Payments and refunds

Every payment made to Ellanat against a deal, and every return of one. It forms part of the terms of service.

It does not cover a payment you made directly to a supplier. If you paid a supplier outside Ellanat, we hold nothing, we checked nothing, and there is nothing here for us to return — which is why section 11 of the terms asks you not to.

After you accept a quote, we raise an invoice and you pay it to Ellanat. Nothing is charged before you accept, and posting a request is free.

The invoice is the accepted quote: the goods, the quantity, the incoterm, the destination, and one price with our commission inside it. There are no fees added afterwards.

A deal may be staged — a deposit against production and the balance against the bill of lading. Each stage is invoiced separately and each is held separately.

Before the supplier has been cleared to ship, you get everything back, less any bank or transfer charge actually incurred. We do not keep our commission on a deal that did not happen.

Once production has started on a made-to-order item, the supplier is entitled to the work done. We will tell you what that figure is, with the supplier’s evidence for it, before anything is deducted — and you can dispute it under section 12 of the terms.

Once goods are on the water or on the road, a cancellation is a commercial negotiation, not a right. The supplier has performed, and somebody has to carry the freight.

We will put it to the supplier and tell you honestly what is possible: a return at your cost, a resale to another buyer, or a discount to take the goods anyway. Whatever is agreed, the money stays in Safe Hold until it is settled.

Do not confirm delivery. Raise it on the deal with photographs and, where there is one, the inspection or survey report. While the money is held we can act; once it is paid out we can only ask.

Where the shipment is short, we return the value of what is missing. Where it is damaged in transit, we pursue the carrier’s insurance and hold the money meanwhile. Where it is not what the quote described, you may reject it and be refunded in full, or keep it at an agreed reduction.

The quote is the specification. A property you needed and did not state is not a ground for rejection — which is why the desk asks about grade, packing and moisture before a request goes out.

A shipment whose documents we cannot accept is not paid out. If the supplier cannot produce a document the route requires — a certificate of origin, a phytosanitary certificate — and the goods cannot clear customs as a result, the deal fails on the supplier’s side and the buyer is refunded in full.

Where a document is late rather than missing, we hold and tell both sides where it stands.

To the account it came from, in the currency it was paid in. We do not refund to a different account, because that is how a refund becomes a way of moving money.

Within five working days of the refund being agreed, plus however long your own bank takes.

A refund we agree is confirmed in writing on the deal, with the figure, the currency and the reason. You should never have to work out why a number is what it is.

Every deal names its currency, and the rate is locked when the figure is entered — not when the payment clears. A rate that moved after you accepted does not change what you owe.

Where a refund crosses currencies because your bank converted on the way in, the conversion loss is the bank’s arithmetic and not something we can reverse. We refund the amount we received.

Bank and transfer charges actually incurred on money that moved.

Work legitimately done on a made-to-order item you cancelled, evidenced as section 3 describes.

Freight and storage costs caused by a buyer’s own delay in clearing customs at destination.

Nothing on a deal taken off the platform in breach of section 11 of the terms. We hold no money on it and we checked no documents on it.

If something is wrong, tell us — while the money is still held we can usually fix it in days. A chargeback against a payment we are holding for you freezes the deal for weeks and helps nobody, least of all the buyer waiting for goods.

Talk to support@ellanat.com first. We would rather refund you than argue with your bank.