Terms of conditions for a book order

• All book orders are shipped within 1 working day.
• There is no UK VAT on (paperback) books.
• All books are in stock.
• Some countries charge import or handling charges. These charges are payable by the customer. If an order is received for multiple books, we may send the books in multiple packages. And we may send a package from an EU country.
• During the payment process, you can choose between standard delivery and tracked delivery.
• We do not accept purchase orders.

Returning a book (paperback)

We want you to be completely happy with the books that you buy from Highland Statistic. If you are not satisfied with one of our books, simply return the item(s) within 14 days for a full refund. 

If you've changed your mind, you will need to pay the cost of return postage.  

For a refund, the book(s) need to be returned:

• In their original condition; ideally in the original packaging.
• To the correct return address.
• Within 14 days of the day you received them.
• With a copy of the despatch note.
• You will need to pay return postage costs if you've changed your mind and simply don't want to keep the items received. 

We recommend you use a registered mail service that includes insurance for your returns, as we can only give you a refund or exchange if we receive the book(s). If the item is not returned in its original state (unused) we may not be able to issue a full refund. Please also ensure that you include details of your name, address, and order number so that we can ensure that your return is processed as quickly as possible.

We can only refund books that were purchased on the website of Highland Statistics Ltd.

Returning a damaged or incorrect book (paperback)

In the unlikely event that your order arrived damaged please accept our apologies. We will offer to resend the book(s) or provide a full refund. Please contact us as soon as possible and within fourteen days upon receipt of your order.  We may ask you to provide images of the item depicting the damage caused.

How you will be refunded

We will make the refund to the card that was used to pay for the original order. We are not able to make cash refunds.  We will issue the refund within 7 days of the return being received, though it can take up to 30 days to appear on your credit card statement.

UK distance selling regulations

UK Consumer Contracts Regulations apply to the purchase of books. For details, follow this link.

Terms of conditions for an E-book order

• Upon payment, you will receive an email with a download link to a pdf file. Please check your spam folder if you do not receive this email.
• Due to copyright, you are not allowed to share the pdf with other people.
• During the ordering process, the pdf is marked with visible and invisible user information (as text and as images).
  Sharing our pdf file and/or uploading it to the internet is copyright infringement. This is a criminal offense, and you risk paying damages and compensation.
• If you share one of our pdf files (or part of it) with someone else, or if you upload one of our pdf files to the internet, we will charge you (or your employer) a fee of 10,000 USD. If you share this pdf with someone else, and that person uploads our pdf file to the internet, we will charge you (or your employer) a fee of 10,000 USD.
• VAT (value-added tax) charge. EU customers without a valid VAT number will be charged VAT according to their national rate for E-books. No VAT charge is applicable for anyone else (i.e. EU customers with a valid VAT number, UK customers, and customers in the rest of the world). Our system will use the invoice address to determine the VAT charge.
• You can download the pdf of an E-book 10 times. And you need to do this within 7 days of purchasing the E-book. Once downloaded, there is no expiry date; you can read it forever! If for some reason, you need download access again (e.g. because your computer breaks down and you have no backups), just send us an email and we will enable download access again (for free).

Consumer rights when purchasing digital content (E-books)

When you purchase an E-book from Highland Statistics, you will be given (instantly) a download link to a pdf file. Once you click on the download link, our system generates an (unprotected) pdf file that contains user information (hidden and visible) on each page.

The UK Consumer Rights Act gives consumers protection when it comes to digital downloads that fail to work (i.e. are corrupt). Consumers are entitled to a repair or replacement if the digital content is faulty. In the unlikely event that our pdf is faulty, we will offer a refund or replace the pdf file. Please note that you need an up-to-date pdf reader to view our pdf files.

Under the UK Consumer Contracts Regulations, digital downloads are neither goods nor services, meaning that the law is a little different. If you download our book(s) within 14 days of buying it, you give your consent to waive the 14 day cooling-off period. In other words, when you purchase an E-book from Highland Statistics, you can ask for a refund within 14 days, provided that you have not downloaded it yet. No refund will be given once you have downloaded a pdf file.

A detailed description (i.e. Table of Contents) of each E-book can be found on the product description in the shopping cart.

Addition terms of conditions for both books and E-books

© Highland Statistics Ltd. 
All rights reserved. Our work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Highland Statistics Ltd., 9 St Clair Wynd, Newburgh, United Kingdom), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analyses. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methods now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, whether or not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.

Our books are copyrighted material from Highland Statistics Ltd. Scanning our books all or in part and distributing via digital media (including uploading to the internet) without our explicit permission constitutes copyright infringement. Infringing copyright is a criminal offense, and you will be taken to court and risk paying damages and compensation. Highland Statistics Ltd. actively polices against copyright infringement.

