Refunds andcancellation

There is no checkout here, no price on any page, and no way to pay us through the website. The opportunity audit is free. The strategy call that usually follows it is free and runs about an hour. Neither creates an obligation on either side.

Because nothing is sold on the site, there is no purchase to refund. Everything below is about work that has been quoted, accepted and started.

Pricing is scoped per business, so there is no rate card. Every build is quoted against what the work turns out to be. Once a quote is accepted, a 50% deposit and a signed agreement start the work. The balance is payable as the agreement sets out.

The deposit is not a booking fee we keep for nothing. It is the first half of the price, and it buys the first half of the work.

If you accept a quote and change your mind before we have started, tell us and you get the deposit back in full. No reasons needed and no deduction. We would rather not build something for somebody who has stopped wanting it.

"Before we have started" means before any design, architecture or code has been done on your project. We will tell you honestly which side of that line you are on.

You can stop a project at any time on written notice. What is payable is the work actually performed up to that date, plus anything we have committed to on your behalf and cannot cancel — a third-party licence bought for your build, for instance. The deposit is applied against that amount.

If the deposit exceeds what is owed, we refund the difference. If the work done exceeds the deposit, the difference is invoiced. Either way you get an itemised account of what was done, and you keep everything built to that point once it is paid for.

This is what section 17 of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 contemplates: you may cancel, and we may keep a reasonable charge for what cancelling actually costs us. Reasonable means the work done, not the profit we expected.

This is the one people should read. Custom software is not a product you either like or return, so the remedy is not a shrug.

You have 10 business days from delivery to test what we built against what was agreed and to tell us, in writing and in detail, anything that materially fails to meet it. We fix it at our own cost. That is not a goodwill gesture, it is section 54 of the Consumer Protection Act: you are entitled to services performed to a reasonable standard, and where they are not, to have them remedied or to a refund of a reasonable portion of what you paid.

If we cannot make it meet the agreed scope after a fair attempt, you are refunded the portion of the fee attributable to the part that does not work. What you asked us to change your mind about after the fact is a change request and is chargeable; what we simply did not build properly is ours to fix or refund.

Section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 gives a consumer seven days to cancel an electronic transaction without reason or penalty. If you accept a quote from us electronically, treat that right as yours and tell us within seven days.

The limit is worth knowing rather than discovering: section 42(2) of the same Act removes the cooling-off right once the service has begun with your consent, and for work made to your own specification. So the seven days are real until you tell us to start, and section 03 above is what applies after that. We will not start early in order to close the window, and if you want the seven days you can simply say so.

A monthly retainer is invoiced in advance and covers that month. Cancel it with one month's written notice, effective at the end of the following month. We do not refund a month already begun, and we do not lock anyone into a term — if you tell us to stop, the last invoice is the current month and nothing after it.

AI usage, hosting, domains, licences and messaging are charged by the companies that provide them, at what they cost. Where those are billed to your own accounts, we never hold that money. Where we have paid them on your behalf, they are not refundable by us, because they have already been spent on your project.

Write to ai@miax.co.za with what you want cancelled or refunded and why. We will answer within 5 business days with an itemised position. Approved refunds are paid by electronic transfer to the account the payment came from, within 15 business days of us agreeing the amount.

If we disagree about the amount, the dispute route is in the service agreement for your project: a conversation between the two people responsible first, then mediation and arbitration under the rules of the Arbitration Foundation of Southern Africa. You also keep every right the Consumer Protection Act gives you, including a complaint to the National Consumer Commission, and nothing on this page limits that.

It does not cover what we do with your information, which is the privacy policy, or the terms on which you use the site, which are the terms and conditions.

Disclosed in terms of section 43 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002.

• Full name: Michael Pienaar, trading as MIAX
• Legal status: Sole proprietorship. MIAX is a trading name of Michael Pienaar and is not a separate legal person.
• Registration number: None. MIAX is a sole proprietorship and is not a registered company.
• VAT: Not a registered VAT vendor. No VAT is charged and no tax invoices are issued.
• Physical and postal address: Oxford & Glenhove, 114 Oxford Road, cnr Glenhove Road, Houghton Estate, Johannesburg, 2198, South Africa
• Email: ai@miax.co.za
• Website: miax.co.za
• Information Officer (POPIA): Michael Pienaar, ai@miax.co.za
• Self-regulatory bodies: None. MIAX is not a member of any industry body or accredited scheme, and claims no accreditation it does not hold.
• Governing law: The law of the Republic of South Africa.