Every return question, answered plainly

1. Is the return window 30 days from delivery, or from purchase?

From delivery — never from the day you ordered or paid. The clock starts on the day your order is delivered, as recorded by the courier's tracking event and the signed waybill. From that date you have 30 full calendar days to request a return: weekends and public holidays count, so there is no maths to do and no days to subtract.

• Split deliveries: if your order arrives in more than one consignment, each item's window runs from the day that item is delivered — a late parcel never shortens the window for anything else.
• Day 30 on a Sunday or public holiday? Send the email anyway — the timestamp on your message is what counts, and we honour it the next business day.
• Changed your mind before delivery? Orders that have not yet been dispatched can usually still be cancelled or amended at no charge — email us as soon as possible. Once your parcel is with the courier, the returns process below applies instead.
• After day 30: change-of-mind returns close, but you are not stranded — faults that develop later are handled under our Warranty Policy (see question 12).

2. How do I request a return, and who do I contact?

Email sales@velroviagroup.co.za — or call or WhatsApp 073 592 7535 — with these three things:

• Your order number (it looks like AE-YYYY-XXXXXX and appears on your confirmation email and tax invoice).
• The item you want to return and the reason.
• Photos if it arrived damaged or incorrect — they let us skip the back-and-forth.

We reply within one business day with your return reference number, a courier collection window and packing instructions. Please do not send anything back without that reference: parcels without one cannot be matched to an order and may be refused at our receiving bay, which only delays your refund. Our returns desk is available Monday – Thursday 08:00 – 17:30 · Friday 08:00 – 16:30 · Saturday 09:00 – 13:00 (showroom).

3. Does the item have to be unused and in its original packaging?

For a change-of-mind return, yes — the equipment must be in the exact condition it left us:

• Unused and uninstalled — never fired up for a service, never filled with water, fuel or oil, no food contact, no mounting, plumbing or wiring in.
• Complete — every accessory it shipped with: manuals, racks, baskets, drip trays, cables, warranty cards and inserts.
• Original packaging — the carton and inserts it arrived in, or equivalent protection for the trip back.

Missing the carton? Tell us when you request the return — we can courier a replacement carton to you; a packaging fee applies for large appliances (see question 6). Items that show use, are missing parts or carry damage from misuse cannot go back as change-of-mind returns. This condition rule never applies to damaged, faulty or incorrectly supplied items — those are covered by questions 8 and 9 at no cost to you.

4. Who pays for return shipping?

• Our side of the line — we pay everything. If the item is faulty, was damaged in transit or we supplied the wrong item, collection is free, the replacement's delivery is free, and your original delivery fee is refunded too.
• Your call — a flat R149. If you changed your mind or ordered the wrong size or model, we collect nationwide for a flat R149, simply deducted from your refund. Prefer your own courier? That works too — at your cost, to our Mbombela warehouse, once you have a return reference.

5. Are delivery fees refundable?

The original delivery fee is refunded only when the return is our error (the wrong item supplied), a fault or transit damage — in those cases you are refunded the product price and the delivery fee in full.

For change-of-mind returns the delivery fee paid for a completed trip, so it is non-refundable — and on orders over R5 000 that shipped free there is no delivery fee to refund at all; only the R149 collection fee applies. Business orders: VAT is refunded as part of the total, and we issue a credit note against your tax invoice for your books.

6. Is there a restocking fee?

No — we do not charge restocking fees, ever. The only extra that can apply is a packaging fee when a large appliance (an oven or display fridge) comes back without its original carton, because we have to re-crate it for safe transit and resale. Tell us upfront and we will courier a carton to you instead of charging for repacking on arrival. And when the return is due to our error or a fault, absolutely nothing is deducted from your refund.

7. How quickly will I get my refund, and how is it issued?

Every refund moves through the same short chain, and we email you at each stage — collection booked, inspection passed, refund released — so you always know where your money is:

Add the stages together and most refunds reflect within 7–13 business days of collection — allow up to 16 business days from outlying areas. If yours is running longer than that, reply to your return email thread and we will trace it the same day.

Refunds always go back the way the money came: card payments are reversed to the same card, and EFT or bank-transfer payments return to the account they came from. If that route no longer exists — an expired card, a closed account or a card payment older than 90 days — we refund by EFT to a verified South African bank account in the payer's name. For your safety, refunds are never paid in cash and never to third-party accounts.

Exchanges are the exception: instead of a refund we offset the returned item's value against its replacement — see question 10.

8. What happens if my order arrives damaged?

Accept the delivery — refusing it usually just slows everything down — but do two things before the driver leaves: note the visible damage on the courier's waybill and photograph the carton. Then photograph the item itself and email everything to sales@velroviagroup.co.za with your order number within 48 hours of delivery.

From there the problem is entirely ours: we collect the damaged item free, chase the courier claim ourselves, and you choose — a free replacement or a full refund including every courier cost. One safety note: never switch on or use damaged electrical equipment; unplug it and let us guide the next step. A fault that only shows itself after a clean unboxing follows the same route, and anything that develops later falls under the Warranty Policy.

9. What happens if I receive the wrong item?

Rare — but it happens, and it is completely free to fix. Email sales@velroviagroup.co.za within your 30-day window with your order number and a photo of the item and its label or sticker. We send a return reference, book a free collection of the incorrect unit and dispatch the correct item as soon as the courier confirms pickup — in most cases you do not wait for the wrong item to reach us first. No collection fee, no restocking fee, no delivery fee on the replacement: our mix-up, our costs.

10. Can I exchange instead of getting a refund?

Yes. An exchange follows the same 30-day window and the same condition rules as a return. We offset the value of the returned item against the replacement: if the new item is cheaper we refund the difference; if it costs more we email you a secure payment link for the balance. Replacements are dispatched once the returned item passes inspection — and if you are outfitting for an urgent event, ask us about cross-shipping: in approved cases we dispatch immediately while your return is still in transit. Prefer to keep it simple? Take the refund and place a fresh order — the numbers work out the same.

11. What can be returned — and what can't?

What can come back within 30 days:

• Unused small equipment: urns, chafing dishes, serving sets, dispensers, blenders and griddles.
• Unused large appliances: convection ovens and display fridges, in original packaging and without installation damage.
• Faulty items and items damaged in transit — reported within 48 hours of delivery where possible.
• Incorrect items supplied due to our error — collected and replaced at our cost.

What cannot come back:

• Made-to-order, customised or engraved equipment.
• Opened hygiene-sensitive products and consumables such as chafing fuel cans.
• Equipment damaged by misuse, incorrect voltage, water ingress, unauthorised repair or the wrong cleaning chemicals.
• Items missing serial numbers or with removed safety labels.
• Change-of-mind returns after the 30-day window — from there, the Warranty Policy is the route for faults.

12. Warranty claims are not the same as returns

A return is for an unused item you want to send back within 30 days of delivery — that is everything above. A warranty claim is for a fault that appears later, under normal commercial use. Faults reported inside the 30-day window follow the faster returns process; anything after that is covered by our Warranty Policy: 12–24 months of commercial cover depending on the product, and up to 5 years on oven elements and registered fridge compressors. Manufacturing defects are repaired free with spare parts held in Mbombela, and where a repair is not practical we replace the unit or issue a credit.

13. Your rights under South African law

Nothing in this policy limits your rights under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 — including the right to goods that match their description and to return unsafe or defective goods. Section 20 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 also gives online shoppers a 14-day cooling-off right to cancel without reason, provided the goods are unused and you carry the direct cost of returning them — which is exactly what our flat R149 collection fee covers. Our 30-day window sits on top of those rights, and where this policy and the law differ, the law prevails.