Terms and conditions

1. Who you are buying from

You are buying from Joseph Schembri, trading as Dickens. Dickens is a shop name; the person you are contracting with is Joseph Schembri.

This is the address you can write to about anything, including a complaint.

Where these terms say "we" or "us", they mean Joseph Schembri trading as Dickens.

The contract is in English. Everything we send you about your order will be in English.

Sources: Electronic Commerce Act (Cap. 426), art. 8C(1)(a), (b), (c) and (g): name, geographic address, contact details and VAT number. Art. 8C(1)(d) requires a trade-register number only where the provider is entered in such a register; a sole trader is not, so nothing is missing here. Consumer Rights Regulations (S.L. 378.17), reg. 5(1)(b), (c) and (d): the identity of the trader, the geographical address, telephone number and email address, and the address for complaints.

2. What these terms cover

These terms apply when you buy from the Dickens website. They apply alongside four other pages, and if any of them says something different about its own subject, that page wins:

• Returns and refunds: how to send something back and how you get your money.
• Delivery: where we deliver, what it costs, and what "same day" means.
• Payment terms: the ways you can pay, including cash on delivery.
• Privacy: what we do with your details.

Nothing in these terms takes away a right Maltese consumer law gives you. If a term here ever conflicts with that law, the law applies and the term does not.

Source: Consumer Rights Regulations (S.L. 378.17), reg. 25: a consumer cannot waive these rights, and a term that tries to restrict them is not binding.

3. Prices

• Every price on the site includes VAT at 18%.
• Delivery is charged separately and is shown before you pay. See the delivery policy for the amount.
• The total you will pay, including delivery, is shown on the basket and again at checkout before you place the order.
• The price that applies is the one shown when you place your order. We do not change the price of an order after you have placed it.

If a price on the site is obviously wrong (a €0.00 drone, a decimal point in the wrong place), we will not simply cancel your order and refund you without a word. We will call you, tell you what the price should be, and you decide whether to go ahead. If you do not want to, you get everything you paid back. We will never charge you more than the price you were shown.

Sources: Consumer Rights Regulations (S.L. 378.17), reg. 5(1)(e): the total price including delivery must be given before you are bound. Electronic Commerce Act (Cap. 426), art. 8C(2): prices must say whether they include tax and delivery. Consumer Affairs Act (Cap. 378), art. 44(2)(p): a term letting a trader raise the price after the contract, without a matching right to cancel, is prohibited.

4. How an order is made, and when the contract exists

1. You put items in your basket.
2. The basket shows the goods, the delivery charge and the total.
3. At checkout you enter your name, email, telephone if you wish, and (for delivery) your address, and you choose how to pay.
4. Before you commit you can go back and change anything: quantities, items, address, delivery or collection, payment method. Nothing is ordered until you press the button that places the order.
5. You place the order. If you are paying by card or Revolut Pay, the payment is taken at this point.
6. We email you an acknowledgement of your order.

The contract between us exists when that acknowledgement reaches you. Not later, and not when a member of staff gets round to checking the shelf.

We keep a copy of your order. If you ask us for it we will send it to you.

Buying for a business. If you are VAT-registered, you can add your VAT number at checkout. We use it to issue you a proper tax invoice for the sale instead of an ordinary receipt; see the fiscal receipts page for what a tax invoice contains. Adding a VAT number does not change anything else about how you buy: you use the same checkout as everyone else, at the same prices, and section 10 below sets out how the rest of these terms apply to you.

Sources: Electronic Commerce Act (Cap. 426), art. 10(1)(a): where an order is placed by electronic means, the contract is concluded when the customer receives the trader's acknowledgement of receipt, which must be sent without undue delay; art. 10(2): the trader must give effective means to identify and correct input errors before the order is placed. First Schedule, paragraphs (f), (g) and (i): the steps to conclude the contract, the means of correcting errors, and whether the contract is filed and accessible. Value Added Tax Act (Cap. 406), art. 50(1): a buyer who identifies themselves with a VAT registration number must be given a tax invoice.

5. Stock: paying does not reserve an item

This matters more here than at most shops, so it is said plainly.

We have one shop and one shelf. The website sells the same stock as the counter, and the stock figure the website reads can be a few minutes out of date. So:

• Placing and paying for an order does not reserve the item for you.
• Someone at the shop checks the shelf and emails you to confirm.
• If it is not there, we cancel that item and refund you in full (including the delivery charge) to the way you paid. Automatically. You do not have to ask, there is no fee, and we will not offer you a credit note instead.
• If you would rather we ordered it in for you, tell us and we will say honestly how long it would take. That is your choice, not something we do instead of refunding you.

We can only cancel for that reason: that we cannot supply what you ordered. We do not keep a general right to cancel orders we would rather not have taken.

Some products are sold as "available to order" rather than from stock. Those are ordinary orders with all the same rights, including the 14 days to change your mind. They are not made-to-order goods.

Sources: Consumer Rights Regulations (S.L. 378.17), reg. 20(3): on termination the trader must reimburse all sums paid without undue delay. Consumer Affairs Act (Cap. 378), art. 44(2)(z): a term allowing the trader to dissolve the contract at its discretion, where the customer has no equivalent right, is prohibited; this clause is deliberately limited to inability to supply.

6. Paying

Card and Revolut Pay are taken through Stripe when you place the order. Cash on delivery is available on delivery orders up to €2,000. We never add a fee for any way of paying. The full detail, including the cash limit and what happens with cryptocurrency, is in the payment terms.

Source: Consumer Rights Regulations (S.L. 378.17), reg. 21: a trader may not charge a fee for using a means of payment that is more than what that means of payment costs the trader. We charge nothing at all.

