Full Terms & Conditions

We're very easy to work with and offer friendly, personal service to all our clients.  Put simply, we're humans, we have the same concerns as you, and we're always trying to do our best.  Across more than 15 years we have developed an extremely strong reputation in the industry for helpfulness, transparency and honesty.

We try at all times to operate fairly and to keep you informed fully about what we do and how we do it.  Please note however, because of the nature of websites, we can offer only general, 'broad brushstroke' advice on this site based on our extensive experience in the industry.

If you have any specific requirements, or specific purposes for which you are buying equipment, or specifications that are truly essential to your needs - please ask for personalised advice prior to your purchases.

It's important to understand exactly how we work at Image Science, so please read these terms carefully. Of course, nothing on this page overrides your statutory rights as a consumer under Australian law.

Payment

Payment is due in full at the the time you make your order (not after the job is done or the goods delivered).

• We are unable to offer credit accounts to anyone except government departments and government educational institutions.
• If we do offer you an account you'll need to complete our account application contract.
• As a rule, we do not offer 'deposit and pay later' options (as, these days, back-ordered goods are usually sent from a 3PL warehouse immediately on clearing customs - and we thus have no opportunity to collect the remaining funds).

Deposits, No Lay-by

In *very* rare cases, at our discretion, we may accept a deposit paid as security for items ordered.  To be clear - this is NOT a lay-by arrangement.

• Our standard deposit required is $200 (products) or 50% of the invoice (services)
• Balance in full is due before delivery of goods.
• The balance due is for the full amount agreed at time of sale. Important to note - this is regardless of what the current price of the product is at the time of settlement (as we have purchased and reserved stock at the older price, so even if the price later drops, we must and will still charge you the full amount previously agreed).
• All sales are final and we do not accept change of mind returns, you agree you are fully liable for the balance of funds due for the product.
• If you refuse to complete the sale, your deposit is used to cover re-stocking fees & over-stock risk, and will not be refunded.
• Again, we only enter into mutually agreed deposit plus balance of the invoice arrangements - we do not accept lay-by in multiple instalments.

Shipping / Stock

Because we carry a lot of obscure, fine art items, we are unable to list live stock information on our website.

• If you absolutely need your order as soon as possible, please order by phone so that we can check live stock and arrange this for you.
• We endeavour to keep all popular items in stock however we carry a lot of unusual fine art products and sometimes we may have to order in a product on your behalf. About 80% of orders ship on the day of order (or next business day if you order on the weekend).
• It's best to assume that your order will ship in 3 to 4 business days and most times you will be pleasantly surprised when you are notified that we have shipped well before this.
• All items (excluding monitors and printers) are sent by Australia Post eParcel. During checkout you can choose regular or express services. PO Boxes are fine, except with monitors and printers.
• eParcel is not the same as consumer level Australia Post services - we use it because it offers (slightly) better rates and significantly better tracking.  Whilst it does have an express option, this does not come with the same guarantee of next day delivery.  It usually performs at the same level in practise, but we can't offer a refund in the event the parcel does not arrive next day.  
• Should you absolutely need overnight delivery, please contact us for a custom courier quote.
• Monitors and Printers are sent by road courier. You should use an address where you will be present during business hours as you will need to sign for your package. If you are not present, a re-delivery will need to be arranged and you will incur this cost.

Mail Orders - Loss or Damage

Damage to deliveries must be noted at the time of delivery receipt.

• If any damage occurs to your order during transit (this is very rare thanks to the strong packaging materials we use), then you must note this and inform us and the courier at time of receipt. Please note we can not help you if you fail to inspect your delivery in a timely manner as damage caused in transit must be notified to the courier, and acted upon, at time of delivery. You don't need to refuse the delivery (although you can), you can just ask them to note the damage.
• We pack items very carefully and have insurance covering all goods in transit. But do please note that as with all mail order purchases, our formal responsibility and ownership of the goods ends once we've sold the goods to you, and we deliver the package on your behalf to Australia Post or the courier. You are always very welcome to pick up your goods if you prefer.
• If a parcel should be lost/damaged severely (a very rare event - we have had only one outright loss since 2001 out of tens of thousands of packages), it is obviously the shipper's mistake and not ours. We will of course do everything in our power to help you with this issue, in terms of tracking and tracing and liaising with the carrier on your behalf, but there is a formal process (which can unfortunately take a significant amount of time) that we must go through before we can make an insurance claim. Unfortunately we can not under any circumstances send out any replacement goods until such an insurance claim is settled.

Returns / Cancellations / Faults

We are a business that offers specialised items, often brought in to order for clients and as such we can not be as flexible with returns as more generalised retail businesses.

