Refund Policy

The short version

Custom merchandise is made-to-order, so your final sign-off is the point of commitment: nothing is made — and nothing is committed with the supplier — until you've signed off your final design. Until that moment, walking away costs you nothing.

• Until you sign off your final design: full refund of everything you've paid — the $1 deposit and the balance — no questions asked. (Your sign-off happens after payment, once our production team has checked your design.)
• After you've signed but before decoration starts: 50% refund (your sign-off is what commits your stock with the supplier).
• Once decoration has started: no refund — the goods can't be on-sold.
• If we cancel or fail to deliver: full refund of everything you've paid.

Damaged or non-conforming goods

If your order arrives damaged, short, or doesn't match the mockup you approved:

1. Photograph the carton (with the shipping label visible), the damage, and the affected goods.
2. Email us within 48 hours of delivery with the photos and your order reference.
3. Keep the damaged goods until we've resolved the claim.

We need this within 48 hours to make a successful insurance claim with the carrier. After that, our hands are partly tied. Once we've confirmed the issue, we'll choose one of: replacement on the next production cycle, credit against a future order, or refund of the affected portion of the order.

If something is wrong with an order you bought online

The Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 gives you the right to expect that what you buy is of acceptable quality, matches the description it was sold under, and does what it's meant to do. If it doesn't, you're entitled to a remedy. That right is yours by law — nothing on this page, and nothing in our Terms, can take it away or put a deadline on it.

How to tell us

1. Email gem@littlegems.kiwi as soon as you reasonably can, with your order number and a short description of the problem.
2. Attach photos — the goods themselves, the fault or damage, and (if the parcel arrived damaged) the carton with the shipping label visible.
3. Keep the goods and their packaging until we've resolved it. Please don't throw anything out.

Telling us quickly helps us fix it quickly — and if a courier damaged the parcel it helps us take it up with them. But it is not a condition of your rights under the Act.

What happens next

We'll come back to you within one working day. Depending on what has gone wrong, we'll repair the goods, replace them, or refund what you paid for them. Where the failure is serious, the choice between rejecting the goods for a refund and asking for compensation is yours, not ours — that is how the Act works. If a whole order is refunded, the $17.25 delivery charge comes back too.

Who pays the return postage

We do. Where goods are faulty, damaged, or not as described, we cover the cost of getting them back to us and the cost of sending out the repaired or replacement item. You should never be out of pocket for postage on a fault of ours. Don't post anything back before you've emailed us — we'll arrange it so you aren't paying for it.

If we can't supply what you ordered

Stock counts can be wrong. If something you've paid for turns out to be unavailable, we'll tell you and refund it in full — including the delivery charge if the whole order is cancelled. We won't send you something different instead without asking you first.

Changing your mind (online orders)

New Zealand law doesn't give you a right to return goods because you've changed your mind — the Consumer Guarantees Act covers faults, not second thoughts. We don't run a change-of-mind returns policy, so we can't promise you a return. What we can promise is that we'll read every email properly: if you've ordered the wrong thing, tell us at gem@littlegems.kiwi and we'll consider it on its merits. Anything we do here is goodwill, not an obligation.

How to request a refund

1. Email gem@littlegems.kiwi with your order number and the reason.
2. We'll respond within one (1) working day.
3. Approved refunds are processed within five (5) working days, via your original payment method.

Your statutory rights

Nothing in this policy limits your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 where that Act applies.

That Act gives you remedies when goods are faulty, are not of acceptable quality, or don't match how they were described to you. The Fair Trading Act 1986 sits alongside it and makes it unlawful for us to mislead you about what you're buying. Neither depends on anything written here, and we can't put a time limit on either. If anything on this page turns out to give you less than the law does, the law wins. You can read your rights in plain English at consumerprotection.govt.nz.

The full legal text

The clauses that actually control are in our Terms & Conditions, Section 11 (Cancellation and Refunds) and Section 10 (Inspection and Damage Claims). If anything in this summary conflicts with the full Terms, the full Terms apply.