Kitcha Cancellation, Refund and Credit Policy

1. Purpose

1.1 What this Policy does

This Policy explains cancellation, refund, replacement and credit treatment while preserving mandatory consumer rights.

1.2 How to read this Policy

Every provision below is subject to 1.1. Where this Policy describes a remedy and the law requires a different or greater one, the law wins and Kitcha applies it. Where this Policy describes a restriction and the law does not permit that restriction, the restriction does not apply.

Nothing in this Policy is to be read as an attempt to contract out of a right you hold by law, and Kitcha does not advance such an argument.

1.3 Two different things

This Policy deals with two things that are often confused, and the distinction runs through the whole document:

A restriction on changing your mind after production has begun has no application at all to something going wrong. The two are not connected and Kitcha does not treat a cut-off as an answer to a complaint.

2. Customer Cancellation Before Fulfilment

2.1 The position

Cancellation may be available before Kitcha accepts an order or begins material production/fulfilment. Where a refund is due, Kitcha refunds through the permitted route.

2.2 The window

Before production begins, the food does not exist and nothing has been bought for it specifically. Cancelling at that point costs Kitcha nothing and costs you nothing.

The point at which production materially commences for a given day is published in the Kitcha application and on the Kitcha website, so that you know before you order how long you have.

2.3 Changing rather than cancelling

Within the same window you may change an order or a plan day rather than cancelling it: change the dish, the time, the place, the recipient, or clear the day entirely. Clearing a day on a plan is a change, not a cancellation of the plan.

2.4 The permitted route

Where a refund is due, it is made through the route the law and the payment arrangement permit. In practice that is the Kitcha wallet from which the payment was taken, so that the money is available to you immediately rather than waiting on a bank. It remains your money and you may withdraw the balance of your wallet to your own bank account.

3. Cancellation After Production Begins

3.1 The position

Once production, packaging or fulfilment materially commences, cancellation may be restricted where lawful and disclosed before purchase. Kitcha will not use the restriction to defeat a statutory remedy.

3.2 The three conditions

A restriction under this section applies only where all three of the following are satisfied:

1. Production, packaging or fulfilment has materially commenced. Not scheduled, not planned: begun;
2. The restriction is lawful;
3. The restriction was disclosed before purchase, so that you knew about it when you decided to buy.

If any of the three is missing, the restriction does not apply and section 2 governs.

3.3 Why the cut-off exists

Kitcha buys ingredients and produces food against confirmed demand, on the day it is eaten. Once buying and production for a day have begun, the food for that day exists or is being made, and it is perishable. It cannot be returned to stock and sold to somebody else tomorrow.

The cut-off is therefore an operational fact rather than a commercial penalty. It is also why changing before the cut-off is free: at that point nothing has been committed on your behalf.

3.4 The limit

4. Kitcha Cancellation

4.1 The position

Kitcha may cancel for non-availability, incomplete payment, material transaction error, safety issue, inability to lawfully provide the service or other valid operational reason. Applicable refund/remedy will be applied.

4.2 The grounds

4.3 What follows

Where Kitcha cancels, the applicable refund or remedy is applied. You are not left out of pocket because Kitcha could not perform, and no provision of this Policy purports to leave you out of pocket.

4.4 Notice

Kitcha tells you that an order has been cancelled and why, as early as it reasonably can, through the Kitcha application or another channel you have registered. A cancellation you find out about by the food not arriving is a failure of this section.

5. Wrong or Missing Order

5.1 The four cases

• Wrong item: investigate production/packing/dispatch and apply the applicable remedy where the discrepancy is established and Kitcha is responsible or another remedy is required by law.
• Missing item: verify order/packing and provide the applicable remedy where the discrepancy is established and Kitcha is responsible.
• Material discrepancy: investigate and apply the applicable remedy where the discrepancy is established.
• Damage/tampering: investigate chain-of-custody and apply the applicable remedy where Kitcha is responsible or another remedy is required by law.

