The fine print, in plain words.

Who we are

Northern Sticks is a business name of Spencer O'Hara, a sole proprietor registered in Ontario under the Business Names Act. We're a small, home-based shop that sells new hockey gear and buys and sells used hockey and golf gear.

Business name

Northern Sticks

Legal name

Spencer O'Hara, sole proprietor

Business and mailing address

353 Church St, Beaverton, ON L0K 1A0, Canada

Phone

705-500-5153 (call or text)

Email

info@northernsticks.ca

Website

northernsticks.ca

There's no storefront, so pickups, drop-offs and in-person returns are all by appointment in Beaverton. We serve Beaverton, Orillia, Barrie, Muskoka and the City of Kawartha Lakes (out to Lindsay), and ship new gear across Canada except Quebec.

On this page, "we", "us" and "Northern Sticks" mean the business above, and "you" means the person using the site, buying from us or selling to us. When you place an order, the Terms of sale, Shipping, Returns and Your privacy sections below make up our agreement with you. When you sell us gear, Selling us your gear applies too.

We may update this page; the date at the top shows the latest version. The version that applies to you is the one on the site when you placed your order or accepted our offer, and we keep every dated version on file.

Terms of sale

Using this site

By using northernsticks.ca you agree to these terms. Please use it fairly: don't try to break it, scrape it in bulk, get into anything that isn't yours, or use it for anything unlawful. We may block anyone who does.

Who can buy

• You need to be 18 or older (or the age of majority where you live) to order. A parent or guardian can order for a younger player.
• We ship to every Canadian province and territory except Quebec, and we don't ship outside Canada. Pickup is free, by appointment in Beaverton. We don't offer local delivery for now.
• We sell to players, parents and teams for their own use. We may limit quantities or decline orders that look like fraud or resale. If we decline an order, we refund any payment in full.

Products and descriptions

We describe every product fairly and accurately: what it is, its size and specs, its condition, and anything you need to know to use it. Photos show the actual item or, for new gear, the same model. Screens show colours a little differently, so a colourway may look slightly different in hand. If something doesn't match its description, our returns policy and your legal rights cover it.

We only list gear we have, or gear our supplier has confirmed with a realistic delivery date. If something sells out after you order, we tell you right away and refund you in full, or offer a swap if you'd like one.

Used gear

• Every used item is labelled used in its listing and in your cart, and has a grade: A Like new, B Game-ready or C Well-loved (see how we grade).
• Listings show real photos of the actual item, list its known defects, and say where it came from. A defect we list is part of the description.
• We inspect every used item and check it against Health Canada recalls before we list it.
• Used gear is sold as described and pictured. It's final sale for change of mind; your legal rights for items that are defective, unsafe or not as described still apply.
• A used listing may show an "Approx. new retail" price. That's what a comparable new item costs, for reference. It's not a price we ever charged.
• We only sell used hockey helmets with a legible CSA Z262.1 mark and a date label showing they're 5 years old or less, and cages or face protectors with a legible CSA Z262.2 mark. Replace any helmet after a major impact; the damage isn't always visible.

Prices, taxes and fees

• All prices are in Canadian dollars (CAD).
• The price shown is the full price of the item. We never add handling, processing, cleaning or other mandatory fees.
• Shipping is itemized at checkout before you pay. Pickup is free.
• Sales tax, if it applies, is added at checkout.
• Some products cost more in some options, like a different flex or curve. Product cards show "From" the lowest price, and the product page shows the exact price for your pick.
• We don't show "was" or compare-at prices on new gear, and any sale price is real.
• If an item is listed at an obviously wrong price, we contact you before it ships. You can buy at the correct price or cancel for a full refund. We never charge more than the price you agreed to without your OK.

How ordering works

1. Cart. Your cart lists every item, option, quantity and price, in CAD, with links to this page. You tick a box to confirm you've read these terms before you can check out.
2. Review. Checkout, run by Shopify, shows your whole order before you pay: items and options, delivery address, delivery method and estimated date, shipping, taxes and the total. You can change anything, fix mistakes, or leave without being charged.
3. Accept. Your order is placed when you press the final order button.
4. Confirmation. We email your order confirmation right away, and always within 15 days. It has our business details, your name, the order date, the items (with the condition of used ones), prices, shipping, taxes, the total, how you paid, delivery or pickup details, and a link to these policies. That email is your copy of our agreement, so keep it.

