These terms apply to the VIP Grooming Membership provided by Katie’s Dog Grooming Ltd or Katie’s Dog Grooming Ltd, depending on the salon shown on your booking confirmation. In these terms, we refer to the relevant business as “the Salon”.

Please read these terms carefully before joining. They explain how your monthly payments, appointments, cancellations and membership benefits work.

1.Your VIP Membership

Your VIP Membership provides regular grooming appointments for the dog, grooming service and appointment frequency shown in your membership confirmation.

Your membership may also include additional VIP benefits, such as a complimentary spa treatment, priority scheduling or other benefits described when you join.

Membership benefits:

• Are for the named dog only.
• Cannot normally be transferred to another dog or customer.
• Have no cash value.
• May only be used while the membership payments are up to date.

All grooming appointments remain subject to the Salon’s usual grooming terms, including terms relating to matting, coat condition, parasites, behaviour, health concerns, late arrival and collection.

More than one dog

A membership may cover more than one dog. Where it does, each dog is priced separately according to its own breed, grooming service and appointment frequency, and the amounts are combined into a single monthly payment. All dogs covered will be named in your membership confirmation.

If you wish to add or remove a dog, the monthly payment will be recalculated in accordance with clause 9. Removing one dog does not end the membership for the others, and benefits remain available only for the dogs named in your confirmation.

2.Rolling membership

Your VIP Membership begins on the agreed start date and continues automatically on a rolling monthly basis.

There is no new fixed minimum term each year. Your membership will continue until either you or the Salon ends it in accordance with these terms.

3.Monthly payments

Your agreed membership payment will be collected each month using your authorised payment method.

The monthly payment is calculated using factors including:

• Your dog’s usual grooming service.
• The agreed interval between appointments.
• The estimated annual cost of maintaining the agreed grooming schedule.
• Any VIP benefits included with your membership.

The monthly payment helps spread the cost of your dog’s ongoing grooming schedule. It is not necessarily payment for one specific appointment taking place within that calendar month. Payment dates and grooming dates may therefore not match exactly.

All prices quoted, including your monthly membership payment, include VAT at the applicable rate. Where the rate of VAT changes, we may adjust prices accordingly and will give you notice in the same way as for any other price change.

Paying by Direct Debit

Membership payments are collected by Direct Debit, processed on our behalf by GoCardless Ltd. When you join, you will be asked to complete a Direct Debit mandate on a secure page hosted by GoCardless. The Salon does not see or store your bank details.

Your first collection will be taken no sooner than the notice period required by the Direct Debit scheme, which is usually around six working days after your mandate is set up. Where the amount or date of a collection changes, you will receive advance notice before it is taken.

Your payments are protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee. If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by the Salon or by your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund from your bank or building society. If you receive a refund you are not entitled to, you must pay it back when the Salon asks you to. You may cancel a Direct Debit at any time by contacting your bank or building society, but please see clause 11 — cancelling the Direct Debit does not by itself cancel your membership.

4.Ongoing appointment scheduling

VIP appointments will be scheduled on an ongoing basis at approximately the agreed interval, for example every four, six, eight or twelve weeks.

We will usually arrange several appointments in advance. Appointment dates may occasionally vary because of:

• Weekends and bank holidays.
• Staff holidays or sickness.
• Salon closures.
• Your groomer’s working pattern.
• Appointment availability.
• Operational or welfare requirements.

Joining the VIP Membership does not guarantee a particular groomer, day or time permanently, although we will make reasonable efforts to maintain your usual arrangement.

Your future appointment schedule will continue unless the Salon confirms a permanent change in writing.

5.Requests to move an appointment

Regular VIP appointment spaces are reserved especially for your dog. Repeatedly moving appointments can disrupt the agreed grooming schedule and may leave appointment spaces that the Salon cannot refill.

