Including your 7-day cooling-off right · Part of our Terms and Conditions · Effective 1 October 2026 · Version 1.0

Everything we make is poured, packed and checked by hand, and we want you to love it. If something isn’t right, or you change your mind, here is exactly what happens — whether you bought once from the shop or you subscribe.

Your options at a glance

What happened	Tell us within	What you get	Who pays the courier
You changed your mind	7 days of receiving your order or box	A full refund of what you paid	You pay the return courier
Something is faulty or unsafe	6 months of delivery	Your choice: a replacement or a refund	We do
Damaged in transit, or wrong or missing items	48 hours of delivery	A replacement or a refund	We do
A shop order never arrived	14 days of the dispatch email	A replacement or a refund, whichever you prefer	We do
A subscription box never arrived	By the 15th of the month	A replacement or a refund, whichever you prefer	We do
A workshop or event you can’t attend	14 days before it starts	A full refund. 50% back after that, nothing within 72 hours — or send someone in your place, free	Not applicable

 

1 Changing your mind: your 7-day cooling-off right

1.1 Because you bought online, section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA) gives you the right to cancel without giving a reason and without penalty within 7 days of receiving your order or your box. This applies to everything in the shop, including sale and discounted items, and to every monthly box, not just your first.

1.2 Before it ships. If you change your mind after paying but before we dispatch, just tell us. We refund you in full and there is nothing to send back.

1.3 Your subscription. Using your cooling-off right also cancels your subscription, so you won’t be charged again. If you want to keep your subscription and only return that month’s box, just say so.

1.4 A scent you don’t love is not a fault. But within the 7 days you don’t need a reason, so you can send it back anyway.

1.5 This right does not apply to a workshop or a member event booked for a specific date — section 6 covers those — or to a gift voucher you have already used. Section 42 of ECTA takes leisure services booked for a specific date out of the cooling-off right.

2 How to send something back

2.1 Tell us within 7 days of receiving your order or box. Email info@poeticwax.co.za for a shop order, or subscriptions@poeticwax.co.za for a subscription box, with “Cooling-off” in the subject line, your name and your order number — or WhatsApp us on 081 554 3122. We will confirm by email.

2.2 Pack it up. Please send back everything that came in the order, unused and in its original packaging where you can, so we can check it and re-use it. A cooling-off refund is a refund for the goods, so we do need the goods back — if something is missing we will tell you before we refund.

2.3 Send it back within 14 days of telling us, to: Poetic Studio (Pty) Ltd, 50 Avalon Road, Modderfontein, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 1609. Use a courier or tracked service and keep proof of sending, because the parcel is your responsibility until it reaches us.

2.4 Or we collect. Ask us and we will book our courier to collect from you. We tell you what the collection costs before we book it, and deduct that amount from your refund. That is the only deduction we may make.

3 Your cooling-off refund

3.1 We refund everything you paid for what you are sending back, including the delivery you paid to receive it, less only the return courier cost if we collected it (section 2.4). For a subscription box that means the full price of that box.

3.2 We pay the refund within 30 days of the day you tell us you are cancelling, as ECTA requires. We aim to pay within 5 to 10 business days, to the payment method you used. We email you when it has been paid.

4 Faulty, unsafe or poor-quality items

4.1 Under section 55 of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), everything we send must be safe, of good quality, free of defects and able to do what it is meant to do, and to last a reasonable time. If an item fails this test within six months of delivery, you may return it without penalty and at our cost. You then choose whether we replace it or refund you (section 56 of the CPA). This six-month right comes from the Act itself. We cannot shorten it, and neither can any term on our website.

4.2 Examples of faults: a cracked or leaking vessel; a missing wick, or a wick that won’t stay lit; a candle that burns with an unusually high or unstable flame even though you followed the burning instructions; a candle that tunnels badly from the first burn.

4.3 Not faults: a scent you don’t like, or one that is lighter or stronger in your room than you expected; the normal look of a hand-poured candle, including frosting, bloom, small colour differences, a slightly uneven top or visible pour lines — clause 3.1 of our Terms and Conditions sets this out and you agree to it when you order; damage caused by burning the candle against the safety instructions, for example burning it longer than 4 hours at a time, not trimming the wick, burning it in a draught or burning it past the last 10 mm of wax; and ordinary wear from normal use.

4.4 None of this is a way around your rights. If an item genuinely fails the section 55 test, section 4.1 applies, whatever it looks like.

4.5 Replacements. Each month’s scent is poured in a single batch. If we can’t replace a faulty candle with the same scent, you choose: a candle of the same or greater value, or a refund.

4.6 How. Email us photos of the fault with your order number and proof of purchase. For glass or broken items, photos are usually enough and you won’t need to send anything back. If we do need the item, we arrange and pay for the courier.

