Terms

Terms of buying at STC.

We are pleased to welcome you as a customer of plants produced by STC.
Please read carefully all instructions and terms below as these are the conditions you agree with once you place an order with us or place a bid in our plant auction or buy fixed priced special plants.

STC will handle each order strictly according to these terms and conditions and we will do all our best to satisfy you as our customer.

Terms and conditions webshop.


  1. All orders will be accepted in terms of value of the order; there is no minimum order value.
  2. All prices are in EUROS
  3. All prices are included 9% VAT for private persons.  After 1 July 2021 the EU decided to calculate each countries different VAT within the EU depending on their own rate!
    Orders made by a European (EU) company that provide us their VAT number will not be charged VAT.

  4. In general the STC-webshop is open all year around but we close our webshop on a regular base. We do not ship cold-sensitive plants during the winter time. Before ordering such an item please send us an email and we will inform you what would be the best time of year for shipment. The customer should be aware of the fact that if the customer still wants plants to be shipped during cold seasons the shipment is always on the risk of the customer
  5. Please when ordering give us your full mail address and telephone number as this is the address we ship the plants to.
    It happens that parcels are sent back to us -for which we pay 35 euros return costs- for reasons like: unknown address, not at home, no answer to the door etc.
    STC is not responsible for non-delivery in that case and will not be able to refund as we did our duty in shipping the plants.
    In the event you can expect not to be at home you may provide us with another shipping address of a person /company that can receive your parcel.
    We must apologize on forehand but each country has different regulations about delivery; normally they should leave a written message at your door but in some countries this is not the case and they simply send back the parcel to us and this results in strongly etiolated, almost dead plants being returned.

  6. All orders must be paid in advance using one of the options that you will see once leaving the shop; these options are:

    Banc draft on our banc account number
    Name of account: Succulent Tissue Culture 
    IBAN:    NL44RABO0333642112
    BIC(SWIFT):            RABONL2U
    Address-information of the banc:
    RABOBANK
    Livingstoneweg 13
    4462GL GOES
    The Netherlands
    We don't charge any costs for this.

    TransferWise
    Use the information above and our emailaddress info@succulent-tissue-culture.com  You can have a look at www.transferwise.com for more details.

    Mollie
    Please have a look at www.mollie.com ; you can use many payment options but NOT paypal; we have cancelled paypal.
    Upon request we make a final invoice after you have totally finished shopping including won items and we send you an URL-link through which you can pay including mastercard and visacard and some other cards as well as many other options.
    Credit card payments are only possible within the EU or outside the EU when a fytosanitary certificate is included and all official paperwork is included like permits. If the buyer does not want this certificate to be included he/she can only pay through direct banc transfer, not through credit card.


    WE STOPPED USING Using Paypal due to fraudulent withdraws from theft-ex-clients. We also don't accept credit cards when shipments are made outside the EU without fytosanitary certificate even if the client says he doesn't need it for his/her country.







  7. VAT number of STC is NL001916612B75 (new)
  8. Chamber of Commerce number of STC is 22037246
  9. NAK-Tuinbouw registration number: 64155
  10. We will only start handling your order after receipt of your payment. For postage and packing we will charge the following costs; These costs will be automatically calculated when you place your order.
    At the end of your order you will automatically see the shipping options you can choose from including the terms under which we can ship it. It ranges sometimes from the cheapest shipment option (simple PostNL by airmail) until more advanced and expensive options. Note that not all options are possible to each country! Once you finish your order you will see what options we can offer for your country.

    Postage rates per 01-01-2021 for parcels up to 2 kilogram (heavier parcels will be recalculated).
    We have stopped to use FedEx as a shipping option due to extrme high costs and poor service. We now only use PosNL.
                       


    Insurance based upon the invoice price attached in the parcel,  is only valid if shipment is accompanied by necessary papers and/or import papers. Responsability lies with the client.
    In no case STC can guarantee specific delivery transit time frames for shipments with Post. These can be (very) long. In no way STC is responsible for late arrival and plant loss due to late arrival.

