Refund and Cancellation Policy

Two different kinds of payment happen on ChERP, and they are refunded differently.

Subscription fees are paid by a church to Appetite Technology for use of the ChERP platform. These are ours, and this policy governs them in full.

Congregational giving and event ticket sales are paid by a member of the public to a church. ChERP only provides the software that collects them; the funds belong to the church. Refunds for these are decided by the church concerned — see the sections below.

Payments are processed by our payment providers, Paddle and Paystack. Depending on the transaction, Paddle may act as merchant of record, in which case your statement may show Paddle rather than ChERP.

Paid plans may begin with a free trial. You will not be charged during the trial. If you cancel before the trial ends, no payment is taken. If you do not cancel, the subscription converts to a paid plan at the end of the trial and the first payment is collected then.

We recommend using the trial to confirm ChERP fits your church, as it is the simplest way to avoid a charge you did not intend.

Where section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 applies to your purchase, you may cancel within seven (7) days of the transaction and receive a full refund of that payment, without giving a reason. We will refund within 30 days of the cancellation.

This right applies in addition to anything else in this policy, and nothing here limits any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, or other applicable law.

You may cancel at any time from Settings → Billing in your ChERP account, or by emailing support@cherp.co.za. No notice period is required and we do not charge a cancellation fee.

Cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period you have already paid for. Your church keeps full access until then, and the plan simply does not renew. We do not automatically refund the unused part of a period that has already started, except where the cooling-off period above applies or where required by law.

Before your access ends, you can export your data. See the retention section of our Privacy Policy for how long data is kept afterwards.

If ChERP is not right for your church, tell us within 30 days of your first subscription payment and we will refund that payment in full. You do not need to give a reason. This applies to a church's first paid period on ChERP.

Email support@cherp.co.za from the address on the account. We will process the refund to the original payment method and close the subscription at the same time, unless you ask us to keep it running.

Beyond the guarantee above, we will refund a subscription payment in full where:

• you cancel within the cooling-off period described above;
• you were charged after cancelling, or charged more than once for the same billing period;
• a fault on our side made the platform substantially unusable for a sustained part of the billing period and we could not resolve it; or
• a refund is required by applicable law.

We will consider a partial refund, at our discretion, where a church has been charged for a plan it plainly did not use and asks us promptly. If you believe you have been billed in error, contact us — we would rather fix it than have you raise a chargeback.

AI credits included with a plan, or bought as a top-up, are non-transferable and do not roll over between billing periods. Unused credits are not refundable for cash, except within the cooling-off period or where required by law.

Donations are made to a church, not to ChERP, and the funds are settled to that church. A donation is generally not refundable once processed.

If you donated in error — a duplicate payment, or an incorrect amount — contact the church directly in the first instance. The church may approve a refund, and can action it from their ChERP account. If you cannot reach the church, email support@cherp.co.za and we will help put you in touch. We cannot refund a donation without the church's authorisation, because the money is theirs.

Where a donation was made fraudulently or without the account holder's authority, tell us immediately and we will assist the church and the payment provider in resolving it.

Tickets are sold by the church running the event. That church sets the refund terms for its own events, including whether tickets are refundable if you cannot attend, and those terms should be shown on the event page at the time of purchase.

If an event is cancelled by the church, the church is responsible for refunding ticket holders, and ChERP provides the tools to do so. If an event is rescheduled, your ticket normally remains valid for the new date unless the church says otherwise.

Requests should go to the church first. Email support@cherp.co.za if you cannot reach them.

Email support@cherp.co.za with the email address on the account, the approximate date and amount, and what happened. For giving or ticket payments, include the church name and the payment reference from your receipt.

We aim to acknowledge within 2 business days and to reach a decision within 10 business days. Approved refunds are returned to the original payment method. Your bank or card issuer may take a further 5–10 business days to show the funds, which is outside our control.

If we decline a refund we will tell you why. If you are not satisfied, you may escalate to admin@cherp.co.za, and you retain any rights you have under South African consumer law.

If something has gone wrong, email support@cherp.co.za with the details. We will acknowledge your complaint within 2 business days and aim to resolve it within 10 business days. If we need longer — because a payment provider or bank is involved, for example — we will tell you why and give you a revised date.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome, escalate to admin@cherp.co.za, where it will be reviewed by a director.

If we still cannot resolve it between us, you may refer the matter to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (CGSO) at no cost to you, or to the National Consumer Commission. Where Paddle acted as merchant of record for your transaction, you may also raise it directly with Paddle under their buyer terms.

Please contact us before raising a chargeback with your bank. A chargeback can suspend an account automatically while the payment provider investigates, which may interrupt a church's access at an inconvenient moment. Nearly every billing dispute is quicker to resolve directly.

Appetite Technology (Pty) Ltd, trading as cherp.co.za
Company registration number 2023/849612/07
350 Parkstation Road, Greenwood Park, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, 4051, South Africa
Billing and refunds: support@cherp.co.za
Legal and escalations: admin@cherp.co.za
Telephone: +27 31 012 5361 (Durban) or +27 21 330 5844 (Cape Town)