AgeChecked Verification Service
As a moral responsibility to only serve knives to customers over the age of 18 and to comply with the revised Offensive Weapons Act 2019 regulations, some of our products are subject to the AgeChecked Verification Service, whereby your ID is verified at the checkout. These customer checks are a legal obligation and are essential to ensure end-to-end safety for all.
More information on this can be found here on the Government website.
How AgeChecked works
To achieve this we use software provided by AgeChecked.com. Once you reach check-out stage, you will be passed through the automatic checks which verify your age is over 18.
When placing an order, the customer's card used for payment must be registered to it's correct billing address so that AgeChecked can make the required verifications. AgeChecked is able to check the age of the bill payer against the card registered to that address, through electoral roll, and other government agency information that it securely has access to. We cannot process orders until the age verification has been passed.
What if I don't pass the check?
On the rare occasion a check cannot be completed automatically, your order details will be passed to a member of our customer service team who will be in touch to send a manual AgeChecked link where the process can be repeated to release your order. These links will be sent via both e-mail and text and you will be notified at the time.
AgeChecked looks for the following:
- The billing address matches the address registered to the card
- The customer named at the billing address is the individual named on the order
You may also be required to show ID in the form of passport or driving licence in order for us to process your order. We reserve the right to decline orders based on our judgement of this ID. Individuals may also be declined by AgeChecked due to their previous convictions, criminal records or medical history. We regret that AgeChecked cannot check the age of a customer who does not reside, nor has a billing address in the UK, so this will have to be done manually by our customer service team. This is triggered at checkout.
Is it safe?
AgeChecked operate a highly secure system. Their technology is based on the British Standard code of practice PAS:1296 and they do not hold any customer personal details at all to complete this process. The information is simply used to complete the check and not recorded.
Does It affect deliveries?
Order(s) will only be despatched once the AgeChecked process has been completed. For an additional level of check, we also operate a policy of age check deliveries. This is when our delivery partner Royal Mail, will perform a visual check on the person using the Challenge 25 policy, to ensure the person receiving the parcel is over 18. If the delivery driver feels the person receiving the parcel may be below this age they will ask to see some ID for proof of age. Unfortunately, delivery will be aborted if the parcel cannot be delivered due to the doorstep check, it is also not applicable to be left in a safe place nor be delivered to a PO box.
Again, we are required by law to do this and we apologise if this may seam a little invasive.
How much will it cost me?
The AgeChecked service is free and will not be charged, however unfortunately we are unable to offer free delivery on bladed items. We use a secure Royal Mail Age Verification Service (instead of DPD, which we use for every other, non-bladed product on the Cole & Mason website) which we charge £4.95 for. We regret that we are unable to waiver this postage charge in any circumstance. This charge does not apply to the "free postage on orders over £49" promotion.
If you have any further questions with regards to the AgeChecked process please feel free to contact us.