Terms and conditions

Website terms and conditions of sale — effective 14 October 2026

These terms apply to orders placed through merchantsteelsolutions.com by public and trade customers. Please read them before ordering and keep a copy. Your legal rights are not affected.

1. About us and contacting us

We are Merchant Steel Solutions Ltd., trading as Merchant Steel Solutions, registered in England and Wales under company number 09078749. Our registered office is Incubator 2 Enterprise Campus, Alconbury Weald, Huntingdon, England, PE28 4XA. Our trading and correspondence address is 1 Blackstone Road, Stukeley Meadows Industrial Estate, Huntingdon, PE29 6EF, United Kingdom.

Email sales@merchantsteelsolutions.com or telephone 01480 775172 for orders, delivery enquiries, cancellations, returns and complaints. Please include your order number.

2. Public and business customers

You are a consumer if you buy wholly or mainly outside your trade, business, craft or profession. A trade account or trade price does not by itself remove consumer rights. Clauses expressly marked as business-only apply only to customers buying for business purposes.

3. Placing and accepting orders

Website listings invite you to place an order. Your order is an offer to buy the goods. An automated order-received or payment-received email acknowledges receipt and is not, by itself, our acceptance. Unless we expressly accept sooner in writing, we accept goods orders when we send a dispatch confirmation or confirmation that the goods are ready for collection. For made-to-specification goods, we may send an express written acceptance before starting production. A contract then exists for the goods accepted. If goods are dispatched separately, acceptance applies to the goods identified in each confirmation.

Payment taken before acceptance is a payment on account. We may decline an order before acceptance if stock is unavailable, a price or description is incorrect, payment cannot be verified, delivery cannot safely be arranged, or the order cannot lawfully be supplied. We will contact you promptly and refund payments for any goods we do not accept, including associated delivery charges where applicable. We will not substitute goods or charge a higher price without your agreement.

These terms do not undo a contract already formed through an express agreement, our conduct or applicable law. An individually agreed quotation or earlier written acceptance may create a contract sooner.

4. Prices, VAT and mistakes

Prices are in pounds sterling. Consumer prices and the total payable must include applicable VAT and mandatory charges. Where a separate trade price excluding VAT is displayed, the VAT-inclusive total will be clearly shown before you order. Delivery and any agreed cutting or processing charges are disclosed before you commit to the order.

We take reasonable care over prices, stock information and descriptions. If we discover a mistake before acceptance, including an incorrect unit, pack quantity, price, discount or delivery charge, we will explain the correction and ask whether you wish to place an order on the corrected basis, or decline the affected order and refund any payment. We will not assume you agree to a corrected price. Once a binding contract exists, we will not simply increase the price or cancel because of our mistake; any change requires your agreement or a lawful basis.

5. Product descriptions, steel sizes and images

Check the stated material, grade, finish, dimensions, length, quantity, unit of sale and pack size before ordering. Images labelled representative are illustrations of a product family and may not show the exact size, finish or pack supplied; the agreed written specification governs the order. Images do not override a specific description or promise.

Steel dimensions and weights may be nominal where clearly stated. Applicable manufacturing tolerances must be disclosed in the listing or agreed specification. Any cutting tolerance must be agreed before processing; we do not apply an undisclosed tolerance or change your specification without agreement. Surface condition and any known defects of offcuts or second-quality material will be explained before sale. Consumer rights still apply.

Please obtain suitable professional advice for structural or other safety-critical uses. Tell us before ordering if you rely on our recommendation for a particular purpose. Nothing here excludes responsibility for an agreed specification or purpose, or for advice we provide.

6. Custom cuts, fabrication and services

Before we accept a custom order, please confirm the dimensions, drawing revision, material, finish and quantity. We will explain the price and any cancellation exception before you commit. Goods genuinely made to your individual specifications or clearly personalised may be exempt from the consumer change-of-mind cancellation right. This does not automatically apply to ordinary stock goods, standard options or goods merely ordered from a supplier, and it never removes rights for faulty, misdescribed or incorrectly supplied goods.

Separate fabrication, installation, repair, processing and hire services require an agreed scope and any additional applicable terms before acceptance. We will not assume consent to start a consumer service during a cancellation period: where required, we will obtain an express request and explain any proportionate payment or loss of cancellation rights permitted by law.

7. Delivery and collection

We deliver bulky steel locally using our own delivery service, with the delivery area, access arrangements and charge confirmed at checkout or in an agreed quotation. We do not assume that bulky steel can be delivered nationally by parcel carrier. Other goods may use a separately confirmed delivery method. Long lengths, oversize loads and gas cylinders require appropriate transport or collection. Please contact us if a suitable delivery option is not shown.

We will provide an estimated delivery period or an agreed date before acceptance. For consumer goods, unless a different period has been agreed, delivery will be within 30 days of the contract. Estimates do not remove your rights where delivery is late. Tell us before acceptance if a particular date is essential. If we cannot meet an agreed period, we will contact you about your legal options, including cancellation and a refund where applicable.

Please give an accurate address and tell us in advance about access restrictions, vehicle limits, narrow roads and unloading requirements. Any kerbside-only delivery, required unloading equipment or recipient assistance must be agreed before ordering. We may refuse an unsafe unloading operation. A reasonable redelivery charge may apply only where agreed and legally recoverable following a failed delivery caused by incorrect information, missing agreed access or your absence; we will explain the charge before rearranging. We will not charge you for a failed delivery caused by us or our carrier.

