Refund and cancellation policy

1. Scope

This policy applies to services supplied by Tarryn Blom, a sole proprietor trading as BlueBloom, and forms part of our terms and conditions. BlueBloom supplies services to businesses; it does not sell physical goods. Product returns and exchanges are therefore not applicable. Corrections to a service or deliverable are handled under the acceptance and corrections section of the terms.

In this policy, a "business day" is Monday to Friday, excluding a South African public holiday. "Work starts" when BlueBloom first performs engagement-specific preparation, analysis, interviews, configuration or delivery, or incurs an approved non-cancellable cost—whichever occurs first. Merely accepting a booking or reserving future capacity does not, on its own, mean that work has started. Work may nevertheless start before the first workshop or customer-facing meeting.

2. How to make a request

Email a cancellation, rescheduling or refund request to info@bluebloom.co.za from the address used for the booking. Include the customer name, service, invoice or Payfast transaction reference, booked date and the reason for the request, if applicable. A reason helps us assess an ordinary contractual request but is not required where mandatory law gives the customer a no-reason cancellation right. A request takes effect when it reaches our email system; we acknowledge it within one business day.

Do not send a card number, CVV, PIN, one-time password or online banking password. We may ask for information reasonably needed to verify the payer and prevent a fraudulent or duplicate refund.

3. Statutory rights come first

Nothing in this policy limits a cancellation, cooling-off, quality or refund right that applicable law does not permit us to limit. In particular:

• Where ECTA section 44 applies to an electronic transaction with a natural-person consumer, that consumer may cancel a service without reason or penalty within seven days after the agreement is concluded and is entitled to the refund required by that Act. The statutory exception may apply if the consumer expressly asks us to begin the service during that period.
• Where the CPA cooling-off right for direct marketing applies instead, the consumer may cancel within the applicable five-business-day period and will receive the refund within the period required by that Act.
• Where CPA section 17 applies to an advance booking, any cancellation charge must be reasonable in the circumstances and no cancellation fee will be imposed where that section prohibits one because of the death or hospitalisation of the person for whose benefit the booking was made.

The statutory rules apply only where their legal requirements are met; describing them here does not convert a business transaction into a consumer transaction.

4. Cancellation before work starts

If the customer cancels after BlueBloom accepts the booking but before work starts, we refund the amount paid less a reasonable cancellation charge. The service-fee component of that charge will not exceed:

• 10 or more business days before the booked start: 10% of the service fee;
• 5 to 9 business days before the booked start: 50% of the service fee; or
• fewer than 5 business days before the booked start, or non-attendance: 100% of the service fee.

We add only approved, non-recoverable third-party costs and never retain more than the total paid or payable for the cancelled service. The percentages are maximums, not automatic penalties. We reduce the charge where a lower amount fairly reflects preparation performed, notice given, the nature of the reserved service, costs committed and our reasonable ability to fill the slot. Mandatory law overrides these maximums where it gives the customer a better result.

5. Cancellation after work starts

Once work starts, the customer must pay for work completed, reserved capacity already used and approved non-cancellable commitments. We refund any remaining unearned prepaid balance. For fixed-price work, earned fees are determined by completed milestones or, where a milestone does not fairly measure partially completed work, the reasonable proportion of the scope performed.

A customer delay, missing participant, unavailable system or failure to provide a dependency does not make completed preparation or reserved delivery capacity unearned. If the delay makes delivery impracticable, the rescheduling rules below apply.

6. Rescheduling

A customer may reschedule once without a service-fee cancellation charge by giving at least five business days' written notice. The replacement date must be agreed, remain subject to availability and fall within 60 calendar days after the original date. Approved non-recoverable third-party costs remain payable.

A request made with fewer than five business days' notice, non-attendance, a second rescheduling request, or failure to complete the service within that 60-day period is treated as a cancellation. We may waive or reduce a resulting charge where the circumstances and our ability to reuse the reserved capacity make that fair.

If BlueBloom needs to reschedule, the customer may accept the new date or cancel the affected service for a full refund of its unearned price, without a cancellation charge.

7. Rules for each service

• Team AI Training:preparation is tailored to the team's tools and tasks and can start before the training day. Participant non-attendance does not create a refund right if BlueBloom is ready to deliver as booked.
• AI Readiness Audit: interview, review, analysis and report-writing work is earned as performed. The separate actionable-report guarantee below remains available even after proper delivery.
• AI Rollout Sprint: the commencement deposit is allocated to reserved capacity and commencement work, and becomes earned only as those obligations are performed or as a reasonable cancellation charge. On cancellation, completed milestones, reasonably measured work in progress and approved non-cancellable commitments are payable; only an unearned balance is refunded.
• Enablement Retainer:either party may cancel the month-to-month service on 30 calendar days' written notice. Service continues through the paid notice period. There is no pro-rata refund merely because the customer does not use all available capacity during a billing period, unless mandatory law requires one.

8. AI Readiness Audit guarantee

If the customer honestly finds nothing in the final Audit report that it can act on, the customer may request a refund of the standard Audit service fee by emailing info@bluebloom.co.za within five business days after delivery. The email must state that the customer honestly found no actionable recommendation. The customer's judgment controls; BlueBloom does not substitute its judgment.

The customer may circulate the report internally to evaluate it. The guarantee ends when the customer implements a recommendation or distributes the report for another purpose. It covers the standard Audit fee only, not approved travel, third-party costs or additional work. A valid claim is not reduced by the ordinary cancellation charges in this policy.

9. Cancellation by BlueBloom

If BlueBloom cannot accept a booking or cancels before work starts for a reason not caused by the customer, we refund the affected service in full. If we cancel after work starts for our convenience, we refund the unearned prepaid balance after completed work and approved non-recoverable commitments. If we end or suspend work because of customer breach, non-payment, unlawful instructions or a prolonged failure to cooperate, the customer-cancellation calculation applies.

10. How refunds are paid

We assess the request against the agreement, this policy and applicable law and explain the outcome in writing. Once we have the information reasonably needed to assess it, we aim to communicate the decision within five business days. We initiate an approved refund within ten business days after approval, or sooner if applicable law requires. The customer's bank, card network or payment provider controls how long the credit takes to reflect after initiation.

Refunds are made through Payfast to the original payment method where supported. We do not pass Payfast's merchant refund-processing fee to the customer. If a refund to the original method fails or is unavailable, we arrange a lawful alternative with the original payer, may verify matching bank-account details, and send written proof after payment. We do not refund to an unrelated third party or pay more than the original transaction.

Under Payfast's current Multi-Currency Pricing rules, a refund is processed in ZAR and converted by the card system. The foreign-currency credit may differ because of exchange-rate movement, an issuer's fee or Payfast's non-refundable conversion markup. BlueBloom does not add a fee or retain an exchange-rate difference. A customer must not seek both a direct refund and a chargeback for the same amount. If a duplicate recovery occurs, the customer must promptly cooperate in correcting it. This does not restrict a lawful card-dispute right.

11. Contact and complaints

Refund and cancellation requests go to info@bluebloom.co.za. You may also contact us on 074 837 5701. Our physical and legal-service address is 13 Buitenzorg Road, Somerset West, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. Unresolved complaints follow the dispute process in the terms and conditions.