1. GENERAL

1.1.          This website situated at www.themodernhindulifestyle.co.za (“Website“) is operated by The Modern Hindu Lifestyle (“TMHL“). These terms and conditions (“Terms“) shall govern your use of and access to the Website, as well as the provision of any products or services ordered through TMHL. Certain services, promotions and features may have additional terms and conditions which are applicable to such services, promotions and features, which are incorporated by reference herein.

1.2.          By visiting this Website, you agree to be bound by these Terms and the terms and conditions of TMHL’s Privacy Policy, which are incorporated herein by reference. TMHL reserves the right to revise these Terms from time to time by posting a revised version thereof on the Website. Your continued use of this Website after the posting of such revised version shall constitute your acceptance of the Terms, as revised.

2. OWNERSHIP & COPYRIGHT

The copyright in all templates, designs, graphics, information, material and logos on the Website vests in TMHL and its members and shall continue to vest in TMHL and its members and no right, title or interest in any proprietary material or information contained in this Website is granted to you hereunder.

3. MEMBER ACCOUNT

3.1.          In order to create an account with TMHL, you must be at least 18 years of age, and by creating an account and accepting these terms and conditions, you warrant and represent to TMHL that you are not a minor and can form legally binding contracts under applicable law.

3.2.          You may create a member account on the Website by registering your name, providing information about yourself and creating a username and password.

3.3.          You hereby agree that all information requested and provided by you will be complete, current and accurate and that you will update such information whenever necessary. You are responsible for safeguarding the confidentiality of your username and password. You hereby agree not to disclose your username and/or password to any third party.

3.4.          You hereby acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for any activities or actions taken or made under your account, irrespective of whether or not such activities or actions have been authorised by you, and you undertake to notify TMHL immediately if you believe that your username and/or password has become known to any other person or you become aware of any unauthorised use of your account. TMHL shall not be liable for any loss or damages sustained by you or any third party as the result of any unauthorised use of your username, password, credit card or otherwise.

3.5.          You agree and warrant that you will implement and comply with the above procedures.

3.6.          We reserve the right to withdraw user names and passwords at any time without notice and in our sole discretion including but not limited to instances where we have reason to believe that such user name and password have been compromised and/or used by any person or organisation other than you.

4. LINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES

Linked sites are not subject to the control of TMHL and TMHL is not responsible for the contents of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site. TMHL provides links to you only as a convenience and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by TMHL of such site.

5. USE OF THE WEBSITE

5.1.          Subject to compliance with these Terms, TMHL hereby grants to you a non-exclusive, non-transferable, limited right and license to access and use the Website, including any images, designs, templates, text, graphics, sounds, data, links and other materials incorporated into the Website (excluding the User Materials), solely as may be made available by TMHL and solely for your own personal use. Unless otherwise expressly contained in these Terms, you may not reproduce, distribute, modify, transmit or publicly display any portion of the Website or create derivative works of any portion thereof without the prior written consent of TMHL. Whilst using the Website, you agree not to:

5.1.1.          impersonate any person or entity or use any fraudulent, misleading or inaccurate email address or other contact information;

5.1.2.          interfere with, restrict or inhibit any other user from using the Website, including, without limitation, by means of “hacking” or defacing any portion of the Website;

5.1.3.          violate any applicable laws or regulations;

5.1.4.          upload to, transmit through, or display on the Website (a) any material that is unlawful, fraudulent, threatening, abusive, libellous, defamatory, obscene or otherwise objectionable, or which otherwise infringes TMHL’s or any third party’s intellectual property or other rights; (b) any confidential, proprietary or trade secret information of any third party; or

5.1.5.          transmit any software or other materials that contain any viruses, worms, trojans, defects, or other destructive items;

5.1.6.          modify, adapt, translate, distribute, reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any portion of the Website;

5.1.7.          remove any copyright, trademark, or other notices of proprietary rights contained in or displayed on any portion of the Website.

