Feel free to make personal copies of the CDROM for yourself and friends, but do not re-distribute the content commercially or on the Internet. Digital distribution of our manual, catalogue and the datasheets increases your success, reduces our costs and allows us to provide a better service to you.

Please contact us immediately for help or a replacement disc. If nothing happens then follow the instructions on the disc. Alternatively, the CDROM may have been created with a CD Writer and this may be the cause of problems. For example, old CDROM drives may not be able to read oddly coloured discs. Many drives may take longer than usual to initialise discs - be patient. CDROMs created with a CD Writer "fade", especially if left in strong sunlight. Old discs may fail to work entirely, although you are free to make personal copies for yourself and friends.

The CDROM does not work on games consoles or a hi-fi CD audio player. The only information on the CDROM is computer files.

Of course, the web site and CDROM is maintained on a Mac - by an Amiga owner. The CDROM is intended to work on MacOS, AmigaOS, RISCOS, SunOS, Solaris, Irix, OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, QNX and Linux. It also works on MSWindows and BeOS.

When you telephone for a catalogue and free CDROM, we often write your contact information, by hand, directly on the envelope of a prepared and sealed catalogue. Should an envelope not be available, your contact information is written on a scrap piece of paper and later copied, by hand, onto an envelope. The original paper is incinerated. Envelopes are posted twice per day and no envelopes are left on the premises at the end of the business day. Catalogue requests on the telephone answering machine are also written onto envelopes and wiped from the machine one message at a time as the queue of messages is processed. Our telephone answering machine does not use a magnetic tape and no information can be recovered once power is removed. In summary, we have no record of catalogue requests after we finish a day's work.

When you order, we do not keep your name and address unless you pay by credit card, in which case we are obliged to keep your details for the purpose of resolving tax and financial queries for a period of six years. This applies to all credit card payments made to all companies. After purchasing goods, we may keep your details for a few days, until it is safe to assume you received your order satisfactorily - then your personal information is destroyed.

The procedure for this is as follows. Your contact information on the official order form is blanked with a thick, black, marker pen. This is then photocopied to ensure that the original pen markings and / or ink cannot be recovered. All other documents and envelopes are incinerated and destroyed. All personal information on the order form is now destroyed. The (anonymous, copied) order form is archived for tax purposes and this is also incinerated at the earliest opportunity.

The company was incorporated on Friday 26 September 1997 (and still growing -;@}=).

Guildford, Surrey, England.

It is easy to verify our company exists. (We are company number 03440500.) Additionally, if we did not send goods, the news would spread quickly and we would end up without a business, which after all the hard work we've put into it, would be ridiculous. Also one of the main reasons that we put our business on the web is to provide the good, honest and efficient service that our customers deserve. Too many companies offer a poor service.

Online credit card payment and E-Gold.Com transfer are the fastest because payment is instant and can be performed from your computer. If you want the fastest service, please pay by depositing money directly into our bank account. See below for instructions on paying directly into our bank account.

Call us on 01483 596484 to place your order. We will quote you the cost for your order including delivery. All you have to do is to go down to a local Bank quoting the following details: Name of account: Esoteric Hydroponics, the sort code, and account number will be given to you when you call. Once
you have deposited the monies into our account give us a call, again we normally despatch the same day as receiving the order.

We use the latest SSL technology combined with PGP encryption to ensure your details are safe. We also use AVS [Address Verification System] anti-fraud technology to protect ourselves and the public.

We prefer payment by cheque, bank transfer, cash (registered or special delivery only) or postal orders. Online payment options incur a surcharge to the merchant (which we absorb). Therefore, we are able to provide a better and more discreet service if you pay via cheque, cash or postal order.

Additionally, if you are paying by cheque or bankers' draft, we do not dispatch goods until payment is confirmed. We would prefer to send goods immediately, but we have experienced an unacceptable level of fraudulent orders. We apologise in advance to our genuine customers.

