Customer terms

1. About these terms

These terms apply when you use findavendor.co.uk (the “site”) and when you book a service through it as a customer. Please read them before you book. Each booking is also covered by the vendor’s own cancellation policy, shown on their listing, and by our cancellation and refund policy.

The site is run by:

Find A Vendor
Email: hello@findavendor.co.uk

In these terms “we”, “us” and “our” mean Find A Vendor. “You” means the person using the site or making a booking. A “vendor” is a business that offers its services on the site.

Nothing in these terms affects your legal rights as a consumer.

2. What Find A Vendor does

Find A Vendor is an online marketplace. We help you find, book and pay independent event businesses (such as caterers, decorators, entertainers and photographers).

• Your contract for the service is with the vendor. The vendor is responsible for providing the service as described, with reasonable care and skill, and for meeting any laws and safety standards that apply to it.
• All vendors are businesses (sole traders, partnerships or companies) trading in the course of business, so you have consumer rights against them.
• We are not the vendor’s employer or agent for the service itself. We collect payment on the vendor’s behalf (see section 5), run the booking system, check vendor applications and help resolve problems.

Badges such as “Verified” or “Insured” mean our team has checked information the vendor gave us at the time we checked it. They are not a guarantee of the vendor’s work.

3. Your account

• You must be 18 or over and live in the UK to make a booking.
• Give accurate details and keep them up to date. Keep your password private; you are responsible for activity on your account.
• Tell us straight away at hello@findavendor.co.uk if you think someone else has used your account.
• We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, is used for fraud, or puts other people at risk. If we do, any paid booking will be dealt with fairly under section 7.

4. Making a booking

1. Choose a service. Each listing shows the price, what is included, any extras, the notice the vendor needs, and their cancellation policy. Some services are “quote on request”: you send a brief, the vendor replies with a quote, and you can accept it and pay.
2. Pay. You pay the full price at checkout. The price you see is the price you pay; we do not add a booking fee on top.
3. The vendor accepts or declines. The vendor has 48 hours to accept. If they decline, or don’t reply in time, you get a full refund automatically.
4. Your booking is confirmed when the vendor accepts. That is when the contract between you and the vendor is formed.

Give the vendor the information they need to do the job, such as venue access, timings, allergies and any restrictions. Contact details are shared once a booking is confirmed.

5. Payment and how your money is protected

• Payments are taken by card through our payment provider, Square. We never see or store your full card details.
• Each vendor appoints Find A Vendor as its agent to collect payment. Once you have paid us, you have paid the vendor and they cannot ask you to pay again.
• We hold the payment until the service has been delivered. After the vendor marks the job complete, you can confirm it or report a problem. If you do nothing, the payment is released to the vendor 72 hours after they mark it complete.
• If you report a problem before the payment is released, we pause it and help sort it out (see section 8).

Only pay through Find A Vendor. If you pay a vendor any other way, the payment is not protected and we can’t help you get it back.

6. Changing or cancelling a booking

If you need to cancel, do it in your account. What you get back depends on the vendor’s cancellation policy, shown on the listing and in your booking. Our cancellation and refund policy explains the rules that apply to every booking.

Event services are booked for a specific date, so the 14-day “cooling-off” period that applies to many online purchases usually does not apply to them. This is why the vendor’s cancellation policy matters, so please read it before you pay.

Changes, such as a new date, need the vendor’s agreement. Ask them through your booking messages.

7. If the vendor cancels or can’t deliver

If a vendor cancels a confirmed booking, or can’t provide the service, you get a full refund. We will also try to help you find another vendor, but we can’t promise one will be available.

8. If something goes wrong

1. Tell the vendor first through your booking messages. Most problems are fixed that way.
2. If that doesn’t work, report a problem on the booking before the payment is released. Our team will review the booking details, messages and any photos or evidence from both sides.
3. We may release the payment to the vendor, refund you in full, or agree a partial refund. We aim to decide within 10 working days and will explain our decision.

Our decision does not stop you from using your legal rights against the vendor, such as asking for the service to be repeated or for a price reduction if it wasn’t carried out with reasonable care and skill.

9. Using the site fairly

You must not:

• try to arrange or pay for a service outside Find A Vendor with a vendor you found here;
• harass, threaten or discriminate against anyone, or post anything unlawful, false or offensive;
• make fake bookings, write fake reviews, or pretend to be someone else;
• copy, scrape or interfere with the site, or try to get around its security.

Before a booking is confirmed, messages are checked automatically. Phone numbers, email addresses, links and social media handles are hidden, to keep payments protected and to prevent fraud.

10. Reviews

• Only customers with a completed booking can review that vendor, so every review comes from a real booking. Vendors can rate customers after a completed booking too.
• Reviews must be honest and about your own experience. You must not offer or accept anything in return for a review, or review a business you are connected to.
• We don’t edit reviews or hide negative ones. We may remove a review that is unlawful, abusive, includes personal information, or breaks this section. If we do, we tell the person who wrote it.

11. Reporting content and complaints

If you see anything illegal or harmful on the site (in a listing, review, photo or message), tell us at hello@findavendor.co.uk with a link or a description. We review every report, remove illegal content as quickly as we can, and may suspend the account responsible. You can also complain to us about how we handled a report, or about our service generally. We aim to reply within 5 working days.

12. Our responsibility to you

• We are responsible for running the site and the booking and payment service with reasonable care and skill.
• The vendor, not Find A Vendor, is responsible for the service it provides. We are not responsible for a vendor’s acts or omissions, except where the law says we are or where we caused the problem.
• We are not responsible for losses that were not foreseeable, or for business losses. The site is for personal and household events; if you book for a business, our total liability to you is limited to the amount you paid for the booking.
• Nothing in these terms limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law doesn’t allow us to limit.

We try to keep the site available and accurate, but it may sometimes be unavailable for maintenance or reasons outside our control.

13. Your personal information

Our privacy notice explains what we collect and why, and our cookie policy explains the cookies we use.

14. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example to reflect changes in the law or in how the site works. The version that applies to a booking is the one in force when you made it. We will tell you about important changes before they take effect.

15. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. You can bring legal proceedings in the courts of England and Wales; if you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland, you can also bring them in your local courts.

If you have a complaint, contact us first at hello@findavendor.co.uk. We will do our best to resolve it.