5.2.          Should you fail to comply with any of the above provisions, such failure shall constitute a material breach of these Terms and, in addition to any other rights or remedies TMHL may have, TMHL shall be entitled to immediately terminate your access to and use of the Website.

 

6. TERMINATION

Either you or TMHL may terminate your access to the Website and your account at any time, with or without prior written notice. Upon termination for any reason:

6.1.          your right to access and/or use of the Website will immediately cease;

6.2.          you will have no further access to any information, files or materials relating to your account, including, without limitation, any User Material.

6.3.          TMHL shall be entitled to delete all information, files and materials related to your account, including any User Material, and you acknowledge and agree that TMHL shall have no liability whatsoever to you or any third party as a result of termination of your rights of access to your account and/or deletion of any information, files or materials related to your account. In addition, TMHL shall have no obligation whatsoever to make any such information, files or materials available to you following termination of your rights of access to your account.

7. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES. 

7.1.          This Website and the information contained therein is provided “as is” and TMHL makes no express or implied representations or warranties with regard thereto. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing: –

7.1.1.          TMHL does not warrant that the Website or information will be error-free or will meet any particular criteria of performance or quality. TMHL expressly disclaims all implied warranties, including, without limitation, warranties of merchantability, title, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security and accuracy;

7.1.2.          whilst TMHL has taken reasonable measures to ensure the integrity of this Website and its contents, no warranty, whether express or implied is given that any files, downloads or applications available via this Website are free of viruses, trojans, bombs, time-locks or any other data or code which has the ability to corrupt or affect the operation of your system.

7.2.          Without limiting the foregoing, TMHL makes no warranties:

7.2.1.          regarding the security, accuracy, reliability, timeliness and performance of the Website; or

7.2.2.          regarding the goods, services, advice, information or links provided by any third parties.

7.3.          No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from TMHL, will create any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms.

8. RISK & LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

8.1.          Your use of this Website and the information contained therein is entirely at your own risk and you assume full responsibility and risk of loss resulting from the use thereof.  Neither TMHL, its affiliates, members, agents, consultants or employees will be liable for any damages whatsoever, including, without limitation any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential or punitive damages, whether in an action arising out of contract, statute, delict or otherwise, relating to the use of this Website or the information contained therein.

8.2.          You acknowledge and agree that your sole remedy for dissatisfaction with the Website shall be to stop using the Website and/or terminate your account.

9. INDEMNITY

You hereby agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless TMHL, its Staff and its members, affiliates, partners and distributors from and against any and all claims, liabilities, causes of action, damages, losses, and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and expert fees, arising out of or in any way connected with your access to or use of the Website, any actions or activities in connection with the Website, any actions or activities in connection with your account, your violation of these Terms, or the violation of any other terms and conditions of any other agreements or terms to which you are bound with TMHL. You agree that TMHL may at any time, and without notice, suspend or terminate your access to the Website if you fail to comply with the Terms or any applicable law.

10. TRANSMISSION OF INFORMATION

10.1.        Your attention is drawn to the fact that information transmitted via the Internet, including, without limitation e-mail, is susceptible to monitoring and interception.  You are therefore discouraged from transmitting to TMHL any information which may be confidential, proprietary or sensitive. You shall bear all risk of transmitting such information in this manner and under no circumstances will TMHL be liable for any loss, harm or damage suffered by you as a result thereof.  TMHL reserves the right to request independent verification of any information transmitted via e-mail and you consent to such verification should TMHL deem it necessary.

10.2.        TMHL requests that no unsolicited confidential or proprietary information be sent to TMHL. Any information or material sent to TMHL will be deemed not to be confidential, unless otherwise agreed in writing by TMHL.

11. SEVERABILITY

If any of the foregoing is not fully enforceable for any reason, the remainder shall nonetheless continue to apply.

12. JURISDICTION AND APPLICABLE LAW

Any dispute or purported dispute arising out of these Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the law of the Republic of South Africa and all disputes, actions and other matters relating thereto will be determined in accordance with such law. The parties to any dispute arising out of this Website hereby consent and submit to the jurisdiction of the Kwa-Zulu Natal division of the High Court of the Republic of South Africa. 

PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED
While utilising this website, personal information of yours may be either collected by us or provided by you, and you may also be required to provide TMHL with personal information about others for the purpose of utilising certain services offered by us (collectively, “Personal Information”). TMHL stores such Personal Information in order to provide services requested by you.

USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
TMHL will use any Personal Information solely for the purposes of providing products and services specifically requested by you, in order to contact you and in order to improve our service offering to you. Anonymous information collected by us, such as information on web pages viewed by you, will be used to improve your website experience, to track user’s movements, trend analysis and generally to gather demographic information. We will not use any of such information to identify you personally.

COOKIES
TMHL, like many websites, uses ‘cookies’ to collect anonymous visitor information. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that are transferred to your computer’s hard drive through your Web browser which enable us to recognise you for the duration of your visit to our website until you are ready to check out. The settings on your browser must, however, be set to accept cookies in order to allow you to fully utilise the benefits thereof.

ACCESS TO ACCOUNT INFORMATION
You have the right to access and edit your member account information at any time. You may also opt in or out of receiving communications on special offers and new products or, if you have already subscribed to receive such information, you can unsubscribe by following the instructions in the messages received by you.

ACCESS TO PERSONAL INFORMATION
You may request access to your Personal Information that we hold. The Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (“PAIA”) specifies and regulates how such request should be made and under what circumstances we may refuse to grant you access. Please refer to our PAIA manual in this regard. This manual can be found on the Department of Justice Website at www.justice.gov.za/paia/paia.htm

THIRD PARTY SITES AND LIMITATION
Our website may contain links to other websites. Our privacy policy only applies to the TMHL website, and we are not responsible for and give no warranties or make any representations in respect of the privacy policies or practices of linked or any third-party websites.

Protection of Personal Information Act and other laws

If this privacy notice or any provision in this privacy notice is regulated by or subject to POPI or other laws, it is not intended that any provision of this privacy notice contravenes any provision of POPI or such other laws.  Therefore all provisions of this privacy notice must be treated as being qualified, to the extent necessary, to ensure that the provisions of POPI and such other laws are complied with.

By agreeing to this privacy notice, you provide us with your express consent and agreement that we may collect, get, receive, record, organise, collate, store, update, change, retrieve, read, process, consult, use and share your personal information in the manner set out in this privacy notice. 

We use your personal information to provide our products and services to you.

We use your personal information to provide our products and services to you. This includes:

• processing your payment card details in order to complete any purchase,
• delivering products that you order online,

If you do not agree with this privacy notice, or are concerned about any aspect as it relates to your personal information, please do not continue to use TMHL website or any services offered by us.

In the paragraph above you expressly give your permission to us to process your personal information in the manner and for the purposes set out in this privacy notice.  By doing this, you know and accept that you are giving up certain parts of your right to privacy. 

ALTERATION TO THE POLICY

We reserve the right to alter this policy at any time. You will be responsible for reviewing any such changes each time you access our website and your continued use of our website after changes have been posted online, constitutes your acceptance of this policy as modified by the posted changes.

APPLICABLE LAWS AND JURISDICTION
This policy shall be governed by and interpreted according to the laws of the Republic of South Africa.

ENQUIRIES
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this policy, please contact us – click on our telephone number in the top banner of the home page and you will be directed to the “contact us” page for full contact details.

1. Our goods

We supply physical and digital, generic or personalised, goods.

2. Read instructions

Please carefully read and follow all online dimension and sizes given associated to a particular item. For example, the size of a tag, sticker or journal – these are all stated under format.

3. Un-returnable goods

We supply certain goods that you cannot return to us as they are:

• All personalised items
• Electronic vouchers and invitations

4. Custom / Bespoke goods

If you ask us to provide you with custom or bespoke designs, we may charge you a deposit or the full amount for the goods upfront. You may not cancel an order for custom goods prior to delivery. If a custom order is cancelled post production and prior to delivery, you will forfeit any deposit or amount already paid for the goods, and we may charge you an additional cancellation fee. The cancellation fee plus the amount forfeited will not be more than the full amount for the goods.

