shelf, so paying does not reserve the item. Somebody checks the shelf and emails you. If we cannot supply it, we refund you in full, including the delivery charge, to the card you used: automatically, with no fee, and without you asking.

Card details are handled by Stripe, our payment processor. We never see or store your full card number.

If a payment fails or your bank refuses it, no order is placed and nothing is taken. Try again or choose another way to pay.

Sources: ADR-0018, Decision 1: Drew's decision to charge at checkout rather than authorise and capture later. S.L. 378.17, reg. 15(1): reimbursement by the same means of payment, within 14 days, with no fees to you.

3. Cash on delivery

• Available on delivery orders only. If you are collecting from the shop, either pay when you order or choose to pay at the counter when you collect; see section 4a.
• The order total, delivery included, must be €2,000 or less. Above that, please pay by card or Revolut Pay.
• Nothing is charged when you order. You pay the driver when the goods are handed to you.
• The driver hands over the goods when you hand over the cash. There is no delivery without payment.
• The driver does not carry change. Please have the right amount ready, or be prepared to overpay and treat it as generosity; we cannot hand back the difference at the door.

If you change your mind at the door, do not take the goods and do not pay. Nothing has been charged, so there is nothing to refund. Your right to change your mind within 14 days is unaffected either way.

Getting money back on a cash order works the same way as any other refund; see "How a refund reaches you" below.

Sources: S.L. 378.17, reg. 15(1): same means of payment unless you expressly agree otherwise, and no fees to you as a result. Consumer Affairs Act (Cap. 378), art. 44(2)(f): a term letting a trader keep money the customer has paid is prohibited. apps/web/lib/checkout.ts, checkoutProblem(): cash on delivery is refused for collection orders and above the limit. The no-change rule is Drew's operational decision, confirmed 29 August 2026 (see docs/business-facts.md).

4. Why cash stops at €2,000

Short version: there is a legal ceiling on cash payments, and we stay well under it. It is not about you, and it is not a judgement about the order.

Maltese law treats €10,000 in cash as the line where a shop stops being an ordinary shop. A trader in goods who takes a cash payment of €10,000 or more (in one go or in several payments that look connected) becomes a "subject person" under Malta's anti-money-laundering rules. Not for that sale: for the business, permanently, with a whole compliance regime attached.

From 10 July 2027 the same €10,000 stops being a threshold and becomes a prohibition. From that date, EU law does not allow a trader to accept a cash payment above €10,000 at all.

Two things follow, and they explain the number:

• The rule counts linked payments together, so a limit set close to €10,000 would be crossed by an ordinary customer buying several times in a month. €2,000 leaves room for that.
• There is no benefit in going near the line. An order over €2,000 is not refused; it is paid by card or Revolut Pay, which takes a few seconds longer and changes nothing else about it.

We check this per order, not across orders. €2,000 was chosen with a wide margin under the €10,000 line precisely so that a single order never needs to be weighed against a customer's other orders to stay safely clear of it. Given that margin, we do not automatically total up a customer's cash orders over time; each order is checked against the €2,000 cap on its own. That is a considered decision by Dickens about how to run the shop; the law does not require it to be done either way, only that the €10,000 line itself is not crossed by linked payments.

Sources: Prevention of Money Laundering and Funding of Terrorism Regulations (S.L. 373.01), definition of "relevant activity", limb (h), read from the consolidated text on legislation.mt on 28 August 2026: "any natural or legal person trading in goods, but only where a transaction involves payment in cash in an amount equal to ten thousand euro (€10,000) or more whether the transaction is carried out in a single operation or in several operations which appear to be linked". Regulation (EU) 2024/1624, art. 80(1): persons trading in goods may accept cash only up to €10,000, whether in a single operation or several linked ones, applying from 10 July 2027. The limit itself is CASH_ON_DELIVERY_LIMIT = 2000 in packages/core/src/delivery.ts, set by Drew on 28 August 2026; the per-order-only checking practice is Drew's decision, confirmed 29 August 2026. Full reasoning in docs/sanctions-and-cash-threshold.md.

The €2,000 limit is about cash handed to a driver. It does not apply to an order you pay for at the counter; see section 4a.

4a. Paying in store when you collect

• Available on collection orders only. If you want it delivered, pay when you order or choose cash on delivery.
• Nothing is charged when you order. You pay at the counter when you come for the goods.
• Your order is still an order. The confirmation email we send you is the contract, whether or not money has moved. What is outstanding is the payment, not the agreement.
• Bring your confirmation email, with its PDF attached; on a phone is fine. That is what we hand the goods over against.
• We check the shelf and email you before you pay anything. If we cannot supply it, nothing has been charged and there is nothing to refund; we simply tell you.
• No value limit. The €2,000 in section 4 is about cash handed to a driver at your door; it is not a limit on paying at our counter.

Sources: Drew's instruction, 31 August 2026. apps/web/lib/checkout.ts: pay_in_store is refused on a delivery order, takes no Stripe payment, and the order is written at placed. Electronic Commerce Act, art. 10(1)(a): the confirmation forms the contract; see docs/legal/06-contract-formation.md. S.L. 378.17, reg. 5(1)(g) and reg. 9(7): the payment arrangements, including that nothing has been taken, travel on the confirmation; see docs/legal/07-durable-medium-confirmation.md, item 7. The absence of a cap is deliberate and is reasoned in docs/sanctions-and-cash-threshold.md and in the comment on CASH_ON_DELIVERY_LIMIT in packages/core/src/delivery.ts: that ceiling is an AML margin on cash taken by a driver, and money taken over the counter is Lightspeed's business, outside this system's reach.

5. How a refund reaches you

Our default is simple: you get a refund the same way you paid. If that is inconvenient for you (you paid cash but a bank transfer suits you better, say), tell us when we talk about the refund and we will agree something else together. It costs you nothing either way, and we will never give you a credit note or a voucher instead of your money.

In every case: within 14 days of us being told, including the delivery charge, with nothing deducted.

Sources: S.L. 378.17, reg. 15(1): reimbursement of all payments received, using the same means of payment unless you expressly agree otherwise, within 14 days, with no fee to you. Cash refund flexibility is Drew's decision, confirmed 29 August 2026 (see docs/business-facts.md).

6. Four things we never do

1. Charge you for how you pay. No card fee, no cash-handling fee.
2. Keep back a "restocking" or admin fee from a refund.
3. Give you a credit note instead of your money.
4. Take our payment costs out of your refund.

Sources: S.L. 378.17, regs. 15(1) and 21; Cap. 378, art. 44(2)(f) and (g).