You may request an appointment change, but all changes are subject to availability and are not guaranteed. Where you request a change:

• You must provide at least 48 hours’ notice.
• We will make reasonable efforts to offer an alternative appointment.
• The alternative may be on a different day, at a different time or with another suitable groomer.
• The alternative may be earlier or later than your dog’s normal grooming interval.
• Moving one appointment does not automatically move your remaining appointments.
• Your original ongoing schedule will remain in place unless we confirm otherwise.
• Your monthly payment will continue as normal.

We may limit an appointment to one rescheduling request where repeated changes would make the diary difficult to manage.

If we cannot offer a suitable alternative appointment before your next scheduled visit, the appointment may need to be skipped. It will not automatically be carried forward, credited against a future month or added to the end of the membership.

Customers should therefore tell us about holidays or known commitments as early as possible.

6.Late cancellations and missed appointments

Our usual cancellation policy applies to all VIP appointments. We require at least 48 hours’ notice to cancel or change an appointment.

Appointments cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice, missed appointments and no-shows may be treated as used and charged at up to 100% of the normal appointment value, unless we are able to refill the space.

The monthly membership payment will not be refunded, reduced or paused because an appointment was:

• Missed by the customer.
• Cancelled at short notice.
• Unable to go ahead because the customer arrived too late.
• Unable to go ahead because the dog was not presented for the appointment.
• Unable to go ahead because of an undisclosed health, behaviour or welfare concern.

Any charge not covered by the monthly payment may be invoiced separately.

7.Changes made by the Salon

Occasionally, we may need to move or cancel an appointment because of staff sickness, emergencies, salon closure or circumstances outside our reasonable control.

Where the Salon needs to make a change, we will provide as much notice as reasonably possible and offer an alternative appointment.

An appointment cancelled by the Salon will not be treated as a missed appointment by the customer. Where we cannot provide a reasonable alternative, we will apply an appropriate credit, refund or adjustment.

8.Grooming requirements and additional charges

Your membership price is based on your dog receiving the agreed service at the agreed interval and arriving in a reasonably maintained condition.

Additional charges may apply where extra time, products or staff are required because of:

• Matting or excessive coat growth.
• Fleas or other parasites.
• Significant weight or size changes.
• Difficult or unsafe behaviour.
• Poor coat condition.
• A change in the service requested.
• The dog going significantly longer than the agreed grooming interval.
• Additional services or treatments requested by the customer.

Where reasonably possible, we will explain any additional charges before completing the work.

9.Changing the grooming frequency or service

A change to your dog’s service or grooming frequency may require the monthly membership payment to be recalculated. This may include changing:

• The number of weeks between appointments.
• The type of groom provided.
• The dog or dogs included in the membership.
• The amount of grooming time required.

Any permanent change must be confirmed by the Salon. Appointment changes requested by the customer do not automatically change the agreed membership frequency or monthly payment.

10.Annual price review

VIP Membership prices are normally reviewed once each year in April. Prices may be changed to reflect reasonable changes in the cost of providing our services, including changes to:

• Staff wages and employment costs.
• Rent, utilities and insurance.
• Grooming products and equipment.
• Booking and payment processing costs.
• Taxes and other direct business costs.
• The time or resources required to groom your dog.

We will provide at least 14 days’ written notice before a general membership price change takes effect. The notice will explain the new monthly price and the date it will begin.

If you do not wish to accept an increase, you may give notice to cancel before the new price takes effect. Your normal 30-day cancellation notice will still apply, but you will remain on your previous membership price during that notice period.

If you continue the membership after the new price takes effect without providing cancellation notice, the new price will apply.

Appointment-specific charges caused by matting, behaviour, coat condition or additional services are not part of the annual price review and may be charged when they arise.

11.Cancelling your membership

You may cancel your VIP Membership at any time by providing at least 30 days’ written notice. Cancellation requests should be sent by email, through our booking system or by another written method accepted by the Salon. The notice period begins when the Salon receives your cancellation request.

