Terms of sale

1. Who we are

Remarkable Lives is a trading name of Leonardo English AB, a Swedish limited company (aktiebolag), organisation number 559484-2857, registered at Wrangelsgatan 4 B, 416 62 Gothenburg, Sweden. VAT number SE559484285701. You can reach us at alastair@remarkablelives.co, and we reply within two working days.

In these terms, "you" means the person who buys the portrait. "The subject" means the person whose life the portrait tells. You may be the same person.

2. What a portrait includes

For the price shown when you order, we provide:

• a private online space where the subject, you and your family send answers, photographs, voice notes and papers before we speak;
• four conversations of about 45 minutes each with the subject, on a video call on Zoom, or by phone if that is easier, usually two a week over two weeks, and a review call of about 45 minutes once the subject has read a preview;
• a portrait of the subject, a selection of the stories that matter to them, in chapters built from their own words, with photographs, short recordings of their voice that they have approved, and notes on the places and years they lived through;
• the portrait as a private page on remarkablelives.co, at an address that is hard to guess, shared by link with the people you and the subject choose, protected by a simple family password (one shared password for the portrait, chosen with the family keeper), and not listed in search engines;
• hosting of that page at no charge, open to new memories from the family, for as long as we exist and for at least 10 years from delivery (section 11);
• one printed copy of the portrait as a book, with small codes that play the approved recordings (section 9);
• a full download of the portrait at any time, including the text, photographs and approved recordings.

Additional printed copies are $50 each (section 9).

3. Price and payment

Prices are shown in pounds sterling for UK visitors and in US dollars for everyone else, and include any VAT we are required to charge. The introductory price is $2,650.

If the portrait is for you, you pay half the price when you book and the other half when the portrait is delivered. If you are buying it for someone else, as a gift, you pay the full price when you book. Payments are taken by Stripe, and we send a receipt by email each time.

4. Timeline

A portrait takes about eight weeks from the day the subject's online space opens:

• weeks 1 and 2: answers, photographs and family questions;
• weeks 3 and 4: the four conversations;
• weeks 5 to 7: we prepare the portrait, the subject reads a preview, and we hold the review call;
• around week 8: the portrait is delivered.

These times are estimates. Some families need longer, and we will always tell you if we expect a delay of more than two weeks.

5. Rescheduling

Conversations can be moved free of charge with 24 hours' notice, and we will be understanding about illness and family events at shorter notice. If we need to move a conversation, we will offer another time within the same week where we can. If the conversations cannot be finished within six months of the first one, we will agree with you either to carry on, or to stop under section 6.

6. If the portrait stops

The portrait depends on the subject's agreement, and they can stop at any time without giving a reason.

• Before the first conversation: if the portrait stops for any reason, we refund everything you have paid.
• After the first conversation: we keep the first half of the price and the second half is not due. If the full price was paid upfront as a gift, we refund half.
• We have no obligation to deliver a partial or shorter portrait.

We may also decide not to go ahead, for example if we think the subject is not comfortable or does not understand what they agreed to. If so, we refund the part of the price for work not yet done.

7. Your right to cancel within 14 days

If you live in the UK, the European Union or Sweden, you have a legal right to cancel this contract within 14 days of the day you made it, without giving a reason. Customers elsewhere get the same right from us. To cancel, email alastair@remarkablelives.co with your name, the order and the date. You can use the model form at the end of these terms, but you do not have to.

Most families want the online space to open straight away. We can only do that if you ask us to. If you ask us to start within the 14 days and then cancel, we refund what you paid less a proportionate amount for the work done up to then. If you do not ask, we open the online space on day 15. Once the subject has approved the final proof, a printed book is made to order and cannot be cancelled, though section 9 still covers faults. We refund using the method you paid with, within 14 days of your cancellation.

8. Paying in two halves, and gifts

• If the portrait is for you, the first half reserves it and is paid when you book. The second half is due when the portrait is delivered.
• Gifts. When you buy a portrait for someone else, you pay the full price when you book, and we send you a gift card as a PDF to give them. We do not sell gift vouchers as a separate product.
• If the person says no. If the subject decides not to take part before the first conversation, you can choose someone else, or ask for a full refund.

