PAYMENT, CANCELLATION AND REFUND POLICY

Coco Corporate (Pty) Ltd
Registration number 2021/875932/07
The Business Exchange, Floor 1, Waterway House South, 3 Dock Road, Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, Western Cape, 8002, South Africa

Last updated: 23 January 2023

1. About this policy

Coco Corporate is a premium business agency. We equip influential individuals and empower entrepreneurs through executive and personal assistant services, project management, accounting and payroll support, branding, web development, digital marketing, content, and bespoke founder support.

This policy explains how we contract, how and when we invoice, what happens if work is cancelled, and when a refund is and is not available. It applies to every client engagement and forms part of our agreement with you.

Where you have signed a Service Level Agreement or a scope of work with us, that document governs. This policy sits alongside it and fills any gaps. Where the two genuinely conflict, the signed agreement takes precedence.

2. Returns

We supply professional services, not physical goods. There is nothing to return, and so a conventional returns policy does not apply.

Where our work produces a tangible output, a website, a brand identity, a document, a report, a set of designs, the equivalent protection is our revisions process rather than a return. That is set out in section 10.

If we ever supply physical goods, this policy will be updated before we do so.

3. How we contract

We work in two ways, and the commercial terms differ.

Recurring and retainer services

A Service Level Agreement applies to every recurring and retainer service without exception. This includes executive, personal and virtual assistant retainers, ongoing project management, monthly content and social media programmes, ongoing bookkeeping, payroll and accounting support, community management, and any other service billed on a repeating monthly or periodic basis.

We do not begin recurring work before the SLA is signed by both parties. The SLA sets out the scope, the monthly fee, the notice period, the deliverables and the review cycle.

Retainer fees are invoiced monthly in advance. Payment is due within the period stated in your SLA. The service month does not begin until the invoice for that month is settled.

Project and once-off work

Project work is quoted and invoiced on a per-project basis. This includes website builds and refreshes, branding and design projects, search and SEO foundation work, recruitment support, systems builds, and any other defined piece of work with a start and an end.

Project work does not require an SLA. It is governed by the accepted quote, this policy, and any scope document we issue with the quote.

4. Accepting a quote

Accepting a quote commits you to the entire job and to the full amount quoted.

A quote is accepted when any one of the following happens:

you confirm acceptance in writing, including by email or written message
you issue a purchase order against the quote
you pay the deposit, which constitutes acceptance of the quote in writing
you instruct us to begin, or you accept the benefit of work commenced at your request

Once a quote is accepted, you are legally bound to pay the full quoted amount, whether or not you later choose to use, publish or implement the work. The quoted figure is the price of the whole engagement, not a running tally of hours that reduces if you change your mind partway.

Quotes are valid for the period stated on the quote. After that they may be re-issued at revised rates.

All fees exclude VAT unless expressly stated. VAT is charged at 15%.

5. Deposits

Deposits are strictly non-refundable. There are no exceptions to this other than the one set out in section 9.

We require a deposit before work begins, with the balance due on completion or in accordance with the payment schedule set out in your quote.

The deposit percentage is set per engagement and is stated on your quote. It is commonly 50%, but we set it case by case according to the size, length and structure of the work, and it may be higher or lower. Whatever figure appears on your quote is the figure that applies, and the terms in this section apply to it in full regardless of the percentage.

Why the deposit is non-refundable

The deposit is not a holding fee and it is not a booking option. It is the point at which we make irreversible commitments on your behalf:

we block out capacity in the agency diary for your project, and turn away or defer other work to hold it
we assign named team members to your account and reserve their hours
we begin research, planning, discovery and preparation, much of which happens before you see a first deliverable
where relevant, we brief contractors and third parties and commit to them in turn

That capacity cannot be resold once it has passed. This is why the deposit is treated as committed on receipt.

What the deposit is

A deposit is a partial payment of the total amount you have already committed to. It is not a separate, refundable sum sitting alongside the contract. Paying it reduces your outstanding balance; it does not create a right to walk away for the price of the deposit.

If you cancel after paying a deposit, the deposit is forfeited and the balance of the quoted amount remains payable in accordance with section 7.

6. Payment terms

Invoices are payable by the due date stated on the invoice. Where no date is stated, payment is due within 5 days of the invoice date.

Late payment carries interest at the maximum rate permitted under the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act 55 of 1975, together with any reasonable costs of recovery, including collection and legal costs.