7. Delivery, collection, risk and ownership

The delivery policy has the detail. Two things belong in the contract itself:

• Until the goods are physically in your hands, or in the hands of someone you named to receive them, anything that happens to them is our problem, not yours. If a parcel is lost or damaged on the way, we sort it out.
• You own the goods once you have paid for them in full. For cash on delivery that is the moment you hand over the cash.

If we have not agreed a delivery date with you, we will deliver within 30 days of the contract at the very latest. If we miss that, you can give us a short extra period, and if we miss that too you can cancel and get all your money back. If you told us before ordering that a particular date was essential, you do not have to give us the extra period at all.

Sources: Consumer Rights Regulations (S.L. 378.17), reg. 22: risk passes when the consumer takes physical possession; reg. 20(1)–(3): 30 days, the additional period, and the right to terminate and be reimbursed.

8. Changing your mind

You have 14 days from the day the goods reach you to change your mind, for any reason, and get your money back. A small number of products are excepted, and the exceptions are listed with the reason for each one in the returns and refunds policy. That page also tells you how to do it and who pays the return postage.

Source: Consumer Rights Regulations (S.L. 378.17), reg. 10(1) and 10(2)(b).

9. If something is wrong with what you bought

Everything we sell to a consumer carries a two-year legal guarantee from the day it is delivered. It is your right in law, it costs you nothing, and no manufacturer's warranty can shorten it: a product sold with "1 year warranty" still carries the full two years against us. The returns and refunds policy explains how to claim and what you can ask for.

Source: Consumer Affairs Act (Cap. 378), art. 78(1): the seller is liable for any lack of conformity that becomes apparent within two years of delivery; art. 81: an agreement that cuts this down before the fault is reported is not binding on you; art. 82: a commercial guarantee is an addition, never a substitute.

10. What we are responsible for

We are responsible for foreseeable loss and damage we cause you by breaking this contract or by failing to use reasonable care and skill.

We do not limit or exclude our liability at all for: death or personal injury caused by our negligence; fraud; gross negligence; anything to do with faulty or unsafe goods that the law makes us responsible for; or any of your rights as a consumer.

The law's consumer rights are written for natural persons buying outside their trade, business, craft or profession. Technically, a business is not a "consumer", and the law does not require us to give a business buyer the 14 days to change their mind, the two-year guarantee, or the other consumer rights this document describes.

We give them to you anyway. If you buy from us as a VAT-registered business, you go through the same checkout, at the same prices, as everyone else, and (as a matter of our own policy rather than a legal requirement) the rest of this document applies to you exactly as written, including section 8 (changing your mind) and section 9 (the two-year guarantee). We are still not responsible for loss to your business itself, such as lost profit or a contract you could not fulfil because a delivery was late.

Sources: Consumer Affairs Act (Cap. 378), art. 44(2)(a) and (y): terms excluding liability for fraud, gross negligence, failure of a fundamental obligation, death or personal injury are prohibited; art. 44(2)(c): terms excluding your legal rights on non-performance are prohibited. "Consumer" means a natural person acting outside their trade, business, craft or profession: art. 2 and art. 72(1). The extension of these rights to business buyers above is Dickens's own commercial policy, not something this Act requires.

11. Changing these terms

We may change these terms for future orders. The terms that apply to your order are the ones published when you placed it, and we will not change them afterwards.

Source: Consumer Affairs Act (Cap. 378), art. 44(2)(n): a term letting a trader change the contract unilaterally, without a valid reason set out in the contract, is prohibited.

12. If you are not happy

Tell us first. Email info@dickens.com.mt or write to the address in section 1, with your order reference. We will reply within 3 days.

If we cannot sort it out between us, you can take it further and it costs very little:

• The Complaints and Conciliation Directorate at the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority. This is the body designated in Maltese law to handle consumer disputes where no other scheme covers them.
• The Consumer Claims Tribunal, for claims up to €10,000. It is informal, cheap, and it can also award between €35 and €500 for the trouble caused to you, on top of your money.

We are not signed up in advance to any other dispute-resolution scheme beyond the Complaints and Conciliation Directorate named above. Each complaint is discussed with you first, case by case, before we decide whether to take part in ADR for it; that is our choice, and it does not take away your own right to go to the Directorate or the Tribunal. You may have seen other shops link to an EU "online dispute resolution platform"; that platform closed in 2025 and no longer exists, so there is no working link to give you. Use the routes above instead.

Sources: Consumer Affairs Act (Cap. 378), art. 43B: the right of access to ADR; art. 43C and the Third Schedule: the Complaints and Conciliation Directorate, established under the Fourth Schedule to the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority Act (Cap. 510), is the designated residual ADR entity; art. 20(1): Tribunal jurisdiction up to €10,000; art. 21(2): moral damages of €35 to €500. Consumer Rights Regulations (S.L. 378.17), reg. 5(1)(g) and (t): the complaint-handling policy and any out-of-court redress mechanism must be disclosed before you buy. Regulation (EU) No 524/2013 on online dispute resolution for consumer disputes, art. 14(1): repealed by Regulation (EU) 2024/3228 with effect from 20 July 2025; the ODR platform it created was discontinued the same date, which is why no link is given.

13. Law

Maltese law applies and the Maltese courts and the Consumer Claims Tribunal deal with any dispute. Wherever you live in the EU, you keep the protection of the consumer law of your own country where that law gives you more.

Sources: Regulation (EC) 593/2008 (Rome I), art. 6(2): a choice of law cannot deprive a consumer of the protection of the mandatory rules of the country where they live. Consumer Affairs Act (Cap. 378), art. 47A: the unfair-terms Part applies even where a term picks the law of a non-Member State. Consumer Rights Regulations (S.L. 378.17), reg. 25: these rights cannot be waived.