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FAQ's | |||
JoiningOrdering
Getting your goods
Money
General
JoiningQ) Are you available outside Cape Town?A) Unfortunately not. Q) Which region should I choose? A) A full list of suburbs for each region is listed here. OrderingQ) I've lost my password. What do I do?A) Click on the login page, enter your email, and press 'I forgot my password'. Your password will be emailed to you. If for some reason your email doesn't arrive (see why aren't I receiving emails from you?), please use the contact page to send a query to IT. Q) Why does your website take so long to open? A) To make the ordering process simpler, we load all our products on one, big, page. This will take a while to load, especially if you're using dial-up to connect to the internet. Also, it will appear to load more slowly if you're using an older browser such as Internet Explorer 6. More modern browsers, such as Firefox 1.5, will load and render the page more quickly. Also, if you have an old PC with not much memory, or have lots of other applications open, things will generally slow down. Q) I'm impressed. How do you keep things so affordable? A) We're a co-operative, so our aim is not to generate vast profits for shareholders. We've had almost no funding, and our overheads are low. Our markups are consequently quite low, and we quite often are better value than the supermarkets. Q) I'm outraged! Why are your prices so expensive? A) South Africa has very few organic farms, and demand exceeds supply. Unfortunately, we have to import quite a few products, which are often expensive. You may find, for example, that our organic tomato sauce costs more than double an ordinary supermarket brand. Until we can source a sauce (sorry, it was too good an opportunity to miss) from a local supplier, there's not much we can do about it. We do try and offer affordable, local produce as well, so look out for those goods. Q) Why is the site closed? Surely you're online, and should be available 24/7? A) Our supply is quite variable and seasonal, and often we don't have enough to supply everyone. We use the period when the site is closed, from Monday afternoon to Thursday night, to gather information about what's available, and how much, and load the site. This minimises the chances of you not getting what you order. Q) I can't order as I'm supposedly in arrears. I'm not! How can I place my order? A) Sorry, we do make mistakes. Sometimes payments are missed, and sometimes payments are made without a useful reference. Please contact us, and we'll do our best to sort out the problem. Q) I can't order, as I'm told I'm browsing the site as a guest user. How do I order? A) You'll need to join (if you haven't already done do) and then log in using your your details. Q) How do I change my order? A) You can change your order up until the site closes. Simply log in again (or go to the order page) and change the quantities as you wish. Once the site has closed, orders have been placed with our suppliers, and you cannot change your order. Q) How do I cancel an order? A) You can cancel your order up until the site closes. Simply log in again (or go to the order page) and change all the quantities to zero. Once the site has been closed, orders have been placed with our suppliers, and you cannot cancel your order. Q) What's the difference between organic and biodynamic? A) Biodynamic is a term that predates organic, and applies to farms that adhere to the anthroposophical principles of Rudolph Steiner. Biodynamic farms share principles with organic farms in that they do not permit chemical or GM additives, but go further in taking into account factors such as the influence of the moon and planets. Getting your goodsQ) It's late! Where are my goods?A) Hopefully they're on their way! We can't guarantee a delivery times though due to the vagaries of suppliers, variations in orders, and so on, so delivery times may vary from week to week. Sometimes we mess things up though, and sometimes people think they placed an order when they actually didn't (usually by forgetting to click 'confirm', so please contact us if you're unsure. Q) When do deliveries arrive? A) We deliver on a Thursday, usually between 9am and 5pm. If you're not going be there all day, please suggest an alternative for us when we arrive. You can do this on the comments box when placing the order, or by contacting us directly. We cannot unfortunately come back at a later time, or another day. Q) When and where can I collect my goods? A) Please see the about us page for more details. Note that your collection point is determined by your region. If you change region after placing an order, your collection point will not automatically be switched, and you'll need to let us know. Q) Why's there so much (or something) missing from my order? A) We make mistakes in packing. Suppliers don't deliver everything we ordered. Don't worry, you'll be credited for anything that wasn't delivered, and can pay less for your next order. If something is not clearly marked as missing on your delivery note, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can credit you. Q) My lettuce is limp, my pears are pockmarked, and my beetroots are bashed. I thought organic was supposed to be better quality! What happened? A) Sometimes farmers, or us, leave things out in the sun too long, and they're just not acceptable. If that's the case, please let us know, and we'll credit you for the goods. However, organic goods sometimes don't look as 'perfect' as their chemically-grown counterparts. Pesticides are applied to kill the harmless bugs that leave markings on the fruit or vegetables. Don't be misled - if it looks too good to be true, it's probably poison! Q) What's a distributor? Who's my distributor? A) A distributor is the person responsible for getting the goods to you. They should be your first point of contact for any delivery issues. You can see who your distributor is, and contact them, on the contact us page. MoneyQ) How do I pay?A) The easiest way is to make a bank payment. Our bank details are on the contact page. Please be sure to reference your payment with your full name (that you joined with) so that we don't misassign it. Unfortunately we don't yet take credit cards. Cash may be taken by arrangement with your distributor, though we don't encourage this, as it makes our admin harder, and cash is expensive to deal with. If you're going to be ordering regularly, why don't you save yourself the trouble, and bank charges, and pay for the month upfront? Our suppliers would also appreciate the early payment we'd be able to make! Q) Why does no-one answer the phone? A) We're small, have no funding, and none of us does this full-time. So, the office is empty at most times. We do pick up messages quite often, but the most reliable way to get hold of us is to email us. Q) What are Ubus? A) Ubus were a 'local currency' we used. We paid Ubus for certain recycled goods. Ubus have been replaced by Talents, so if you still have any Ubus, please exchange them for Talents. Q) What are Talents? A) Talents are a local community currency. In order to start trading in Talents, you'll need to register with the Community Exchange System. Currently, you can return certain the 1 litre Camphill glass jars for T1, the small glass Camphill and Bloublommetjies honey jars for T0.5. Talents can be spent by anyone accepting them - see the CES website for more details. Q) Why is my balance wrong? A) It's quite possible we made a mistake. Please contact us if this is the case. But it's also possible we haven't yet captured your invoice or your payment yet. There's normally a few days delay in both. If it's more than three days after delivery, or after you made your payment, please let us know and we'll correct your balance. GeneralQ) Why are you 'Ethical'?A) We don't claim to be better than anyone. And we're certainly not perfect. We know the name does open us up to being called the Unethical Co-op if we get something wrong. But we'd rather aim high and fall short than not try at all. We strive to improve and make a positive contribution in everything we do. So our names comes from what we'd like to be, and how we'd like to go about our existence. Q) Why aren't I receiving emails from you? A) Some ISP's are a bit overzealous with their spam control, and block certain mails from us, thinking that they're spam. Sorry, this is out of our hands! Q) How can I get involved? A) Contact us, and let's chat.
If you have any further queries, please contact us. | |||