9. The printed book

• Price. One printed copy is included. Additional copies are $50 each, and can be ordered at any time.
• Proof. Before printing, the subject receives the final proof, including the list of recordings the book links to, and approves it in writing. We print only what was approved.
• Making and delivery. Books are printed to order by a specialist printer, usually the one nearest the delivery address, and sent from there. We tell you the expected delivery date when the proof is approved. Delivery outside the printer's country may carry import duties, and we will tell you before ordering if we expect them.
• Faults. If a book arrives damaged or with a printing fault, such as missing pages, poor binding or colours clearly different from the approved proof, send us a photograph within 30 days and we will replace it at no cost. This does not affect your legal rights for faulty goods.
• Errors in approved text. We reprint at cost if something approved in the proof needs correcting. We correct our own mistakes at no cost.

10. Who owns the portrait

• The subject's words are theirs. Recording or editing them does not change that.
• Photographs, letters and recordings the family sends stay with whoever owns them. You confirm you are entitled to send them for this purpose.
• The family's use. The subject and the family may read, download, print, copy and share the portrait for private and family purposes, including reading it at family gatherings and memorials, for as long as they like.
• Images we sourced. Archive pictures in the portrait come with their own licences, listed in the picture credits. The family may use them as part of the portrait.
• Our use. We use the material only to make, host, print and deliver this portrait. We will not use any part of a portrait, including quotations, recordings or photographs, to promote our work unless the subject has agreed in writing to that specific use, and they can withdraw that agreement at any time for future use.

11. After delivery: keeping the portrait online

• No yearly fee. The portrait stays online at no charge for as long as we exist, and for at least 10 years from delivery, visible and linkable by the family. The family can add memories and voice messages, subject to the subject's approval.
• The family keeper. When you order, we name a family keeper, by default the person who paid. The keeper can manage who has the link and the family password, add memories and download everything. We will not delete the portrait without the keeper's agreement.
• Taking the portrait down. The subject can ask us to take the portrait down after delivery, and we will, with no refund.
• The full download of text, photographs and approved recordings is available at all times.
• If we close. If we ever stop trading, we will give at least six months' notice where we can, and send every family a complete download and a self-contained copy of their portrait page that works without us.
• Who decides. The subject decides who can see the portrait and what is added; the family keeper manages the link day to day. Either can ask us to change the keeper.

12. Recordings linked from the printed book

Each small code in a printed book points to a short address on remarkablelives.co that plays one approved recording. These addresses are kept separately from the portrait and always play the recording. If we close, we will keep the domain and these pages paid for at least 10 years, or pass them to a successor who agrees to the same promise. The recordings are also included in every family's download.

13. Our responsibility to you

• We will make the portrait with reasonable care and skill, check facts against what the subject and family tell us, and use only pictures we have the right to use.
• The portrait is the subject's account, in their own words. We do not guarantee that everything they remember is accurate, and we are not responsible for the content of what they or the family send us.
• We keep your material securely, with backups. Please send copies and keep your originals; we never need original photographs or documents posted to us.
• Our total responsibility to you for any loss arising from this contract is limited to the price you paid. We are not responsible for losses we could not reasonably have foreseen, or for business losses.
• Nothing in these terms limits our responsibility for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else the law does not allow us to limit, and nothing affects your statutory rights.

14. Complaints

Please tell us first at alastair@remarkablelives.co, and we will reply within five working days. If we cannot settle it, consumers in the EU can bring a complaint to the Swedish National Board for Consumer Disputes (Allmänna reklamationsnämnden, ARN, arn.se), and we will take part.

15. Law and courts

These terms are governed by Swedish law. If you are a consumer, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of the country where you live, and you can bring proceedings in the courts there.

16. Changes to these terms

The terms in force when you order are the ones that govern your order. We will give at least 60 days' notice of changes that affect hosting.

Model cancellation form

To Leonardo English AB, Remarkable Lives, Wrangelsgatan 4 B, 416 62 Gothenburg, Sweden, alastair@remarkablelives.co: I hereby give notice that I cancel my contract for the following service: a Remarkable Lives portrait, ordered on [date]. Name: [name]. Address: [address]. Date: [date]. Signature (only if sent on paper).