5. Third Party Delivery

We try our best to ensure that delivery will be effected as timeously as possible. TMHL does, however, make use of third party courier services. The third party courier service will notify the customer when they have received the goods and provide the customer with a tracing number in order for the customer to track the status of the delivery. Once the goods are dispatched, TMHL will not be held liable should the third party courier service not be able to effect delivery to the customer due to either the customer or the third party courier service being in default. Please ensure that you, as the customer, track your goods accordingly and avail yourself or ensure that an authorised  person is available to collect the goods upon delivery.

6. Cooling-off period for electronic transactions

Section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act may apply to your electronic transactions. If you qualify as a consumer under the ECT Act, you may be entitled to cancel some electronic transactions within 12 hours from placing the order, without reason or penalty. ‘Cancel’ means each party will be placed in the same position that they were in before the transaction took place. This means that you have to return a new, unused, good, and we will refund the purchase price. Section 44 is only applicable if you are a natural person – in other words, a human being. You must also be the end user of the goods or service. The transaction must be an electronic transaction — a transaction concluded via (in whole or in part) the website, email, or SMS.

Certain goods by reason of their nature cannot be returned during the cooling-off period, such as electronic vouchers. If you have any problems with these types of digital goods, please contact us within seven days of the date on which you purchased the goods. We will do our best to resolve the problem.

This cooling off period does not apply to goods made or altered to your specifications, or goods specially ordered from a foreign country.

The cooling off period is 12 hours due to the tight turn-around time of our orders being received and then created for print.

7. Returns within 30 days

We want you to be happy with your purchase, and we understand if you suddenly have a change of heart with a generic, un-personalised item. You may return most of our products in their new, unopened condition within 30 days of delivery for a full refund.
This does NOT however apply to any items that have been personalised. Please see below for information in how to return an item, how to package the return and how we process your refund.

You will be required to pay for the shipping for your return.

8. Incorrect item delivered

We do our best to ensure the product information, availability, purchase price and associated delivery times and fees are accurately reflected on our site. Please notify us within 7 days (the sooner the better) by emailing us on: info@themodernhindulifestyle.co.za

However, should we accidentally deliver the wrong product to you or if the product is not as described on the website, or is missing any parts:

• Please do not remove the product from its original packaging or any of the stickers or labels. Notify us as immediately and if possible, send us a photograph of the incorrect product to info@themodernhindulifestyle.co.za we will collect the product from you at no charge and send the correct product.

We will at your choosing:

• deliver the correct item to you as soon as possible (if available); or
• send you a voucher for the purchase price of the product; or
• issue a refund (using the same method of payment you originally used for the purchase).
• Please note that a refund is not available if the item was received as a gift.

9. Goods arrived damaged

If your goods arrive damaged, missing any parts or accessories, or inoperable, then we will do our best to resolve the issue. Please notify us within 7 days (the sooner the better) by emailing us on info@themodernhindulifestyle.co.za.

We will require the following information as best as possible to assess where in the delivery process the damage may have occurred:

• photograph of the outer box (including whether it has a Fragile sticker or not);
• photograph of the inside of the box, including the inner packaging; and
• photograph of the damaged item.

If necessary, we will arrange collection of the product from you at no charge. Once we have inspected the product or photographs and validated your return (if needed), we will, according to your preference:

• replace the product (if available); or
• issue a refund voucher for the purchase price of the product or
• issue a refund (using the same method of payment you originally used for the purchase).
• Please note that a refund is not available if the item was received as a gift.

10. How to return an item

• Our Customer Service team will be in touch to confirm the details for courier to collect the parcel from you. We may charge a fee for this service.
• You may drop off the item at our head office. There is no cost associated with this.