During the 30-day notice period:

• Your membership remains active.
• Membership payments falling due remain payable.
• Your existing appointments remain booked unless cancelled separately.
• The normal appointment cancellation policy continues to apply.

12.Final account and outstanding balances

Because monthly payments spread the cost of an ongoing grooming schedule, your account may not be exactly balanced on the date your membership ends.

When your membership is cancelled, we may reconcile:

• Payments received.
• Grooming services already provided.
• Payments due during the notice period.
• Late cancellation or missed appointment charges.
• Additional grooming services or agreed extras.
• Any other properly due amount.

Any outstanding balance will be invoiced and must be paid within seven days of the invoice date.

We will not invoice you for future grooming services that will not be supplied after the membership ends.

Where the reconciliation identifies a genuine overpayment for services not supplied, we will provide an appropriate refund or account credit. This does not include appointments treated as used under the late cancellation, missed appointment or customer-requested change terms.

Future appointments taking place after the membership end date will be removed unless separately booked at the Salon’s standard price.

13.Failed or overdue payments

If a payment fails or becomes overdue, we may:

• Contact you to request payment.
• Retry the authorised payment method.
• Suspend VIP benefits.
• Place future appointments on hold.
• Require payment before carrying out further services.
• Invoice any amount properly due.

Continued payment failure may result in the membership being cancelled. You remain responsible for charges properly incurred before the membership ends.

14.Cancellation by the Salon

The Salon may end your membership by providing 30 days’ written notice.

We may suspend or end the membership sooner where there are serious grounds, including:

• Repeated failed or overdue payments.
• Repeated missed or late-cancelled appointments.
• Abusive, threatening or inappropriate behaviour towards staff.
• Deliberate misuse of the membership.
• Providing false or misleading information.
• The dog presenting a serious or repeated safety risk.
• A veterinary or welfare concern that means continued grooming would be unsafe.
• Circumstances that make it impossible for us to continue providing the agreed service.

Where the customer is not at fault, we will reconcile the account and refund any genuine payment for services that will not be provided.

15.Cooling-off period

You may cancel a new VIP Membership within 14 days of joining by notifying the Salon.

Where you have asked us to begin providing grooming services during that period, you will remain responsible for the reasonable value of any services already provided before cancellation.

Any refund due will take account of services and benefits already supplied.

16.Communication

We may send membership information, appointment confirmations, price notices and other important updates by email, text message, our booking system, or letter.

You are responsible for keeping your contact details up to date and checking communications relating to your appointments and membership.

17.Changes to these terms

We may occasionally update these terms to reflect changes in the law, our booking systems or the way the membership operates. We will provide reasonable notice of any significant change.

If a significant change materially disadvantages you, you may cancel the membership without being required to pay the changed price or accept the changed term during your cancellation notice period.

18.How we use your information

When you apply for VIP Membership we collect your name, contact details, address, and information about your dog including breed, age, coat condition and any health or behaviour notes you give us.

We use this information to work out your membership price, manage your appointments and payments, keep proper grooming records, and contact you about your membership. Our lawful basis for this is the performance of our contract with you, and our legitimate interest in running the Salon safely and keeping accurate records.

We share your details with:

• GoCardless Ltd, who process your Direct Debit payments.
• MoeGo, our booking and salon management system.
• Our accountants, and HMRC where we are required to.

We do not sell your information, and we only send marketing where you have separately consented. You can withdraw that consent at any time.

We keep membership records for six years after your membership ends, to meet our accounting and tax obligations. You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, to have it corrected, and in some circumstances to have it erased or restricted. To make a request, or if you have a concern, contact us on the details below. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk.

19.Your legal rights

Nothing in these terms limits or removes your statutory consumer rights.

If any part of these terms is found to be invalid or unenforceable, the remaining terms will continue to apply.

These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales. Customers retain the right to bring proceedings in any court available to them under applicable consumer law.