Booking Terms And Conditions

Please read the following important terms and conditions before you book any services on our website / via telephone and check that they contain everything you want and nothing that you are not willing to agree to. Your attention is particularly drawn to clause 4 (which contains information on the limits of the services we provide and their impact on your vehicle), clause 10 (which contains information on situations where we are not at fault) and clause 11 (Limitation on our liability)

Summary of your key legal rights 

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 says:

  • You can ask us to repeat or fix a service if it’s not carried out with reasonable care and skill or get some money back if we can’t fix it.
  • If a price hasn’t been agreed upfront, what you’re asked to pay must be reasonable.
  • If a time hasn’t been agreed upfront, it must be carried out within a reasonable time.

 

In these terms:

  • we’, ‘us’ or ‘our’ means GP Tuning Ltd (trading as Phantom Tuning), a company registered in England and Wales with company number 10530985 whose registered office is at 44 Singer Way, Kempston, Kent, England, MK42 7AF; our VAT number is 313138539; and
  • you’ or ‘your’ means the person using our site to buy services from us.

If you have any questions about these terms or any orders you have placed, please contact us by:

  • sending an email to info@phantomsandbox.com; or
  • filling out and submitting the online contact form available here Contact | Phantom Tuning; or
  • calling us on 01234 480809 (our telephone lines are open Tuesday to Saturday: 9 am to 6 pm).

Please print out or save a copy of these terms and any emails from us for your records, as we will not save or file a copy for you. These terms are only available in English.

Your use of our site is governed by our Website Terms of Use

 

  • Introduction

 

      1. If you buy services on our site / via Telephone you agree to be legally bound by these terms.
      2. We may make changes to these terms at any time. However, the terms which apply to your order will be those in force at the time you submitted your order to us.

 

  • Your privacy and personal information

 

      1. Our Privacy Policy is available at Privacy Policy | Phantom Tuning
      2. Your privacy and personal information are important to us. Any personal information that you provide to us will be dealt with in line with our Privacy Policy, which explains what personal information we collect from you, how and why we collect, store, use and share such information, your rights in relation to your personal information and how to contact us and supervisory authorities if you have a query or complaint about the use of your personal information.

 

  • Ordering services from us

 

      1. Below, we set out how a legally binding contract between you and us is made.
      2. You place an order on our website or via telephone. If you place your order on our website, please read and check your order carefully and correct any errors before submitting it. 
      3. When you place your order, we will acknowledge it by email. This acknowledgement does not, however, mean that your order has been accepted by us.
      4. When you place your order, we will ask you to make an initial payment towards the cost of the services but this doesn’t mean that we have accepted your order. Placing an order means that you are agreeing to pay us for the services.
      5. If we don’t accept your order, for example because we’re unable to take payment, the services are unavailable, you are under 18 or live outside of the UK, or there has been a mistake regarding the pricing or description of the services, we will email you using the details you provided when you placed your order and refund any payment you have made by the method you used for payment. We have the right to reject any order for any reason.
      6. All orders are subject to availability. We cannot guarantee that any service will be available at any given time. In certain circumstances beyond our reasonable control, for example where there has been a change in law, we may need to stop providing certain services. If this happens and it affects your order, we will notify you by email, cancel your order and provide you with a refund of any advance payments made by you for any services that have not yet been provided.
      7. We will only accept your order when we email you to confirm this (Confirmation Email). At this point:
        1. a legally binding contract will be in place between you and us; and
        2. we will provide the services as agreed during the online checkout process or via telephone.
      8. If you are under the age of 18 you may not buy services from our website or via telephone.