11. How to package an item you want to return

The returning product must be packed, in its original packaging, in another box with as much padding and protective packaging as possible so that it can travel safely back to us. If the returning product has not been packaged properly and is damaged, then we simply cannot give you a refund. It is your responsibility to package the item correctly.

12. How we process your refund

12.1. Returns within 30 days

You will be offered a TMHL voucher or a product exchange. If you specifically require another form of refund (i.e., credit card or EFT), a 7% fee of the refund amount may be charged. Refunds are handled within 8 to 10 working days of logging the return (refunds can take up to 3 working days to reflect in your account once processed due to banking timelines).

12.2. Damaged goods

Refunds are handled within 8 to 10 working days of logging the return (refunds can take up to 3 working days to reflect in your account once processed due to banking timelines). Replacements may take longer as these are dependent on availability.

12.3. Goods purchased with vouchers or gift cards

We have three types of vouchers:

1. a purchased fixed amount gift, e.g.: R200 paid by gift giver (gift voucher or gift card)
2. a promotional fixed amount discount, e.g., R100 off (fixed voucher), and
3. a promotional percentage discount, e.g., 10% off (percentage voucher)

We cannot refund in cash, purchases made with a gift voucher. We will either reinstate the used gift voucher or issue you with a new one.

If you use a fixed voucher to pay for an order, and you later cancel the order (or part thereof) prior to delivery of the goods, the value of the fixed voucher will be deducted off the purchase price of the cancelled or returned goods. We will credit you for the balance, if any (or refund you if that is your preference). We will also provide you with a replacement fixed voucher of the same value as the original fixed voucher used. We may in our sole discretion impose restrictions on the use of the replacement fixed voucher.

If you use a percentage voucher to pay for an order, and you later cancel your order (or part thereof) prior to delivery of the goods within the cooling off period, or you return one or more goods in accordance with this policy, the value of the discount received using the percentage voucher will be deducted off the purchase price of the cancelled or returned goods (as applicable), and we will refund you for the balance, if any. We will also provide you with a replacement percentage voucher of the same discount as the original percentage voucher. We may in our sole discretion impose restrictions on the use of the replacement percentage voucher, including a limited validation period.

13. International orders and repairs

If your goods arrive damaged or not working, we will replace it at our cost. You must alert our customer service team by emailing us on info@themodernhindulifestyle.co.za.

If you have changed your mind about a product, we are not able to facilitate a return because of Customs restrictions. We ask that you look carefully at the product before you make the purchase and as always get in touch with our customer service team if you have any questions.

14. Our goods warranty

We warrant that all our goods are new and of good quality.

15. Statutory warranty against defects

We warrant all our new goods against any defects for six months of normal household or business use, from the time we supplied the goods. This is the statutory warranty in terms of the Consumer Protection Act of 2008 (the CPA).

15.1. Defective goods

Defective goods are those that had a defect or were unsafe when we supplied them. We highly recommend testing out your purchase as soon as you have received it to make sure that everything is in working order. A defect usually means that the goods were manufactured using materials, components or workmanship below an acceptable standard. You must prove that goods are defective.

15.2. Statutory compensation

We will repair, replace, or refund the price of any defective goods that you return to us during the six-month statutory warranty. Returns must follow our returns procedure below. We will do our best to repair the defective good, or replace it within 21 calendar days. However, if it takes longer, we will contact you to let you know what is happening.

15.3. Choice of compensation

Any customer that is also a consumer under the CPA may decide whether we should either repair or replace the defective goods, or make a refund. We will decide how to compensate any of our other customers.

16. Inspection of defective goods

16.1. Suitably qualified examiner

A customer that believes goods are defective should contact us and we will use a suitably qualified examiner to examine the goods and produce a report for us to consider. A suitably qualified examiner is a reputable and independent person trained and qualified to repair goods. We will not charge you for this service.