Spot a mistake after you order? Text or email us as soon as you can, and we'll fix it before it ships if we can.

Payment

• You pay at checkout with any of the payment methods shown there. You're charged when you place the order.
• Pickup orders are paid online before pickup.
• Card details go straight to Shopify's payment processing. We never see or store your full card number, and we'll never ask for it by email, text or phone.
• If you order by phone or email, we send you a secure checkout link, so you get the same review step and confirmation.

Delivery and pickup

Shipping methods, timing and costs are in Shipping. You see the delivery method, cost and estimated date before you pay. If your order is more than 30 days late, you can cancel it for a full refund (see late orders).

Cancellations, returns and refunds

The details are in Returns. In short: new gear can be returned unused within 30 days, used gear is final sale for change of mind but covered if it isn't as described or isn't safe, and if you cancel under Ontario law we refund everything, shipping included, within 15 days.

Custom orders

• For made-to-order items, like custom jerseys, apparel, bags or stick work, we email you from info@northernsticks.ca to collect logos, names, numbers and sizes.
• Before we start, we confirm the details and give you a production and delivery date by email. You can change or cancel for a full refund until you approve the proof.
• You confirm you have the right to use any logo, name or artwork you send us.
• Once production starts, custom items can't be returned for change of mind. If we make a mistake or the item is defective, we fix it, remake it or refund you.

Warranties and your legal rights

• Maker's warranties. If a new product comes with a warranty from its maker, ask us and we'll help you make a claim.
• Sticks with our 30-day warranty. If one breaks in the first 30 days, you get a one-time credit for the full price. The product page says which sticks have it. Claims go through us (see the stick warranty).
• Used gear is sold as described and pictured. If you find a problem we didn't list, tell us and we'll make it right.

Product safety

Use protective gear the way its maker intends, make sure it fits, and replace it when it's worn or damaged. If anything you bought from us seems unsafe, stop using it and tell us right away; how to reach us and how we handle recalls are under product safety and recalls. We report serious incidents to Health Canada as the law requires, and we'll contact you using your order details if something we sold you is recalled.

Emails from us

We send order, shipping and safety emails because you need them. We send marketing emails only if you tick a box to say yes, and every one has an unsubscribe link. Buying or selling with us never depends on signing up. More in Your privacy.

Our content

The Northern Sticks name, logos, photos, graphics, code and words on this site belong to us or to the people who licensed them to us. You're welcome to view and share the site for personal use, but please don't copy or reuse our content commercially without our written OK. Product names and brands belong to their owners. Links to other sites, like Health Canada's, are there to help; we don't control those sites.

Limits on liability

To the extent the law allows, we aren't responsible for losses we couldn't reasonably have foreseen, or for problems caused by misuse, normal wear, or things outside our control like carrier delays, severe weather or outages. This doesn't limit any consumer right that the law says can't be limited, or our responsibility for our own negligence or for goods that are defective or not as described.

Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. If you live in another province, you keep the protection your province's consumer laws give you. If something goes wrong, talk to us first; most things get sorted in one text or email. You can still go to any court, tribunal or consumer protection office open to you. Nothing here requires private arbitration, and nothing here stops you from posting an honest review.

Shipping

We ship new gear from Beaverton to everywhere in Canada except Quebec. Or skip shipping and pick it up from us for free, by appointment in Beaverton.

Where we ship

Every Canadian province and territory except Quebec. We don't ship outside Canada. Checkout won't offer shipping to a Quebec address, so you'll know before you pay, and you're never charged for an order we can't ship.

How you can get your order

We don't offer local delivery for now.

Processing

• In-stock gear ships within 1 to 2 business days. Orders placed on a weekend or holiday start the next business day.
• If an item has to come from our supplier first, we email you the later date before it ships, and you can cancel for a full refund if that doesn't work for you.
• Custom orders ship by the date we confirm with you by email before production starts.

We email you a tracking number when your order ships.

Costs and taxes

Shipping is itemized at checkout before you pay, and pickup is always free. There are no handling, packing or other added fees. Sales tax, if it applies, is added at checkout. We only ship within Canada, so there are no customs duties.