Although the authors and publisher (Highland Statistics Ltd., 9 St Clair Wynd, Newburgh, United Kingdom) have taken every care in the preparation and writing our books, they accept no liability for errors or omissions or for misuse or misunderstandings on the part of any person who uses it. The author and publisher accept no responsibility for damage, injury, or loss occasioned to any person as a result of relying on material included in, implied, or omitted from this book.

If you paid the book or E-book by bank transfer (or Paypal.com), we will only refund the amount that we received. Any sender and receiver fees charged by the bank (or Paypal.com) will be deducted when we refund the money. Fluctuations in currency exchange rates may result that you receiving a lower (or higher) refund.

Terms of conditions for a course (online or on-site)

1. Our courses are designed for applied scientists (e.g. biologists, environmental scientists, medical scientists) and we will only discuss concepts; not detailed mathematics. As such, our courses are less suitable for statisticians who wish to learn all the mathematical details.
2. The course literature is copyright protected and may not be reproduced or distributed without permission.  
3. The course content might be modified or improved prior to the course start date. 
4. In most courses, we are able to cover all advertised modules. Unexpected factors like power cuts, food poisoning, snowstorms, airline strikes, etc. may slow us down. Occasionally the numerical knowledge of the participants is slightly lower than expected. We will do our best to cover all modules, but sometimes this is not possible. No refund will be given if we cannot cover all modules.
5. Accommodation, lunch, and tea/coffee are not included as part of the course fee and participants are expected to make their own arrangements. 
6. Once participants are given access to course exercises with R solution codes, pdf files of book chapters, pdf files of powerpoint files, and video solution files, all course fees are non-refundable. However, depending on the circumstances for cancellation we may be able to offer you the option to attend a future course (with the same content) or you can authorize a colleague to attend this (or a future) course.
7. Refunds will only be given if a place is canceled at least 4 weeks before the start date of the course. Fluctuations in the exchange rate and bank charges may affect the refunded amount. 
8. A course participant can be substituted at any time before the start of the course. 
9. Although we have never canceled a course, we reserve the right to cancel a course without liability other than a refund of the full course fee. 
10. In case a small number of participants sign up, we may decide to send only one instructor.
11. Unfortunately, we cannot assist with VISA application.
12. For specific courses, we reserve the right to accommodate for a small number of online participants. The course fee for online participation is the same as the advertised onsite costs.
13. Some of our courses contain a 1-hour face-to-face consultancy session. To ensure that you get the maximum out of the 1-hour face-to-face chat, we have drafted some key points.
    
    • We will provide a Zoom link for this meeting. The meeting will not be recorded.
    • Please ensure that you are familiar with screen-sharing facilities in Zoom (we will make you co-host so that you can share your screen, at which point you may need to disable some privacy and security settings).
    • Quite often we schedule 2 meetings in a row. As such, there is no flexibility to extend the meeting beyond 1 hour. Please note that the 1-hour chat is not transferable to another person. The meeting is for 1 individual and not for multiple people (groups).
    • The 1-hour face-to-face chat does not include any of our time for preparation. This is to avoid that people send script files with thousands of lines of R code before a meeting or a 50-page Word document. You will need to explain everything during the meeting. Please try to explain your data and questions as simply as possible. Use pictures, diagrams, videos, etc. The easier you can explain your data, the more you get out of the meeting.  Our advice is based on the information that you provide. If you cannot properly and efficiently explain your experimental design or the setup of your field study, then we may not be able to provide the correct advice. Please have a look at the 10-step protocol in our 2016 paper. It will help you to structure your questions.
    • If you want to cancel or reschedule the meeting, please let us know 24 hours before the meeting. We will give you a new slot, but we cannot guarantee short-term availability. If you cancel within 24 hours of the meeting (without a very good reason), then you lose the slot and we will not offer you a new slot.
    • If you do not ‘turn up’ for the online meeting without informing us before the meeting (which has happened a couple of times), we will wait 15 minutes before closing the meeting. We will not provide a new slot. For a time zones converter, see: https://www.timeanddate.com/
    • During the 1-hour face-to-face consultancy session, you can ask any question that you want, e.g. about your own data. However, our statistical expertise mainly covers the topics described on the course website. Note that no refund will be given if your questions are outside our field of expertise, or if we cannot help you.

Refund for an online course

All our online courses represent 40 hours of work. Once you have paid for an online course, we will email you a link to register on the course website (www.courses.highstat.com). When you click on the link in the email, we will get a confirmation email. We will then grant you access to all course material and on-demand video files. This process takes less than 24 hours (mainly depending on your, and our time zones). You can then start with the course. Attending any Live sessions (if this is part of the course) is optional.

