Returns & refunds
Every Booki book is made for one child and cannot be resold, so the rules are different from an ordinary shop. Here is exactly where you stand.
Before you pay: you approve the character
We do not write or illustrate anything until you have seen two illustrated versions of your child and chosen one. The character you approve is the character that appears in the book. You are shown it at full size and you can zoom in on it, ask for another attempt, or walk away entirely — at no cost, because nothing has been charged.
What approval means. When you approve a character you are telling us, specifically, that this illustration is an acceptable likeness of your child for the purposes of this book. We rely on that. Afterwards, “it doesn’t look enough like her” is not a defect we can refund, because you were shown the likeness and accepted it before we began. Everything else below still applies in full.
Changing your mind
You have 14 days, for any reason. Because we do not publish a physical address or an address for service of legal documents — see items (b) and (g) of our disclosure statement — section 43(3) of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act gives you the right to cancel any order within 14 days of receiving it, without giving a reason. That right is ours to lose, not yours, and section 48 means we cannot contract out of it. It applies to the printed hardcover as much as to the digital story.
The narrower rights work differently, and we would rather set them out than let the sentence above do all the work. The seven-day cooling-off right in section 44 of the same Act does not apply to goods made to your own specifications, and a Booki story is written and illustrated around your child and your choices. The same is true of the return right in section 20 of the Consumer Protection Act. Neither of those changes the 14 days above.
In practice: tell us quickly. If you change your mind before your book has gone into production we will refund you in full and nothing is wasted. After that we would still rather hear from you than not — but please know that a printed book is made for one child and cannot be sold to anyone else.
If the book is faulty
This is where your rights are strongest, and nothing on this page limits them. Under the Consumer Protection Act you are entitled to goods that are of good quality, in good working order and free of defects. If the book fails that standard within six months of delivery, you may choose — the choice is yours, not ours — to have it repaired, replaced or refunded, at our cost.
Send us a photograph and we will arrange it. That includes:
- damage in transit, or a damaged or defective binding or cover;
- printing faults: missing, blank, smudged or misaligned pages;
- a printed book that does not match the story and character you approved;
- your child’s name misspelled, where you spelled it correctly on the order.
We collect the faulty book at our expense. You are never asked to pay to return something that was wrong with it.
If we get the words wrong
If the story contains the wrong name, the wrong pronouns, or content that is not appropriate for the age the book is written for, that is our error. We will remake the book and send it to you at no charge, and you keep the first one.
Digital stories
If a digital story fails to download, will not open, or is corrupted, we will resend or replace it, or refund it if we cannot. Like the printed book, you can also cancel it within 14 days for any reason, as set out above.
How refunds are paid
Refunds go back to the card used for the original payment, within 5 to 10 business days of us approving them. We cannot refund to a different card or to a bank account.
How to reach us
Write to info@mybooki.co.za with your order reference. If we cannot sort it out between us, you may refer the matter to the National Consumer Commission — https://www.thencc.org.za/.
Nothing on this page limits any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008. Where this page and that Act differ, the Act wins.