Returns, Refunds & Cooling-Off Policy

1. Changed your mind? The 7-day cooling-off right (ECTA s44)

You may cancel your order, in full or in part, within 7 days after the day it's delivered. You don't need a reason, and there's no penalty or admin fee.

How to cancel: message us on WhatsApp at 071 480 5552 or email wesley@oldtreeyard.co.za with your order number and what you're cancelling. We'll confirm within 1 business day.

Returning the goods: send the items back to 23 Sunbirdway, 1 Fish Eagle Drive, Hilltop Estate, Ballito, KwaZulu-Natal, 4420, South Africa. The direct cost of getting them back to us is the only cost you carry; that's what the law says, and we stick to it. We can arrange a courier collection and deduct that actual cost from your refund if that's easier for you; just ask.

Your refund: once we receive the goods (or your cancellation, if the order hasn't shipped yet), we refund everything you paid, including the original delivery fee, to your original Payfast payment method. The law gives us 30 days from your cancellation; our working target is 5 business days.

Cancelling before dispatch: cancel before we've shipped and you get an immediate full refund with nothing to send back.

2. What this covers

Everything we currently sell (sealed substrate bags and wire coils) carries the full 7-day cooling-off right. Nothing in our launch range is excluded. If we ever sell live trees, they'll have their own clearly published policy first, because the law treats goods that can perish differently.

3. Defective, damaged, or wrong items (Consumer Protection Act)

If something arrives defective, gets damaged in transit, doesn't match its description, or simply isn't what you ordered, the Consumer Protection Act covers you for 6 months from delivery. Unlike a cooling-off return, we arrange and pay for the return.

You choose the remedy: a refund, a replacement, or a repair. Your call, not ours.

How to report it: WhatsApp or email us with your order number, a short description, and photos if you can. For transit damage, letting us know within 48 hours with photos helps us claim from the courier, but it's a request, not a deadline: your 6-month rights are not reduced if you tell us later. We photograph every parcel before it ships, so damage claims are quick to resolve.

4. How refunds are paid

Every refund goes back to the original Payfast payment method used for the order, never to a different bank account. This protects you (and us) from refund fraud. If a payment method has expired or closed, contact us and we'll resolve it with Payfast directly.

5. A few practical notes

• Where possible, please return items in their original packaging with the batch label visible; it speeds everything up, though it isn't a condition of your cooling-off right.
• Refund timing at your bank: once we process a Payfast refund, your bank may take a few days to show it.
• Nothing in this policy limits any right the Consumer Protection Act or ECTA gives you. If we've somehow written something here that conflicts with the law, the law applies.

6. Still not resolved?

If you feel we've handled a return or refund badly, you may escalate, free of charge, to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (www.cgso.org.za · 0860 000 272 · complaints@cgso.org.za). We'd genuinely rather fix it ourselves first, though: wesley@oldtreeyard.co.za / 071 480 5552.

Wesley van der Walt (sole proprietor) trading as Old Tree Yard · 23 Sunbirdway, 1 Fish Eagle Drive, Hilltop Estate, Ballito, KwaZulu-Natal, 4420, South Africa