How to use this shop

AOL users may experience difficulty if the site is accessed from within the AOL window: to avoid this, simply minimise the AOL window and start the Internet Explorer browser supplied with your AOL software so that it is running in a seperate window outside the AOL window, then access the site from within this independent Explorer window.

1. Unless you were presented with additional information during the loading of the shop, advising you that your computer/browser will only permit browsing, rather than full shopping, then you are able to shop on-line. If yours was one of the few systems which cannot use the shop interactively, then please feel free to e-mail your order to us and we will advise total cost and shipping cost by return. Do remember to include your full postal delivery address and return e-mail address if sending an order by e-mail.

2. On the shopping pages you will generally find one or more 'order' buttons such as:
   

   In a few cases, the item is added to the shopping basket by clicking on a hypertext link which will appear something like: Order this product now. Click on whichever of these is available to add a product to your basket.

3. Whenever you add a product to your basket, a pop-up will appear with details of your purchase. You can see the current contents of your basket at any time by pressing one of the Review Basket buttons
   

   The appearance of the pop-up confirms that the product has been added to your basket. On the Review page it is also possible to remove an item from your basket (click on the 'remove' checkbox at the right of the line against the item you no longer require) or, in most cases, amend the quantity of an item that you order (click the quantity box to select the value displayed and type in the new value you require; click anywhere outside the printed page area to implement these changes). If such changes are not appropriate, for example where special prices have been offered for quantity purchases, you may not be able to change the quantity or remove an item except by emptying the basket.

   At the top of the Review page is a line of buttons which give you choices of action from this point. The most used is the "Continue Shopping"

   

   button which returns you to the page from which you ordered the last item added to the basket.

   You may also return to the entrance to the shop - the first page - by pressing the button

   

   If you have now selected everything that you wish to purchase on this visit to The Heraldry Store, then the next stage is to 'check out'. To do this, press the button

   

   Then follow the instructions from 4 below.

   Before going to the cashier, you may wish to check out our terms and conditions of trade - indeed, you will not be allowed to pay for your purchases by credit or debit card unless you have looked at and agreed to them - which can be seen by pressing the button

   

   It may be that you decide that you have made some poor shopping choices and you now wish to empty your basket and start over again. If this is the case, press the button

   

4. Once you are ready to pay, you are transferred to the Cashier page, where you are asked to enter your personal details to enable us to post or ship the goods to you and for you to effect payment. Note that prompts for all inputs appear in the field in the bottom left hand corner of the screen window.

   Firstly, you may enter a Purchase Order number, if this is a business order, or a personal reference number for this order, which will appear on all communications regarding the order. If you do not enter a value, the system will assign a unique order reference automatically. To move from field to field, use the key on your keyboard, or click on the field into which you wish to enter information. Unless yours is a commercial organisation, you can ignore the Company Name field. Take care when entering your name and postal address: if you are paying by credit or debit card, this must be the name and address to which the card is registered. Unless you enter a second specific delivery address, this address will also be used as the delivery address. Make sure that you pick the correct location/delivery location country from the dropdown box(es) since this value is used in calculating postal and shipping costs and will be the final line of your delivery address. The Post/Zip code is used in payment validation and should be entered if you have such a code.

   European Union (EU) customers are charged VAT at the UK rate (17.5%) on their purchases, unless they are VAT registered. VAT registered EU customers should neter their VAT registration number, including the national prefix (e.g. FR/BE/DE/GR etc.) in the box provided so that goods can be supplied VAT-free.

   Finally, if you wish to convey any additional information regarding your order, please enter this in the box marked "Additional Information" at the bottom of the page (you may have to scroll the page down to see this). If you wish to amend any of the data entered, simply click within the required field and make the amendments.

   At this stage you should be ready to move on to the actual payment process. Should you wish to return to check the shopping basket contents on the Review page, now is the time to press the

   

   button in the right-hand corner of the page. Most likely though, all is well and you need to press the button to allow you to move on to the final stage of placing your order:

   

5. The final payment page shows a summary of your order with final pricing, including postage/shipping ocsts and any applicable UK taxes (EU customers only). Once you are satisfied that your order is correct, select a payment method from the drop-down menu headed "Please choose PAYMENT METHOD". If there is a merchant service provider's icon showing to the right of the drop-down menu, this indicates that you can choose to pay by credit card through the service provider's server. In this case, you may simply click on the icon to proceed to payment, following the instructions in paragraph 6 below. Otherwise, choose the payment method and click on the "Send Order Now" button to submit your order. This will generate an e-mail to you - if you entered your e-mail address correctly - and submit your order to The Heraldry Store. You should receive an e-mail confirmation of your order within a few minutes. The e-mail will also contain notes/instructions to you regarding any action you need to take to complete payment for the goods. Your order will have a reference number which should be quoted in any correspondence and with your payment. If you have entered insufficient data to allow the order to be paid for using the chosen method, a prompt will appear in the bottom left corner of the page. You can then use the
   

   button to go back and fill in the missing data. If you are unsure about the contents of your basket and want to make changes, even at this late stage, you can press

   

   Unless paying by merchant services provider, go to paragraph 7 now.

6. If paying by merchant services provider (in this case, NetBanx), either click on the icon
   

   or select the 'credit card by secure server' option from the drop-down menu. This will transfer you to the secure site after you have agreed to transferring to a secure site - dependent upon your browser set-up. On the secure payments page you need to enter your credit card number and its expiry date using the fields and drop-downs provided. If your card is a Switch card, then the 'valid from' and issue number fields will also need completing. Once you are happy with the details you have entered, press the SUBMIT button once only. The screen will turn grey to indicate that the transaction is in progress and upon completion you will be presented with a screen reporting the conclusion of the transaction. You may close the report window.

7. At this stage your browser will show a window showing the address to which the order e-mail was sent and giving the option of leaving the store or returning to the shop entrance to do it all again! Press the appropriate button to make your choice:
   

8. The final screen is simply a Thank You to confirm you are out of the store. At this stage you may disconnect from the Internet, unless you have other browsing to do. Your goods will be despatched as soon as we receive cleared payment - this is normally immediate in the case of orders paid for using a secure credit card transaction service.

Should you experience any problems in using this on-line shop, we would really appreciate being told. It is only by understanding the real-life experiences of users of the system that we can improve it and eliminate any problems that may be present in the software. Thank you for your help.

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