Terms & Conditions

Adrian Taffinder
Jul 3
6 min read

Updated: Jul 4

Last updated: 3 July 2026

These Terms & Conditions govern every order placed through siberian.blue. Please read them before you order — they explain what you can expect from us, and what we expect from you, including how international customs and import duty work.

1. Introduction & Acceptance of Terms

By placing an order through siberian.blue, you enter into a binding contract with Original Siberian Blue ("OSB", "we", "us") on the terms set out below. Browsing our website does not, by itself, create a contract — a contract is formed when we accept your order, normally confirmed by an order confirmation email.

2. About Us

Original Siberian Blue is an unincorporated sole proprietorship operated by Adrian John Taffinder, based in Sayan, Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. We are not a limited company. You can contact us at originalsiberianblue@gmail.com.

3. Our Products

Each piece is handcrafted using genuine cobalt-doped hydrothermal quartz crystal, grown in specialised laboratories outside Moscow at temperatures of 300–400°C under high pressure. Global stock of this original crystal is finite. Because each stone is grown and hand-finished individually, minor natural variation in colour, clarity and size between pieces is normal and is not a fault. Product photography is as accurate as we can make it, but colours may appear slightly different depending on your screen. Unless a listing says otherwise, items are ready-made and dispatched from stock, not made to order.

4. Pricing & Currency

Prices shown at checkout are in the currency displayed at checkout and include our price for the item and, where selected, shipping. They do not include any destination-country import duty, tax, VAT or GST — see Section 7. We take reasonable care to ensure prices are correct, but if a pricing error is obvious we may cancel and refund the order rather than honour it.

5. Payment

Payment is taken in full at checkout via the payment methods offered there. Your order is only processed once payment has cleared.

6. Shipping & Delivery

Orders are shipped from Bali, Indonesia, normally via DHL. Delivery estimates are given in good faith but are not guaranteed, and international shipments can be delayed by customs processing beyond our control (see Section 15, Force Majeure). Risk in the goods passes to you once the parcel is handed to the courier for delivery to you.

7. Import Duties, Taxes, VAT & Customs — Please Read Before Ordering

This is the section most relevant to international orders, so we have made it its own clause.

Our prices do not include any import duty, tax, VAT or GST charged by your own country when your parcel arrives (sometimes called "import VAT" or "customs duty"). We ship on a Delivered-at-Place basis: we are responsible for getting your order to your country, but you — the buyer — are legally the importer of that parcel, and any charge your country’s customs authority applies is yours to pay, usually collected by the courier (DHL) on or before delivery.

This is not a hidden fee we keep — we never receive this money; it goes to your own government. We are not registered to collect it in advance in every country (few small overseas sellers are), so in most cases it is assessed at your border and billed to you separately from your order, exactly as it would be for a parcel from any independent overseas seller.

What this typically means, by region (accurate as of 2026, but customs rules change — check your own country’s current rules before ordering if you want certainty):

United Kingdom: for orders valued above £135, import VAT and any duty is assessed at the border and billed to you by the courier. For orders £135 or under, different rules can apply — contact us before ordering if you are unsure.
European Union: the former €22 duty-free allowance no longer exists — import VAT applies to commercial goods entering the EU, assessed at the border unless we state otherwise.
United States: as of 2026, the historic $800 duty-free allowance for low-value imports has been suspended by the U.S. government for shipments from all countries — duty may now apply to U.S. orders of any value.
Australia, Canada and elsewhere: your own customs authority’s thresholds and rules apply — please check before ordering if you want certainty.

By ticking the acknowledgement at checkout, you confirm you understand and accept these charges before you pay us. If your parcel is refused or abandoned because a customs charge was not paid, we have not failed to deliver — delivery was not completed on your side, through no fault of ours. Couriers and customs authorities do not return a refused or abandoned parcel to us automatically: we are typically offered the choice to pay the return freight and any duty owed to have it sent back, or to decline and have it destroyed or disposed of. Because return freight and duty can cost more than the item is worth, we do not always choose to pay for its return, and doing so is entirely at our discretion. If the parcel is not returned to us — whether because we decline to pay for its return, or it is destroyed, disposed of, or otherwise lost in the process — no refund is due, as we have received neither the goods nor their value back. If the parcel is returned to us, we will refund what remains of the price paid after deducting our actual, documented costs — including return freight, storage, handling and any customs charge we are billed — which in many cases can leave little or nothing to refund, given the value of the item relative to these costs. This does not remove your separate statutory cancellation right described in Section 8 below, which only applies once you have actually received the goods — the two are different things, explained there.

8. Cancellation, Statutory Right of Withdrawal & Returns

If you are a consumer based in the UK or EU, you have a legal right to change your mind and cancel your order within 14 days of receiving it, without giving a reason. This is a statutory right under UK and EU distance-selling law and nothing in these terms limits it. To use this right, tell us in writing (email is fine) within the 14-day window, then return the item to us in its original condition; once we receive it back we will refund you within 14 days. Unless we say otherwise for a specific item, you are responsible for the cost of returning it to us. This includes not only postage but also any import duty, tax or customs charge we are billed on the parcel's arrival back to us; we will invoice you for, or deduct from any refund owed to you, the actual documented amount we are charged.

This statutory right is separate from the customs-refusal situation described in Section 7. If you refuse or ignore a customs charge before the parcel has reached you, that is not the same as exercising your 14-day cancellation right — it is a failure to accept delivery, and Section 7 applies instead.

Outside the UK/EU, we are still happy to discuss a return on a reasonable, good-faith basis — email us and we will do our best to help.

9. Faulty, Damaged or Incorrect Items

If your item arrives faulty, damaged in transit, or is not what you ordered, contact us within a reasonable time with photos. Where we agree the item is faulty or wrong, we will offer a repair, replacement or refund, and we will cover the reasonable cost of returning that item to us. This is in addition to, and does not affect, any statutory consumer guarantee you have under your own country’s law.

10. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability to you for any claim relating to an order is limited to the price you paid for that order. We are not liable for indirect or consequential losses. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited — for example, liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or your statutory consumer rights.

11. Intellectual Property

All website content, photography, text and product designs are owned by us or our licensors. You may not copy, reproduce or commercially reuse them without our written permission.

12. Privacy & Data Protection

We collect and use personal data (such as your name, address and email) only as needed to process and deliver your order, and as described in our Privacy Policy. By ordering, you consent to that processing as described there.

13. Governing Law & Jurisdiction

These terms are governed by the laws of Indonesia. If you are a consumer resident in the UK, EU, or another country whose law gives you mandatory consumer protections, this section does not take those protections away from you — they continue to apply alongside these terms.

14. Complaints & Dispute Resolution

If something has gone wrong, please email us first at originalsiberianblue@gmail.com — we aim to resolve issues directly and promptly wherever we can, before anything more formal is needed.

15. Force Majeure

We are not responsible for delay or failure to perform caused by events outside our reasonable control, including customs delays, natural disasters, courier disruption, or export/import restrictions.

16. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms from time to time; the version published on our website at the time you place an order is the one that applies to that order.