Pickup

• Pickup is free, by appointment in Beaverton. There's no storefront, so every pickup is booked ahead.
• Your order is ready within 2 business days. We text or email you to set a time, usually a weekday evening or the weekend.
• Pickup orders are paid online before pickup.
• Please pick up within 14 days. If that doesn't work, tell us and we'll find another time or switch you to shipping. If we can't reach you after a few tries, we may cancel the order and refund you in full.

Delivery dates and late orders

Checkout and your order confirmation give you an estimated delivery date or date range. If we see a delay coming, we'll email you and ask whether a new date works.

Missed deliveries

Please double-check your address at checkout. If the carrier tries to deliver at the agreed time and place and the parcel is refused, or nobody's there despite reasonable notice, the law treats the order as delivered. Canada Post usually leaves a notice card and holds the parcel at a nearby post office. If a parcel comes back to us unclaimed, we'll get in touch to reship it or refund the item price.

Lost or damaged parcels

Your order is our responsibility until it's delivered.

• Damaged in transit? Take photos of the box and the item, keep the packaging, and email us. Telling us within a few days helps with the carrier claim.
• Tracking says delivered, but it's not there? Check with neighbours, your mailbox and any front desk, then let us know and we'll open a claim.
• Stuck? If tracking hasn't moved for 5 business days, tell us and we'll chase it.

If a parcel is lost or arrives damaged, we send a replacement or refund you in full, your choice, and you don't have to wait on the carrier's claim.

Items with shipping limits

• Skate blades and steel ship with guards on.
• Sticks ship in a long stick box and can take a little longer to reach rural addresses.
• We don't sell aerosols or items with lithium batteries right now. If we add any, they'll ship by ground only or be pickup only, and the listing will say so.

Used gear and custom orders

Used gear ships the same ways as new gear, and each piece is one of a kind. Custom orders ship when they're ready, by the date we confirmed with you; if one is going to be late, we'll tell you, and you can agree to a new date or cancel for a full refund. Selling gear to us works differently: see hand-off options.

Returns

Ontario law doesn't give a general right to return something because you changed your mind. Our change-of-mind policy for new gear is extra, on top of the law.

New gear: change of mind

You can return new gear within 30 days of delivery or pickup if it's unused:

• not skated, taped, hit or worn outside;
• still tagged, with stickers and protective film on;
• in its original packaging, with everything that came with it.

We refund your original payment method, or give you store credit if you'd rather. There's no restocking fee. Original shipping isn't refunded on change-of-mind returns. You pay the return shipping, or drop it off for free, by appointment in Beaverton. Try gear on indoors on a clean floor, with skate guards on; skates that have been sharpened or baked, and sticks that have been cut or taped, count as used.

Not returnable for change of mind: custom orders once production has started; jocks, base layers and socks that have been worn or taken out of sealed packaging; and opened consumables like tape and wax. These exclusions don't apply if the item is defective, damaged or not as described.

Used gear

Used gear is final sale for change of mind. It's sold in the condition described and pictured, and each piece is one of a kind. If it has a defect we didn't list, is a different size or model than listed, or isn't safe to use, tell us within 14 days of delivery or pickup. We pay the return shipping and refund you in full, or fix it if you'd prefer. After 14 days, your legal rights still apply. A defect we listed is part of the description, so it isn't grounds for a return.

Our mistake: defective, damaged or wrong items

New or used, if we sent the wrong item, it arrived damaged, or it has a defect that isn't normal wear, send us your order number and a few photos. We pay the return shipping: we email you a prepaid label, or you can drop it off by appointment in Beaverton. You choose a replacement, a repair, or a full refund including the original shipping. Normal wear, like a stick that breaks from a slash or blades dulled from skating, isn't a defect. Not sure? Ask; we'd rather look at it than guess.

30-day stick warranty

Some of our sticks come with a 30-day warranty; the product page says which ones. If one of these sticks breaks in the first 30 days, you get a one-time credit for the full price. Claims go through us: email info@northernsticks.ca with your order number and photos of the break. This is on top of your legal rights.

How to start a return

1. Text 705-500-5153 or email info@northernsticks.ca with your order number, what you're returning and why. Photos help.
2. We usually get back to you within a day with return instructions, or a prepaid label if we're covering shipping.
3. Pack it well and ship it with tracking, or book a drop-off in Beaverton.
4. We check the item when it arrives and email you when your refund is on its way.