    Shipments by Post track just get a track code, no claims are possible. This is the cheapest and also poorest system in which you cannot claim to us anything; non-arrival, late arrival, dead plants or anything. We will waive emails claiming such. Post.nl is the only Postal service we can use and they will not even answer any claims when the parcels are send only track & trace.
    In some cases we can try to make a claim after 2 months of non-arrival but only in the EU or outside EU if all necessary documents were included, like a fytosanitary certificate.



    Shipments by post insured (max 30% of invoice value) have to be signed for, no claim is possible within 2 months after shipment; only if a shipment (with proper papers) never arrives at all, and if the customer is allowed to import plants, an insurance claim might be possible for 30% of invoice value with a max of euro 200. The insurance amount has to be filled in on the form. This service is only possible when ALL PROPER DOCUMENTS are included and even than only if after 2 months nothing arrives. Even the arrival of dead plants cannot be insured !!




    In all cases as described above the responsability for STC ends when we hand over the shipment to the Post. In no way STC can be hold responsible for any loss, in plants or financially, due to late Postal arrival, confiscation, custom delays, forbidden plants or any reason STC cannot know and did not know prior to the shipment.
    It is the customers duty to inform STC on forehand and it is the full customers responsability to decide to ship with or without specific documents.

    We advice customers who are not sure what documents are necessary to get information from their local customs. This is not the responsability of STC.

    Of all major shipments STC makes a full photograph series of the plants during packing for transport to be able to show you the plants quality when we post it. Also we will make pictures of the packing, the parcel itself, the track shipping form etc. in order to proof we did post the parcel. These pictures will not be shared to you automatically but will only be shared in case a dispute occurs about the plant & packing quality or to proof to the customer how we packed and that we shipped. Please do not ask us for these pictures.



We CANNOT send parcels with EMS (except Japan where the Dutch post sometimes (not always) changes the service towards a EMS number) from the Netherlands, some parcels are automatically changed into an EMS shipment; we have no control over that !!



  1. Track & Trace:

    Shipping with the Post:

    Orders sent with Post NL (not basic) get a barcode. 

    In case you receive an automatic email from STC with this code (3SXXXXXX or CCXXXXXNL) you can follow it on the following website from the Post:

    https://www.internationalparceltracking.com/#/search

    In the upper right corner you can choose several languages.

    Select the country of destination (your country)

    Type in your postal code (if necessary)

    Type in the tracking number

    Click on: locate parcel

    IMPORTANT !! Many countries do NOT support this tracking system. Shipments are than only labelled: sent to country of destination. From there on we and Post NL cannot do anything. Please be aware of that !!



    type in the BARCODE , select: INTERNATIONAL, DO NOT type in a zipcode !! and then click on search.

    Some countries support this system, but not all !! Also be aware of the fact that information can be delayed as only in the evenings Post NL gets the scanned information back.


    We advice you to follow either system to trace your order, it will be a:
    3S... code Post Europe

    CC or CD... code Post Rest of the World
    Track & Trace doesn't work in many (non)-EU countries !!.


