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This Refund & Cancellation Policy explains when fees paid to The Secretary (Pty) Ltd for professional services may be cancelled or refunded, when they are not refundable, and how to make a request. It forms part of, and must be read together with, our Terms & Conditions.
Our work is primarily professional time and expertise, and for some matters it also includes statutory or government fees that we pay to a regulator on your behalf. Because of this, the refund position depends mainly on whether work has commenced and on what has already been paid out. This policy sets out that position clearly while expressly preserving the consumer rights you cannot, by law, be asked to give up.
1.Nature of our services and fees
Understanding how our fees are made up explains why some amounts can be returned and others cannot. A single order may include one or both of the following components.
- Professional fees
- Charges for the professional time, expertise and administrative work involved in delivering a service (for example, preparing and lodging a company registration, a licence application, a tax filing or an intellectual-property matter). These are quoted in Botswana Pula (BWP) and are inclusive of VAT where applicable.
- Statutory or government fees
- Charges payable to a regulator, registry or other public authority (for example CIPA, BURS or a relevant licensing body) which, for certain matters, we pay to that authority on your behalf. These are quoted separately from our professional fees and are set by the authority, not by us.
Our pricing is confirmed and re-priced on our servers at checkout by reference to the service you selected, so the amount charged is the price set by The Secretary for that service and not any amount supplied by your browser.
This policy applies to paid professional services ordered through the website. It does not create any charge for free enquiries, contact messages, or the submission of property listings or job vacancies, which are dealt with under the Terms & Conditions.
2.Cancelling before work has commenced
If you change your mind early, you are in the strongest position to recover what you have paid.
You may cancel a paid service and receive a refund of the professional fee in full, provided you notify us before any work on the matter has commenced and before any statutory or government fee has been paid to an authority on your behalf.
Work is treated as having commenced once we begin substantive work on your matter — for example, once we open the matter for action, begin preparing or reviewing your documents, request or process your intake information for that purpose, or take any step towards a filing or application on your behalf. Receiving your order or your uploaded documents into secure storage does not by itself mean work has commenced.
Where we are able to confirm that no work has commenced and no statutory or government fee has been paid out, we will refund the professional fee in full using the method described in this policy.
3.Once work has commenced
After we have started, our fees reflect time and expertise that have already been applied to your matter, and amounts we may already have paid out on your behalf.
Once work has commenced, professional fees are non-refundable to the extent that work has been performed. Where a matter is cancelled part-way through, we will, acting reasonably and in good faith, refund any clearly identifiable portion of the professional fee attributable to work not yet performed, assessed by reference to our records of the work done.
Statutory or government fees that have already been paid to a regulator, registry or other authority on your behalf are non-refundable, because those amounts are determined and retained by that authority and are outside our control. Any refund or waiver of such a fee is a matter for the relevant authority under its own rules.
Nothing in this section requires you to pay for work we have not done, and nothing in it limits your non-excludable statutory rights as described below.
4.Outcomes, delays and matters we cannot complete
It is important to be clear about what your fee pays for, and what happens if a matter cannot proceed for reasons beyond our control.
Our professional fee pays for the proper performance of the work, not for a particular outcome. A regulator, registry or other authority may refuse, query, delay or impose conditions on an application for reasons outside our control, and such an outcome does not by itself entitle you to a refund of professional fees for work properly performed.
If we cannot reasonably begin or continue a matter because required intake information or documents are not provided, or are inaccurate, incomplete or unlawful to act upon, we may suspend the matter and ask you to put it right. We will treat any resulting refund in line with the principles in this policy, having regard to the work already performed and any statutory or government fee already paid out.
If we decide, before substantive work has commenced, that we are unable to accept or provide a service you have ordered, we will tell you and refund the professional fee for that service in full. Where we cannot lawfully or practically continue a matter after work has commenced through no fault of yours, we will refund any portion of the professional fee attributable to work not yet performed, in addition to any other remedy your statutory rights provide.
5.How to request a cancellation or refund
To keep requests moving quickly, please contact us directly and give us enough detail to identify your matter.
Send your cancellation or refund request to info@thesecretary.co.bw, or call us on +267 73 835 546, as early as possible.
To help us deal with your request without delay, please include:
- your order reference;
- the name and email used to place the order;
- the service the request relates to; and
- a brief reason for the cancellation or refund request, and (for an erroneous or duplicate charge) any relevant payment details such as the date and amount.
We will acknowledge your request, confirm whether work has commenced and whether any statutory or government fee has been paid out, and tell you what (if anything) is refundable before processing any refund.
6.Refund method and timeframe
Approved refunds are made to the original payment method used for the order, processed through our payment gateway, DPO Pay (Direct Pay Online). We do not store your card or payment-instrument details; these are handled by the gateway.
We aim to initiate an approved refund within ten (10) business days of confirming that it is due. The time for the refunded amount to appear in your account thereafter depends on the gateway, your bank or card issuer and is outside our control.
Refunds are made in Botswana Pula (BWP). We are not responsible for any difference arising from exchange-rate movements, or for bank or card-issuer charges applied to the refund.
7.Duplicate, failed and erroneous charges
Occasionally a payment does not behave as expected. Please tell us promptly and we will put it right.
If you are charged more than once for the same order, or charged in error, contact us with your order reference and the payment details and we will investigate and refund any verified duplicate or erroneous charge in full.
If a payment fails or is declined but an amount appears to have been reserved or debited, no order is created and no service is provided; any such pending or reserved amount is typically released by your bank or card issuer in the ordinary course. If it is not released, contact us and we will assist in investigating the matter with the gateway.
8.Chargebacks
Please talk to us first
If you believe a charge is wrong, contacting us directly is almost always the fastest way to resolve it. We would rather sort the matter out with you than have it go through a formal dispute.
If you raise a chargeback or payment dispute with your bank or card issuer, we may provide that bank, the issuer or the gateway with the records reasonably necessary to respond, including your order details, the service provided and our correspondence with you. We process that information in accordance with our Privacy Notice.
Where a chargeback is pursued for an amount that is properly payable under this policy and the Terms & Conditions — for example, the professional fee for work already performed, or a statutory fee already paid to a regulator on your behalf — we reserve the right to contest it and to recover amounts properly due to us, without affecting any refund to which you are genuinely entitled.
9.Your statutory rights
Your consumer rights are not affected
Nothing in this Refund & Cancellation Policy excludes, restricts or limits any right or remedy you have that cannot lawfully be excluded, including your non-excludable statutory rights as a consumer under the Consumer Protection Act, 2018, and any applicable rights in relation to electronic transactions under the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2014.
Where a service is delivered to you electronically, or where you have asked us to begin work without delay, any statutory right you may have to cancel an electronic transaction is read together with the position in this policy on work that has already commenced; this does not remove any cancellation right the law gives you that cannot be excluded.
Where this policy and your non-excludable statutory rights differ, your statutory rights prevail to the extent of the difference. This policy operates in addition to, and not instead of, those rights.
This policy forms part of and is to be read together with our Terms & Conditions. If you have a concern we have been unable to resolve, you may seek assistance from the relevant consumer-protection authority in Botswana.
Operator details
The Secretary (Pty) LtdPlot 54368, iTowers North, Unit 5c
Gaborone, Botswana
+267 73 835 546 · info@thesecretary.co.bw