Refund policy
This policy covers everything you buy from Scuba Evolution, whether you order online, buy in the shop at Glenvista, or book a course. Nothing in it takes away your rights under the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 or the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002.
The short version
- Changed your mind? You have 7 days. Ordered online, those 7 days run from the day your order is delivered, and you get the price of the goods back. Bought in the shop, bring it back within 7 days for an exchange or store credit.
- Item faulty within 6 months? We collect it at our cost and put it right, by repair or replacement.
- We cannot supply what you ordered? Full refund to your original payment method, delivery charge included.
- After 7 days? We cannot take gear back because you have changed your mind. A faulty item is covered for six months either way.
- Custom wetsuit? A suit made to measure, or a standard suit with zips, colour panels or anything else added, is made for you and cannot come back because you have changed your mind. You can cancel for a full refund until it goes into production, and if it does not match your order, we adjust it once, free, within 7 days of delivery. A standard suit with nothing added follows the 7 days above.
1. Cancelling an online order within 7 days of delivery
Section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act gives you the right to cancel an online order without giving a reason and without penalty, within 7 days of receiving the goods.
To use it, email shop@scubaevolution.co.za with your order number inside those 7 days.
The gear must come back unused, dry, and complete, in its original packaging with all tags, manuals, warranty cards, spare parts and any free gift that came with it.
We arrange every collection ourselves. Tell us where to fetch it and we will book The Courier Guy, so the parcel is tracked from the moment it leaves you and we know it is on its way. The Act makes you responsible for the direct cost of returning the goods, so that collection is charged to you at exactly what the courier charges us to fetch it, with nothing added on top. That amount varies with your address, the size of the parcel and the service required, so we confirm it with you before we book, and it is deducted from what we refund or credit you.
Separately from that, the R150 delivery charge you paid on the original order is not refunded.
We will gladly arrange an exchange or a store credit, and most people would rather swap for the right size or put the value towards their next piece of kit. Tell us what you would like when you contact us and we will help you find something that works.
Where you would prefer the money back, we refund the price of the goods to the payment method you used when you ordered, within 10 business days of receiving and checking the return and in any event within 30 days of your cancellation. Refunds are processed electronically back to that payment method, so there is nothing for you to come and collect.
The 7 days run from the day your order is delivered, not the day you placed it. This right applies to online orders. Purchases made in the shop have their own 7-day arrangement, set out in section 10, and the items listed in sections 4 and 5, and the custom wetsuits in section 6, are excluded.
2. Faulty, damaged or incorrect gear
Under section 56 of the Consumer Protection Act, if goods fail, are unsafe, are defective, or are not what was described, you may return them to us within 6 months of delivery.
Our first step is always to assess the item and put it right. Almost every fault on dive gear is a repair or a straight replacement, and that is what we will offer you.
Where the fault falls under a manufacturer warranty, we lodge and manage that claim for you rather than sending you to do it yourself.
Where we cannot repair the item and have no suitable replacement to give you, we refund you. The Act also entitles you to ask for the price back rather than a repair or a replacement, and we will honour that where you direct it.
We arrange the collection and we carry the cost when goods are defective. Do not courier anything back at your own expense. Email us and we will book The Courier Guy to fetch it from you.
If we repair or replace an item, that repair or replacement carries a further 3-month warranty.
Tell us within 48 hours if your parcel arrived damaged, and send photographs of the item and the outer packaging so we can lodge a claim with the courier. Tell us within 7 days if you were sent the wrong item, and we will collect it and send the right one at our cost.
This does not cover damage you caused. Misuse, neglect, an accident, servicing by anyone other than an authorised technician, or ordinary wear and tear fall outside it. A regulator opened up by an unauthorised workshop, a wetsuit torn on a wreck, or a dive computer flooded because the battery hatch was not seated are not warranty claims.
Manufacturer warranties on regulators, BCDs and dive computers run alongside these rights and are often longer. Bring the item to us and we will handle the manufacturer claim for you.
