Subscription, Cancellation and Refund Policy

Effective 4 November 2026. This policy forms part of our Terms of Use. It doesn't limit any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act or the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.

In short

1. How subscriptions work

Whale Watch Pro is a subscription service. The plans, prices and what's included are shown on the Pro page before you subscribe and on PayFast's payment page before you pay.

• Monthly plan: charged on the day you subscribe and then on the same date every month until you cancel. There is no minimum term.
• Annual plan: a fixed term of 12 months, charged once at the start.

Access starts as soon as PayFast confirms your payment.

2. 7-day cooling-off: full refund on your first payment

Section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act gives consumers a 7-day cooling-off period for services bought online. The Act allows suppliers to exclude services that have already started with the consumer's consent, which happens as soon as you open Whale Watch. We choose not to rely on that exclusion. If you cancel within 7 days of your first payment for a subscription, we will refund that payment in full, even if you have used Whale Watch.

This applies to your first subscription with us. If you re-subscribe after cancelling, the 7-day refund doesn't apply again.

3. Cancelling a monthly plan

• You can cancel at any time, without giving a reason and without any cancellation fee.
• Your next renewal won't be charged. You keep access until the end of the month you've already paid for.
• Apart from the 7-day refund above and section 6 below, we don't refund part-months.

4. Cancelling an annual plan (Consumer Protection Act, section 14)

• You can cancel at any time by cancelling on your Account page or by emailing [email protected]. The law allows a supplier to require 20 business days' notice and to charge a reasonable cancellation penalty. We do neither. Your cancellation takes effect on the day you cancel.
• We refund the full months remaining in your 12-month term, calculated as the annual price ÷ 12 × the number of full months left. You keep access until the end of the current month of your term.
• Before your year ends: between 40 and 80 business days before the end of your 12-month term, we will email you to remind you that it is ending, tell you about any changes that would apply, and set out your options.
• At the end of the year: if you don't cancel and don't choose to renew for another year, your subscription continues month to month at the monthly price shown on the Pro page at that time, and you can cancel it at any time as set out in section 3.

5. Cancellation by us

If we close your account because you breached our Terms of Use, we will first give you 20 business days' notice to put the breach right, except in serious cases such as fraud. If we stop offering Whale Watch Pro or close your account for any reason other than your breach, we will refund the unused part of your subscription.

6. If the service doesn't work as it should

Under section 54 of the Consumer Protection Act, you are entitled to have services performed in a timely manner and to the quality people are generally entitled to expect. If Whale Watch is unavailable for an extended period because of a problem on our side, or a core feature stops working, contact us. We will fix the problem or refund a fair proportion of your subscription for the affected period.

7. Failed payments

If a renewal payment fails, your access continues for a short grace period (currently 3 days). If payment still hasn't gone through, access stops until you subscribe again. We don't charge any fee for a failed payment.

8. How refunds are paid

Refunds are paid back to the payment method you used, through PayFast, within 30 days of your cancellation. How quickly the money then appears depends on your bank or card issuer. To ask for a refund, email [email protected] from the email address on your account. Cancelling on the Account page stops future charges straight away; a refund under section 2, 4 or 6 is processed when you ask for it by email.

9. Questions and complaints

Email [email protected]. If we can't resolve a complaint, you can refer it to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (cgso.org.za); see section 15 of our Terms of Use.