Refund policy

Returns

We want you to live with a piece and be certain of it. If something is not right, here is how it works.

Do not ship anything back until you have spoken to us. Email concierge@cayenhome.com with your order number and the reason, and we will authorize the return and give you the address to send it to. The return address varies from piece to piece — it is not always our Carmel showroom, and it depends on what the item is and where it came from. A piece sent back to the wrong address may be refused, lost, or returned to you at your cost, and we cannot refund what we have not received.

Tell us within 7 days of delivery. The clock starts the day the piece arrives, not the day you ordered — freight and made-to-order pieces can take weeks to reach you, and we would not start counting before you have seen it.

Have it in a carrier's hands within 14 days of delivery. Once we have authorized the return and given you the address, you have a week to pack it and book the pickup.

The piece must come back exactly as it left us. Unused, undamaged, in its original packaging with all materials, hardware, tags and documentation. Pieces that arrive back marked, scratched, altered, or without their original packaging cannot be accepted, and we will return them to you at your cost.

You arrange and pay for return shipping. We are glad to recommend a carrier for larger pieces.

Insure the shipment for the full purchase price. This is required for any return valued over $500.

Nothing is refunded until the piece is back with us and verified

This is the part people most often misunderstand, so we will say it plainly.

A return is not complete, and no refund is issued, until the piece has physically arrived at the address we gave you and we have confirmed it is intact and in its original condition. Authorizing a return is not the same as accepting it. Handing it to a carrier is not the same as returning it.

Until a returned piece is in our hands and verified, it remains your property and your risk. Damage in transit back to us is the responsibility of the shipper. We cannot refund a piece that reaches us broken, and we cannot refund a piece that never reaches us at all — which is why we ask you to insure it.

We inspect within 5 business days of receipt. If we find a problem we will contact you with photographs before deciding anything.

Refunds are issued within 5 business days of approval, to the original method of payment. Original shipping, delivery, and white-glove charges are not refundable.

Returning a large or freight piece

Large pieces — furniture, firescreens, chandeliers, statuary, stone-topped tables — are returnable on the terms above, with two differences that reflect what it actually costs to undo the sale.

A 25% restocking fee applies. Once a freight piece has left the maker or our showroom it cannot go back into stock as new, and no maker accepts an opened piece in return except when it is defective. The fee covers what we lose reselling it.

You arrange and pay the return freight — whether the piece was delivered and then returned, or refused at the door. Any freight we absorbed on the way out is not refunded.

The conditions above apply in full: authorization and a return address from us first, original packaging with all materials, hardware, tags and documentation, and insured for the full purchase price.

None of this applies to a piece that arrives damaged or defective. That is a claim, not a return — no restocking fee, no return freight, and it does not count against your return window. See below.

If you decline a freight quote

On a piece quoted individually, nothing ships until you approve the cost. If the number does not work for you, say so and we refund 100% of what you paid — no fee, no deduction, no restocking charge. You have not received the piece and you owe us nothing.

Cancelling an order

Tell us as soon as you can and we will usually be able to cancel before a piece ships.

On a piece that ships direct from the maker, we place your order with them within 72 hours of receiving it. After that point the maker's own cancellation terms apply rather than ours, and on made-to-order work they are often strict. We will tell you exactly where the order stands and what it will cost, if anything, before you decide.

Natural materials vary — and minerals vary most of all

A mineral specimen is a geological object, not a manufactured one. Colour, banding, veining, inclusions, translucency, crystal structure, surface texture and outline differ from specimen to specimen, and no two are alike — which is the whole reason for owning one. The same is true of stone tops, agate, onyx and marble: the pattern is a record of how that particular piece formed.

Photographs cannot fully carry depth, translucency, or how a stone reads under changing light. A specimen will rarely look identical to its photograph, and it is not meant to.

Hand-forged iron and other hand-made work carries the variation of the hand that made it. Small differences in finish, patina, texture and dimension are marks of the work, not faults in it.

Where a piece is sold as one of a kind, the piece you receive is the piece photographed. Variation inherent to a natural or hand-made material is not a defect and is not grounds for return. Damage is a different matter entirely, and is covered below.

Ask to see the actual piece before it ships

Because of everything above, we would far rather you were certain before a piece travels than disappointed after it arrives.

On any one-of-a-kind piece — a mineral specimen, an antique, an original work, a stone top — ask us and we will film the actual item and text or email you the video before it leaves us. You will see the real colour, the real scale and the real surface, in ordinary light, rather than a catalogue photograph. There is no charge and you only have to ask.

Pieces that cannot be returned

These are marked FINAL SALE on the product page itself, so you always know before you buy:

• Custom and made-to-order pieces — custom finishes, custom upholstery, customer's own material, made-to-measure shades, and anything produced to your specification
• One-of-a-kind pieces: antiques, vintage pieces, original artwork, and mineral specimens
• Consignment pieces
• Anything sold "as is" or from a final markdown

Special orders — pieces we bring in from a maker specifically for you, without customization — are returnable, but on the maker's terms rather than ours: their restocking fee applies, and outbound and return freight are yours. We will tell you the maker's terms in writing before you commit, and we ask for a 50% deposit that becomes non-refundable once the order is placed with them.

If a final-sale or special-order piece arrives damaged or is not what was described, the section below still applies. Final sale never means we walk away from a piece that arrived broken.

If your piece arrives damaged

This is a claim, not a return. It does not count against your return window, and you will not pay to ship it back.

Inspect before you sign. Look at the carton and the piece while the driver is present. If you see damage — to the packaging or the piece — note it on the delivery receipt before signing. If the driver will not wait, write "subject to inspection" next to your signature. Those words preserve your claim, and without them a carrier can deny it.

Send us photographs within 24 hours of delivery. This is a requirement, not a suggestion. We need clear images of the damage, the carton inside and out, and the shipping label. Carriers set their own deadlines for damage claims and some are very short; a claim submitted late, or without photographs, is very difficult to win and may not be recoverable at all.

Concealed damage — damage you find after unwrapping, where the carton looked sound — must be reported within 5 business days of delivery, again with photographs. We allow longer here for the obvious reason that you cannot photograph what you have not yet uncovered, but do not wait: the same carrier deadlines apply.

Keep all packaging until the claim is settled. A claim without its packaging is very difficult to win.

We will repair, replace, or refund — whichever suits the piece — and we will tell you which we are doing and why.

Changes to these terms

Cayen Home may change its return terms at any time. The terms in force on the day you place your order are the ones that apply to that order. Nothing we change later affects a purchase you have already made.

Questions

Cayen Home, Ivy Courtyard, 6th Avenue and Mission Street, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
concierge@cayenhome.com