  2. Delivery time:
    Normally the whole process after receipt of payment of getting orders shipped is 2-3 weeks for orders within the EU and 2-4 weeks for orders outside the EU.
    In the last case we are depending on the time schedules of the phytosanitary inspectors to come by and this may cause some delay in certain shipments. In general a shipment outside the EU with a phytosanitary certificate might take a minimum of 3 weeks or more. This is also caused by the fact that we first have to wash the plants prior to the inspection and then let them dry very good in order to pack a dry plant and not a wet plant. As you can imagine this takes time but improves the quality of shipping a dry succulent plant instead of a wet plant in a tissue paper.
  3. Fytosanitary certificates:
    Within the EU these documents are not necessary.
    This includes the following countries only: (EU-1/3) Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus (only Greek part), Denmark (excluding Far Oer), Germany, Estonia, Finland, France (including Monaco, excl. Andorra), Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy (excl. San Marino), Lithuania, Latvia, Luxemburg, Malta, The Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal (incl. Madeira and Acores), Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain (excl. Canary Islands), Czech republic, Until 31-12-2020 United Kingdom (excl. Gibraltar and Channel Islands), Sweden, Finland.
    Please note that from 1-1-2021 the UK does not belong to the EU anymore and needs a fytosanitary certificate!!
    All CITES plants can also be shipped without CITES papers to these countries.
  4. Note that all other countries (except Switzerland), even if they are inside Europe but NOT inside EU, need a phytosanitary certificate. This also include the United Kingdom starting on 1-1-2021!!  A phytosanitary certificate costs euro 95,= per shipment (after 15 year keeping the price reasonable we had to decide to increase it as the costs for us are much higher actually), no matter the amount of plants. So it might be wise to combine orders to save of these costs.
    In case you believe your country  does not need a fytosanitary certificate and is outside the EU you can delete the fyto option but this is your own personal responsability, payment can only made by banc in that case, please contact us before placing an order by sending an email to: info@succulent-tissue-culture.com If you believe a fytosanitary certificate is not necessary in a shipment to you you take full responsability and STC will in no way accepts any claims, complaints whatsoever if the parcel never arrives or arrives late with dead plants. We do NEVER accept parcels which are send back to us so we also will not be able/willing to re-ship it.

  5. Exception to 4. above: To Switzerland we can ship to our customers non-CITES plants without fytosanitairy certificate. This means that we can ship all plants except groups like Aloe, Euphorbia, Cactaceae etc. which are either listed CITES app. I, II or III. Please check www.cites.org to see the current list of all CITES plants.
  6. Exception to 4. above: To Norway we can ship parcels of max 5 "pot"plants without fytosanitary certificate (NON-CITES plants).
    Norwegian customers should check and ask their ministery of agriculture first if this rule is still valid
  7. Exception to 4. above: It seems South-Korea excepts small parcels with less than 10 ornamental, accepted plants with no fytosanitary certificate. If you are in South-Korea, please see if this is still valid. If so, we can ship up to 10 plants without fyto, or split bigger orders into parcels of max 9 plants. Please write us before you place an order. Customers in South-Korea are still responsible themselves for this rule; please ask your ministery of Agriculture before you order !

  8. Customers outside the EU need a phytosanitairy certificate (mostly always) and , in some cases they need to send us their import permit when it is necessary in their country (China, Taiwan, USA, Israel, Canada etc.). A Phytosanitary certificate costs euro 95,= per shipment.
    It is the customers duty to inform STC about specific coutry regulations (import permits) on the import of plants.
    Special requests from customers outside the EU concerning phytosanitairy documents can be made prior to ordering by sending us an email. STC is not able to write down extra sentences on the fyto; for this a so-called IVI form has to be filled in by us and this costs euro 160,= per fyto.
    In case your country does not need fytosanitary certificates, please inform us by writing an email to: info@succulent-tissue-culture.com before placing an order or bidding in the auction.
  9. CITES certificates cannot be provided due to the high costs involved and long waiting times. CITES plants are labelled in the shop and if ordered outside the EU these items will be cancelled from the order; you will get an error and the order is cancelled.
    There is an exception for a limited number of plants:
    Plants belonging to CITES app. 2 from the following groups can be exported with notification on the phytosanitairy certificate that these were artificially propagated as defined by CITES.
    This counts for the following groups only:
    Aloe spp.

    Euphorbia spp.
    But only appendix. 2 plants, in no way appendix 1 plants !

  10. NO EXPORT COUNTRIES.
    Due to the extreme costly and very long and strict control issues, phytosanitary issues etc. issued by some countries,  we can no longer export any plants to the following list of countries:
    In case you still want us to export plants to these countries, please contact us before making an order by sending us an email to info@succulent-tissue-culture.com 
     


    Taiwan: In some cases we are able to ship to Taiwan again, but only with a valid import permit and as is demanded by Taiwanese government cutting off of all haworthia roots. Please contact us if you are from Taiwan and want to buy and import and can agree with these regulations.

