Shipping Policy
How your order gets to you, what it costs, and what happens if it goes astray
Most parcels arrive without anybody thinking about this page. It is here for the ones that do not: the parcel that arrives crushed, the tracking that stops moving, the order that has to be somewhere by the start of term.
Getting what you bought from us to your door
What delivery costs, how long it takes, how to follow your parcel, and what happens if it arrives damaged or does not arrive at all.
Four things up front, in plain terms.
- The cost and the estimated delivery time are shown at checkout, before you pay. There is no delivery charge added afterwards.
- Courses and downloads are not posted. You get them online, the moment your order is confirmed.
- Until the parcel reaches you, it is our problem. Damaged in transit or lost on the way, we sort it out and we carry the cost.
- Sending something back is a different job, and it is covered by our Refunds and Returns Policy.
Kids Eyes LLC, the same company that runs the website
Our shop and everything you buy through it is run by Kids Eyes LLC. Your consultations are delivered by Dr Claire's practice, which is a different thing and is covered by our Terms of Service.
Throughout this page, "we", "us" and "our" mean Kids Eyes.
The physical things, and nothing else
This policy is about physical products from our shop: eye patches, reward charts, sunglasses, cases and cords, and prescription glasses.
Our courses and downloadable resources are digital. Nothing is posted, there is no delivery charge and there is no wait. You get access online as soon as your order is confirmed.
Anywhere in South Africa, and to most countries
We deliver across South Africa, and internationally to most countries.
If we cannot deliver to your address, checkout will tell you before you pay. If we only find out afterwards, we contact you and refund you in full.
Whatever checkout says, and nothing more
Your delivery charge depends on where the parcel is going and what you have ordered. It is always shown at checkout, before you pay.
- The price you confirm at checkout is the delivery price. We do not add a fuel levy, a remote-area surcharge or a handling fee afterwards.
- Where a free-delivery offer applies to your order, checkout shows that too.
- If you send part of an order back and it takes the order under a free-delivery threshold, our Refunds and Returns Policy explains how we handle the difference.
Your country charges those, not us, and they are yours to pay
If you are ordering from outside South Africa, your country may charge import duties, taxes or handling fees when the parcel arrives. These are set by your government, not by us, they are not included in what you paid us, and the courier will tell you what is due. You pay it to them directly.
- If those charges are not paid and the parcel comes back to us, the return and re-shipping costs are for your account.
- We cannot refund duties or taxes you have paid, even where we refund the item itself, because that money went to your government and not to us.
- Your customs authority may refund them on a returned item. That is a claim you make to them, and we will give you whatever paperwork you need for it.
Two things add up: our packing time, and the courier's
The estimate for your own address is shown at checkout and again in your confirmation email. It is made up of two parts.
- Our part. Picking, packing and handing the parcel to the courier. We get most orders moving within a working day or two of your order being confirmed.
- The courier's part. How long the journey takes, which depends on where you are. Main centres in South Africa are quick. Outlying areas take longer, and international parcels take longer again.
Delivery estimates come from our couriers and they are estimates, not guarantees. Busy periods, weather, load shedding, customs and remote destinations all add time, and those parts are outside our control. If your parcel is running late, talk to us and we will find out where it is.
Because they are made for your child before they can be sent
Prescription glasses are not picked off a shelf. The lenses are made to your child's prescription and fitted to the frame you chose, and only then does the parcel go to the courier.
The making time is shown on the product page, and delivery time is on top of it. Both are in your confirmation email. If your child needs them for a specific date, a school photograph or the start of term, tell us when you order and we will tell you honestly whether it can be done.
We tell you, and you never wait more than 30 days for your money
If something goes wrong on our side and we cannot dispatch your order, we tell you as soon as we know and you choose: wait for it, or have your money back.
We will never hold your money for more than 30 days on an order we have not sent. If we cannot get it to you within 30 days of your order, we refund you in full, without you having to ask for it.
We send you the tracking as soon as it leaves us
Once your order is on its way we send you a notification by email, and where we have your number, by SMS or WhatsApp, with a way to track it. You will usually get another message when it has been delivered.
If the tracking makes no sense, or it has stopped moving, contact us rather than waiting. We can see things on the courier's side that you cannot.
A correct address, and somebody there to take the parcel
Please give us a complete and accurate delivery address, including a complex or estate name, a unit number and anything a driver needs to find you. Then make sure somebody can receive the parcel.
- If the address is wrong or incomplete and the parcel cannot be delivered, goes to the wrong place, or cannot be recovered in the condition it was sent, the cost of re-shipping or replacing it is for your account.
- If nobody is available to receive it and it comes back to us, any re-delivery fee is for your account.
- If you spot a mistake in the address you gave us, tell us immediately. Before the parcel leaves us we can usually fix it for nothing.
We are, until it reaches you
Until the parcel is delivered to the address you gave us, it is our responsibility. If it is damaged or lost on the way, that is ours to sort out, not yours.
The one exception is the one above: a delivery that failed because the address was wrong or incomplete, or because nobody was there to receive it.
When you are sending something back to us, the risk runs the other way and it is yours until it reaches us, which is why we ask you to use a tracked service. That is set out in our Refunds and Returns Policy, along with who pays the postage.
Photograph it before you open it, and tell us
There is no deadline on this. Tell us whenever you find it. The sooner we know the easier it is for us to claim from the courier, but a late report never costs you your remedy.
- If the packaging looks damaged, crushed, wet or already opened, photograph or video it before you open it, and again once it is open.
- Do not use the item.
- Send us the photographs, your order number and what is wrong, at hello@kidseyes.co.za.
We replace it or refund you, and we carry the cost, including the postage in both directions.
We trace it first. If it cannot be found, we replace it
If your tracking has stopped moving, or the parcel is marked delivered and you do not have it, tell us as soon as you notice. We open a trace with the courier the same day.
A trace is a real search: the courier works back through every scan, checks the depot, and speaks to the driver. Parcels do turn up, and a fair number are found at a neighbour, a gate guard or a reception desk. So we ask you to give us enough time to run it properly before we write the parcel off.
- Deliveries in South Africa: up to 10 working days from the day we open the trace.
- International deliveries: up to 20 working days, because a parcel can sit in customs without being lost at all.
- If the courier cannot find it, we send your order again, or refund you if you would rather. You choose, and it costs you nothing.
There is an outer limit, and it is 30 days. If your parcel is still not in your hands 30 days after you reported it missing, we replace or refund it, whatever the courier is still doing. A trace that has gone on for a month has become our problem, not yours.
Those are the outside figures, not a queue you have to wait in. Where a courier confirms a loss on day three, we act on day three.
That is the Refunds and Returns Policy, and here is the short version
Everything about sending something back, who pays the postage and how refunds are paid is on one page, and this is not it. But so you do not have to go looking:
- Changed your mind? 7 days from the day it arrives, on most unused items, and you pay the return postage.
- Faulty, unsafe or not what you ordered? Six months, you choose refund, replacement or repair, and we pay the postage both ways.
- A few things cannot come back once opened or made, mainly opened patches and prescription glasses.
- Email us before you post anything back. An unannounced parcel can sit unidentified in a depot for weeks.
One inbox, and a person on the end of it
For anything about an order on its way to you, start here. Your order number makes it quicker.
Email: hello@kidseyes.co.za
Telephone: +27 10 035 0086
Address: 18 Hollywood Drive, Northcliff, Johannesburg, 2195, South Africa
Yes, and the date at the top tells you when it last did
We may update this policy from time to time, for example when we change courier. The version that applies to your order is the one that was on this page when you placed it.
Nothing here takes away any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act, the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, or another law that applies to you.