Please get in touch before you send anything back, so we know what's coming.

Who pays return shipping

Refunds

• Refunds go back to your original payment method, unless you ask for store credit.
• Returns are refunded within 5 business days after we receive and check the item.
• Cancellations under Ontario law are refunded within 15 days after we get your notice. We don't wait for the item to come back first.
• Your bank or card issuer may take a few extra days to show the refund.
• If we miss a refund the law requires and you paid by credit card, you can ask your card issuer to reverse the charge.

Cancelling an order

If your order hasn't shipped or been picked up, or a custom order hasn't gone into production, tell us and we'll cancel it and refund you in full.

Ontario's Consumer Protection Act, 2002 also lets you cancel an online order:

• Tell us any way you like: email, phone, text or a letter. Email gives us both a record.
• We refund everything you paid, shipping included, within 15 days after we get your notice.
• If you already have the item, send it back within 15 days after you cancel (or after it arrives, if that's later) by a tracked method. We pay the reasonable cost and send you a prepaid label.
• These rights apply to used gear and final-sale items too.

Exchanges

Need a different size, flex or curve? Let us know. If we have it, we'll set the new one aside and ship it once your return is on its way. If the price is different, we refund or charge the difference. Change-of-mind exchanges follow the same rules as new-gear returns.

Your privacy

What we collect, why, who helps us handle it, how long we keep it, and how to ask us about it. We collect as little as we can and we never sell it. We follow Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

Our Privacy Officer

Spencer O'Hara is our Privacy Officer and is responsible for how we handle personal information. Reach our Privacy Officer at info@northernsticks.ca (subject "Privacy"), at 705-500-5153, or by mail at 353 Church St, Beaverton, ON L0K 1A0.

This covers what we collect through northernsticks.ca, by email, phone and text, at pickups and drop-offs, and when we buy used gear, including from private sellers we find ourselves. It doesn't cover other websites we link to.

What we collect and why

• When you buy from us: your name, email, phone, shipping and billing address, what you ordered, and messages about your order. We use it to take payment, ship your order or set up a pickup, handle returns and refunds, and send order emails. Payment details go straight to Shopify's payment processing; we see the card type, the last four digits and whether the payment went through, never your full card number.
• When you sell us your gear: your name, email, phone (optional), the item details, and the photos you send with your proposal. If you accept an offer, we also ask for your mailing address and the email or phone number for your Interac e-Transfer. We use this to make an offer, arrange the hand-off and pay you. We never ask for your SIN, date of birth or bank account numbers.
• When we buy from a private seller ourselves, for example through a classified ad: the seller's name and address, the item, the price, and the listing and messages, because product-safety and tax law require purchase records. We never add these sellers to a mailing list.
• When you contact us: your name, email and what you tell us.
• When you sign up for emails: your email, plus the date and the wording you agreed to, so we can show you said yes. Until our Shopify store opens, email sign-ups are sent to our inbox through Resend, and when it opens we'll add them to Shopify's customer list with the same consent record.
• When you visit the site: our web host receives the basic technical data every browser sends, like your IP address and browser type, to deliver the pages and keep the site secure.

We also use your details to keep the records tax and product-safety law require, to prevent fraud and stolen-gear sales, and to contact you if something you bought is recalled. We don't use your information for anything new without telling you and, where needed, asking first.

Photo ID at hand-off

When we buy gear from you in person, we look at government photo ID to check that your name matches the name we're paying. We note only the type of ID and that the name matched. We never write down the ID number, and we never copy, scan or photograph it. Please never email or upload a picture of your ID.

Purchase records for used gear

For every item we buy, we keep the seller's name and mailing address, the item, the price paid and the payment reference. The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (section 13) requires these records so recalls can be traced, and the Canada Revenue Agency requires business records too.

Your consent

When you order, send a sell proposal or contact us, you agree to us using your information for the purposes above. Anything optional, like marketing emails, we ask separately with an unticked box, and saying no never affects an order or a sale. You can withdraw consent any time by emailing us. Some records we have to keep by law, as listed below.

Cookies and analytics

This website runs no analytics, ad pixels or tracking cookies. It saves a few small things in your own browser, like your cart, so they're still there when you come back; they stay on your device and aren't sent to us. To show our fonts, your browser loads them from Google Fonts, which, like any website, sees your IP address and browser type. Checkout is run by Shopify, which sets its own cookies for the cart, checkout and security.

