General Terms and Conditions Jewellery Forensics
These General Terms and Conditions (GTC’s) govern the conclusion, content and execution of a contract with the expert and gemmologist David Hessels G.G., Kölner Ring 47, 59494 Soest, Germany.
As an independent expert and gemmologist, he offers his services as Mobile Gemmological Service and the name Jewellery Forensics, hereafter to be named DH in short.
1. Scope of application
All services of DH are provided on the basis of these terms and conditions.
The clients own terms & conditions are per definition immediately contradicted. They are only valid if David Hessels expressly accepts them.
2. Offers
Offers from DH can be submitted in writing upon request. Services may include gemmological examination, consultation and valuation in oral or written form, with or without photo credits, with or without expert opinions and other gemmological services.
Offers made by DH in this respect can only be accepted by the customer within two weeks of receipt. Delayed acceptance of the offer shall also constitute a new offer by the customer to DH; the customer shall also be bound by this offer for two weeks.
After effective conclusion of the contract, DH’ services and the customer’s payment obligation will be recorded in writing.
3. Execution of the contract
The customer must provide all necessary historical documents, reports, proof of ownership and any further information and data for DH’ services. DH already assures that these documents, information and data will be used in absolute confidence only within the scope of the purpose of the contract. They may only be passed on to third parties with the express consent of the customer.
If the services of DH must be accepted by the customer as being in accordance with the contract, such acceptance is deemed to have taken place unless the customer submits a written complaint within two weeks of the services being provided.
The customer is obligated to pay after DH has performed its services. If payment is not made within 30 days of receipt of the invoice, the customer will be in default even without a reminder.
Upon full payment of the agreed remuneration, the customer is entitled to use the work results within the scope and for the purposes of the contract. Deviations from this usage regulation require a separate written agreement.
4. Performance disruptions
In the event of disruptions in performance, the statutory regulations for the service or work contract shall be applied.
5. Liability
a. DH has unlimited liability in accordance with the statutory provisions for damage to life, body and health resulting from a negligent or intentional breach of duty by himself, his legal representatives or his vicarious agents, as well as for damage covered by liability under the Product Liability Act. DH is liable in accordance with the statutory provisions for damages that are not covered by sentence 1 and that are based on intentional or grossly negligent breaches of contract and fraudulent intent by DH, his legal representatives or his vicarious agents. In this case, however, the liability for damages is limited to the foreseeable, typically occurring damage, unless he, his legal representatives or his vicarious agents have acted intentionally.
b. DH is also liable for damages caused by simple negligence, insofar as the negligence concerns the violation of such contractual obligations, the observance of which is of particular importance for the achievement of the purpose of the contract. However, he is only liable to the extent that the damages are typically associated with the contract and are foreseeable.
c. Any further liability is excluded regardless of the legal nature of the asserted claim; this applies in particular to tortuous claims or claims for compensation for futile expenditure instead of performance.
d. Insofar as liability is excluded or limited, this also applies to the personal liability of its employees, workers, staff, representatives and vicarious agents.
e. The place of jurisdiction is the town of Soest, Germany.
Laboratory & Practical conditions
1. The authenticity of a gemstone or pearl is determined using the latest and modern gemological examination techniques. If necessary, (in case of suspicion of non-treatment and financially significant geographical origin), I will refer and advise to the necessity of an analysis of the mentioned stone by an International gemological authority. From experience, considerable price differences can arise for the same stone after analysis in the setting or as an isolated stone. In some cases only the isolated stone can be subjected to all technically possible testing procedures.
2. Weights in carats are, if these cannot be weighed exactly, determined by means of calculated measured values, and are to be seen as approximations.
3. Precious metals and their alloys are tested and described as follows: 900/1000 750/1000, 585/1000, 333/1000, etc., or in case of your local custom, 14ct, 18ct etc will be added.
4. Diamonds are graded in accordance with the international guidelines of the World Diamond Exchange and Diamond Cutting Associations of 1978 (IDC – Rules for Grading Polished Diamonds); coloured gemstones are graded in accordance with the guidelines of the CIBJO (International Federation of Jewellery, Silverware, Diamonds, Pearls and Stones). Exact graduations for diamonds and gemstones can only be made on stones that are not set. The client agrees that the spectral data (Raman, photoluminescence, UV-VIS-NIR and FTIR) determined during the gemological inspections may be passed on for scientific investigations and stored for scientific database development purposes. This counts also for inclusion Micrography.
5. Slight deviations in colour and size in illustrations compared to the original are possible.
6. The information in the expert opinion is given in accordance with the duty of care required in commercial transactions, and are carried out to the best of one’s knowledge and belief. However, no legal claims against the contractor can be made on this basis.
7. Diamonds and precious stones can be treated, manipulated or exchanged at any given time. The delivered report is exclusively valid for my research on the calendar day of the performed assessment. If deviations are found between an object and it’s report, please contact Jewellery Forensics immediately. To verify a report simply send me the number and object description.
8. Some services offered by Jewellery Forensics, like jewellery profiling, are offered only in Germany and the Netherlands. This due to the geographic, and above all demographic nature of this service.
9. Professional secrecy (duty of confidentiality) is taken very seriously by Jewellery Forensics and all its team members, and we are legally obligated to remain discreet. This is also expected of our clients. For security reasons we ask you to only inform others of my visit on a strict need to know basis, and refrain from social media posting. The client is responsible for providing an adequate workspace, (min. 2,5 meters / 8,2 feet width), a rolling desk chair, WiFi (if possible) and electrical sockets. The client is responsible for adequate security measures on the premises.
10. Any reports and / or results may only be published with prior consent by Jewellery Forensics. Any abuse or illegal amendments of reports issued by Jewellery Forensics will be reported to the local authorities.
11. All photographs and analysis metadata remain sole intellectual propriety of Jewellery Forensics unless agreed otherwise.
12. Severability clause: Should individual provisions of this contract be or become invalid, this shall not affect the validity of the contract. In such a case, a valid provision will be agreed upon, which comes as close as possible to the economic purpose of the original provision. Should a provision prove to be incomplete, the same shall apply.
13. In the case of a commercial contract (sole proprietorship, Ltd., Plc, GmbH, AG, etc.) the laws of the German HGB (Commercial Code) – are binding. Any liability is excluded in this case – it is also not a matter of warranted characteristics according to the German BGB (Civil Code).
14. In the case of any verbal estimates and assessments on site at the customer’s premises, any legal claim is excluded.
15. Collateral agreements must be in writing to be effective. Place of jurisdiction is Soest, Germany.