Getting your money back

Before anything is redeemed

A treat that has not been redeemed, collected or released can be cancelled and refunded in full. Contact us with the order reference. Because nothing has been prepared and nobody has been paid out, there is no cost to anyone in undoing it.

Venue treats

A treat at a venue is redeemed in person, and it stays redeemable for 90 days from the day it is sent. After that it expires and cannot be redeemed.

• Not collected. If the venue marks an order as not collected, the payment is reversed to whoever paid, through the same method they paid with. This is a real refund through the payment provider, not a credit note.
• The venue cannot serve it. Closed, sold out, or unable to fulfil for any reason: you get a full refund, including any delivery charge.
• Refused for a lawful reason. A venue can refuse to serve age-restricted items, or refuse service as it lawfully could in person. The order is refunded.
• Expired unredeemed. Contact us. We look at why it was not used and decide in good faith, and we would rather refund a genuine case than keep the money.

Once a treat has been redeemed and served, it has been provided, and a refund is a matter between you and the venue in the same way it would be if you had bought it over the counter.

Wishlist gifts, off-platform items, and money sent to someone's wallet

When a gift is money towards something the recipient buys themselves, the amount reaches their wallet as soon as your payment clears. That is deliberate: they cannot buy the thing if we are holding the money for it.

These gifts are not refundable. The money is the recipient's from the moment it arrives, and it is theirs to spend or withdraw. We cannot take it back out of their bank account, and we do not pay you back out of our own funds instead.

• Send only what you are happy to give. This is a gift, not a purchase with us holding the money in the middle.
• We do not ask the recipient to photograph what they bought. A photo proves very little, is easy to fake, and settles nothing when two people disagree. What you are relying on is the person, which is why we say to send what you are comfortable sending.
• If the money is still sitting untouched in their wallet, ask us and we will do what we can, but that is a courtesy and not something we can promise.
• Once it has been spent or withdrawn it has left the system. At that point it is between the two of you, and we will help you talk to each other.
• Contributions to a GyftPool work the same way. They are donations towards someone's total and are not refundable once given.

Sending money to somebody is an act of trust, and we would rather say that plainly than describe a guarantee we do not provide.

How long you have, by what you bought

Different things carry different risks, so they carry different windows. Each one runs from the point you could actually tell whether something went wrong, not from when you paid.

A window is the time you have to raise a problem. It is not money being held back from the person who supplied something. A venue that serves a meal is owed for that meal immediately, and is paid on its normal schedule; no restaurant would hand food across a counter on the promise of being paid in a day or two, and we do not ask them to.

• Wishlist gifts, off-platform items and pool contributions. No window. The money is theirs on arrival.
• Posted items. 14 days from delivery, so a slow parcel does not eat your time to check it.
• Anything at a venue. The venue is paid for what it served, and nothing is held back from it. If the visit did not happen, or you were not served, tell us within 48 hours of the visit and we will take it up with the venue.

Items posted to you

Where a venue posts an item, you have the statutory right to cancel within 14 days of receiving it and return it for a refund, including the standard delivery charge you paid. You pay the cost of returning it unless it is faulty or not as described. The refund is due within 14 days of the item coming back or of you showing you sent it.

Some things are excluded from this right by law, including items made to your specification, items personalised for you, and sealed goods that cannot be returned once opened for hygiene reasons. Perishable goods, including food, are also excluded.

The venue sells the item, so the return goes to the venue, and the venue is responsible for honouring it. Tell us if a venue will not.

Services and appointments

For a booked service you may cancel within 14 days, unless the service has already been performed with your agreement, in which case the right ends once it is complete. Where a venue has its own cancellation notice period, that applies to rescheduling but does not override your statutory right during the cancellation period.

Ordering for yourself at a venue

When you order and pay for yourself at a venue, you pay the menu price and the card processing charge, with no platform fee. If the venue cannot serve what you ordered and reverses the order, the payment is returned to the card you paid with. If you paid from prepaid credit, the amount goes back on your credit at that venue.

Advance bookings

A booking made and paid for in advance is refunded according to the terms the venue showed you before you paid. Those terms are fixed when you pay and cannot be changed afterwards by the venue.

