Refunds and Cancellations Policy

When you place an order on NearBuyYou, your contract is with the seller, not with NearBuyYou. The seller is responsible for the goods, for fulfilling the order, and for meeting their obligations under consumer law.

NearBuyYou processes payment on the seller's behalf and provides the tools to request and issue refunds. We can hold or return funds where appropriate, and we can step in to resolve disputes (Section 7), but we are not the seller of the goods.

2.1 Buyer cancellations — you can cancel an order free of charge at any time before the seller has begun preparing or harvesting it, using the "Cancel order" option in your account. You'll receive a full refund. Once a seller has marked an order as being prepared, cancellation is at the seller's discretion — because fresh produce, baked goods, and prepared items are often picked, made, or portioned specifically for your order and cannot be resold.

2.2 Seller cancellations — sellers may need to cancel occasionally: a crop fails, a batch doesn't come out right, or stock sells out before a listing status was updated. Where a seller cancels:

• You receive a full refund, including any delivery charge.
• We aim to refund within 2 working days of the cancellation.

Repeated or unexplained cancellations by a seller may lead to warnings, listing restrictions, or account suspension, as set out in our Terms of Service.

Under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, buyers ordering online usually have a 14-day right to change their mind and return goods.

Important: this right does not apply to goods that are liable to deteriorate or expire rapidly. Most of what is sold on NearBuyYou — fresh vegetables and fruit, eggs, meat, baked goods, cut flowers, prepared items — falls into this exemption, so there is no automatic 14-day right to cancel for these.

The 14-day right is more likely to apply to non-perishable items such as seeds, and some preserves or honey. Where it applies, you can cancel within 14 days of receiving the goods and return them (unopened and unused) at your own cost for a refund.

This section does not affect your rights where something is actually wrong with the goods — see Section 4.

Your legal rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 always apply, regardless of Section 3. Goods must be:

• Of satisfactory quality
• Fit for purpose
• As described in the listing

You are entitled to a refund, replacement, or price reduction if your order is:

• Spoiled, off, or unfit to eat on collection or delivery
• Not as described (wrong item, wrong quantity, significantly different from the listing or photos)
• Damaged in a way that isn't reasonable wear from transport of fresh goods
• Missing items from what you paid for
• Not delivered or available at the agreed collection time

Report the issue through your order in the app or website within 48 hours of collection or delivery, or as soon as reasonably possible for problems that only become apparent later (for example, produce that spoils far sooner than it should).

Where possible, include photos — this resolves most disputes quickly and fairly for both sides.

The short reporting window reflects the perishable nature of the goods. It does not remove your statutory rights, which may last longer.

We do not generally ask buyers to return food. For hygiene and safety reasons, we would rather you dispose of anything unfit to eat than transport it back. Photo evidence is normally enough.

5.1 How refunds are made — refunds are issued to your original payment method through our payment provider. Once approved, they typically appear within 3–5 working days, depending on your bank.

5.2 Partial refunds — where only part of an order is affected (for example, one item of several is spoiled), a partial refund for that item is usually the fair outcome. Sellers can offer this directly.

5.3 Our platform fee — where a full refund is issued, our platform fee on that transaction is refunded to the seller as well; we don't retain a fee on an order that didn't work out.

• If you don't collect an order within the seller's stated collection window, the seller may treat it as complete and is not obliged to refund you, particularly for perishable goods that cannot be resold. Sellers must state their collection window clearly on the listing.
• If a seller fails to be available at the agreed collection time, you're entitled to a full refund.

If you and the seller can't agree, either of you can raise it with us through the order.

• We'll look at the order details, messages, photos, and both accounts of what happened.
• We may issue a refund from funds held for that transaction, decline the refund request, or propose a partial refund.
• Our decision is about how funds are handled on the platform. It does not affect your legal rights against the seller, which you can pursue independently.
• We may take a seller's dispute history into account when considering whether to restrict or suspend their account.

If you believe you have received unsafe food, or you have become unwell:

• Stop eating the product and keep it if you safely can, along with any packaging or labelling.
• Report it to us immediately through the order, and contact the seller.
• You can also report food safety concerns to the environmental health team at your local council, who regulate food businesses directly. If you are unwell, seek medical advice.

We will pass relevant information to the seller and cooperate with any local authority or Food Standards Agency enquiry. Serious reports may result in immediate suspension of a seller's listings while the matter is looked into.

Refund and cancellation requests should be raised through the relevant order in your account, which keeps everything in one place. For anything else, contact info@nearbuyyou.com.