For consumers, goods remain at our risk until you or a person you nominate takes physical possession, except where the law provides otherwise for a carrier you independently commission. If you request an unattended delivery, contact us to agree arrangements; this does not remove rights that cannot lawfully be excluded. Collection orders should be collected only after we confirm they are ready. Tell us promptly if you cannot collect; any storage charge must be separately agreed.

8. Checking goods and reporting problems

Please inspect goods when reasonably possible and report damage, shortages or incorrect items promptly, with your order number and photographs if available. Please avoid using an item you believe is unsafe or incorrect. A delivery signature, failure to note damage on a carrier document, or failure to report within a short period does not remove a consumer's legal rights.

If goods are faulty, not as described or unfit for an agreed purpose, contact us. Consumers have statutory remedies, including a short-term right to reject qualifying faulty goods normally within 30 days, and repair, replacement, price reduction or refund rights as applicable. Where bulky steel we delivered locally needs returning because it is faulty or incorrectly supplied, we will arrange collection at our cost. We will bear reasonable necessary return costs for other goods we are responsible for supplying incorrectly or defectively. Manufacturer warranties are additional to your rights against us.

9. Consumer cancellation and returns

For eligible distance-sales goods, you may cancel without giving a reason from placing the order until 14 days after the day you receive the goods. For one order delivered in separate parts, the period normally ends 14 days after receiving the last item. Tell us by email, post or another clear statement; the optional form below can be used. After notifying us, send the goods back within a further 14 days. Contact us to arrange safe return of bulky or hazardous goods.

You pay the direct cost of returning goods because you have changed your mind, where we told you this before ordering. For goods that cannot normally be returned by post, we will disclose the return or collection cost, or a reasonable maximum estimate, before your order. If we have not made the required disclosure, we will bear that return cost. Faulty or incorrectly supplied goods are handled under clause 8. There is no consumer cancellation administration or restocking fee.

We refund the price and the cost of our least expensive standard outward delivery option when the whole order is cancelled, as required by law. Any premium-delivery upgrade is not refundable beyond that standard amount. Refunds are made using the original payment method without a refund fee. We will refund within 14 days of receiving your cancellation notice, but for goods may withhold the refund until we receive the goods back or evidence of return, whichever is earlier, unless we have offered to collect them.

You may inspect goods as you reasonably would in a shop. Where legally permitted, we may deduct only the actual loss in value caused by handling beyond that needed to establish their nature, characteristics and functioning. Original packaging is helpful but is not a condition of your statutory cancellation right. Exceptions apply only where the law permits them and have been explained before purchase, including genuinely bespoke goods under clause 6.

10. Gas bottles, refills and hazardous goods

Gas, refills and cylinders must be supplied, transported, used and returned in accordance with applicable safety rules and the supplier's instructions. Availability of delivery or collection, bottle ownership, deposits, exchange requirements and any rent-free arrangement will be explained in the listing or separate terms before acceptance. Rent-free does not necessarily mean the cylinder becomes your property. Do not send a gas cylinder through an ordinary parcel service; contact us to arrange an appropriate return. This clause does not remove legal cancellation or faulty-goods rights.

11. Business purchases only

The statutory consumer change-of-mind cancellation right does not apply to genuine business purchases. Requests to cancel an accepted business order or return correctly supplied goods require our agreement. Any charge for bespoke work already authorised or an agreed restocking or collection charge will be explained and agreed; these terms do not impose an unspecified automatic fee. Your rights for our breach of contract or goods not conforming to the agreed specification remain subject to applicable law.

Credit arrangements, retention of title, specific delivery-risk arrangements and project terms apply only where separately agreed in writing. These website terms do not retrospectively replace existing agreed trade-account or project contracts.

12. Responsibility and events outside our control

Nothing excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or any liability or statutory right that cannot lawfully be excluded. We are responsible to consumers for loss or damage that is a foreseeable result of our breach or failure to use reasonable care and skill. We do not impose a blanket order-value cap on consumer remedies.

If an event outside our reasonable control affects supply, we will contact you promptly and take reasonable steps to reduce its effect. This does not entitle us to retain payment indefinitely or remove cancellation, refund or late-delivery rights provided by law. We will discuss a revised date or cancellation where appropriate.

13. Website use, privacy and changes

Please use the website lawfully and provide accurate order information. Our website content and branding must not be copied for commercial use without permission. Personal information is handled as described in our Privacy page. Terms may be updated for future orders; the version in force when an order is placed applies to that order unless a lawful change is agreed.

14. Complaints and governing law

Please contact us first so we can try to resolve a complaint. Where legally required after an unresolved consumer complaint, we will provide information about an appropriate approved alternative dispute resolution provider and state whether we are willing or obliged to use it.

These terms are governed by English law. Consumers retain the mandatory protections and court rights of the UK country in which they live, including the right to bring proceedings in their home courts where applicable. For business customers, the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction unless otherwise agreed in writing.

Optional consumer cancellation form

To Merchant Steel Solutions Ltd., 1 Blackstone Road, Stukeley Meadows Industrial Estate, Huntingdon, PE29 6EF; sales@merchantsteelsolutions.com:

I/we give notice that I/we cancel my/our contract for the following goods: ________. Order number: ________. Ordered on/received on: ________. Customer name: ________. Customer address: ________. Signature (only if sent on paper): ________. Date: ________.