 

  • Providing services and the limits of our services

 

    1. Descriptions of our services are set out on our site but please read the following provisions about our services and what we do and don’t do for you carefully: 
      1. We don’t provide any mechanical services. We don’t carry out repairs to vehicles (or parts of vehicles) at all or perform any investigation or diagnostics outside of the tests we carry out on your software and (if requested or if we consider them necessary) the dynamometer testing and data logging. Our only services relate to the software in your vehicle and diagnostic services to help us to know what your vehicle needs with regard to its software.
      2. The nature of the services is that they are intended to create a situation where your vehicle performs at a higher level than before the services are performed but we can’t guarantee this outcome or any other result for a particular vehicle. Our aim is to provide you with the services by using reasonable care and skill. Our software is designed to be used on vehicles whose components are healthy and in full working order per the manufacturer’s specification. We can change the software in your vehicle, but every vehicle is different:
        1. each vehicle we see will have been maintained differently and therefore has different wear and tear to it at the time the services are performed. In some cases, the wear and tear to one or more parts in the vehicle could be such that the tuning we carry out for you requests various drivetrain components to work slightly harder and doing so can push  a worn component over its physical limits. If this happens, we are not responsible for the breakage, which is not due to our negligence or breach of contract;
        2. occasionally, a vehicle may have already been tuned in the past, in which case you may notice no improvement in performance. In most cases where a vehicle has already been tuned we would be able to tell and would cancel your booking without performing any further services (and charge a fee, currently £60, for examining your vehicle and reporting back to you). In some other cases, we can’t tell whether a vehicle has already been tuned. In those cases, we will tell you that and you can decide whether you want us to perform the tuning services or not, even though tuning may not make a difference to performance;
        3. in some very rare cases, customers have reported that they cannot feel a difference in performance of their vehicle after tuning. In such cases, it is our experience that this is because the vehicle itself is in such a poor state of repair that it can’t benefit from the services. If you wish us to investigate what feels like a lack of improvement in your vehicle’s performance after tuning, we are happy to do so and will ask you to book a data logging session. The data logging session will establish whether our tuning services were faulty or whether the vehicle simply cannot be improved by tuning. If our services were at fault, we won’t charge you for the data logging session and will either rectify our error or offer you a refund, at your choice. If our services were not at fault, we will charge a fixed fee of £60 for the data logging session;
        4. In some cases, you may have been told by a mechanic that tuning will fix a problem you’re having with your vehicle. You must tell us about this at the time of placing your order and we may choose not to accept your order in these circumstances. If we choose to accept your order, that’s on the basis that you accept and understand that we are making no promise that the services will resolve the issue with your vehicle;
        5. there are many factors that influence the power and torque that a vehicle will generate when we are tuning its ECU. Most of these factors are completely out of our control and relate to the state of the vehicle and its components and we are not responsible for those. We do quote and estimate expected results but we can’t guarantee that your particular vehicle will meet the figures we estimate and quote. 

4.1.3 the software may improve your vehicle’s fuel economy, but it’s not specifically designed to do so. Many external factors can affect fuel economy and these are entirely outside of our control.

 

  1. We will provide the services at the time(s) and on the date(s) selected by you or within the period agreed with you during the order process except where we are performing services for you at your home or another place specified by you, rather than at our place of business:
    1. If we have agreed to come to you to provide the services, we will make a minimum call-out charge of £30 in addition to our booking fee of £60 so the minimum amount you will pay will be £90;
    2. we can’t give you a fixed time for providing the services and will give you a morning or afternoon window instead on a certain day when we confirm your booking;
    3. occasionally, we may have to cancel scheduled services. This may happen for a number of reasons, such as that the preceding customer’s services have overrun or our employee can’t reach the location because of travel problems (traffic jams etc). If cancellation occurs in this situation, we’ll offer you an alternative date without further charge to you.
  2. The services will be provided at the location specified when you placed your order. 
  3. We will do all that we reasonably can to provide the services at the time(s) and date(s) or within the period agreed with you. If there might be a delay before we can start or restart the services, we will email you to let you know as soon as reasonably possible. However, we are not liable to you and will not compensate you for any losses you incur as a result of any delay caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control.
  4. Where a delay is caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control, we will usually try to start or restart the services as soon as the issue causing the delay has been resolved. If the services are delayed by more than one week, we will email you to let you know and offer you the option to either continue waiting until the issue has been resolved (if this is possible) or to cancel your order and get a refund of any advance payments made by you for any services that have not yet been provided.
  5. We’re not liable to you for any losses you incur where the services are delayed or cannot be performed because you fail to provide us with adequate instructions or information to allow us to perform the services.
  6. We can always make changes to the services to reflect changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements or to make minor technical adjustments or improvements. These are changes that don’t affect your use of the service.

