Our General Terms and Conditions

1. General

The General Terms and Conditions (GTC) apply to all business transactions with our customers, hereinafter referred to as "clients". The GTC are automatically accepted by the client by placing the order. They apply for the duration of the business relationship.

2. Placing of orders and order liability

The Client may place orders with us in any form convenient to him, i.e. verbally, in electronic form, by fax or by letter. We also accept informal orders. An order is also considered to have been placed, for example, when a prospective client accepts our price-performance proposal in a telephone call. In return, we are obliged to send the client a commercial confirmation in electronic form within 2 days. On the other hand, no order is placed if the initial conversation was purely informative and a concrete offer was not made and/or not clearly accepted. These cases also include the basic open-mindedness of the client, provided that this has not, however, resulted in a clear agreement (for example, if the client still needs time to think it over). In principle, the client can only withdraw from the assignment if he/she provides a credible justification and we have not yet taken action.

As a rule, the placement of an order includes correspondence. Should irregularities arise from this correspondence, such as a non-transmission or incorrect transmission of data, we cannot be held liable for this. In particular, this applies to the submission of job references, application documents and other documents that are to be reviewed. We accept no liability for the accuracy or truthfulness of personal data sent to us by our clients (in the event that the client and recipient of the documents are not one and the same person). In particular, this applies to clients who have us prepare a document for an apparently real person, but subsequently use this document as a template to be used several times. Furthermore, we are not liable for any damages or disadvantages to persons that may arise from the statements in our expert opinions when they are passed on to third parties (such as lawyers). However, we will only pass them on to third parties with the express and written consent of the client.
 

3. Executions by third parties

As a consulting team, we sometimes use the support of third parties when there is a special need. The selection of these persons is made by the managing director, Dr. Thorsten Knobbe, or by the authorized consultants of our company. In these cases, the business relationship is between these third parties and the client, unless otherwise agreed. The client will be informed about the procedure. We assume liability with regard to the selection of these third parties only to the extent that we fulfill our duty of care: With regard to translations, this is given if the third parties used are either sworn or authorized translators or have carried out renowned projects as translators or consultants according to our standards before they were integrated into our network; with regard to training and coaching or other services, this is given if the third parties used have carried out renowned projects as consultants, coaches and trainers according to our standards before they were integrated into our network. Should we demonstrably not have fulfilled our duty of care, the client shall be entitled to a reduction in price or cancellation of the contract.
 

4. Delivery times of expert opinions and texts

Delivery times can only be approximate times or expected dates, which are given to the best of our knowledge and belief.
 

5. Disturbances

We assume no liability for any damage caused by force majeure (e.g. natural events or traffic disruptions), network and server errors, line and transmission disruptions, viruses or disruption of the postal route. The client is responsible for the final verification of all transmitted or sent data.
 

6. Other liability, complaints

If the client does not report any objectively existing, serious deficiencies to the managing director, Dr. Thorsten Knobbe, or to the consultant, who has been in charge of the client, concretely, personally and in writing (also e-mail is considered as writing in this case) within 7 days after the completion of the order, the order is considered as finally completed. If in particular a created text, an expert opinion, a coaching or a training is completely or partially questioned regarding the quality, this complaint must be supported by a serious counter expert opinion created by a third party. In case of any notice of defects, we must be given the opportunity to rectify the defect within 7 days, otherwise any claim of the client will be forfeited. If a rectification is demonstrably unsuccessful, the client has the right to a reduction in price or cancellation of the contract. In any case, liability is limited to the amount of the order in question. We do not assume liability that would be based on the violation of a copyright or the claims of third parties. We do not automatically check against new versions of our texts that clients read and possibly revise from their circle of friends or acquaintances or other consultants free of charge.
 

7. Delay in delivery, impossibility, withdrawal

If the delivery period has been exceeded by an unreasonably long time - in this case, the individually agreed delivery period shall be considered as a guideline - and if we have been unable to meet a reasonable grace period communicated to us in writing by the client, the client shall be entitled to withdraw from the contract. If clients - typically from abroad - in the context of an order by prepayment, after at least two written requests (attempt to contact, follow-up) on our part, do not or incompletely transmit the information required for the completion of the order or do not (no longer) communicate, the order is considered fulfilled after a period of 6 weeks. Any financial claims to refunds are extinguished after this period and would be pure goodwill on our part, although a handling fee of 50% of the invoice amount remains due in principle.
 

