These Mail-in Repair Terms apply when you book a device assessment through Albion’s Mail-in Repair Service.
They apply in addition to our Albion Repair Terms & Conditions, available at albion.co.uk/legal. Those terms contain important information about inspection and diagnostics, data and backups, third-party parts, quotations, repair authorisation, parts, warranties and other aspects of the repair service.
These Mail-in Repair Terms contain additional conditions that apply specifically when a device is sent to us rather than brought to an Albion service location.
Where there is a conflict concerning the specific operation of the Mail-in Repair Service, these Mail-in Repair Terms apply. Our general Repair Terms continue to apply to the inspection, diagnosis and repair of your device.
Nothing in these terms affects your statutory rights.
When you book a Mail-in Repair through our website and successfully pay the applicable Mail-in Assessment Fee, we will create a service request and send you confirmation of your booking together with instructions explaining where and how to send your device.
The Mail-in Assessment Fee depends on the type of device and is displayed before you complete your booking. At the date of these terms, the standard fees are:
The price displayed to you at checkout will be the applicable fee for your booking.
The Mail-in Assessment Fee covers the initial inspection and assessment of your device and tracked return delivery to the eligible UK address supplied when you make your booking. It does not include the cost of sending your device to Albion or the cost of any repair, replacement parts or other additional work subsequently quoted to you.
Our Mail-in Repair Service is available to eligible addresses in mainland England, Scotland and Wales.
Your device may be allocated to different Albion service locations depending on the device and service required. You must send your device only to the address provided in your booking instructions.
Do not send a Mail-in Repair to Albion’s head office, a retail location or any other Albion address unless your booking instructions specifically tell you to do so.
You are responsible for arranging and paying for delivery of your device to the service centre specified in your booking instructions.
You must package the device securely and appropriately for transport. We strongly recommend using a tracked delivery service with compensation or insurance sufficient to cover the full replacement value of your device.
You should retain your proof of posting, tracking reference and any other shipping documentation until your Mail-in Repair has been completed and the device has been returned to you.
The carrier you choose to send the device to us is contracted by you and not by Albion. Albion is therefore not responsible for loss of or damage to the device while it is being transported to us, except where required by law.
Our responsibility for the physical device begins when the parcel has been successfully delivered to and accepted by the Albion service centre specified in your booking instructions.
We record the condition of devices when they are received.
If your parcel or device appears to have been damaged in transit, we may photograph the packaging and/or device and notify you of the condition in which it arrived.
You may need these photographs or other information from us to support a claim against the carrier you used to send the device.
Lithium batteries can present a safety risk when damaged.
If your device has a swollen, leaking, punctured or otherwise damaged battery, has been overheating, has suffered significant physical or liquid damage, or you have any other reason to believe that it may be unsafe to transport, do not send it to us without contacting Albion first.
You are responsible for complying with the packaging, labelling and carriage requirements of the carrier you choose, including any restrictions relating to lithium batteries or damaged electronic devices.
A carrier may refuse to accept certain damaged or defective batteries for transport.
Before sending your device, you must follow the preparation instructions supplied with your booking and the requirements contained in our Albion Repair Terms & Conditions.
In particular, you should:
Diagnostics and repairs can involve software updates, erasure, restoration or replacement of the device. You should assume that data stored on the device may be erased.
Please refer to our Repair Terms & Conditions at albion.co.uk/legal for the full provisions relating to data, backups and device preparation.
Please do not include your Apple Account password, device passcode or other personal passwords in the parcel.
We will never ask you for your Apple Account password.
Where testing cannot reasonably be completed without access to the operating system, we may need to erase or restore the device so that it can be tested without access to your personal data.
You are responsible for maintaining a suitable backup before sending your device.
Find My and Activation Lock must be disabled before we can complete applicable diagnostics or repairs.
If your device arrives with Find My or Activation Lock enabled, we will contact you and ask you to remove it remotely.
We cannot proceed with work that requires these features to be disabled until you have done so.
If we are unable to contact you, you do not respond within a reasonable period, or you are unable or unwilling to disable Find My or Activation Lock, we may close the service request and return the device to you. The Mail-in Assessment Fee may still be payable to the extent permitted by applicable consumer law.
Only send accessories or other items with the device where they are necessary to demonstrate the reported fault or Albion has specifically asked you to include them.
Unless requested, you should remove cases, cables, chargers, adapters, SIM cards, memory cards, Apple Pencil and other detachable accessories before sending the device.
We cannot guarantee the return of unsolicited accessories or other items that were not requested by Albion and are not recorded as part of the service request.
When your device arrives, we will record its receipt and carry out an initial inspection and assessment.
The purpose of the assessment is to investigate the fault you have reported and, where possible, determine what work is required.
Our assessment may identify faults, damage or other conditions that were not apparent from the information supplied when you made the booking.
Assessment does not guarantee that the device can be repaired.
Our general Albion Repair Terms & Conditions apply to the inspection and diagnosis of your device, including provisions concerning third-party or unauthorised parts.
If chargeable repair work is required, we will provide you with a quotation before carrying out that work.
The Mail-in Assessment Fee does not constitute payment for any subsequently quoted repair unless we expressly state otherwise.
We will not carry out additional chargeable repair work without your approval.