I’ve changed my mind about an online course

Under the UK Consumer Contracts Regulations, you (as a consumer) have the right to cancel a course within 14 days. This right applies regardless of whether the course will be taken online or in person. However, this assumes that you have not accessed the course material on the course website (www.courses.highstat.com). In other words, you can cancel a course (and get a full refund) within 14 days, provided that you have not accessed the course material yet.

If you have accessed the course material on the website within the 14-day period, then the following rules apply.

• You will still have the right to cancel, but you must pay for the value of the service that was provided to you up to the point you cancel. In other words, if you buy an online course and then change your mind within the 14-day time period, you will be refunded a proportionate sum but will be charged for any admin or materials costs and the amount of teaching time you used. We will base our refund on the amount of online time spent on the course website (which is logged), as a fraction of 40 hours.

If you paid the online course fee by bank transfer (or Paypal.com), we will only refund the amount that we received. Any sender and receiver fees charged by the bank (or Paypal.com) will be deducted when we refund the money. Fluctuations in currency exchange rates may result that you receiving a lower (or higher) refund.

The online course isn’t what I expected

If you start your online course and you find that it doesn’t match the description you were given or the teaching isn’t of satisfactory quality, you can request a refund under the UK Consumer Rights Act. Under the Consumer Rights Act, we have a duty to do the following:

• Perform the service with reasonable care and skill.
• Make sure information that's been given to you about the course - written or spoken - is binding where you’ve relied on it to make your decision.

If the service you’re provided doesn’t satisfy these criteria, you’re entitled to the following remedies under the Consumer Rights Act:

1. We should either redo the element of the course that's inadequate, or perform the whole course again at no extra cost to you, within a reasonable time and without causing you significant inconvenience.
2. Or, in circumstances where the repeat performance is impossible, or it can’t be done within a reasonable time or without causing significant inconvenience, you can claim a price reduction. Depending on how severe the failings are, this could be up to 100% of the cost, and we will refund you within 14 days of agreeing that you're entitled to a refund.

I was mis-sold the online course I booked

All our courses are designed in such a way that there is minimal overlap, and a clear description of course content is provided on the course website and course flyers. However, in the unlikely event that you feel that you have been mis-sold an online course, you can cancel the course in the same way as if you’d changed your mind, and get your money back.

Refund for an onsite course

You can cancel an onsite course up to 7 days before it starts and get a full refund.

Seven days before the start of an onsite course, we will email all course participants a link to register on the course website (www.courses.highstat.com). When you click on the link in the email, we will get a confirmation email. We will then grant you access to all course material. This process takes less than 24 hours (mainly depending on your, and our time zones).

If you have not accessed the course material before the start of the onsite course and you want to cancel within 7 days of the start of an onsite course, we will still give you a full refund. However, once you have accessed the course material, no refunds will be given. You can either ask a colleague to take your place, or we can offer a free seat (for you or a colleague) on a similar course in the future.

If you paid the course fee by bank transfer (or Paypal.com), we will only refund the amount that we received. Any sender and receiver fees charged by the bank (or Paypal.com) will be deducted when we refund the money. Fluctuations in currency exchange rates may result that you receiving a lower (or higher) refund.

The onsite course isn’t what I expected

If you attend the onsite course and you find that it doesn’t match the description you were given or the teaching isn’t of satisfactory quality, you can request a refund under the UK Consumer Rights Act. Under the Consumer Rights Act, we have a duty to do the following:

• Perform the service with reasonable care and skill.
• Make sure information that's been given to you about the course - written or spoken - is binding where you’ve relied on it to make your decision.

If the service you’re provided doesn’t satisfy these criteria, you’re entitled to the following remedies under the Consumer Rights Act:

1. We should either redo the element of the course that's inadequate, or perform the whole course again at no extra cost to you, within a reasonable time and without causing you significant inconvenience.
2. Or, in circumstances where the repeat performance is impossible, or it can’t be done within a reasonable time or without causing significant inconvenience, you can claim a price reduction. Depending on how severe the failings are, this could be up to 100% of the cost, and we will refund you within 14 days of agreeing that you're entitled to a refund.

I was mis-sold the onsite course I booked

All our courses are designed in such a way that there is minimal overlap, and a clear description of course content is provided on the course website and course flyers. However, in the unlikely event that you feel that you have been mis-sold an onsite course, you can cancel the course and get your money back.

Paypal payments

Any payments made via Paypal will incur a 7% fee (due to Paypal transaction fees). Please note that Paypal will keep their fees in case of a refund. If you request a refund for an order paid via Paypal, we will only refund what we received from Paypal.

Governing Law

This Agreement, and any disputes arising from or related to this Agreement, the products (including books and E-books), services (including courses and online courses), or any other transactions provided under or in connection with this Agreement, shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Scotland, without giving effect to its conflict of laws principles.