8. Transmission, dispatch

The dispatch or electronic transmission of any data is at the risk of the client.
 

9. Payment

Unless otherwise stated, payment for our chargeable services shall be made within 10 days of receipt of the invoice (date of postmark or email dispatch) without deduction. A delivery shall be deemed to have been made when a first draft of a document or expert opinion has been sent or a consulting or coaching session has been held. Immediately thereafter, we are entitled to issue the invoice with the corresponding payment term. Under certain circumstances, individual payment terms are possible; these require prior agreement. The client is required to support the progress of a project, especially when a first draft of the text has been prepared and delivered by us. If the client, for his part, does not provide the service to be rendered - for example, additions - within 7 days, the full amount previously agreed upon, but always the fee accrued up to that point, may be invoiced. In the case of accrued project sums in the private client area that are higher than 1,000.00 EUR, we are entitled, within the framework of our risk management, to continue the processing only after payment on account in the same amount.

10. Protection of secrets, discretion

All information available or known to us concerning the order itself or the customer or client shall be treated confidentially. However, we cannot rule out the possibility of unauthorized third parties gaining unlawful access to this data, especially in the case of electronic data transmission. Data will only be passed on to third parties, for example headhunters, if the client expressly expresses this wish and has given his consent.
 

11. Private clients: Cancellation or non-attendance of appointments

In case of non-attendance of appointments, especially in the form of personal meetings or telephone consultations or IT-supported consulting services, such as via Skype, (except seminars, see provision no. 12), for example due to lack of coordination on the part of the client, we reserve the right to invoice up to 100% of the agreed fee if the cancellation occurs one day (36 hours) before the appointment or on the day of the appointment or if the client does not appear. Cancellations made 3 days or more before the appointment may be charged up to 50% of the fee.
 

12. Open seminars

We reserve the right to charge 50% of the fee from the date of registration of the seminar participant until 30 days before the start of the seminar, and the full fee from 30 days on. If a trainer is unable to attend, we will provide an adequate replacement or refund the fee due for the day. Training documents as well as coaching documents will not be duplicated by the seminar participant. If the number of participants is too low (individually different), the seminar will not take place and the fees already paid will be refunded. The fee includes only the seminar fee, unless otherwise stated. Any expenses, such as hotel accommodation, will be paid by the participant. The full fee for the seminar is due 10 working days prior to the start of the seminar. We reserve the right to exclude registered participants who have not paid the fee by this date from the seminar if necessary. Under certain circumstances, individual payment arrangements are possible.
 

13. Business clients/companies: Rebooking or cancellation of in-house events

Appointments for in-house seminars, coaching events, consulting services, workshops, lectures, etc. can be cancelled or rebooked free of charge up to 45 calendar days before the appointment.

For cancellations between 45 and 31 calendar days prior to the date, we are entitled to charge 50% of the agreed fees or flat rates.

For cancellations less than 31 calendar days prior to the appointment, we are entitled to charge the full amount of the agreed fees or flat rates.

Alternatively, the client may name an alternative date at any time. In this case of a rebooking, we are entitled to charge any accrued preparation costs incurred for the original appointment. There is no further rebooking fee up to 11 calendar days before the event. In the event of rebooking less than 10 calendar days before the event, we are entitled to charge the full amount of the agreed fees or flat rates. A rebooking will only be recognized as such if alternative dates are already set with the day of the rebooking, i.e. the honest will of the client to book the event is evident.

If this alternative date is also canceled, we are granted the right to charge the full amount of fees and flat rates, regardless of any deadlines.

If a client does not use the full service, there is no right to a refund for the unused portion.

In case of non-appearance of the client's participants or in case of departure of a correspondingly high number of participants during the event - e.g. due to conflicting prioritization or faulty coordination - which makes it impossible to continue the event, we are entitled to charge the full amount of the agreed fees or lump sums.
 

14. Effectiveness

Should at least one provision of the GTC be or become invalid, this shall not automatically apply to all other provisions of the GTC.