Legal

Refunds, returns and live arrival

What to do if your plants did not arrive the way they left us.

Last updated: 18 September 2026 Version: 2026-09-18 Claims: plantovia.shop@gmail.com

The short version. If a plant arrives dead or dying, email us within 48 hours of delivery or pickup with photos, and we will replace it free — or give you store credit if we cannot get the species back in. Non-plant items can come back unopened within 14 days. Plants that decline later, in your tank, are not covered.

Dead on arrival: 48 hours, with photos

Live plants are the one thing on this site that can be fine when it leaves and ruined when it lands. When that happens it is ours to fix, and this is how.

The window

You have 48 hours from the time of delivery to open a claim — or, for a pickup order, 48 hours from the time you collected it. That is deliberately generous enough to cover an evening delivery and a working day, and deliberately short enough that the plant's condition still says something about how it arrived rather than about how it has been kept. After 48 hours we cannot tell the two apart, and neither can you.

Open the box the day it arrives. A claim on plants that sat boxed for two days will not succeed, because the boxing is what killed them.

Picking up? Look over your plants in the lobby when you collect them. If anything is wrong, tell us there and then: we can usually swap it on the spot, and it saves you a claim altogether.

What to send

Email plantovia.shop@gmail.com with:

Your order number.
Photographs of the affected plants, taken in daylight or good indoor light, showing the whole plant and not only the worst leaf. Several angles beat one close-up.
A photo of the plants as they came out of the packaging if you still have it — this is the single most useful picture you can send, and it settles most claims immediately.
A sentence on which plants and what is wrong: mush, rot, blackened stems, no roots, wrong species.

Do not throw the plants out until we have replied. Keep them as they are; we may ask for one more photo.

What happens next

We answer every message within 24 hours, and we aim to decide a claim in that same reply. If it is upheld:

You get a replacement plant on the next delivery run to your city, at no charge — no delivery fee, no second e-transfer. On a pickup order, the replacement is ready to collect free whenever suits you, or we can send it on a delivery run with no delivery fee.
If we cannot get that species back in within a reasonable time, you get store credit for what you paid for it, usable on any order and with no expiry.
Which of those two applies is our choice, because it depends on what we can actually source. If neither works for you, tell us and we will talk about a refund.

If the whole order arrives ruined — a box crushed in transit, a run gone badly wrong — we will refund it in full including delivery, rather than making you take replacements you no longer want.

What is not covered

These are the honest limits. Live goods are not electronics, and pretending otherwise would only produce a policy we could not keep.

Melt-back after planting

Many species — Cryptocoryne especially — shed their existing leaves after a move and regrow from the roots over two to four weeks. This is normal, it is not death, and it is not a fault. Leave the plant alone and it comes back.

Decline caused by the tank

Lighting, CO2, fertiliser, substrate, temperature, water chemistry, and how long the tank has been running all determine whether a plant thrives. None of them is something we can control or inspect. A plant that arrived healthy and declined afterwards is not a DOA claim.

Livestock loss or tank damage

We are not liable for fish, shrimp, snails or any other livestock, or for damage to a tank or its equipment. Quarantine and inspect new plants before they go into an established tank — always, from any supplier.

Snails and hitchhikers

Aquatic plants come from water and can carry snails, snail eggs or algae. We rinse and inspect, but no supplier can guarantee a sterile plant. Rinsing, dipping or quarantining on arrival is the buyer's step.

Change of mind

A living plant cannot be resold once it has been in someone else's water, so there are no change-of-mind returns on plants. Ask us before you order if you are unsure — we would much rather advise you first.

Size and appearance variation

Photographs show a representative example. Real plants differ in size, leaf count and shade. That variation is not a defect.

Failed deliveries

Where nobody was available to receive the order, or the phone number could not be reached, the plants are not covered for what the wait did to them. See section 6.3 of the terms of sale.

Uncollected pickups

Not a claim at all: a paid pickup order that is never collected is held for three days after the chosen pickup day, then cancelled and refunded in full. See section 7.6 of the terms of sale.

Supplements, hardware and add-ons

Anything that is not a living plant gets a conventional return window, because it can be resold.

14 days from delivery or pickup, unopened and unused, in its original packaging.
Email us first for a return authorisation — do not simply send an item back.
Return it on one of our delivery runs to your city, or bring it back to the pickup point by arrangement. If we collect it, that is free; if you would rather send it, that is at your cost.
Refunded by e-transfer within five business days of the item reaching us in resaleable condition.
The original delivery fee is not refunded on a change-of-mind return, because the delivery was made.

Opened, used or part-used items cannot be returned for change of mind, because we cannot resell them and cannot verify what is left in the bottle.

Faulty or wrong items are a different matter entirely: we replace or refund those in full, including delivery both ways, whether or not the packaging has been opened.

Cancelling an order

Before you pay

Nothing to do. An unpaid order lapses on its own after three business days.

Paid, not yet packed

Full refund, including the delivery fee. Reply to your order email and ask.

Delivery: packed, not yet collected by the courier

Refund of the items, less the delivery fee if the run is already booked and cannot be cancelled.

Delivery: out for delivery

Too late to cancel — the plants are in a box in a car. Refuse the delivery if you must, but plants that come back after a full day out cannot be resold and cannot be refunded.

Pickup: any time before you collect

Full refund. The plants go back into our tanks, so nothing is lost. Text us or reply to your order email.

Cancelled by us

If we cancel — out of stock, a listing error, an address we cannot reach — you are refunded in full, always, within three business days.

How refunds are paid

By Interac e-transfer, to the email address on your order, in Canadian dollars, for the amount you actually paid. There is no other route, because e-transfer is the only way money came in.

Refunds are sent within five business days of the claim being agreed. How quickly it lands after that is your bank's business, not ours — usually minutes, occasionally a day.

Store credit, where that is the agreed remedy, is applied to your account and never expires.

If you disagree with our decision

Say so, and tell us why. Most claims we turn down are turned down for want of a photograph, and most of those are resolved the moment one arrives.

This policy does not affect your statutory rights under Ontario's Consumer Protection Act, 2002 or the Sale of Goods Act. If we cannot settle it between us, you can complain to Ontario's Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery, or bring a claim in the Ontario Small Claims Court.

Something arrived wrong?

Send the order number and the photos. We answer within 24 hours, seven days a week.

Start a claim Read the terms of sale