3. If we cannot supply your order
If an item turns out to be out of stock or we cannot fulfil your order for any other reason, you get a full refund to your original payment method, including what you paid for delivery. You are welcome to wait for stock or swap for something else instead.
4. Hygiene items we cannot take back
Anything that goes in or against the mouth, nose or ears cannot be returned once it has been unsealed or used, for health reasons. The law provides for this: goods that by their nature cannot be returned fall outside the 7-day cancellation right. That includes:
- Mouthpieces of any kind, including regulator and snorkel mouthpieces
- Snorkels
- Regulator second stages that have been breathed from
- Ear plugs and ear drops
- Mask and lens defoggers, once opened
- Wetsuit and drysuit seals that have been fitted
Try mouthpieces and snorkels in the shop before you buy. We are happy to help you fit them.
5. Other items we cannot take back
- Personalised or engraved gear, including engraved knives and torches
- Custom-made or made-to-measure wetsuits and drysuits
- Special orders brought in at your request in the shop
- Oxygen sensors and batteries
- Cylinders that have been filled, or had a valve fitted
- Gift cards
- PADI eLearning codes that have already been redeemed
- Any gear that has been used in water
Personalised gear, made-to-measure suits and unsealed digital products are excluded from the 7-day cancellation right by law, not merely by our preference. A special order bought online follows the 7 days in section 1.
Sections 4 and 5 do not apply if the item is defective. A faulty item is covered by section 2 regardless of what it is, and that includes anything bought on sale or promotion.
6. Custom wetsuits
This section covers adult wetsuits ordered through our custom wetsuit builder that are made to your measurements, or made in a standard size with anything added or changed, such as zips or colour panels, together with the tailoring and zips themselves. A suit in one of our standard sizes with nothing added or changed is a standard item and follows the rest of this policy, as do kids' wetsuits and the hoods, gloves, socks and booties ordered with a suit.
Made for you. Your suit is made to order once you have paid in full, to your measurements or with the changes you choose. Goods made to your own specifications fall outside the 7-day cancellation right in section 1, under section 42(2) of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, so a custom suit cannot be returned because you have changed your mind. The builder asks you to confirm that you understand this before you order.
Cancelling. You can cancel for a full refund to your original payment method at any time until your suit goes into production. Once it is in production, the order cannot be cancelled.
About two weeks. We make your suit in about two weeks, counted from when your size or measurements are confirmed. If you choose to send your measurements after you pay, please send them within 7 days of ordering. Your suit is not cut until we have them.
Your measurements. If you measure yourself, your suit is made to the numbers you send, so please take them carefully with the guide. We check every set, and if anything looks wrong, we call you before we make your suit. If you would rather we measured you, we book you a time at the shop in Glenvista. We use your measurements only to make and adjust your suit, and pass them only to the workshop that makes it.
One free adjustment. Please try your suit on as soon as it arrives. If it does not match the size or measurements on your order, tell us within 7 days of delivery and we will adjust it once, free of charge, and carry the cost of collecting and returning it. This covers our mistakes, not changes to the measurements you gave us.
Faults. Everything in section 2 applies to a custom suit. A fault in the materials or the making is covered for six months from delivery, and the free adjustment above is how we first put a mismatch right, not a limit on those rights. Wear and tear, misuse, and repairs or alterations made by anyone else are not covered.
7. Courses and training
Before your code is redeemed: if you have not yet redeemed your PADI eLearning code, you can cancel your course for a refund.
Once your code is redeemed: the course is non-refundable. Redeeming the code unlocks and delivers the PADI digital training material to you, and it cannot be returned once you have it.
Medical fitness. Every course page lists a health screening questionnaire among its prerequisites and links the PADI Diver Medical form itself, so you can read the questions before you book. Please work through it first. If you answer yes to any question, a doctor must sign you off as fit to dive before you may enter the water, and your completed form is part of the online material you finish before your first in-water session.
