Refund Policy

The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA) gives you a 7 day cooling off right on many things bought online, with no reason and no penalty.

There is one important exception that applies to our courses. The cooling off right falls away for digital content once you have started to access it, where you asked for immediate access and agreed that the cooling off right would end at that point. This is set out in section 42(2) of ECTA. In plain terms:

• Before you open the course, you can cancel within 7 days and get a full refund.
• Once you open the course and access a meaningful part of it, you have consented to immediate delivery, and the cooling off right no longer applies.

At checkout you confirm that you want immediate access and that you understand your cooling off right ends when you start the course.

• Coaching and preparation sessions that have not yet been delivered can be refunded on request.
• Sessions already delivered are not refundable, as the service has been provided.
• Where a career package such as Set Sail bundles several parts, our refund covers our own fee (R15 500 in Set Sail, R7 500 in Set Sail Light), and we refund the fair value of the parts of it not yet delivered.
• We book your STCW the day you enrol, so the training centre's own cancellation charge can apply even if you cancel with us in your first week.

Where you pay the STCW training centre, a medical provider or a government office directly, that money is governed by their terms, not ours, and we do not collect it. The training centre currently keeps 15% of the course fee if you cancel within 7 days of your course, and 50% within 48 hours (its current terms are on our STCW page). The SAPS police clearance fee is not refundable, and neither is a medical that has already been done. If we ever collected an amount purely to pass on to a provider and it has not yet been booked, we will refund that amount.

1. Email robin@capemarineacademy.com with your order number, the course or service, and the reason.
2. We acknowledge within 2 business days and review within 5.
3. If approved, we refund to your original payment method within 10 business days. Your bank may take a few days more to show it.

We do not currently offer instalment plans. Please talk to us before you raise a chargeback with your bank. A chargeback opened while a genuine refund is already in progress can delay things for everyone, and we would rather just sort it out with you directly.

This policy does not take away any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act, including the right to quality service and to a remedy when something is not as promised. Where the law gives you a stronger right than this policy, the law wins. If you ever feel a term here is unfair, tell us, and raise it with the National Consumer Commission if we cannot resolve it together.

We would rather have a student who feels looked after than a sale that felt wrong. We handle every refund request fairly and honestly, with no fine print games. If something has genuinely gone wrong on our side, we will put it right. Questions first, before you buy, are always welcome: talk to a real person.