Refund policy
Return and Refund Policy
Thank you for shopping with us! Because we specialize in shipping healthy, live, bare-rooted plant specimens acclimatised to the South African environment, our return and refund conditions differ from standard retail shops.
Our policy is fully compliant with the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, No. 25 of 2002 ("ECTA") and the Consumer Protection Act, No. 68 of 2008 ("CPA") of South Africa.
1. No Change-of-Mind Returns (Perishable Goods Exception)
In strict accordance with Section 44 of ECTA, the standard 7-day electronic cooling-off period does not apply to perishable goods.
- Because live, bare-rooted plants are highly perishable biological organisms that degrade rapidly without highly specific care, light, and immediate potting, they cannot survive a return transit journey.
- All live plant sales are final. We do not accept returns, cancellations, refunds, or exchanges if you change your mind, order the wrong plant by mistake, or decide you no longer want the item after it has been dispatched.
2. Incorrect Items Shipped (Our Packing Errors)
While we strictly double-check all orders before they are packed and dispatched from our nursery, human error can occasionally occur. If we accidentally ship an incorrect plant specimen to you, we will resolve the issue entirely at our own expense:
- Reporting Window: You must report the packing error via email within 24 hours of courier delivery so the living specimen can be handled safely.
- Required Evidence: Please email us a photograph of the incorrect plant you received alongside your original order confirmation details.
- Compliant Resolution: We will arrange, book, and fully pay for our courier partners (The Courier Guy, RAM, or Fastway) to collect the incorrect plant from your delivery address.
- Replacement: Once the collection is confirmed, we will immediately dispatch the correct plant specimen to you at no extra cost, or issue a full refund if the original specimen is out of stock.
3. Defective or Damaged Arrivals (CPA Section 55 & 56)
We guarantee that all plants leave our nursery in a healthy, disease-free condition. Under Section 19 and 56 of the CPA, we bear the risk of transit damage until delivery. If your live plant arrives severely damaged, broken, dead, or diseased due to clear courier failure, you are entitled to a replacement plant or a full store credit, subject to the strict conditions below:
3.1 The Strict 24-Hour Reporting Protocol:
- Immediate Unboxing: You must unbox your package within 24 hours of the courier system marking it as "Delivered".
- 24-Hour Reporting Window: You must report any transit health claims via email within 24 hours of delivery.
- Required Evidence: Your email must include your order number and clear, unedited photos or videos of the original external courier box showing any damage, the plant immediately upon extraction, and a close-up photograph of the bare root system.
Failure to report transit damage or provide the mandatory photographic evidence within 24 hours of delivery will result in the immediate rejection of your claim.
4. Exclusions from Warranties and Refunds
Our plants are healthy and fully acclimatized to South African growing conditions. Therefore, we explicitly do not issue refunds, replacements, or store credits for plant decline or death resulting from:
- Failure to unbox the package within 24 hours of delivery.
- Courier delivery failures due to an incorrect or incomplete address provided at checkout, or no one being available to accept the package.
- Unsuitable post-delivery care, including incorrect potting mediums, overwatering, underwatering, or improper light exposure.
- Immediate repotting shock. We strongly advise allowing bare-rooted plants to acclimate to your home environment in a temporary setting for at least 14 days before moving them to permanent, decorative pots.
- Natural minor aesthetic variations (e.g., minor leaf dropping, cosmetic blemishes, or slight transit wilting) that do not impact the core survival and health of the root system.
5. Non-Plant Items (Pots, Substrates, and Accessories)
If you purchase non-perishable goods from our store (such as empty pots, tools, or bagged dry substrates), these items do qualify for the standard ECTA 7-day cooling-off period:
- You may return non-perishable items within 7 days of delivery for a refund.
- The item must be unused, in its original packaging, and in the exact same condition that you received it.
- Return Shipping Costs: You will be responsible for paying your own courier costs to return non-perishable items to our facility. Shipping costs are non-refundable.
6. Refund Processing Timeline
Once your 24-hour transit damage claim, packing error validation, or 7-day non-perishable return is received, inspected, and approved by our team:
- We will notify you via email of the approval or rejection of your refund.
- Approved refunds will be processed automatically back to your original method of payment (Payfast or Payflex).
- Please allow 5 to 10 business days for the funds to reflect in your account, depending on your banking institution's processing times.
7. How to Log a Claim
To start a claim, please contact our support team immediately at:
- Email: anovaburstcc@gmail.com
- Subject Line: Order [Insert Order Number] - Return/Error Claim