We cannot refund a course because of a medical outcome once the eLearning code has been redeemed. That is why the form is published on the course page before you pay, rather than handed to you afterwards.
Completing your course. You need to finish your course within 6 months of your first confined water session. After 6 months, skills need to be reviewed and repeated before we can certify you safely, and additional fees apply to do that. Those fees will be quoted to you before any further training.
Rescheduling and missed sessions. Life happens, and we will move you to another date wherever we have space. Please give us at least 24 hours' notice to cancel or move a booked session. Cancelling inside 24 hours, or not arriving for a session you booked, is charged for, because the instructor, the equipment and the slot were held for you and cannot be filled at that notice.
Weather and conditions. We will not put divers in the water in unsafe conditions. Severe weather, poor visibility, water temperature and site closures can all force a session to move, and PADI standards require us to make that call. Moving a date is a normal part of dive training, not a failure to deliver it. Your course simply continues on the next workable date, so no refund arises: the training is still coming to you. Instructor availability and minimum numbers can move a session for the same reason.
When we move a date, we carry the cost of doing so, and the delay does not count against the six months you have to complete your course. You will never be out of pocket, or out of time, because the weather turned.
We finish what we start. If conditions keep moving your dates, we will keep working with you until your course is complete, however many attempts that takes.
What your course fee covers. Your fee covers your PADI eLearning, your instruction, and the use of all scuba equipment for the duration of the course, so there is nothing to hire or buy beforehand.
Two costs sit outside it. Dive site entrance fees are paid at the site on the day. Air is charged as you use it, per fill, and invoiced to you after your session.
We charge air this way on purpose. Every diver breathes differently, and a nervous first-timer will get through considerably more air than someone on their fourth qualification dive. Building a worst-case air allowance into every course fee would mean the lightest breathers subsidising the heaviest, so instead you pay for the air you use and the course price stays lower for everyone. We confirm the current fill rate with you when we book your dates, and you are welcome to ask us for it at any point before that.
We will quote you for anything else before you commit to it.
Minimum ages, prerequisite certifications and course requirements are set by PADI, not by us, and we cannot waive them.
8. Starting a return
Email shop@scubaevolution.co.za with your order number, which item you are returning, and why. Send photographs if it is faulty or damaged.
Wait for us to authorise the return before you send anything. Gear that arrives without an authorised return cannot be accepted, because we have no way of knowing whose it is or what it is for.
Once we authorise it, we book the collection with The Courier Guy. Have the item packed and ready, with someone at the address to hand it over.
Please do not arrange your own courier. We handle every collection so that the parcel is tracked and expected when it reaches us.
If you would rather drop it off, you are welcome to bring it into the shop during trading hours, which saves you the collection cost:
Scuba Evolution
Shop U44, Glenvista Shopping Centre
Biggarsberg St
Glenvista, Johannesburg South, 2190
9. How long refunds take
We check every return when it arrives and email you to say whether it has been approved. Approved refunds are processed within 10 business days of that inspection. Your bank or card issuer then takes its own time, usually 3 to 10 business days, to show the money in your account.
Store credit is issued immediately on approval and you can spend it the same day.
10. Buying in the shop
The 7-day cancellation right in section 1 applies to online orders, not to purchases made over the counter, because you have handled the gear before buying it. Your rights for faulty goods under section 2 apply in full either way.
For a change of mind on an in-shop purchase, bring the unused item back with your slip within 7 days and we will exchange it or issue store credit. This is a goodwill arrangement we offer, not a legal entitlement, and it does not affect your rights if the item is faulty.
Store credit is valid for 3 years from the date we issue it, can be spent online or in the shop, and cannot be exchanged for cash.
11. If you are unhappy
Talk to us first. Email shop@scubaevolution.co.za or call +27 (0) 10 335 1000 and we will do our best to sort it out.
If we cannot resolve it between us, you may refer the matter to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud on 0860 000 272 or at cgso.org.za, or to the National Consumer Commission.