5.2 What "established" means here

Establishing a discrepancy does not require you to prove it. Kitcha holds the production, quality control, packing, dispatch, custody and delivery records for your order, and it is those records, together with what you tell Kitcha, that establish what happened.

You are asked to report promptly and to describe the problem. You are not asked to build a case.

5.3 The two routes to a remedy

Each case above has two independent routes to a remedy, and only one of them needs to be satisfied:

1. Kitcha is responsible for the discrepancy, established on the records; or
2. Another remedy is required by law, in which case Kitcha applies it whether or not it accepts responsibility.

The second route exists because your statutory rights in respect of goods that are unsafe, defective or not as described do not depend on Kitcha agreeing that it was at fault.

5.4 Damage and tampering

Kitcha investigates damage and tampering through its chain of custody, which records each handover from the production factory through packing, dispatch, the delivery team and handover to you. Kitcha packaging also carries a code applied during manufacture of the container rather than a label that can be peeled off, checked at quality assurance, after packing and sealing, at each handover and by you before you accept.

That is what allows a tampering question to be answered rather than argued about.

5.5 Reporting window

Report a wrong, missing, damaged or unsatisfactory order on the day it was delivered. Food is produced and eaten on the same day, and a complaint made days later cannot be checked against the product. Reporting on the day is a practical requirement, not a limitation period, and it does not shorten any period the law gives you.

6. Serious Food or Health Issue

6.1 The position

Contamination, allergen, illness, adverse reaction or injury allegations trigger the serious incident process and are not treated as ordinary refund tickets.

6.2 Why these are handled differently

An ordinary refund request asks one question: what should happen to this order. A serious food or health allegation asks a second and more urgent one: is anybody else at risk from the same batch.

That question cannot be answered by a support agent processing a refund, so these matters are routed to Kitcha's incident procedures, handled by different people, on a different timescale.

6.3 What Kitcha does

1. Records the report and the identity of the product and order concerned;
2. Traces the batch backwards through production, quality control and packing, and forwards to every order it went into;
3. Establishes whether the issue is confined to your order or affects a batch;
4. Takes containment action where required, which may include stopping distribution and withdrawing product;
5. Contacts affected customers where necessary, whether or not they have complained;
6. Notifies the competent authority where required;
7. Applies the remedy required by law and by this Policy to your order.

6.4 Evidence

Where it is reasonably safe and practicable, keep the food and its packaging. They are what allows the batch to be identified. Nothing in this section requires you to keep anything unsafe.

6.5 Where to report

Report serious matters to admin@kitcha.ng, and through the Kitcha application where the matter concerns food delivered today.

7. Customer-Controlled Failed Delivery

7.1 The position

Where failure is solely customer-caused, Kitcha may apply the disclosed failed-delivery rule. Additional charges, where used, must be disclosed and lawful.

7.2 The word "solely"

This section applies only where the failure is solely customer-caused. Where Kitcha contributed to the failure, this section does not apply, and where responsibility is shared, this section does not apply either.

Examples of solely customer-caused failure include an address that does not exist, an address materially different from the one supplied, nobody present and no authorised recipient nominated where you had not asked for an alternative handover, and a contact number that is not answered and was not correct.

7.3 What is not customer-caused

• Kitcha arriving outside the window such that you were no longer available;
• The delivery team failing to attempt contact;
• An access instruction you supplied not being followed;
• A delivery attempted at the wrong address through a Kitcha error;
• A failure caused by an external event affecting Kitcha's operation.

7.4 Charges

Additional charges, where used, must be disclosed and lawful. Kitcha does not apply a charge that was not disclosed to you before you ordered, and does not apply one that the law does not permit.

7.5 Avoiding it entirely

Change the time, the address or the recipient before the applicable cut-off and this section never arises. That change costs nothing.

8. Payment Errors

8.1 The position

If charged but the order fails, Kitcha reconciles the transaction and initiates the applicable correction/refund. Bank/provider processing may affect completion timing.

8.2 Reconciliation

Kitcha reconciles what was charged against what was fulfilled. Where a charge was taken and the order did not happen, the correction is initiated by Kitcha and does not depend on you noticing and asking.

