Terms of Service

These Terms apply to contracts made from the date shown above.

1. Who we are and scope

LotCourier is provided by XPNNTL LTD, a private limited company registered in England and Wales under company number 17493975, with its registered office at 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom (“LotCourier”, “we”, “us” or “our”).

Email: hello@lotcourier.com

These Terms apply to all our services for buyers of auction lots: inspection, pickup, packing, storage, shipping and handover for self-collection. They apply to consumers and to business customers. A “consumer” is an individual acting for purposes wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft or profession. Where a provision applies only to consumers or only to business customers, we say so.

If you are a business customer, your own terms do not apply, even if you refer to them, unless we agree to them in writing.

These Terms are available in English and German. The English version applies when you use our website in English, the German version when you use it in German. We communicate with you in the language of your request.

Auction platforms that link to us work with us under a separate partner agreement. These Terms do not govern that agreement.

2. Our services

Inspection. On the viewing day set by the auction house, we look at the lot for you before you bid. We document it with photos and a short video and answer your checklist point by point. We usually send the report the same evening.

An inspection is a visual check by a non-expert, not an expert appraisal. We report what we can see and, where the auction house allows it, what we can easily try out on site. We do not confirm authenticity, value, completeness, working order, safety or legal compliance, and we do not dismantle or open items. Whether and how much to bid is your decision alone.

Pickup and shipping. After you win, we collect the lot in the pickup window set by the auction house, photograph it at pickup and packing, take it to our hub in Cologne, pack it and ship it with a parcel carrier such as DHL, with tracking. Instead of shipping, you can collect the lot from us in Cologne.

We ship parcels of up to 31.5 kg and 120 × 60 × 60 cm each, to addresses in the European Union. We collect mainly in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium; other regions on request. We may collect several lots, including lots of other customers, in one trip.

People working for us. We may use subcontractors and service partners to carry out inspections and pickups. We remain responsible for them as for ourselves.

3. Quotes and how a contract is made

Requesting a quote is free and does not oblige you or us to anything. We reply by email with a personal quote, usually on the same day. The quote describes the services, the price and the information it is based on, such as the lot description, the auction house’s pickup terms and the delivery destination.

The prices on our website are starting prices. Only the price in your quote applies.

If you win the lot and want us to go ahead, reply “yes” to the quote email. We then send you a payment link and, for a pickup, the pickup authorisation for the auction house. The contract is made when you have accepted the quote and we have received your payment. Until then, either of us may decide not to proceed, for example if we no longer have capacity on that date. If we cannot proceed after your “yes”, we tell you promptly and you owe us nothing.

We confirm the contract by email. We keep the quote and your acceptance; these Terms are always available on our website.

4. Prices and payment

The price in the quote covers our services and shipping as described in the quote. You pay the auction house yourself and directly for the lot, the buyer’s premium and any other charges of the auction house. We do not pay the auction house for you.

Additional charges apply only where they are stated in the quote or these Terms, or where you agree to them, in particular:

• storage after the free period (section 7);
• insurance cover above €500, at cost (section 8); and
• extra parcels, packing or transport if the lot differs from its description (section 6).

You pay in advance through the payment link we send you by email. The payment page shows the available payment methods and the payment service provider. All prices are in euros.

5. Your responsibilities

You agree to:

• pay the auction house on time and, if we ask, send us proof of payment;
• sign the pickup authorisation and give us correct and complete pickup details, such as the auction, lot number, bidder or invoice number and the pickup window;
• tell us what you know about the lot that matters for transport, such as size, weight, fragility or any hazardous parts;
• make sure the lot may lawfully be transported to your delivery address and is not excluded under section 6; and
• give us a correct delivery address and be available to receive the parcel.

6. Excluded goods and lots that differ from their description

We do not transport food, weapons, hazardous goods, vehicles, items whose transport is prohibited by law or by the carrier’s terms, or anything that does not fit into parcels of up to 31.5 kg and 120 × 60 × 60 cm. Lots that do not fit into parcels can be collected from us in Cologne if we have agreed to collect them.

If at pickup a lot turns out to be excluded, or larger, heavier or more fragile than its description, we tell you before we incur further costs and suggest a solution, such as collection from us in Cologne, a van pickup or a different price. If we do not agree on a solution, we are not obliged to transport the lot, and section 9 applies as for a cancellation by you.

7. Pickup, storage and self-collection

We collect in the pickup window set by the auction house and depend on the auction house handing the lot over.

After a pickup, storage at our hub in Cologne is free for 7 days from the day the lot arrives there. After that we charge €10 per day, unless your quote says otherwise.

Self-collection is by appointment. We send you the address of our hub by email. If someone else collects for you, tell us their name in advance; they need your written authorisation.

Unclaimed lots. If you do not collect the lot, or do not pay for its shipping, within 30 days after the free storage period ends, we will send you at least two reminders by email; the last one gives you 14 days’ notice and tells you that we will then sell or dispose of the lot. If you still do not collect or pay by then, we may sell the lot to cover the outstanding storage and other costs, or dispose of it if it cannot reasonably be sold. We pay any surplus from a sale to you. Storage charges keep running until then.

8. Shipping, insurance and damage

We ship with a parcel carrier such as DHL, with tracking. Delivery times are the carrier’s estimates.

Each parcel is insured with the carrier up to €500. Higher cover is available at cost if you ask for it before the parcel is shipped. We pack with the care that parcel shipping requires. If we consider a lot unsuitable for parcel shipping, we tell you in the quote or before we ship.