Who helps us

We never sell or rent your personal information. We share only what each of these needs to do its job:

• Shopify, which runs our checkout, stores orders, takes payment (Shopify Payments) and keeps our email list and sends our emails (Shopify Email);
• Vercel, which hosts this website and runs our contact, sell and email sign-up forms;
• Resend, which delivers messages from our contact and sell forms to our inbox, including the photos you send with a sell proposal;
• Google Workspace, which hosts our email inbox (info@northernsticks.ca), where your emails, contact messages and sell proposals, with their photos, are kept;
• Canada Post, to deliver your order;
• our bank, to send Interac e-Transfers to sellers;
• our accountant, for tax filing;
• Health Canada, if we need to report a product-safety incident;
• police or government, when the law requires it, or when we reasonably suspect gear offered to us was stolen.

Our service providers have to protect your information and use it only for the work we hired them to do.

Storage outside Canada. Shopify, Vercel, Resend and Google may store and process information outside Canada, including in the United States. While it's there, courts, law enforcement and national security authorities in that country may be able to access it.

How long we keep it

When we no longer need something, we delete it or make it anonymous.

How we protect it

Card payments are handled by Shopify Payments, which is PCI DSS compliant, so card numbers never touch our systems. We use two-step sign-in, encrypted devices and strong passwords. Only we, and anyone helping us under a confidentiality promise, can see customer and seller records. Paper records are kept locked, and old records are shredded or securely deleted.

Marketing emails

We follow Canada's anti-spam law (CASL).

• We only send marketing emails if you ticked a box to say yes. Every sign-up box starts unticked, and signing up is never a condition of buying or selling.
• Every marketing email names Northern Sticks, gives our mailing address and email, and has an unsubscribe link. Unsubscribe any time; we act on it within 10 business days.
• Order, shipping and recall emails aren't marketing, and they don't carry promotions.
• We never add people we buy gear from through classified ads or marketplaces to our list.

Your rights

You can ask us what personal information we hold about you, how we've used it and who we've shared it with; ask us to correct anything that's wrong; ask us to delete what we no longer have to keep by law; or ask us to stop using it for marketing. Email info@northernsticks.ca with the subject "Privacy request". We may ask you to confirm who you are. We answer within 30 days, free, and if we can't give you something, we'll tell you why.

Kids

Buying and selling with us is for adults 18 and over. A parent or guardian can buy for a younger player, and sells on a minor's behalf as the named seller. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13; if you think a child has sent us some, tell us and we'll delete it.

If something goes wrong

If a privacy breach creates a real risk of significant harm to you, we'll tell you as soon as we can and report it to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. We keep a record of every breach, big or small, for at least 24 months.

Questions and complaints

Talk to us first at info@northernsticks.ca or 705-500-5153. If you're not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada at priv.gc.ca.

If we change how we use information you've already given us, we'll tell you by email or on the site before the change takes effect.

Selling us your gear

These terms apply when you send us a proposal to buy your used gear, through the sell form, by email or in person. Sending a proposal is free and doesn't commit you to anything. A sale only happens once you accept our offer and we've inspected the gear. Once we buy an item, it's ours, and we set its listing and price. We don't offer trade-in credit at the moment.

Who can sell

• You need to be 18 or older.
• For gear owned by someone under 18, a parent or guardian completes the sale: they're named as the seller, make the declaration, receive the payment, and come to any in-person hand-off.
• It has to be your own gear, or your minor child's. We don't buy from dealers or take consignment through this program.

What we buy, and what we can't

We buy hockey and golf gear with plenty of life left: sticks, skates, gloves, pads, goalie gear, clubs, bags, carts and apparel in good shape. Safety gear has to clear a higher bar. We can't buy:

• anything that's been recalled (we check every item against Health Canada recalls when it comes in and again before we list it);
• hockey or goalie helmets without a legible CSA Z262.1 mark and a date-of-manufacture label, or more than 5 years old;
• cages and face protectors without a legible CSA Z262.2 mark, or with bent or broken wires, a cracked shield or missing hardware;
• goalie helmets with a built-in cage unless they show both CSA Z262.1 and CSA Z262.2;
• helmets that have taken a major impact, or are cracked, painted, drilled, modified, or missing pads or hardware;
• other damaged or modified protective gear, or gear past its maker's stated service life;
• counterfeit gear, or anything with a removed or defaced serial number;
• bike, inline, ski or snowboard helmets;
• toys for children under 3, and kids' outerwear with neck or hood drawstrings.