• You cancel. The venue keeps the share its terms give for how far ahead you cancelled, and the rest of the booking price and of anything you ordered ahead is refunded. The booking fee and the card processing charge are not refunded. You see the exact refund before you confirm, and it is sent straight away.
• The venue cancels. You are refunded everything you paid, including the booking fee and the card processing charge.
• You do not arrive. After the time stated in your booking terms the booking is recorded as not attended, and the venue keeps the share its terms give for that. You have 48 hours to tell us you were there. Nothing is settled in that time, and if we find you attended and were not served you are refunded in full.

Where the law gives you a right to cancel that a venue's terms do not, that right is not affected.

Stays and hire: damage and late returns

When you book a stay or hire something, the card you pay with is kept by our payment provider, Stripe, so the venue can claim for damage or a late return afterwards. We keep only Stripe's reference to the card.

• When a claim can be made. Within 7 days after check-out or the return day, or after the day a late item actually came back if that was later.
• Damage. The venue must describe the damage and add photos.
• Late return. Only if the venue showed a late fee per day before you booked, and never more than that fee for each day late.
• Your answer. You see the claim and its photos and have 72 hours to accept it or dispute it with your own reply and photos. If you accept, or do not answer in time, the card you booked with is charged.
• A dispute. Nothing is charged while it is looked at. We decide using what both sides sent, and you are told the outcome.

Treats bought through a venue's link

A treat paid for through a venue's sponsor link becomes a single-use pass that lasts 90 days. The venue is paid when you pay, so the payment is not refunded once it has been made. Until the pass is used you can send it to somebody else from your own page for that treat. A pass that is not used within 90 days expires.

Prepaid credit and tabs

Credit belongs to the person it was given to and can be spent at that venue at their discretion. We do not impose a short expiry on it and we do not force it to be spent. Credit is not exchangeable for cash except through a verified withdrawal where that is available. If a venue permanently closes or cannot honour credit, contact us and we will work in good faith to honour or refund it.

Tips

A tip is voluntary and is intended for the venue's team. Tips are not refundable. A tip you leave after you have been served is a separate payment and is not refunded. A tip added when an order is paid for is not refunded once the order has been served or the tip has been shared with the team, and if such an order is later refunded the refund does not include the tip. The one exception is an order that is cancelled before anyone has served it: nobody earned that tip, so it is returned with the rest of the payment. Nothing here limits any right you have by law.

Platform fees

Where we refund an order in full, we refund our fee with it. We do not keep a fee on a transaction that did not happen.

The card processing charge on a refund

When a payment is refunded, the card processing charge is not returned to us by the payment provider. That money has left the system and nobody can recover it. Who carries it depends on why the refund happened.

• The venue could not serve, or the order was not collected. You get everything back, including the processing charge you paid. The venue carries the cost, because the venue caused the refund.
• You changed your mind, using a right you hold. You get the item price and the standard delivery back. The processing charge covered taking a payment you asked us to take, and it is not returned.
• We got something wrong. You get everything back and we carry the cost.

If a refund is partial, the processing charge is not refunded, because the payment it paid for did happen.

This does not affect your statutory rights. Where the law requires a full refund including all charges you paid, that is what you get, whatever this page says about who bears the cost between us and the venue.

How long a refund takes

We start a refund as soon as the decision is made. It goes back to the original payment method, because that is the only place we can send it. How quickly it appears is set by your bank or card issuer, and is usually a few working days, sometimes up to ten. We cannot speed that part up, and we cannot refund to a different card or account.

If you disagree with a decision

Disputes are resolved first between the two people involved, because they usually know what happened. Where that fails, we will look at the evidence and reach a good-faith decision. That is not arbitration and it does not affect your statutory rights or your ability to take the matter further.

Please come to us before asking your bank for a chargeback. A chargeback raised without trying to resolve it first can take months, and it can lead to an account being suspended. Nothing here removes your right to raise one.

How to ask

Contact us with the order reference and what went wrong. If we refuse a refund we will tell you why, and you can ask us to look again through our Complaints Policy.

This policy forms part of our Умовами користування. UK consumers can find independent guidance from Citizens Advice.