Payment & Refund Terms

Current individual programme prices are published on each programme page and shown again at checkout.

The table below is provided for convenience only. Where it differs from the price shown at checkout, the checkout price applies.

All prices are in South African rand (ZAR).

Out of the Blocks is not currently a registered VAT vendor and does not charge VAT.

Play and Sport is in development and not yet available for purchase. Its price will be published when it is ready for sale.

The total amount payable, including any applicable taxes, is displayed before you finally place your order.

Our online checkout is provided through CheckoutJoy and payments are processed by PayFast. CheckoutJoy sends the transaction, price and customer details needed to initiate the payment to PayFast and directs the customer to PayFast's checkout environment. Full payment-card details are entered into and handled in PayFast's secure payment environment and are not stored on an Out of the Blocks system. PayFast states that it is PCI DSS Level 1 compliant and supports 3D Secure for card payments.

All payment methods made available by PayFast through CheckoutJoy are accepted and are displayed at checkout.

A purchase is treated as successful only once payment has been confirmed by the payment system.

Please review your selected programme, language option and total price before completing payment. Our checkout gives you an opportunity to review and correct the transaction, and to withdraw from it, before you finally place your order.

If a payment fails or remains incomplete, programme access will not be activated until payment is confirmed.

For parents, caregivers and homeschool customers, digital access is activated as soon as reasonably practicable after payment has been confirmed and the enrolment process has been completed.

Unless otherwise stated at checkout, an individual purchase gives you 12 months of access from the date the programme is activated.

If you purchase the English and Afrikaans combination, both language versions of that programme are included.

Access does not automatically renew for another 12-month fixed term. If section 14 of the CPA applies, the agreement continues on a month-to-month basis after the fixed term unless you expressly direct us to terminate it at expiry or agree to renew it for a further fixed term.

Section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act gives you the right to cancel an electronic transaction for services within seven days after the date on which the agreement is concluded, without reason and without penalty. Where that right applies, the only charge that may be levied is the direct cost of returning goods — which does not arise for a digital programme — and any payment must be refunded within 30 days of cancellation.

How this works with immediate access. Section 42(2) of ECTA provides that the statutory seven-day right may not apply where a service began with the consumer's consent before the seven-day period ended. However, Out of the Blocks does not rely on that exclusion for an individual programme purchase by a parent, caregiver or homeschool customer.

Your access may begin after payment is confirmed, but you may still cancel the purchase without reason and without penalty within seven days after the agreement was concluded. Email ansuhuman@outoftheblocks.co.za. We will withdraw the programme access and refund the full payment within 30 days after cancellation.

Nothing in these terms waives a consumer right that cannot lawfully be waived.

Where section 14 of the CPA applies, a 12-month individual programme purchase is treated as a fixed-term agreement. Section 14 does not apply to a transaction between juristic persons, regardless of their annual turnover or asset value.

Where it applies:

• You may cancel at any time by giving us 20 business days' written notice. Email ansuhuman@outoftheblocks.co.za.
• You remain liable for amounts properly owed up to the cancellation date.
• We may charge a reasonable cancellation penalty, calculated in line with regulation 5(2) of the CPA regulations. That regulation requires us to take into account how much of the agreement is left to run, the value of what you have already received, the length of notice given, and our reasonable potential to find an alternative customer. We will tell you the amount before we apply it.
• Any remaining credit is refunded in accordance with clause 9.
• Your programme access ends on the cancellation date.

Expiry notice. Section 14 also requires us to notify you that your fixed term is coming to an end. We will email you between 40 and 80 business days before your 12-month access period expires, telling you the expiry date and the options available to you.

Unless you expressly direct us to terminate the agreement at expiry or agree to renew it for a further fixed term, an agreement to which section 14 applies continues on a month-to-month basis after the fixed term, subject to any material changes disclosed in the expiry notice.

We do not apply any blanket contractual rule intended to remove rights you have under the law.

Duplicate payments. If you are charged twice for the same transaction, contact us and we will investigate and refund any confirmed duplicate payment.

Wrong programme or language. If you accidentally purchase the wrong programme or language version, contact us promptly and before making substantial use of the programme. Where reasonably possible we will transfer your access to the intended option and charge or refund the difference in price.

A transfer is not guaranteed once substantial use has already taken place. This does not affect any statutory right that applies to your purchase.

If payment succeeds but your account is not created, the wrong programme is added, or you cannot access the programme you bought, contact us so we can investigate.

Depending on the circumstances, an appropriate remedy may include:

• correcting or restoring your programme access;
• extending your access period to compensate for the period lost;
• moving you to the correct programme;
• refunding the affected purchase in full where we cannot provide what you bought.

This is in addition to your rights under section 54 of the CPA, which entitles you to services performed in a manner and quality that persons are generally entitled to expect, and to a remedy where they are not.

School access is normally arranged through an enquiry, quotation and invoice rather than the individual online checkout.

Unless otherwise agreed in writing, school invoices are paid by electronic funds transfer (EFT).

The programmes purchased, number of staff seats, licence period, payment due date and any school-specific cancellation terms are recorded in the applicable quotation, invoice or written agreement, and those specific terms prevail over these general terms.

Whether the CPA applies generally to a school may depend on the school's juristic status and the threshold in section 5 of the CPA. However, section 14's fixed-term cancellation and renewal rules do not apply to transactions between juristic persons, regardless of annual turnover or asset value. A school's cancellation position is therefore determined by its agreed school terms, any other applicable provisions of the CPA and other applicable law.

Where a refund is approved or legally required, we return the money using the original payment method where reasonably possible.

Refund timing depends on the payment provider and the banking system. We process approved refunds as soon as reasonably practicable, and:

• within 30 days where the refund arises from a cooling-off cancellation under clause 4;
• within any other period required by applicable law.

Programme access is removed or adjusted where a purchase has been fully refunded.

If you believe a payment is incorrect, or that you have not received what you purchased, please contact us first so we have an opportunity to investigate and resolve it.

Nothing in this clause prevents you from exercising any lawful right available through your payment provider, your bank, the National Consumer Commission or any other applicable consumer-protection process.

We may update these terms when our systems, pricing structure or legal obligations change. The current version is published on our website with its version number and effective date. Changes do not retrospectively alter the terms that applied to a purchase you have already completed.

Questions about these terms: ansuhuman@outoftheblocks.co.za

These Payment & Refund Terms must be read together with our Terms & Conditions and Privacy & POPIA Policy.