    China: No export to China


    Australia: no export, also no in vitro export, impossible regulations

    New Zealand: no export, also no in vitro export, impossible regulations

    Israel:
    Update per may 2014: It seems that shipment of haworthias into Israel does no longer require an import permit, but still a fytosanitary certificate. This would mean we are able to export haworthia's into Israel with just a fytosanitary certificate.
    For Israeli customers: please check at your dept of agriculture.


    Russian Federation :  UPDATE 21-2-2016
    We cannot export to Russia ourselves.
    Please see: http://flowerholland.com
    They Might be able to ship your bought plants from us to Moskow.
    We cannot get a fytosanitary certificate for Russia.

    United Kingdom: UPDATE november 2020
    The Untied Kingdom leaves the EU on 1-1-2021 and from that day on a fytosanitary certificate is needed and controls on the UK-side have to be arranged by the UK-customers themselves. See for the latest info: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/importing-and-exporting-plants-and-plant-products-from-1-january-2021
    It is the full duty of all UK customores to instruct us otherwise and they are fully responsible for the the rules which apply when they order plants from us. Currently the fyto certificate is needed.


    USA: No export to the USA since 1-11-2022. We are sorry for that but almost all parcels get lost even with proper paperwork, or get delayed by extremely long custom USDA/APHIS control. So we decided to stop exporting to the USA.

    Other countries outside the European Union: customers are free to ask more information prior to making an order. We will be pleased to help you on your preferred conditions.



    We are extremely sorry for this but the restrictions in these countries make shipping plants sometimes a nightmare and both our customers and we are not waiting for problems due to very strict importing rules.
    Country importing rules change almost daily.
    Beside our effort to apply to all county-based import issues it is also the customers duty to inform us about specific country-based rules or laws as STC cannot know all these.
    In case you have specific questions about if and how we might export to your country please notify us by email before actually making an order.

  11. Some countries ask special regulations in terms of importing plants. It is the customers duty to inform us about specific country-based regulations.
    As from 1-4-2011 IVI's are no longer free; an IVI is an additional sentence on the fyto that is not normally requiered according to country rules, but some countries always ask additional sentences (Israel). For these IVI's we will have to pay euro 170,= per import permit which we won't do, so export with an IVI can only be started if the customer is willing to pay an extra fee of euro 170,=
    per specie.

    Also some countries forbid to import specific plants. Also here it is the customers duty to inform STC about specific country-based regulations.
    Some countries even ask you to enclose an import permit for plants; if this is the case it is the customers duty to send us a copy of this import permit which we will enclose in the package. This last is the case for imports in the following countires (list not complete) Canada, Israel, etc.



    STC is not responsible of any delays, confiscations, quarantine delays etc. by the customs of (non-)EU countries whatsoever in any case and we cannot be hold responsible in terms of loss of quality thereoff. No (financial) credits will be made if any of these happen with your shipment.

    Returned shipments to us (if customs of your country send it back) are NOT accepted by us. Charges are high and inspection costs huge. We will simply deny returns once offered to us.

  12. Subscribing the newsletter.

    If you decide to subscribe for our newsletter, which does inform you about auctions to come, it is important that once you subscribed, you click on the link in the email you receive shortly after subscribing.
    In many cases people forget this or the email address info@succulent-tissue-culture.com is send to their spam box.
    In this case your subscription is NOT valid and you won't receive the newsletter.
    This rule is a Dutch law, we cannot by hand send you newsletter without proper subscription nore can we by ourselves delete you from the list.
    If you no longer wish to receive it, please click on the bottom line of the last newsletter to unsubscribe.

  13. Replacements and refunding payments

    STC always refunds payments of plants which were ordered and paid in advance but sold out by the time we processed/shipped the order .This is also the case if the customers waits too long with shipping; we will delete the items you ordered (and paid) and refund the payment. This counts for all webshop plants that are ordered and that are sold out by the time of payment or shipment.
    In the case that a customer is not satisfied with the quality of the plants the customer will be paid back the value of plants upon return of the plants to STC within 14 days time, including into the return shipment the necessary papers like a fytosanitary certificate of the country from where the customer returns the shipment.
    STC will NOT refund if the plants are not send back to STC. STC will NOT refund postage costs, fytosanitary certificate costs etc. though only plant costs    .