Quotations are normally valid for 14 days.
If we are waiting for your approval or further information, the repair may be paused. If we have not received a response after 7 days, we may contact you again. If we have not received a response after 14 days, we may close the repair and arrange for the device to be returned to you.
If you decline the quotation, no quoted chargeable repair work will be carried out and we will arrange to return your device. The original Mail-in Assessment Fee remains payable, subject to your statutory cancellation rights.
Sometimes additional faults, damage or required parts only become apparent after diagnostics have progressed or repair work has begun.
If this changes the work required or the price you have already approved, we will pause the repair and contact you with a revised quotation.
We will not carry out additional chargeable work beyond the amount you have authorised without obtaining your approval.
If you approve a chargeable repair, we will send you a payment link for the amount due.
Payment must be successfully completed when requested before we can complete the applicable payment-dependent stage of the service and/or return the device.
Your quotation or payment request will show the amount payable.
Our assessment may determine that your device or reported issue is eligible for service under an applicable Apple warranty, AppleCare+ plan or Apple service programme.
Any eligibility is subject to Apple’s applicable terms, coverage requirements and verification.
The Mail-in Assessment Fee relates to Albion’s mail-in assessment and return service and is separate from the cost or coverage of any subsequent Apple repair. Identification of warranty, AppleCare+ or service-programme eligibility does not in itself entitle you to a refund of the Mail-in Assessment Fee, subject always to your statutory rights.
We cannot guarantee that every device can be repaired.
A device may, for example, be beyond economical repair, have damage that prevents safe repair, require unavailable parts, contain modifications or third-party parts that prevent service, or otherwise be unsuitable for the requested repair.
If we determine that we cannot offer a repair, we will tell you and arrange for the device to be returned.
The Mail-in Assessment Fee remains payable for the assessment and return service, subject to your statutory rights.
If you are a consumer, you may have a statutory right to cancel your online Mail-in Repair booking within 14 days of the date on which the contract is entered into.
You may request cancellation through your Repair Portal account at albion.repairportal.com.
If you have not yet sent your device to us and no assessment service has been supplied, we will process an applicable cancellation and refund in accordance with your statutory rights.
When booking, you may expressly ask us to begin providing the assessment service during your 14-day cancellation period. This allows us to begin the requested assessment when your device arrives rather than waiting for the cancellation period to expire.
If you exercise a statutory right to cancel after requesting that the service begin during the cancellation period and we have already started providing the service, we may charge you an amount proportionate to the service supplied up to the time you tell us you wish to cancel, where the law permits us to do so.
Once the assessment service has been fully performed, you may lose your statutory right to cancel the service where you expressly requested early performance and acknowledged that the cancellation right would be lost once the service was fully performed.
Posting your device to us does not by itself remove any statutory cancellation right that you may have.
If you decide not to proceed with a repair after we have completed the assessment and supplied a quotation, we will return your device to you. This is treated as declining the proposed repair rather than cancelling work that has already been completed.
Nothing in this section limits any cancellation or refund right you have under applicable law.
Your Mail-in Repair booking is created when you complete the online booking and payment process.
You are responsible for sending the device to us if you wish to use the service.
If you do not send your device, we may eventually close the service request.
Any entitlement to cancel the booking or receive a refund will be determined in accordance with your statutory rights and the applicable cancellation provisions above. Nothing in these terms removes a refund or cancellation right provided by law.
Tracked return shipping is included in the Mail-in Assessment Fee.
Unless otherwise agreed by us, we will return the device only to the eligible UK delivery address supplied when the Mail-in Repair booking was made.
For security reasons, the return address cannot normally be changed after the device has been sent to us.
Return deliveries require a signature.
When the device has been dispatched, we will provide tracking information and, where available, an estimated delivery date.
Delivery dates and times provided by us or the carrier are estimates unless expressly stated otherwise.
Albion arranges the carrier used to return your device to you and remains responsible for the return delivery in accordance with applicable law.
If the return parcel appears to be lost, damaged or otherwise affected while being returned to you, please contact us promptly so that we can investigate with our carrier.
You are responsible for ensuring that the return address and contact details supplied when booking are complete and accurate and that somebody is available to accept a signature-required delivery where necessary.
If delivery cannot be completed and the device is returned to Albion, we will attempt to contact you to arrange another delivery.
We may require you to confirm appropriate delivery arrangements before the device is sent again.
These Mail-in Repair Terms should be read together with our Albion Repair Terms & Conditions, available at albion.co.uk/legal.
Those terms contain additional important provisions relating to:
Where these Mail-in Repair Terms contain a specific provision concerning the mail-in process, that specific provision applies to the Mail-in Repair Service.
Nothing in these terms excludes or restricts any rights or remedies that cannot lawfully be excluded or restricted.
Where you are a consumer, Albion will provide its services with reasonable care and skill and your statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and other applicable consumer legislation are unaffected.
The Mail-in Repair Service is primarily designed for consumer and small-business bookings.
Business and education customers may have separate service arrangements or contractual terms with Albion. Where separate terms have been agreed with a business or education customer, those terms may apply instead of or in addition to these terms.
If you are booking on behalf of a business and are unsure which terms apply, please contact Albion before sending the device.