The Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade's Export Connect: Trade Helpdesk (hereafter “Expert Connect”) is a Membership online helpdesk service provided by The Chartered Institute (“we” or “us”) as a membership benefit. The following terms and conditions (“Expert Connect Terms & Conditions”) shall apply to the relationship between you and us in addition to your membership’s terms and conditions of use and any other applicable agreements which you may have entered into with us.
- The service will be available only to Business Members (member, plus member, premium member) and their Linked Affiliates. To use the service, you must be logged in to the service with you must be logged into the website with your Business membership credentials. Members of the Chartered Institute can access Expert Connect for free as part of their membership. Professional memberships, alongside any Retired, Affiliate, Student and Overseas memberships do not include free access to the Expert Connect service.
- Expert Connect is operative between the hours of 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Thursday and 8:30am - 4pm on Friday excluding National Bank Holidays within the United Kingdom and between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day inclusive.
- The service allows members an allotted number of enquiries per annum, depending on the tier of membership the business holds.
- Business Membership: 5 enquiries per year
- Business Plus Membership: 10 enquiries per year
- Business Premium Membership: 15 enquiries per year
- Where a business member has exceeded their allowance of enquiries in a calendar year, additional Expert Connect enquiries can be purchased to remain using the service.
- Response times to queries depend on the level of membership, with Plus and Premium members to receive a response within 24 hours, whereas a Business membership would be within 48 hours.
- We will endeavour to respond to your enquiry within the times mentioned above but there are a small number of occasions where a response may go over this timeline.
- The service is not designed as a deep-dive consultancy assistance, but instead a query on a single trade related topic. The response is formed in the style of a summary note between 1-2 pages. If further support is identified, the expert will advise the member of the best way that we can support in more detail.
- Members are advised to seek specialist advice where necessary. It is not the intention of Expert Connect to provide specialist advice but to provide general guidance only and therefore the service should not be relied on for this purpose.
- On the rare occasion that the enquiry falls outside of our remit, we will endeavour to direct you to an alternative source of information where possible.
- Members will receive written guidance on their enquiry within the timeline highlighted above, along with confirmation the expert has answered the query within the timeframe and in line with the information provided to the expert.
- Any information or guidance supplied by us and our staff and representatives in response to the enquiry is provided for general guidance only; the expert and organisation can accept no responsibility for the accuracy of the information provided, or liability for any consequences arising from the information supplied. All liability is excluded to the amount permissible by law.
- Any abuse of our experts will not be permitted and shall be investigated with utmost seriousness. Should this be verified, termination of membership or termination of Linked Affiliate account may be considered.
- You should contact Expert Connect personally and not via a third party. Any information given is provided to and for your benefit alone and not for the benefit of family, friends and other third parties.
- The intention of Expert Connect is to provide technical guidance in relation to international trade queries only and therefore Expert Connect will not be able to respond to any queries outside of this scope.
- In the unlikely event of a problem arising or your being dissatisfied with the service provided, we have a comprehensive complaints procedure. If you wish to make a formal complaint you should contact the client services team at membershipsupport@export.org.uk.
- If any provision of these terms and conditions is found by any court, tribunal or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be wholly or partly illegal, invalid, void, voidable, unenforceable or unreasonable it shall to the extent of such illegality, invalidity, voidness, voidability, unenforceability or unreasonableness be deemed severable and the remaining provisions of these terms and conditions and the remainder of such provision shall continue in full force and effect.
- The formation, existence, construction, performance, validity and all aspects of these terms and conditions shall be governed by English law and the parties submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
- We reserve the right to amend these terms and conditions at any time by updating this page and you are advised to check this page regularly, as any updates will be binding upon you. In the event of any conflict between the expert connect terms and conditions and your membership policy terms and conditions, the latter shall prevail.
