Terms of service
Written to be read. If anything here is unclear, ask us and we will explain it in plain language.
Who you are dealing with
This site is operated by Northstar Cart Inc., trading as Northstar Cart, of 4-400 Esna Park Drive, Markham, Ontario L3R 3K2, Canada. Our company registration is and our tax registration is . You can reach us at support@northstarcart.com or on +1 (942) 380-9665, Monday to Friday, 9:00am to 6:00pm. Full details are on the contact page.
By using this site or placing an order you agree to these terms. If you do not agree with them, please do not order.
The contract
By placing an order you make an offer to buy the goods at the price shown. A contract is formed when we confirm the order by email, not when the payment is authorised. If a product is mispriced or has sold out we may decline the order and refund you in full.
All prices are in CAD. HST (13%) and shipping are calculated at checkout and shown before you pay. Nothing is added after you press pay.
We may update these terms; the version in force is the one published when you place your order, and the date at the foot of this page changes whenever the text does.
The goods, described honestly
Tea is a natural agricultural product: leaf appearance, aroma intensity and even flavour vary year to year and lot to lot. Our tasting notes describe the lot we are currently shipping, and we will always tell you if a new harvest differs meaningfully from the previous one.
Stone and wood are natural materials. Colour, veining, translucency and grain vary from bead to bead, and no two strands are identical — that variation is the material, not a defect. Bead diameters and strand lengths are given to the nearest millimetre, and small differences between one strand and the next are normal. A heat-treated or dyed stone is described as such on its listing.
Some listings on this site carry an Illustration mark. Those images are drawn for the shop rather than photographed, they are not a picture of the exact object you will receive, and the photography & illustrations page explains how to tell the two apart. We will photograph the actual piece and send you the picture before you buy, on request, for any listing.
Price, payment and title
Payment is taken in full at the time of ordering, on a 3-D Secure 2 authenticated card transaction processed by our payment provider. We do not offer payment on account, instalments or cash on delivery. The full set of payment terms is in the shipping policy.
We reserve the right to change prices and to withdraw products from sale without notice. A price change never affects an order we have already confirmed.
Title to the goods passes to you when we receive payment in full. Risk passes to you on delivery. If a parcel is lost in transit before delivery, that risk is ours, not yours — see the shipping policy.
Age, and lawful use
You must be at least 18 years old to order from this site, or the age of majority where you live if that is higher. You agree to use the site only for lawful purposes, not to attempt to gain access to any part of it you are not authorised to use, and not to place orders you do not intend to pay for.
It is your responsibility to check that the goods you order may lawfully be imported into your country. We tell you where we know a restriction applies, but we cannot know every rule in every destination.
Returns and refunds
Returns, exchanges and refunds are governed by the refund & returns policy, which forms part of these terms. It gives you thirty days from delivery on anything unopened and unused, and it does not limit any stronger statutory right you have where you live.
Privacy
What we collect, why we need it, who else receives it and how to have it deleted is set out in the privacy policy, which also forms part of these terms. In short: we never receive or store your full card number, and we do not sell personal data to anyone.
Our liability
We are responsible for loss you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care. We are not responsible for loss that was not foreseeable, for loss of profit or business, or for anything caused by a delay or failure outside our reasonable control — carrier strikes, customs action, extreme weather, or a failure of the payment network.
Our total liability for any order is limited to the amount you paid for that order, except where the law does not permit such a limit — liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, and for fraud, is never limited by these terms.
Nothing on this site is medical, dietary or investment advice. Stone and wood are sold as decorative materials and for cultural appreciation; we make no claim that any of them has any effect on health or fortune, and any gemmological statement we make is based on the certificate supplied with the piece and on the opinion of the laboratory that issued it.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of Canada and of the province in which we are established, and the courts there have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute — save that if you are a consumer resident elsewhere, you keep the protection of the mandatory consumer law of your own country and may bring proceedings in your local courts. Before anything formal, please write to us: almost everything is resolved by an email.
Last updated November 2026.
Photography & illustrations
Product and editorial photographs on this site are openly licensed images used under the terms of their licences, which require attribution. The full list, with author, licence and a link to the original file, is published on the photography & illustrations page. Listings that carry a mark reading Illustration are not photographed at all: they are drawn for the shop, they are not an image of any specific item, and we will photograph the actual piece on request before you buy.