 

  • Your Obligations to Us

 

      1. By entering into a contract with us for the services, you are promising that:
        1. the vehicle is in good repair and regularly serviced and all parts are well maintained to the manufacturer’s specification and/or recommendation, including (but not limited to) spark plug changes at appropriate intervals, oil changes at appropriate intervals, boost lines and vacuum lines that are in working order;
        2. you have told us all information we need in order to perform the services at the time you place your order, including the vehicle registration number, make, model, engine capacity and any previous modifications you’ve had carried out on it;
        3. you have told us about any problems you are experiencing with the vehicle at the time of booking or beforehand (we may refuse to accept your order or cancel if you tell us you are experiencing problems with your vehicle and/or its performance).
      2. If the services we are to provide to you include dynamometer services, you are promising that:
        1. your vehicle has a full tank of premium fuel (for petrol vehicles, this must be 99 octane fuel) when you bring it in;
        2. the vehicle chassis is at factory height and has not been altered (if it has been lowered, it might not fit on the dynamometer);
        3. your tires are in a healthy condition for safety reasons, without damage, flats, bald spots or punctures;
        4. your engine fluid levels are correct;
        5. you will remove any mud flaps before bringing the vehicle in to us.
      3.  If any of the statements in clause 5.1 or 5.2 is untrue, we reserve the right to:
        1. cancel the contract and refuse to perform any services for you. This is most likely to involve cancelling the contract after you have brought your vehicle to us; and
        2. keep an amount of your Booking Fee which is reasonable in all the circumstances. This will usually be the whole of the Booking Fee.
      4. If the services are to be carried out anywhere other than at our place of business, you must ensure that the space where the services are to be carried out is clear of obstructions and ready for us to perform the services.

 

  • Prices

 

      1. Prices for our services are set out on our website. All prices are in pounds sterling (£)(GBP) and include VAT at the applicable rate.
      2. If the rate of VAT changes between your booking date and the date we supply the services, we adjust the rate of VAT that you pay, unless you’ve already paid in full before the change in the rate of VAT takes effect.
      3. Some of our services are performed on a fixed rate basis and some are calculated based on the time we spend performing the services. It’s important to note that we don’t always know how much work will be involved in performing the services on your vehicle until we have a chance to inspect and test it, for example we may have to remove aftermarket parts such as tuning boxes before we can safely carry out our work. Details of which type of pricing applies to different services are available on our website. Where we are charging on a time spent basis, we will charge for each hour we spend performing the services at the rate specified on our website. Where the services are charged on an hourly basis, we round up to the next hour. 
      4. Sometimes we may consider that it’s necessary to carry out diagnostic services and/or data logging services in addition to tuning services. By booking for our tuning services, you accept that we will use our professional judgement when deciding whether these other services are necessary and agree to pay for these additional services on a time spent basis, with a minimum charge of £60. Please note that after initial diagnostic services and/or data logging services have been carried out, we may decide that we cannot provide the tuning services because we don’t consider that they are suitable for the vehicle. We will base this assessment solely on the results of our own diagnostic services and/or data logging services and will not examine the parts of the vehicle. We are not mechanics and will not be aware of problems with the vehicle which could only be discovered by a mechanic and/or if there are certain underlying, asymptomatic issues that a vehicle may have developed in its lifetime that we are unable to detect via our datalogging services. We, therefore, may not be aware of specific vehicle issues, even after carrying out our datalogging services.
      5. Prices for our services may change at any time. Except as set out in clause 6.6 below, such changes won’t affect existing orders.
      6. If there has been an error on our website regarding the pricing of any of our services and this affects your order, we will try to contact you using the contact details you provided when you placed your order. We will give you the option to re-confirm your order at the correct price or to cancel your order. If we are unable to contact you, we will treat the order as cancelled and notify you by email.
      7. If we are providing dynamometer services to you, and you bring the vehicle in without a full tank of premium fuel, we can (as we say in clauses 5.2 and 5.3 above) choose to cancel the contract. Alternatively, we may choose to fill the vehicle with fuel ourselves and charge the cost of the fuel to you, as well as charging for the time spent filling the vehicle with fuel.
      8. It is your responsibility to ensure that your vehicle doesn’t have a fluid leak (oil, coolant or fuel) when you bring it to us for the services to be performed on it. If it does have a fluid leak and it leaks on the dynamometer or elsewhere on our premises, we will charge you for the cost of cleaning up the dynamometer or other area on a time spent basis. 