We sell to any country and we already have customers in Canada and arid regions, such as Mexico, Israel and Spain. We do not promote Esoteric Hydroponics extensively outside of the UK because the large and bulky nature of our products makes us relatively uncompetitive. If you wish to purchase a hydroponic system, please note that they are quite heavy and therefore expensive to export. Exporting goods from the UK is extremely expensive, therefore we may surcharge large export orders. Please contact us if you are in doubt.

Bizarrely, it is often cheaper to arrange shipping with a company in your country. For example, the best quote we were able to obtain (from a UK company), for sending a HydroPod system from the UK to Sweden, was nearly twice as expensive as the best quote from a Swedish company. Please obtain your own shipping arrangements, if possible. Additionally, the heaviest part of a HydroPod system is the expanded clay grow media, which is nearly as dense as water. A four pod HydroPod system requires 50 litres of clay (approximately 45kg of clay) and therefore if you can obtain your own clay, you may save money.

The vast majority of our products are held in stock and you will be notified of any potential delay within 24 hours. All hydroponic systems are held in stock and the HydroPod system is constructed in-house, ensuring that we are never out of stock of our best selling items. All nutrients, growth accelerators, lamps, reflectors, ballasts and grow media are held in stock. Please note that we occasionally and unexpectedly receive large orders which can make the most organised stock control erratic, although we aim to minimise delay for all concerned. For example, we fulfilled an order for approximately 12 × 24 pod HydroPod systems within two days without disrupting any other customer orders. (Excellent work, Rosco.)

Note that interest in hydroponics is subject to moderate seasonal variation and that indoor gardening is subject to ambient temperature. It is not unheard of for our experienced and regular customers to order the same products when there is a large change in temperature. For example, we had previously experienced an unexpected shortage of CO2, although this is unlikely to happen again. If you would like to check the suitability of a product, or reserve items of stock, please telephone during working hours, or leave a message (with your contact information) on our telephone answering machine.

Your goods will be sent within 24 hours of us receiving your cleared payment. Payment by cash, postal orders and bank transfer usually implies immediate dispatch. (Internet orders payed by credit card are subject to third party processing and approval.) Orders received by 2:00PM (14:00) are usually dispatched before the close of business at 5:00PM (17:00). Orders received on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays are usually dispatched before the end of the next working day.

All of our mail ordered and Internet ordered goods are sent via the most rapid courier delivery service available. For customers in the UK, this means next working day delivery. (Most courier companies exclude Saturday as a working day. The Esoteric Hydroponics shop and helpline are open as usual on Saturday.) Please note that the predator insects in our organic pest control product range are bred by a third party and will not survive delivery over a weekend, nor will they survive export. Predator insects can only be sent within the UK, mid-week. We are especially proud of our rapid service and had previously assumed that all of our competitors provided an equally responsive service.

We offer free, lifetime support to customers of our HydroPod system. We also offer free support with all products sold by us because we know that people can be unsure about matters such as two part nutrient, or our range of lamps. Please telephone, EMail or visit for assistance. Please note that we do not provide support via mobile 'phone text messaging because it takes too long to decode the messages and send suitable replies - just 'phone, willya?

Please note that we do not advocate or encourage illegal use of our equipment. If you request advice that can only be used for illegal purposes then don't be surprised if we finish the conversation abruptly.

The best time to telephone or visit is during the morning business hours. Many of our customers are not particularly early morning people and the shop becomes noticeably busier towards the end of the day. Therefore, if you want the most attention and the most discreet service, please be early. The absolutely worst time to telephone is just before closing time at 5:30PM. (Yes, we do leave at 5:30PM, and sometimes before then.)

In recent years it has come to our knowledge that some people use this equipment and information on the subject of hydroponics for illegal activities. Therefore, Esoteric Hydroponics, the staff of Esoteric Hydroponics and Jeffery Winterborne do not advocate breaking the law, nor is this Publication, CD-ROM or Web Site intended to encourage or promote the use of illegal substances or activities.