Please report any damage within 24 hours of delivery, by email with photos of the parcel, the packaging and the item, and keep the packaging. If the damage is visible on delivery, ask the carrier’s driver to record it if possible. We need this to claim from the carrier. If a parcel is lost or damaged in transit, we make the claim with the carrier and pass on any compensation to you in full.

If you are a consumer, a later report does not affect your statutory rights, but it may prevent a claim against the carrier.

9. Cancellation and failed pickups

You may cancel an order at any time before we have performed the service, by email to hello@lotcourier.com.

• Cancellation is free unless we have already incurred costs preparing your order, for example for booked travel, tickets or van hire. In that case we charge those costs, as documented, but never more than the agreed price, and refund the rest.
• If the auction house does not hand over the lot for reasons on your side, for example because the invoice is unpaid, the authorisation is missing or the pickup details are wrong, the same applies: you pay the documented costs we have incurred, and we refund the rest.
• If we fail to collect or perform for reasons on our side, you receive a full refund of what you paid us for that service.

Once a service has been fully performed, for example an inspection report has been sent, the price for it remains due.

If you are a consumer, you also have the statutory right to cancel described in section 10. If you cancel under that right, section 10 and the Annex apply instead of this section.

10. Your right to cancel as a consumer

If you are a consumer, you have the right to cancel the contract within 14 days without giving any reason. The cancellation notice and the model cancellation form are set out in the Annex to these Terms.

Pickups are usually due within the 14-day cancellation period. When you accept a quote, we therefore ask you to confirm that you want us to start before the cancellation period ends and that you know you lose your right to cancel once we have fully performed the contract. If you then cancel during the cancellation period, you pay a proportionate amount for what we have provided until you tell us.

11. Liability

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for damage caused intentionally or by gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health, under mandatory product liability law, or under mandatory consumer protection law.

Subject to that, our total liability for each order is limited to the order value, meaning the price of our services for that order. This limit does not reduce any compensation from the carrier’s insurance, which we pass on to you in addition.

If you are a consumer and the law of your country does not allow this limit for the breach of an obligation that is essential to the contract, our liability for that breach is limited to the loss that was foreseeable and typical for a contract of this kind when the contract was made.

We are not responsible for:

• the condition, description, authenticity or legality of the lot before we collect it;
• acts or omissions of the auction house, including delays, a refusal to hand over the lot or errors in its listing;
• defects that a visual inspection by a non-expert could not reveal; or
• the outcome of the auction or your bidding decisions.

If you are a consumer, we are responsible for loss you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breach of these Terms or our failure to use reasonable care and skill. We are not liable to consumers for loss of business, profit or business opportunity.

If you are a business customer, to the extent permitted by law, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, business, opportunity, goodwill or anticipated savings.

We are not liable for delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control, such as strikes, severe weather, closures of the auction house or disruptions at the carrier. We tell you promptly and agree the next steps with you; if the service can no longer be performed, section 9 applies as for a failure on our side.

12. Your rights as a consumer

If you are a consumer, the law of the country where you live may give you rights that these Terms cannot take away. In the United Kingdom these include your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Those rights prevail over anything in these Terms that conflicts with them.

13. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how we process personal data.

14. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms for future orders. The Terms in force when your contract is made apply to that order.

15. Governing law and disputes

These Terms and every contract under them are governed by the law of England and Wales.

If you are a consumer, this does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory law of the country where you live. You may bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales, or in the courts of the part of the United Kingdom or the country where you live if mandatory law allows.

If you are a business customer, the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, unless we agree otherwise in writing.

Before bringing a claim, please contact hello@lotcourier.com so we can try to resolve the issue informally. We are neither willing nor obliged to take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.

16. General

If a provision is found invalid or unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in effect.

If we do not enforce a provision immediately, we have not waived it. You may not transfer a contract with us without our consent. We may transfer it as part of a reorganisation, merger or sale of our business, provided this does not reduce your rights.

No one other than you and us has any right to enforce these Terms.

17. Contact

XPNNTL LTD (trading as LotCourier)
Company number 17493975, registered in England and Wales
128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom
Email: hello@lotcourier.com

Annex: Cancellation notice and model cancellation form

The following applies only to consumers.

Right to cancel

You have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.

The cancellation period will expire after 14 days from the day of the conclusion of the contract.

To exercise the right to cancel, you must inform us (XPNNTL LTD, 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom, email: hello@lotcourier.com) of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post or an email). You may use the attached model cancellation form, but it is not obligatory.

To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired.

Effects of cancellation

If you cancel this contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (with the exception of the supplementary costs resulting from your choice of a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us).

We will make the reimbursement without undue delay, and not later than 14 days after the day on which we are informed about your decision to cancel this contract. We will make the reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of the reimbursement.

If you requested to begin the performance of services during the cancellation period, you shall pay us an amount which is in proportion to what has been provided until you have communicated us your cancellation from this contract, in comparison with the full coverage of the contract.

When the right to cancel ends early

Your right to cancel ends before the 14 days are over once we have fully performed the service, if you expressly asked us, before we started, to begin during the cancellation period and acknowledged that you would lose your right to cancel once we have fully performed the contract.

Model cancellation form

(Complete and return this form only if you wish to cancel the contract.)

• To XPNNTL LTD, 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX, United Kingdom, email: hello@lotcourier.com:
• I/We (*) hereby give notice that I/We (*) cancel my/our (*) contract of sale of the following goods (*)/for the supply of the following service (*):
• Ordered on (*)/received on (*):
• Name of consumer(s):
• Address of consumer(s):
• Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper):
• Date:

(*) Delete as appropriate.