Terms and conditions plant auction/special plant section.

  1. Starting on March 13th 2016 we hold only 1 plant auction appr. every month !!
  2. After each auction plants must be paid and must be shipped before the next auction after 4 weeks take place.
    Please be aware of that when you decide to take part in the auctions; after each auction, no matter how much you 'win' you must finalize the order by paying and we start shipping procedures.
    In case you cannot accept these conditions we kindly ask you not to participate any longer.
  3. ALL conditions and terms written in the webshop above apply also for items bought in our auction system and which are bought in our special plant section. There is NO reduction on auction plants. Please do not enquire for any reduction for variegated / special plants as we won't answer these emails.
  4. Taking part in the plant auction is only possible for approved accountholders who are approved by STC. Once you make a (new) account we will see if we can approve your participation to the auction/ SP plants shop. In case we approve you will receive an email which says we approved it. In case you don't receive such email we have not approved your account for the auction / SP plants. In case old accountholders have not met and agreed with our terms and conditions we will cancal the approval.  Customers with non-correct account-information or doubtable information will not be approved. 
    In case accountholders do not participate in the auction over a long period of time and are 'just viewers' we might deicde to give them no longer access to the auction page views.


  • The hidden bid system for accountholders is a system in which the bidder places a maximum bid to which he/she wants to win this plant; until this amount he/she is the highest bidder but the final price he/she pays is always the second lower bid + 1 euro. The hidden bid is not shown on the auction, so other bidders don't know your hidden bid. Also, when logged in as an account holder, you can see an overview of the items you are bidding on and the latest results and -if wished- can quickly make a new bid without typing again all your personal information. If you have any questions about this system, please send us an email.
  • Once you make a (hidden) bid you immediately agree on all the terms and conditions written above including accepting all additional costs like postage & packing and the necessary documents
  • You can only bid in whole euros
  • Once you made a bid  you will receive a notification of your bid by email.
  • If you are over-bid by another bidder you will receive an email that tells you that you have been overbid; you then can decide to place another bid.
  • Bidders cannot see who is bidding on the same or other items nor will STC give information on who bids and who is the highest bidder.
  • Hidden bids are not shown in display and cannot be seen to any other bidders.
  • Each item in the auction will be offered for a fixed time exactly with a minimum of set days; each item has a clock below where bidders can see when the auction for this specific item ends.
  • At the end of the auction the highest bidders will receive an email that he/she is the highest bidder and he/she pays the amount which he/she bids in the last bid, taken into account that people that placed a hidden bid and won for a lower amount won the plant for that lower amount + 1 euro and not their hidden bid amount. 
  • STC will write an email (invoice-type) to the highest bidders telling him/her the total cost, including postage & packing and fytosanitary  documents.
    PLEASE BE AWARE OF THESE COST BEFORE YOU PLACE A BID.
  • In case a highest bidder does not pay or does not respect the conditions above he/she  will no longer be accepted within the auction system and his/her future bids will be eliminated from the auctions. Also we might consider to block further orders from the person(s) by IP-blocking.
  • There is NO reduction of prices of auction items like in the normal shop. All auction plants are out of this reduction system as well as any reduction-voucher system.
  • Note that you should put our email address on your white list of spam-filters otherwise messages can be blocked by various spam-filters and you won't be notified when you place a bid or are overbid. The email-address that should be put on the white list is: info@succulent-tissue-culture.com.
  • Once we posted your auction-plants and you are not satisfied with the plant you have the right to return it to us, no need to say the reason, in the Original state and package and with the fyto certificate if there is one included and we will fully return you your money for the plant. You don't need to inform us why you sent back the plant or why you are not satisfied; simply post it back with the full fytocertificate and we will refund the plant upon receipt of plant.



    Please be aware that customers who repeatedly do not meet our terms and conditions will be deleted from the normal webshop, the auction and the special plants section.