The terms, in plain English

These are the terms for buying a Dear Motive mystery game by post. They form the contract between you and us when you place an order. We have written them plainly, but they are meant to be the real terms, so please read them before you buy.

Who you’re buying from

Aceman Software Solutions Ltd, trading as Dear Motive, 8 Holtdale Grove, Leeds, LS16 7RZ. Company no. 12928098. You can reach us at hello@dearmotive.com. We are not registered for VAT, so no VAT is added to the prices below.

What you’re buying

A Dear Motive mystery game delivered by post: a physical pack of original fiction, starting with Case 001: Slack Water. You choose how you buy it, and every price includes delivery within the UK:

This month’s case. £12.99, one case, paid once. Nothing renews.
Monthly. £11.99 a month for a new case each month. It renews automatically until you cancel. You can cancel, skip a month, or pause any time — see “The monthly plan” below.
3 cases. £35, paid once, for the next three cases, posted about one a month. Nothing renews after the three.
12 cases. £129, paid once, for the next twelve cases, posted about one a month. Nothing renews after the twelve.

Your order is accepted, and the contract is made, when we send you an email confirming it. If we can’t accept your order (for example, if a case has sold out), we’ll tell you and refund anything you’ve paid.

The price, and tax

The price you see is the full price you pay. It includes UK delivery and, because we are not registered for VAT, it includes no VAT. If that changes in future, we’ll update this page before charging any VAT. We take payment through Stripe; your card details go straight to Stripe and never reach our systems.

Orders outside the UK. We ship internationally, and the price still includes our postage. But once a parcel reaches your country, the local customs authority may charge import duty, tax or a handling fee before it can be delivered. Those charges are set by the destination country, not by us, and they are the recipient’s responsibility to pay. We can’t predict or refund them, so please check your own country’s rules before ordering from abroad.

When we post it

We post your first case by Thursday 10 December 2026, Royal Mail 2nd Class in the UK and Royal Mail International Standard elsewhere, and each later case about a month apart. Royal Mail aims to deliver 2nd Class post within about three working days, but delivery dates aren’t guaranteed, so we never promise arrival on a particular day. Last orders for the first case: Tuesday 1 December 2026, 23:59. If we don’t post your first case by Thursday 10 December 2026, you can cancel for a full refund.

Your right to change your mind (the 14-day cooling-off right)

Because you’re buying at a distance, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give you the right to change your mind for any reason, with no need to explain. You have 14 days to decide, counted from the day you (or someone you nominate) receive the case. For a plan that sends several cases, the 14 days run from the day you receive the first one.

To cancel, just tell us clearly before the 14 days are up — email hello@dearmotive.com with a clear statement that you’re cancelling (for example: “I hereby cancel my order [your name, order date]”). You don’t have to use any particular form of words, but a clear message in writing helps us act on it quickly.

If you cancel after a case has arrived, please send it back within 14 days of telling us. You pay the return postage. You can open the pack and look through it — that’s fine — but if you handle it more than you would to examine it in a shop, and that reduces its value, we may deduct that reduction from your refund. A mystery game is meant to be played once, so if the puzzle has been worked through, solved, or the pack can no longer be sold as new, the deduction may be significant or, in some cases, the full price.

How refunds work

When you cancel under the 14-day right, we refund everything you paid for the cancelled cases, including the standard delivery cost, to the same card. We do this within 14 days — of your telling us, if nothing had been posted yet, or of our getting the case back (or your proof of posting it back), whichever is sooner. For the 3-case and 12-case plans, if you cancel partway through we refund the cases not yet posted.

The monthly plan: renewing, skipping and cancelling

The monthly plan renews automatically at £11.99 a month until you cancel. Before each renewal we email you a reminder, so a payment never comes as a surprise. You can cancel, skip a month, or pause at any time — there’s a one-click link in your account and in that reminder email, and you can always email hello@dearmotive.com. Signing up online means you can always stop online; we’ll never make you phone or write a letter to leave.

If you cancel the monthly plan, you won’t be charged again, and any case not yet posted at that point isn’t charged. Cases already posted before you cancel aren’t refunded for cancellation alone, though your 14-day cooling-off right and your faulty-goods rights below still apply to each case you receive.

Gifts

If you choose “Buy as a gift”, we post it straight to the address you give us, and the packing slip shows no price. You can print or send the gift note yourself. The contract is still with you, the buyer, so the rights and cancellation terms above are yours to use.

If something is wrong with your case

Separately from the cooling-off right above, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 says what you buy must match its description, be of satisfactory quality, and be fit for its purpose. If a case arrives damaged, incomplete or faulty:

within 30 days you can reject it for a full refund;
after that you can ask us to replace it, and if we can’t put it right within a reasonable time you can have a refund or a price reduction.

Just write to hello@dearmotive.com and we’ll sort it out — usually by sending a fresh pack. These are your legal rights, and nothing in these terms takes them away.

Reviews and player quotes

Any player quotes or ratings we show are real, from people who actually played the game and who agreed to us sharing their words. We don’t write fake reviews, pay for reviews, or offer anything in exchange for a positive one, and we don’t hide the negative to show only the good. Where a quote came from someone who received something (for example a free case), we say so.

Complaints

If something’s gone wrong, please email hello@dearmotive.com first — we’re a small team and we’d always rather fix it directly, and quickly. If we can’t resolve it between us, you can get free, independent advice from Citizens Advice (citizensadvice.org.uk or the consumer helpline), who can pass the matter to Trading Standards. We are not a member of, and are not obliged to use, any paid alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme.

Law

These terms, and any dispute about them, are governed by the law of England and Wales, and you can bring a claim in the courts of England and Wales. If you live elsewhere in the UK, you keep the benefit of any consumer protections that apply where you live.

This page is a plain-English summary of your rights and ours. It’s written carefully but it isn’t legal advice, and it doesn’t reduce any right the law gives you.