Where amounts are outstanding we may, without being in breach:

suspend work on your account, including recurring services, until payment is received
withhold work product, files, data, reports and login credentials
decline to release or transfer intellectual property

Intellectual property in everything we produce remains with Coco Corporate until the engagement is paid in full. On full and final payment, it assigns to you.

Foreign currency conversion costs and bank charges are for the client’s account.

7. Cancellation by the client

Project work

If you cancel an accepted project at any stage:

the deposit is forfeited in full
the balance of the quoted amount remains payable, because acceptance committed you to the whole job
where we have not yet begun a clearly severable, unstarted phase, we will consider a fair reduction at our discretion, but we are not obliged to give one

We would always rather have the conversation than the argument. If your circumstances change, tell us early. The earlier we know, the more room there is to pause, re-scope or redirect the work into something you do need, rather than cancel it.

Recurring and retainer services

Retainers run until cancelled by either party on the notice period stated in your SLA, which is one calendar month in writing unless your agreement says otherwise.

Notice runs from the date it is received in writing. The notice month is payable in full and is not pro-rated. Fees already paid for a current or future service month are not refundable, though we will deliver that month’s contracted work in full.

8. Cancellation by Coco Corporate

We may end an engagement, on reasonable written notice, where:

invoices remain unpaid beyond terms
the scope has changed so materially that the original quote no longer reflects the work
the working relationship has broken down, including where our team is subjected to abusive, discriminatory or unreasonable conduct
continuing would put us in breach of a legal, professional or confidentiality obligation

Where we end an engagement for any of these reasons, deposits and fees paid remain non-refundable and work delivered to date remains payable.

9. Where we have not delivered

This is the one circumstance in which money comes back.

If we fail to deliver contracted work, and the failure is ours rather than a consequence of delayed approvals, missing access, missing content or non-payment on your side, we will first offer to complete the work. If we cannot, you will receive a fair pro rata refund for the portion not delivered.

Nothing in this policy limits any right you may have under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 where that Act applies to you.

10. Revisions, rework and quality

Every quote and SLA states the number of revision rounds included. Where it does not, two rounds of revision are included at each defined stage.

If a deliverable does not meet the agreed brief, tell us and we will correct it at no charge. That is our responsibility and we take it seriously.

Changes of mind, new directions, and requests that fall outside the agreed brief are new work. We will quote for them separately rather than absorb them. Dissatisfaction that arises from a change in your preferences, rather than from a failure to meet the brief, is not grounds for a refund.

11. Out of scope work

Anything not expressly included in your quote, SLA or scope document is out of scope. We will tell you when a request falls outside scope, and we will quote before doing the work rather than after.

Approved add-on rates, where your agreement includes them, apply to that agreement only.

12. Third party costs and disbursements

Some engagements require money to be paid out to third parties: domain registrations, hosting, software licences, stock imagery, fonts, plugins, printing, subscriptions and advertising spend.

These are never refundable, whether paid by us on your behalf or billed to you directly, because the money leaves our hands and is spent. Where we hold unspent advertising budget at the point of cancellation, the unspent portion is returned.

13. Chargebacks

If you have a concern about an invoice, raise it with us. Initiating a chargeback or payment reversal without first giving us the opportunity to resolve the matter is a breach of this policy.

We will contest chargebacks made in respect of work delivered, and any costs we incur in doing so will be added to your account.

14. Complaints

If something has gone wrong, tell us. Email hello@cococorporate.com with the detail and we will acknowledge within 5 working days and respond substantively as quickly as we reasonably can.

Most concerns are resolved fastest by a direct conversation with Celine Stark, and we would rather have that conversation early than discover a problem at the end of a project.

15. General

Working days. Our working days are weekdays excluding South African public holidays. We are not obliged to deliver on weekends or public holidays.

Fee increases. Retainer fees may be reviewed annually on a minimum of one calendar month’s written notice, having regard to official South African inflation.

Changes to this policy. We may update this policy. The version in force is the one published on the date your quote was accepted or your SLA was signed.

Governing law. This policy is governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa, and the parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the South African courts.

16. Contact

Coco Corporate (Pty) Ltd
hello@cococorporate.com
The Business Exchange, Floor 1, Waterway House South, 3 Dock Road, Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, Western Cape, 8002, South Africa

Payment, Cancellation and Refund Policy