• Please consider your purchases carefully as we are generally unable to allow returns or cancellations of items if you have simply changed your mind.
• Because we often order stock in specifically for particular orders, at significant expense, we do not accept change of mind cancellations of orders. Of course if we're unable to deliver within our typical time-scales (products sent from us to you, sent from our offices or directly from our upstream suppliers within 5 working days) - then we will accept cancellation/change requests.
• Goods reported as faulty will be assessed to see if they are actually faulty or performing to within their normal specifications and tolerances (often this can be done via discussion and photographs, but may at times require return of the goods to us or the manufacturer for hands on assessment).  Goods determined to be faulty will of course be repaired or replaced under the manufacturer's warranty terms. As with all mail orders, the customer is in general responsible for return shipping to us in both financial and responsibility terms - we strongly suggest you use a track-able and insured return courier.  We will cover outgoing shipping on replacement or repaired items.
• We may allow you to return some items we regularly stock but this is entirely at our discretion, and please be aware that the only legal right of return you have under Victorian law is if goods are faulty or not fit for purpose - and we're very happy to offer extensive advice to make sure you're getting the right products for your needs.
• If you have a specific intended purpose for goods, or a particular aspect of performance that is critical to you,  you must disclose this prior to purchase and we're happy to offer advice to help you
• Please inspect your goods carefully when they arrive. If there is any issue with your order (e.g. something is damaged, faulty, or has been incorrectly supplied to you) - you must let us know within one month of receiving your goods.
• We repeat that it is your personal responsibility to check the exact specifications of products before purchase if this is of critical importance to you as we provide our information as a guide only and exact specifications are subject to change by manufacturers without notice to us (and therefore to you).
• Wherever possible we will try to help you - but we will not incur significant expense on your behalf, and in this scenario we may not allow the return at all or charge a re-stocking fee of up to 50% of the value of the goods to cover our costs.
• If we do agree to accept a return, the goods must be returned to us in unopened condition exactly as sold.
• Even if we have made a mistake in supply, this must be reported to us within one month of receiving the goods or we will not be able to accept a return.
  

Social Media & Marketing

We May Share Images Of Your Work as Our Work Product

As an art services business, our work product pretty much always involves producing work that contains the work of artists. 

Thus, to market ourselves, but just as importantly to help the artists we work with reach a wider audience of folks interested in the visual arts, we publish images of our work product to social media regularly.   Thus, by submitting a services order with us you are granting us a limited license to reproduce images/videos that may contain your work (be they images of prints made, film being scanned, profile targets, etc.) - within the context of these work product images on social media.

You can see samples at our primary place for this, Instagram

If you do not wish your work to be shared for any reason, then simply notify us when making your order (e.g. pop a note in the order comments).

Privacy, Security & Contact Policy

Your privacy is important to us and in general we will keep all your information, such as your contact/transaction details or correspondence with us, private - and we will never share such information with third parties for purposes such as marketing lists.  (Please do note the work product marketing exceptions above).

We take website privacy and security very seriously - indeed, our site is only served over private and secure HTTPS, using the best available encryption standards.  

We collect the minimum amount of information necessary to enable online transactions that are safe for both parties.  We are obliged to store this information (i.e. records of transactions) by Australian Law, for tax purposes.  However no payment information (i.e. credit card numbers/details) is stored, or even processed by us, at any time.  For credit card transactions we use the highly secure and PCI compliant eWay third party payment provider (and their Beagle anti fraud tools).

If you would like us to remove your account/data we are happy to so in as much as we can whilst still remaining compliant with our tax/fiduciary obligations.  Simply contact us if you would like to request removal of your data.

We use Google Analytics to monitor server traffic etc. The data is only reviewed in aggregate at the statistical level for website development and performance reasons.

We may at times share your contact information and the contents of your emails to us, with our upstream suppliers solely for the purposes of facilitation of support & warranty requests.  For example, if you make a warranty claim on a product, and as the warranty is offered by the manufacturer, we may share your emails with your contact details and/or description of the issues with the manufacturer.  You may choose to have us liaise with them about these matters on your behalf, or you can deal with them directly. We generally recommend the direct approach as it is faster, but we're happy to help at any point of the process, if you would like us to.

You will never be signed up for anything without your express consent - we do send one 'Welcome To Our Website' email after your first purchase  with us, but this is independent of your newsletter subscription with us if you choose to have one.  Your newsletter subscription is based on  you providing express consent to join the newsletter (usually during the checkout process, or by using the subscription forms on our website).  If ever you want to cancel your subscription, there is a link at the  bottom of every email we send to do this, or simply email us and we'll take you off the list.