Terms and conditions:
TEAHOUSE RESERVATIONS

Reservation only
The teahouse is reservation only. We do not accept walk-ins nor do we accept takeaway orders on our Quiet Tea Time or Casual Tea Time openings. This allows us to give our full attention to reservation guests.

Prepaid reservations
All reservations are prepaid at the time of booking, which is currently £48 per person for tea course menu on Quiet Tea Time and Casual Tea Time openings. No extra payment is necessary on the day of your visit, though guests can choose to add teas and sweets or upgrade to other available seasonal tea course upon arrival at the teahouse, with any extra payment taken at that time.

Our wagashi menu and mizudashi are prepared according to head count so please make sure you take the box to add a 2nd guest if you are bringing a guest, otherwise we will assume you are visiting alone.

As an extremely small scale business, no shows have a substantial impact on our business. 

No service charge will be added to your final bill, and we do not take tips. It is our responsibility to take care of our guests and provide the best possible experience during their stay. 

Rescheduling
You are entitled to amend your reservation for free to another reservation time slot within the same month as long as it is outside of the 48 hours of the start time of the reservation. If there is a problem with amending online, please email us info@cha-ology.com. If you simply cancel and make a new reservation, a £10 fee per person will apply to any refunds of the original reservation’s payment to cover the cost of issuing a refund by the payment provider.

Cancellation
In general, we do not accept cancellations. We trust that you have carefully read the experiences we offer from our website prior to making a reservation. Guests are however entitled to amend reservations for free to another time slot within the same month as long as it is outside 48 hours of the start time of the reservation. 

In the rare circumstance that you must cancel a reservation and cannot amend it to another time, here are the charges applied:
Outside of 48 hours prior to the start time of your reservation - £10 per guest
Between 24 and 48 hours of the reservation start time - prepayment of one guest
Within 24 hours of start time of the reservation - total reservation prepayment

Cancellations should be a last resort - please consider passing the reservation on to a friend or family member that would enjoy the experience. If you would like to do this please ensure the substitute guest has read and understood the teahouse’s concept and rules and notify us of the change as early as possible.

Gift vouchers
To make a reservation with a gift voucher, please email us directly info@cha-ology.com quoting the code and name of the voucher, as well as your preferred date and time. Our availability can be found in the reservation page. As the reservation is prepaid at the time of booking, if the voucher value is lower than the minimum spend per person in the teahouse, an invoice for the difference will be sent to you.  All vouchers issued will have an expiry date on it and must be claimed before the expiry date.

Dietary requirements
Most of our wagashi are vegan/vegetarian friendly. We require advance notice If you or your guest have specific dietary requirements. Please let us know either when making the reservation or by sending us an email to info@cha-ology.com. 

Photograph taking
The teahouse is a space where the host and guests share a calming moment for tea time. Please refrain from visiting if the main purpose is photograph taking. Photo taking is to be kept brief and limited to decorations, teas or sweets. Selfies or photos with any people in are not allowed. Please mute any shutter sound. No filming is allowed inside the teahouse.

Arrival
Please arrive promptly for your reservation and no later than 10 minutes of the start time. In the case of emergencies, please email us or message us on Instagram to let us know that you will be late. We do not have a phone number. If you arrive late, we reserve the right to refuse service or issue any refund.

Pets
We do not allow pets inside the teahouse on our Quiet Tea Time or Casual Tea Time openings. However, if you are visiting us on Pre-order Collection openings, please feel free to bring your pets.

Perfume and lipsticks
Please refrain from wearing strong perfume as we are a small space focusing on the experience of the five senses - we cannot de-perfume you upon arrival, and no lipstick as it may stain some of our more delicate teaware.

Smoking
No smoking or e-cigarettes are allowed inside the teahouse. We also ask you not to smoke directly outside of the teahouse as it affects other guests entering or leaving the teahouse. 

We reserve the right to change, modify, or update these terms and conditions.
For all other queries, please email info@cha-ology.com
We do not have a phone number so any queries will be dealt with through emails or in person.

PRODUCTS PAGE

Collection
If you choose to collect your purchase from the teahouse, upon completion of your order please email us at info@cha-ology.com to arrange a collection time and date. If you do not email us, we will email you to arrange this. We generally do not offer collections during our Quiet Tea Time or Casual Tea Time openings, so please do not make an order with the intention of collecting it during one of these openings without first arranging it with us.

Dispatch time
Once your order is placed with delivery, we aim to prepare it for shipping within 2-3 working days. Should there be a delay in the dispatch time, either you will be notified on the product’s page before purchasing, such as if we are waiting for a restock, or you will be notified directly through email.

Packing
We always reuse the packing materials before we consider to buy any extra materials for wrapping. So far we have not ordered once any plastic bubble wraps for all the fragile items we send out. As we are reusing the wrapping materials to pack orders, they may differ one parcel to another parcel.

Gift wrapping
We offer gift wrapping along with your gift message. Just let us know at checkout by ticking the box “gift” along with the message you would like us to write on behalf of you.

Delivery
All our orders are sent with tracking number. An email with a tracking number will be sent to you once your order has been dispatched. We are not responsible in the case of failure of delivery - please contact the courier service directly to rearrange a delivery or resolve any delivery issues. We are not responsible for any failed delivery attempts.

All orders dispatched within of the UK are sent with Royal Mail Tracked 24. Once dispatched, your order should arrive within 1-2 working days. We are not responsible for any delays. We charge a flat fee of £5.50 for all UK deliveries under £75. If the total of your order exceeds £75, please use code FREE75 for free UK delivery. If the code is not entered at the time of checkout, we are unable to refund the delivery cost.

All orders sent outside of the UK are sent with International Tracked and Signed. International orders can take up to 1-2 weeks. We are not responsible for any delays. The cost of delivery to your country will be calculated at checkout. Should you require a different courier such as DHL, please contact us directly to arrange.

Tax and duty
We are not responsible for any local taxes and duties that may incur for all international orders.

Damage items
In the rare circumstance that your order has arrived damaged, please contact us with photos of the damaged item(s) as soon as possible, up to a maximum of 5 working days from the delivery date.

Return policy
We trust that you have taken the time to select the product carefully so we are confident that you will love any purchases from us. In the unlikely event that you are not happy with your order and wish to return it, please contact us within 5 working days upon receiving your order. You can choose to drop off the order at the teahouse. If you have to send the product back to us, please note that we are unable to cover any postage costs it may incur. Once we receive the returned item, it will be inspected to make sure it is in the same condition that it was sent in. Depending on the results of the inspection we reserve the right to reduce or reject the refund. We reserve the right to reject the return at any point after the parcel has been sent.

A minimum of £5 processing fee will incur should you wish to cancel and refund your order, including gift vouchers. We reserve the right to calculate the final charge for any refund issued.

We reserve the right to change, modify, or update these terms and conditions.
For all other queries, please email info@cha-ology.com
We do not have a phone number so any queries will be dealt with through emails or in person.