Federal product-safety law treats used gear the same as new, so these rules aren't flexible. A helmet or cage that fails our check is never resold.

Your declaration

When you send a proposal, and again at hand-off, you confirm that:

1. you're 18 or older, or the parent or guardian of the minor who owns the gear;
2. you own it (or your minor child does) and have the right to sell it;
3. it isn't stolen, borrowed, rented, financed, under a lien or counterfeit;
4. as far as you know it hasn't been recalled, and no helmet has taken a major impact;
5. your description, photos and any video are true and show the actual item;
6. you've told us about, and shown us, every defect you know of;
7. if the gear arrives materially different from that, you'll pay for shipping both ways, as set out in who pays for shipping;
8. if it turns out to be stolen or not yours to sell, you'll repay what we paid for it, and we may share your details with police if theft is suspected.

We record the date and time of your declaration with your proposal.

Describe it honestly, and show every defect

Our offer is based only on what you tell us and show us, so getting this right is up to you.

• Describe each item: what it is, the brand and model, size (and flex, curve or loft where it applies), roughly how old it is, and its overall condition.
• Tell us about every defect you know of: cracks, chips, dents, soft spots, repairs, damage hidden under tape or grips, rust, missing or broken parts, and anything that rattles or doesn't work as it should.
• Show every defect clearly: a photo of the whole item, then a close-up of each defect in good light, plus any serial number. For helmets and cages, also show the CSA mark and the date label.
• Use video when a photo can't show it, like a soft flex, a rattle, or a crack that only opens when the stick bends. Text a short video to 705-500-5153 or email it to info@northernsticks.ca with your proposal reference.
• Photos and videos must be of the actual item. Show the gear only: no people, faces, house numbers, or kids wearing the gear. Never send photos of ID.

Offers

• We email an offer from info@northernsticks.ca within 2 business days of a complete proposal. We may decline any proposal without giving a reason.
• Offers are in Canadian dollars and valid for 7 days unless the email says otherwise. After that, ask us and we'll take another look.
• To accept, reply to the offer email. That's when we'll ask for your mailing address and your e-Transfer email or phone number.
• Every offer is conditional. Accepting it doesn't mean we've bought the gear. We decide whether to buy only after we've seen it in person (see inspection).
• You can withdraw any time before we pay you. If you withdraw after you've shipped the gear, you pay for the shipping both ways (see who pays for shipping).

Hand-off options

• Ship it to us. Once you accept our offer, we email you a prepaid, tracked shipping label. It's free if the gear matches what you told and showed us. If it doesn't, you pay us back for it (see who pays for shipping). Pack it well. Once the carrier scans it, loss or damage on the way to us is our responsibility.
• Drop it off in Beaverton. By appointment only, free. We'll text you to set a time.

We no longer pick up gear around the area. An adult seller, or the parent or guardian of a minor, has to be there for any in-person hand-off.

Inspection: we decide after we see it

We inspect every item in person: a structure and crack check, a recall check, the safety marks on helmets and cages, and a match against your description, photos and any video. At a drop-off we usually inspect on the spot. Shipped gear we inspect within 2 business days of it arriving, then email you our decision, with photos (or video where it helps) of anything that's different.

After inspecting, we do one of three things:

• Buy it at the offered price. That's what happens when the gear matches what you told and showed us.
• Offer a revised price, if the gear is materially different from your description, photos or video. You can take the revised price or say no.
• Decline it. We can decline any item once we've seen it in person.

"Materially different" means any of these:

• a defect or damage you didn't tell us about or didn't show us;
• a defect that's worse than you described or showed;
• a different brand, model, size, flex, curve or year than you said;
• missing parts;
• a safety problem you didn't mention, like a missing, unreadable or out-of-date CSA mark, or a helmet that's taken a hit.

Normal wear that matches your description and photos isn't a difference.

Who pays for shipping

When you pay for shipping, it's our actual carrier cost, with no markup or handling fee, and we send you the receipts.