16.2. Our examination duties

Our third-party suppliers are trained to recognise any defects in their goods. They can usually tell if the goods have been misused, for example if they have been neglected, damaged, altered or not used according to instructions. Our third-party suppliers will give reasons if they refuse to accept that we supplied defective goods, but will only do this if they honestly believe the goods have been misused.

17. Statutory right to return unsuitable goods

We have extended this right to all our customers, including those who are not consumers under the CPA. We also have extended the time frame from the statutory ten days to 30 days.

You may return goods within 30 days of ordering if you could not examine them before delivery and then discover that the goods are not what you ordered or expected, or are not suitable for a specific purpose that they communicated to us in writing.

Returns of unsuitable goods

A consumer must return unsuitable goods within thirty days of delivery according to our returns and refunds procedure below.

18. Invalidation of warranties and right to return unsuitable goods

Warranties on any of our goods will be invalid if any person who is not suitably qualified has opened, tampered with or altered the goods contrary to the instructions or removed the instructions label. This also applies to goods found to be unsuitable. It is considered fraud to damage goods deliberately to claim a refund.

19. Our returns and refunds procedure

You must use our returns and refunds procedure for returning defective or unsuitable goods, or else we may refuse to accept them. Our returns and refunds procedure are as follows:

• If original delivery packaging is not available, please make sure the goods are in protective packaging as we are not responsible for any damage in transit. If the returning product item has not been packaged properly and is damaged, then we simply cannot give you a refund. It is your responsibility to package the item correctly.
• If you claim that our goods are defective, our staff will examine the goods for defects. In the case of physical goods, our staff will examine the actual goods. They will report to us whether the goods were defective, were misused, or are of good quality. We do not regard the following as defective:
• faults resulting from normal wear and tear;
• damage arising from negligence, user abuse or incorrect usage of the product;
• damage arising from sea air corrosion or moisture;
• damage arising from a failure to adequately care for the product e.g., Ironing and washing;
• damage arising from unauthorized alterations to the product; or
• where the specifications of a product, although accurately described on the website and generally fit for its intended purpose, do not suit you.
• If you claim that our goods are unsuitable for your purposes, we will first investigate whether you communicated the purpose to us. If you did, we will then provide you with a written report indicating whether we believe the goods were unsuitable for your specific purpose or not.
• If you returned the goods within the seven-day cooling-off period and our staff report that the goods were defective, were provided to you for your specific purpose and were unsuitable for that purpose, then we will either contact you and ask you whether you would like us to repair, replace, or refund the price of the goods (if you are also a consumer under the CPA) or advise you how we have decided to compensate you (if you are not a consumer under the CPA).
• If you choose for us to repair or replace the goods or we decide to do so ourselves, we will contact you as soon as reasonably possible to organise the necessary steps to repair or replace the goods.
• If you choose for us to make a refund or we decide to do so ourselves, we will contact you and arrange payment of the refunded amount into a bank account of your choice within 30 days of cancellation.
• If the item was given to you as a gift, you will need to provide the original purchaser’s details. We will give you a refund of a TMHL voucher to the value of the item.
• All free gifts, bonus items or vouchers attached to the purchased products, or all elements of any bundled items, must also be returned with the original purchase. If not, the value of any such unreturned gift, bonus or bundled item, or used portion of any gift card will be deducted from any refund.

20. Our customer services department contact details

Please visit our Contact page

21. Customer queries and complaints

We aim for complete customer satisfaction. We respect our customers’ rights and always try to comply with best practice and all relevant laws. If you are not satisfied with any of our goods, or have any questions, please email us on info@themodernhindulifestyle.co.za. We will try our best to solve your problem. We are proud of the reputation of our goods.

Any complaints regarding the standard and quality of the product or products bought by consumers through our website should be directed to the Customer Service Manager, info@themodernhindulifestyle.co.za.

22. Dispute resolution

If we do not accept that we supplied defective or unsuitable goods, and our customer services department has not been able to help, any customer may still take the matter up with a suitable Ombud or other dispute resolution body, or take legal action. The dispute resolution procedures under the CPA do not necessarily