Your offer, and what happens if you say no

What arrives when the testing is finished

One written offer, with your reference on it. It lists every piece that came out of your parcel, with its description and recorded weight, any weight left out and why, and the tests used (clause 5.1). It also records any test you asked us not to carry out, and the fineness concluded, so you can read it against the box you packed.

The amount is one figure for the whole of what you sent, judged on what is actually there. It is not reduced while it is open unless something stated in it turns out to be wrong. If that happens you are told what and why, in writing, and may decline there and then (clause 5.2).

The figure on the offer is the figure you are paid. Nothing is taken off it afterwards: no handling fee, no testing charge, no postage either way, and no charge for sending the lot back if you decide against it (clause 5.3).

Saying yes, saying no, or keeping something back

Accepting is something you do deliberately: you press the button in your offer, which says what it does before you press it, or you tell us in writing (clause 6.1). Opening the link is never acceptance on its own, and nor is anything your email system does automatically (clause 6.2).

Declining is just as simple. The whole lot comes back tracked and signed for, at our cost, with nothing deducted. Nobody telephones to talk you round, and no second unsolicited offer follows (clause 6.5).

There is a third answer, and it is an ordinary one: ask for particular pieces back. The ring your mother wore, the christening spoon, the thing you have gone cold on since you packed it. You get a fresh written offer for what is left, which you are just as free to decline (clause 6.3).

Two things to know before you ask. The fresh offer is a new offer, not a slice of the first. A price struck for a mixed lot is an average, and taking out the pieces that carried it can move it by more than their weight suggests.

And asking never costs you the first offer. It stays open on its original terms for as long as it would have done, and you can go back to it even after you have seen the second.

Before you decide, you can ask about any piece on the list and get a written answer: what was checked, where, and what it showed. A question is not a counter-offer, and it does not start a negotiation you then have to finish. You can also change your mind at any point before you accept and ask for everything back, at our cost (clause 6.4).

How long each part takes

The period an offer stays open is printed on the offer itself; no number of days has been set yet, so none appears here. If it lapses, your items stay where they are until you ask for a fresh offer or for the lot back. Need longer? Ask, and the offer is held open for as long as you need, or re-issued on the same terms if it has already lapsed, with no reason asked for (clauses 5.2 and 10.2).

Getting paid

Payment is by bank transfer to a UK account in your own name (clause 7.1), with your case reference on it so you can recognise it. We do not pay anybody else on your behalf, and we do not pay cash. That is a fraud control rather than an inconvenience: it is why a parcel of your mother's jewellery cannot be turned into a payment to a stranger.

The items stay yours until the money reaches your account, not merely until it is sent. A transfer that went astray would otherwise leave you owning nothing and holding nothing.

Not yet: How many working days pass between your acceptance and the money leaving has not been set, so no figure is given here or in the terms. It goes on this page and on every offer before the first parcel is accepted. What else is blank, and why

Before any first payment we ask for a photograph of one government-issued photo ID, and check the name on it against your bank account. That applies to everyone, once. If the account is in a married name, or you are an executor paying into an estate account, say so before you post and it is settled then rather than at the end.

What the check involves, and what happens to the document afterwards, is in the identity and provenance guide. The rest of the checks, including when entitlement documents are asked for as well, are on the responsible sourcing page.

Getting your things back

Decline, and everything is repacked into a fresh sealed bag, photographed as it goes in, and posted back tracked and signed for. You pay nothing, whether you asked for one piece back or the whole parcel, and you are sent the tracking number when it is posted. The risk stays ours until it is delivered to you, not merely until it is sent (clause 7.2).

Anything we do not buy, such as silver plate or a piece containing ivory, is left out of the offer and comes back with whatever else you decline (clause 11.1). The one exception is an item we have reasonable grounds to think is stolen, which is held rather than returned. That is rare, you would be told, and the responsible sourcing page sets out what triggers a hold and how to challenge one (clause 9.4).

If something goes wrong

Start with the person handling your case, quoting your reference; most things are a misunderstanding about one piece and take an email to settle. If that does not resolve it, the complaints process sets out who looks at it next and where you can go afterwards. Nothing in the parcel is processed while a complaint about it is open (clause 13.1). What a decline and a return look like in practice is in the declined offers guide.