If we don't buy it

• Drop-offs: you take it home with you.
• Shipped gear, when we're paying: we ship it back to you by tracked service at our cost, or you can pick it up by appointment in Beaverton.
• Shipped gear, when you're paying: send the amount we email you by Interac e-Transfer within 14 days, and we ship it back by tracked service within 2 business days of getting your payment. Or pick it up by appointment in Beaverton and skip the return shipping; you still pay for the label we sent you.
• We pack it back up as carefully as it came. If it's lost or damaged on the way back to you, we'll help you claim with the carrier.
• We hold gear we haven't bought for 60 days after we tell you it's ready to go back. If we haven't heard from you by then, and we've sent you at least two reminders, we may donate it or recycle it responsibly, and we won't charge you anything more. We never sell gear we didn't buy.
• Helmets and cages that don't meet the safety rules, and recalled items, go back to you the same way, or we dispose of them safely if you prefer. We never resell them.
• Gear we believe is stolen may be held for police instead of being returned (see stolen or counterfeit gear).

Payment

• We pay by Interac e-Transfer, in Canadian dollars, to an account in the seller's name, once the gear checks out: usually on the spot at a drop-off, or right after we inspect shipped gear. If you accept a revised price for shipped gear, we pay the revised price minus the cost of our prepaid label.
• We only ask for your e-Transfer details after you accept an offer, and we never ask for bank account numbers.
• Ownership passes to us when we pay you.
• If you're selling as a business, tell us and include your GST/HST number on your invoice. Otherwise we treat it as a private sale.

Photo ID and records

At a drop-off we look at government photo ID to confirm your name matches the name on the e-Transfer. We note only the type of ID and that the name matched, and we never copy it (see photo ID at hand-off). For shipped gear, paying an account in your name confirms who you are.

We keep a record of every purchase: your name and mailing address, the item, the price, the payment reference, your declaration, the ID-check note and our recall check. The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act (section 13) and the Canada Revenue Agency both require these records, and we keep them for 6 years. If we don't buy your gear, we delete your proposal and photos within about 90 days.

Stolen or counterfeit gear

We don't buy gear we suspect is stolen or counterfeit. Signs we watch for include names on gear that don't match the seller, filed-off serial numbers, piles of new-with-tags gear, and prices far below market. If we suspect theft, we decline the item and may report it to police. If gear we bought turns out to be stolen, the true owner can usually reclaim it, and you agree to repay what we paid you.

Your privacy and optional extras

We use your information to review your proposal, make an offer, arrange the hand-off, pay you and keep the records the law requires; Your privacy has the details. Anything optional, like joining our email list, starts unticked, and saying no never changes our offer. We only use your photos in a listing if you say that's OK; otherwise we take our own.

Accessibility

We want everyone to be able to shop with us, sell to us and read these policies. We aim to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, level AA, on this site, and we fix problems as we find them.

What's built in

• Menus, the cart, filters and forms work with a keyboard, and a "Skip to content" link appears on your first Tab.
• Whatever you've tabbed to gets a clear orange outline.
• Text colours meet AA contrast on our dark backgrounds, and we never put light text on orange.
• Every form field has a label, and errors are spelled out in words next to the field.
• Photos have text descriptions; decorative graphics are hidden from screen readers.
• Pages use real headings and landmarks, reflow at phone widths, and zoom to 200% without losing content.
• Motion is limited to soft fades. If your device is set to reduce motion, we switch it off, and background videos stay still.
• The site is plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript, works in current Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Edge, and its text stays readable if scripts don't load.

Known limits

• Some product photos come from our supplier and have short descriptions. We're improving them.
• Sticks with lots of flex and curve options take a lot of tabbing. Text us and we'll help you pick.
• Checkout is provided by Shopify. We choose accessible settings, but we don't control every part of it.

Help, other formats and feedback

Need a policy in large print, plain text or read out over the phone? Need a hand placing an order or selling us gear? Call or text 705-500-5153 or email info@northernsticks.ca and we'll help, at no extra cost. For pickups and drop-offs, tell us when you book if you need anything, like a hand-off at your car or extra time.

If part of the site is hard to use, tell us the page, what you were trying to do, and the device or assistive technology you use, by email (subject "Accessibility") or with our contact form. We usually get back to you within a day, and we'll tell you what we'll do about it.