 

  • Payment

 

      1. We accept all major credit cards and debit cards. All credit card and debit card payments need to be authorised by the relevant card issuer. 
      2. We’ll do all that we reasonably can to ensure that all of the information you give us when paying for the services is secure by using an encrypted secure payment mechanism. However, in the absence of negligence on our part, any failure by us to comply with this contract or our Privacy Policy (see clause 2) or breach by us of our duties under applicable laws, we will not be legally responsible to you for any loss that you may suffer if a third party gains unauthorised access to any information that you give us.
      3. We require a booking fee of £60 (Booking Fee) when you place your order, which represents a genuine pre-estimate of loss we are likely to suffer if you cancel a contract beyond a cooling-off period specified in clause 8. If we have agreed to come to you to provide the services, we will also make a minimum call-out charge of £30 in addition to our Booking Fee of £60. This additional charge represents a genuine pre-estimate of the additional loss we are likely to suffer if you cancel the contract beyond the cooling off period.  We will take these payments from your card before we send you your order confirmation email. If the payment is unsuccessful, we will try to contact you using the contact details you provided when you placed your order. If we are unable to contact you, we will cancel your order and notify you by email. 
      4. We will invoice you for the remaining amount after we have completed the services. It must be paid immediately.
      5. If we’re unable to collect any payment you owe us we charge interest on the overdue amount at the rate of 3% a year above the Bank of England base rate from time to time. This interest accrues on a daily basis from the due date until the date of actual payment of the overdue amount, whether before or after judgement. You pay us the interest as well as any overdue amount.
      6. Nothing in this clause affects your legal rights to cancel the contract during the cancellation period as set out in clause 8.

 

  • Your right to cancel

 

    1. You have the right to cancel this contract within 14 days without giving any reason (cooling-off period). We won’t provide any services during the 14-day cancellation period unless you ask us to do so by ticking the relevant box when you place your order on the site or informing us via telephone. We are under no obligation to accept your request.
    2. If you ask us to start providing services during the 14-day cancellation period and we agree to do so, this will impact your cancellation rights as follows:
      1. you lose your right to cancel once the services are fully performed and will not be entitled to a refund even if the cancellation period has not expired;
      2. if the services have not been fully performed, you will be required to pay for the services we provided up to the time that you told us that you want to cancel;
      3. if you don’t contact us to cancel and just fail to turn up for your appointment on the scheduled day, we will keep the Booking Fee.
    3. The cancellation period will expire after 14 days from the day of the conclusion of the contract.
    4. To exercise the right to cancel, you must inform us, GP Tuning Ltd (trading as Phantom Tuning), 44 Singer Way, Kempston, Kent, England, MK42 7AF, 01234 480809, info@phantomsandbox.com of your decision to cancel this contract by a clear statement (e.g. a letter sent by post or e-mail). You may use the model cancellation form below, but it is not obligatory.