Report it anyway if you spot it, because reporting starts the investigation immediately rather than at the next reconciliation.

8.3 Timing

Kitcha controls when it initiates a correction. It does not control how long a bank or payment provider takes to complete one. Where a refund is made to your Kitcha wallet, it is available to you as soon as it is processed. Where money must move to a bank, the bank's own processing time applies.

8.4 Duplicate and unauthorised charges

Report a duplicate charge or a charge you did not authorise promptly. Kitcha investigates against the transaction record and applies the correction the record supports.

8.5 Your bank dispute rights

9. Credits

9.1 The rule

Voluntary credit or replacement does not replace a mandatory statutory refund.

9.2 What this means when you are offered something

Where Kitcha offers a credit, a replacement meal, a plan day or any other gesture, it is offered in addition to your legal rights and not instead of them.

9.3 Choosing

Where both a replacement and a refund are available to you, the choice is yours. Kitcha does not substitute a replacement for a refund you have asked for.

9.4 Credits and the wallet

A credit is applied to your Kitcha wallet, where it is visible alongside your balance and identified as a credit, with the reason and date recorded against it.

10. Fraud and Abuse

10.1 The position

Kitcha may investigate fabricated evidence or deliberate refund abuse and pursue lawful recovery where an independent legal basis exists.

10.2 The two conditions on recovery

1. The conduct must be deliberate. This section is directed at fabrication and deliberate abuse, not at error;
2. There must be an independent legal basis for recovery. The existence of this Policy is not itself a basis for taking money from you.

10.3 What is not abuse

10.4 Investigation

Where Kitcha investigates, it does so against its own production, custody and delivery records and the material provided. Kitcha tells you that a claim is being investigated rather than allowing it to go unanswered.

11. How to Make a Claim

11.1 Where to go

11.2 What to include

1. The order reference;
2. The date and the delivery window;
3. What happened, in your own words;
4. Photographs where the problem is visible;
5. Whether you want a replacement or a refund, where both are available.

A request for information must be reasonable and connected to the claim. Kitcha does not require unrelated material and does not make the provision of unrelated material a condition of a remedy.

11.3 Keeping the product

For anything serious, keep the food and its packaging where it is reasonably safe and practicable. For an ordinary complaint about quality or quantity, a photograph is usually enough.

12. How Kitcha Investigates

12.1 What Kitcha investigates from

Kitcha operates barcode and digital traceability across inventory and materials, kitchen production, quality control, packaging, dispatch, delivery, customer orders and feedback, together with the authorised personnel associated with recorded events.

A claim is therefore checked against a record of what actually happened to that order, rather than decided on whose account sounds more plausible.

12.2 The steps

1. The claim is recorded against the order;
2. The order is traced through production, quality control, packing, dispatch, custody and delivery;
3. The records are compared with what you have reported;
4. Where a batch question arises, it is escalated under section 6;
5. The applicable remedy is applied;
6. You are told the outcome.

12.3 Where the records do not settle it

Records are not always conclusive. Where they do not settle the question, Kitcha decides on the balance of what is available, and applies any remedy the law requires regardless of whether fault is established, as section 5.3 provides.

13. If You Disagree With the Outcome

13.1 Escalation within Kitcha

If you are not satisfied with the outcome, say so and ask for the matter to be escalated. It will be reviewed by someone who was not responsible for the original decision. Write to admin@kitcha.ng.

13.2 Your other routes

13.3 No mandatory arbitration

There is no mandatory arbitration clause in this Policy or in the Kitcha Terms of Use, no waiver of collective proceedings, and no foreign law or forum. Kitcha is a Nigerian company and disputes with it are resolved under Nigerian law before Nigerian courts.

14. Contact

15. Applicable Law and Statutory Rights

This document operates under Nigerian law and other laws applicable to the particular Kitcha service or activity. Nothing in this document is intended to exclude, waive, restrict or transfer a right, remedy, liability or obligation that applicable law does not permit Kitcha or a customer to exclude, waive, restrict or transfer. Mandatory law prevails.