4.7 Refund amount. We refund the price of the faulty item. If a candle in a subscription box is faulty and you choose a refund, we refund the full box price. We pay within 10 business days of agreeing the refund.

4.8 How we deal with a claim. Please keep the item and its packaging until we have finished. We may ask for it back so we can look at it, and we pay the courier both ways. We will tell you our decision within 10 business days of receiving what we need. If the item is faulty you choose a replacement or a refund. If it is not, we will tell you why, in writing, and return it to you at our cost.

4.9 Unsafe goods. If you think anything we sent is unsafe, stop using it and contact us straight away.

5 Damaged, wrong, missing or lost orders

5.1 Please check your parcel when it arrives. If the outer box looks badly damaged, photograph it before opening, and note the damage with the courier if you can.

5.2 Please tell us within 48 hours of delivery if something arrived damaged, and send us photos of the outer box, the packaging and the item. That 48 hours is the courier’s claim window, so telling us quickly is what lets us recover the cost. Telling us later does not take away your six-month warranty under the CPA, but it does make damage in transit much harder to prove.

5.3 We replace the item or refund you, at our cost, and we don’t ask you to send broken glass back.

5.4 A shop order that hasn’t arrived. Tell us within 14 days of the dispatch email and we will trace it with the courier. If it is lost, we send a replacement or refund you, whichever you prefer.

5.5 Box not arrived? Tell us if your box hasn’t arrived by the 15th of the month. We will trace it with the courier. If it is lost, we send a replacement or refund you, whichever you prefer.

5.6 Wrong address. If a parcel can’t be delivered because the address or mobile number you gave was wrong or incomplete, we will contact you. Re-delivery costs the courier fee again — R120 for a subscription box. If you would rather not pay for re-delivery, you can cancel that order or box and we refund you less the courier cost.

6 Workshops and member events

6.1 Member events are booked and paid for separately from your subscription. Founding members get up to 50% off the ticket price.

6.2 If you cancel. Cancel 14 days or more before and we refund you in full. After that we keep 50%, because your materials are bought, the venue and any catering are booked and the place is held for you. Within 72 hours, or if nobody arrives, the booking is not refundable. This is the rule for every booking we take — workshops and member events alike.

6.3 Section 17 of the Consumer Protection Act allows a reasonable cancellation charge on an advance booking, and this is ours. It takes account of how much notice you gave and how much of the cost we have already committed.

6.4 Sending someone else instead costs nothing. You can transfer a booking at any time, right up to the day. Just tell us their name.

6.5 If we cancel or move a workshop or an event, you choose: a full refund, or a place at the next one.

6.6 If the person the booking was made for dies or is hospitalised, we refund in full with no cancellation charge, as section 17 of the CPA requires.

6.7 Guest numbers confirmed 5 days before are what you are charged for, even if fewer people arrive. We buy materials and plan staffing on those numbers.

6.8 The 7-day cooling-off right in section 44 of ECTA does not apply to a workshop or an event ticket. Section 42 of that Act takes leisure services booked for a specific date out of the cooling-off right, so this section is what applies to a booking.

7 Gift vouchers

7.1 A voucher is valid for three years from the date it is issued and can be used over more than one order. Unused value stays on the voucher and belongs to whoever holds it.

7.2 Vouchers can’t be exchanged for cash. If you bought a voucher online and it hasn’t been used, you can cancel within 7 days for a full refund.

7.3 If you paid with a voucher and then return something, we refund that part to your voucher and add the same value back to it.

8 Skipping, pausing and cancelling are not refunds

8.1 Skips, pauses and cancellations stop future payments. They don’t refund payments already collected. For example, if you cancel after the 20th, that month’s payment on the 25th still goes ahead and you receive that box. You can still use your 7-day cooling-off right on that box once it arrives.

9 How refunds are paid

9.1 We refund to the payment method you used. If that isn’t possible, we pay by EFT into an account in your name that you give us in writing.

9.2 Please don’t also dispute the payment with your bank. If you do and it is reversed, that reversal is your refund. If we have already refunded you, we will ask you to pay back the double refund.

10 If you’re not happy with how we handled it

10.1 Contact us first — info@poeticwax.co.za for a shop order, workshop or event, subscriptions@poeticwax.co.za for the subscription, or 081 554 3122. We reply within two business days and aim to resolve things within ten business days. Please let those ten business days run before taking it further.

10.2 If we can’t resolve it, you can go free of charge to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (CGSO): 0860 000 272 · info@cgso.org.za · www.cgso.org.za. You may also approach the National Consumer Commission.

10.3 This policy doesn’t limit any of your rights under the CPA or ECTA.