Model Cancellation Form

(Complete and return this form only if you wish to withdraw from the contract)

To GP Tuning Ltd (trading as Phantom Tuning of 44 Singer Way, Kempston, Kent, England, MK42 7AF,

I/We [*] hereby give notice that I/We [*] cancel my/our [*] contract of sale of the following goods [*]/for the supply of the following service [*],

Ordered on [*]/received on [*],

Name of consumer(s),

Address of consumer(s),

Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper),

Date

[*] Delete as appropriate

 

  1. If you cancel within the cooling off period, we will provide you with a refund of the Booking Fee as soon as possible and no later than 14 days after the day on which you told us that you want to cancel. If services have been provided during the cancellation period at your request, we will make deductions from any refund due to you as explained in clause 8.2 above but will not charge a fee for issuing the refund itself.
  2. We will issue your refund to the same payment method you used when you placed your order.

 

  • Cancellation after the cooling off period and rearranging your booking

 

      1. If you have booked our services and your cooling off period (clause 8) has run out, we will retain the Booking Fee if you cancel with less than 7 days notice to us. We feel that this is a reasonable amount in order to cover the losses we incur when our customers cancel on short notice.
      2. To cancel your order after the cooling off period, please call us on 01234 480809. To help us process your cancellation more quickly, please have your order number ready.
      3. If you want to rearrange your booking, we can accommodate this on one occasion on at least 1 full business day’s notice during working hours. A business day is Tuesday to Saturday except for public holidays in England and our working hours are 9.00am to 6.00pm If you want to rearrange your booking on less than one full business day’s notice during working hours, we will retain the Booking Fee to cover the losses we incur when our customers rearrange a booking at the last minute. 
      4. We do not allow our customers to reschedule their booking more than once without charging a rescheduling fee. If you ask us to reschedule more than once, we will charge you a rescheduling fee of £60 in addition to the Booking Fee.

 

  • Faulty services and when we are not at fault

 

      1. We must provide the services to you with reasonable care and skill.
      2. We are under a legal duty to supply services that are in conformity with our contract with you.
      3. If a service isn’t carried out with reasonable care and skill, you can ask us to repeat the service or to fix it or get some money back if we can’t fix it.
      4. This is a summary of some of your key rights. They are in addition to your cancellation rights set out in clause 8. For more detailed information on your rights, visit the Citizens Advice website at www.citizensadvice.org.uk or call 0808 223 1133.
      5. If there’s a problem with a service we have provided to you, please contact us as soon as reasonably possible. You must give us the opportunity to inspect the vehicle and carry out tests on it before taking it to anyone else if you think our services were faulty. 
      6. We don’t guarantee that the services will result in a certain level of improvement in the performance of your vehicle or any improvement in performance. Various factors can prevent an improvement in performance in your vehicle (including fuel performance), despite the fact that we have re-turned it, as discussed in clause 4.1 above. The purpose of the tuning service is to change the vehicle’s software to override the manufacturer’s settings to push the car’s components to operate beyond the tolerances built in by the manufacturer so that they operate closer to  “true” tolerance, while still being within that tolerance. You acknowledge and agree that the purpose of the services is to push the vehicle’s components beyond the manufacturer’s original specification and that we are not responsible for any resulting stress which is put on the vehicle’s components.
      7. We don’t charge for time spent on investigating a claim that the services are faulty unless the outcome of our investigation is that we aren’t at fault, in which case we will charge for the data logging/diagnostic services involved at our then current rates.
      8. Where the services include testing which includes running a vehicle (on the dynamometer or otherwise) and/or tuning on the dynamometer, we deliberately run the vehicle at wide-open-throttle to get an accurate reading of torque and power. This puts the vehicle under significant stress and if a component is near failing due to wear and tear, it can completely fail during the performance of these services. We do carry out a general health and safety check on each vehicle before performing these services but we can’t check every part on your vehicle before starting the services (the services would be much, much more expensive to you if we did). As such, we accept no liability for faults which arise in your vehicle as a result of being run or tuned on the dynamometer because such faults do not arise due to our negligence or breach of contract.
      9. The purpose of the services to your drivetrain is to enable you to make the drivetrain on your vehicle work harder by pushing components closer to tolerance than when they left the factory. You accept that you know that this is the case and that having the tuning services performed on your vehicle may cause components in the vehicle to wear out more quickly than they would have done if you hadn’t brought the vehicle to us. Once we’ve performed tuning services for you, it becomes even more important that you keep your vehicle properly maintained. We do not accept responsibility for any faults to components of the vehicle arising after tuning, except where they arise out of our negligence or breach of contract.

