Refunds and cancellations

# Refunds and cancellations **Version 1.0-pilot · controlled pilot** Written and approved by the founder of Digital Kitchen Marketplace for a small invitation-only pilot. Not reviewed by a lawyer, and it does not claim to have been. It makes no claim of legal compliance, government approval or professional certification. This policy forms part of the Terms of Service. --- ## Who owes you a refund **The Kitchen.** Refunds are issued by the Kitchen. You pay the Kitchen directly, the Kitchen receives the money, and the Kitchen returns it. Digital Kitchen Marketplace does not hold your payment during the pilot and therefore cannot return it. What we do is keep the record: what you asked for, what the Kitchen said, what was agreed, and that the Kitchen reported the refund issued. We will tell you that **the Kitchen reported the refund was issued** — we will not tell you that we processed a refund, because we did not. Refunds are normally returned by the method you paid, unless you and the Kitchen agree on something else. ## The minimum framework This is the floor for every order in the pilot. A Kitchen may offer you something more generous, and some do. A Kitchen may not offer you less. **Nothing here removes rights you have under consumer-protection law that cannot be removed by agreement.** ### Before the Kitchen accepts — full refund You can cancel yourself, in the app, at any point before a Kitchen accepts your order. If you had already paid, you are owed the full amount back. ### The Kitchen rejects the order — full refund A Kitchen may decline an order. If you had already paid, you are owed the full amount back. ### The Kitchen cancels after accepting — full refund If a Kitchen cancels an order it had accepted, you are owed the full amount back, promptly. This applies however late the cancellation comes. A Kitchen that repeatedly cancels accepted orders, or does not return money it owes, may be restricted, suspended or removed from the marketplace. That is the remedy available to us: we cannot reach into a payment we never held. ### The Kitchen cannot fulfil — full refund Ingredients ran out, the kitchen closed, the food was not made. You are owed the full amount back. ### The food never arrived — full refund If you did not receive the food and did not collect it because it was not there, you are owed the full amount back. ### You change your mind after acceptance, before preparation begins Ask. The Kitchen may agree to cancel, and the pilot expectation is a full refund where it does, unless the Kitchen has clearly told you in advance about a lawful exception that applies — for example ingredients bought to order for a large catering booking. There is no self-service cancellation after a Kitchen accepts. This is deliberate: by then somebody may have started shopping or cooking for you. ### You change your mind after preparation begins Cancelling because you changed your mind is generally not available once preparation has begun. The food is perishable, it has been made for you, and it usually cannot be sold to anyone else. This is about change of mind only. It does not apply where something was wrong with the order, and **it does not affect your statutory rights**. ### Something was missing or incorrect Tell the Kitchen, and tell us if it is not sorted out. Depending on what happened, the right outcome may be a replacement, a partial refund, a full refund, or another remedy you and the Kitchen agree on. ### The food was not good Tell the Kitchen. We will help if it is not resolved between you. Being disappointed with a meal does not automatically entitle you to a full refund — taste is not a defect, and a small Kitchen cannot absorb that. But a genuine quality problem is a real complaint, we take it seriously when it is raised, and again, **your statutory rights are unaffected**. ### A safety problem This is not an ordinary complaint and is not handled as one. Tell us immediately. Safety reports are separated from quality complaints throughout our system, and may lead to review of a Kitchen, suspension of a listing, restriction of an account, or a recall. While a safety hold is open on a Kitchen, its funds are not released. **There is no time limit on reporting a safety problem.** Illness is sometimes diagnosed weeks later, and a deadline would discourage exactly the report that most needs making. ## How long you have to ask **14 days from the fulfilment date** for ordinary complaints — missing items, incorrect items, quality, or non-delivery. Long enough to notice a problem, short enough that the Kitchen can still reasonably remember your order and check what happened. Safety reports have no time limit. ## How to ask 1. **Tell the Kitchen.** Most problems are settled between the two people who know the details, and this is usually the fastest route. 2. **Tell us if it is not resolved.** We will look at the records available to us — the order, its snapshot, the messages, the settlement status — and help reach an outcome. At the second stage we may document the dispute, recommend a refund or a replacement, warn a user, restrict a listing, suspend or remove a Kitchen, or restrict a customer who is abusing the process. There is no arbitration process and no tribunal. For a pilot of this size it would be machinery nobody would use. ## What we record - That a refund was requested, and when - What the Kitchen said in response - What outcome was agreed - That the Kitchen reported the refund issued - Your confirmation, where you give one Refund, cancellation and dispute records survive resolution. Corrections are new entries, never edits over the top of the old ones. ## What we do not do - We do not process your refund, because we never held your payment - We do not reverse a payment made directly to a Kitchen - We do not decide that a Kitchen owes you money in a way that compels them to pay; what we control is their participation in this marketplace - We do not charge you a fee for asking, because we charge no fees at all ## Contact Digital Kitchen Marketplace is the marketplace operated by Digital Kitchen Marketplace. 400 Mississauga Valley Blvd, Mississauga, Ontario, L5A 3N6, Canada Telephone: +1 416-358-2594 - General and order support: support@digitalkitchenmarketplace.com - Policy and contract questions: legal@digitalkitchenmarketplace.com - Privacy and data requests: privacy@digitalkitchenmarketplace.com