 

  • Limitation on our liability

 

      1. We don’t compensate you for all losses caused by us or our services. Our liability to compensate you for any loss or damage is limited to a reasonable amount having regard to such factors as whether the damage was due to a negligent act or omission by us. We’re responsible for losses you suffer caused by us breaking this contract up to that amount unless the loss is: 
        1. Unexpected. It was not obvious that it would happen and nothing you said to us before we accepted your order meant that we should have expected it (so, in the law, the loss was unforeseeable);
        2. Caused by a delaying event outside of our control. As long as we have taken the steps set out in the section, we’re not responsible for delays outside our control;
        3. Your fault or due to a fault in your vehicle which was not caused by our negligence. 
        4. Avoidable. Something you could have avoided by taking reasonable action, including following our reasonable instructions; 
        5. The fault of someone else. Something which has been caused by someone else unconnected with the provision of the services under the contract, such as your mechanic; or
        6. A business loss. It relates to your use of the services for the purposes of your trade, business, craft or profession.
      2. Modifications outside of the manufacturer’s warranty. You acknowledge that the services may invalidate your warranty or guarantee from the manufacturer of your vehicle and/or parts and that you expressly want us to perform the services despite that. 
      3. Unlawful use. If any alteration to a vehicle doesn’t conform with domestic / European legislation, then that means the vehicle can only be used off road. We bear no responsibility for any unlawful driving or whether the vehicle is deemed unroadworthy after performing the services at your request. You should check manufacturer’s guidance and your insurance policy.
      4. Telling your insurer. You must tell your insurer straight away when our services make any modification to your vehicle.

 

  • Third party rights

 

This contract us between you and us. No one else can enforce it and neither of us will need to ask anybody else to sign-off on ending or changing it. 

 

  • Disputes

 

      1. We will try to resolve any disputes with you quickly and efficiently. If you are unhappy with the services we have provided or any other matter, please contact us as soon as possible using the contact details set out at the top of this page. 
      2. Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is a means of settling disputes without resorting to the courts. The advantages to ADR are that it is often quicker and cheaper than going to court. An independent body considers the facts of a dispute and seeks to resolve it. You aren’t obliged to use ADR and can always take court proceedings. You can submit a complaint to The Motor Ombudsman through their website at https://www.themotorombudsman.org/ and if you’re not satisfied with the outcome you can still go to court.

 

  • Governing law and jurisdiction

 

      1. The laws of England and Wales apply to this contract, although if you are resident elsewhere you will retain the benefit of any mandatory protections given to you by the laws of that country.
      2. If you are unhappy with the services we provide, we hope you will discuss any problems or issues with us first or try ADR. If you wish, you may, at any time, take court proceedings. Any disputes will be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales. This means that you can choose whether to bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales or in the courts of another part of the UK in which you live.

 

  • General terms

 

    1. You are not allowed to transfer your rights under these terms to anyone without our prior written consent. We may transfer our rights under these terms to another business without your consent, but we will notify you of the transfer and make sure that your rights are not adversely affected as a result.
    2. If a court or other authority decides that some of these terms are unlawful, the rest will continue to apply. 
    3. Even if we delay in enforcing this contract, we can still enforce it later. We might not immediately chase you for not doing something (like paying) or for doing something you’re not allowed to but that doesn’t mean we can’t do it later.