Terms of Service

1. Who we are

trôve studio sells pre-owned, vintage clothing and jewellery through this website. We are a virtual, online-only business: we don’t operate from a public-facing shop or showroom, so all buying, selling and support happens electronically. These are our details as required by section 43(1) of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 (the ‘ECT Act’):

Trading name

trôve studio

Legal name

Trôve Studio

Legal status

Sole proprietorship trading as Trôve Studio (CIPC company registration in progress)

Email (legal notices & compliance queries)

support@trove-studio.com

Email hello@trove-studio.com about orders, returns, press, or general questions. Use support@trove-studio.com for legal notices, complaints escalated under these terms, or any formal correspondence - as an online-only business this email is also how you should serve any legal document on us. We don’t belong to any consumer-protection self-regulatory body or subscribe to an industry code of conduct within the meaning of the ECT Act.

2. Definitions

• ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’, ‘trôve studio’ means the business described in section 1;
• ‘you’, ‘your’ means the person using the site or placing an order;
• ‘site’ means this website and any related mobile-optimised version of it;
• ‘piece’ means an item of clothing or jewellery listed for sale on the site;
• ‘order’ means a request you place through the site to buy one or more pieces; and
• ‘ECT Act’ and ‘CPA’ mean the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 and the Consumer Protection Act, 2008, respectively.

3. Who can use this site

You must be at least 18 years old and able to enter into a binding contract to buy from us. If you are under 18, you can browse and use the site only with the involvement of a parent or guardian who agrees to these terms on your behalf and places any order.

4. Using this website

You agree to use the site lawfully and not to misuse it. In particular, don’t: try to get into accounts, data or areas of the site that aren’t yours; interfere with or disrupt the site, its security or how it works for other people; scrape, harvest or systematically extract our content or pricing; upload anything unlawful, harmful or infringing through the site (for example the contact form); or impersonate another person or misrepresent your affiliation with anyone. We may suspend or restrict access to the site for anyone who breaches this clause.

5. Our pieces

Everything we sell is vintage or pre-owned, and there is only one of each piece. Once it sells, it is gone and we do not restock it. Because these pieces have been worn or used before, they may show signs of age, wear or repair. We describe each piece, its measurements and its condition as accurately as we reasonably can, including any flaws we notice, and wear or ageing that we describe in the listing is not a defect. Photographs are taken under studio lighting and colours can look slightly different on different screens; where a measurement, material or era is stated, we give it in good faith based on our inspection of the piece, but vintage pieces do not always carry their original labelling or provenance records.

6. Prices and VAT

Prices are shown in South African rand and include all charges we control other than delivery. trôve studio is not currently registered for Value-Added Tax, so no VAT is added to our prices; if that changes, prices will say so clearly. Delivery within South Africa costs R100 per order, and is free when your pieces come to R2,500 or more. The delivery cost is shown in full, together with the order total, before you pay, as section 43(1)(g) and 43(2) of the ECT Act require. We try to make sure prices are correct, but if a piece is listed at an incorrect price by an obvious error (for example a missing digit), we may cancel that part of the order, tell you promptly and refund anything you have paid for it - we are not obliged to sell a piece at a clearly mistaken price.

7. Placing an order and paying

Placing an order is an offer by you to buy the pieces in your bag on these terms. Before you pay, the site gives you a full opportunity to review everything in your order, correct input errors and withdraw from the transaction, as section 43(2) of the ECT Act requires. A contract of sale for a piece is formed once your payment has been confirmed and the site confirms your order on screen with your order reference. Until then, no contract exists.

We take payment through Yoco, a third-party payment provider. When you press the pay button you are taken to Yoco’s secure page, where you pay in South African rand by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Your payment details go to Yoco and not to us; we never see or store them. Yoco’s own terms and privacy policy apply to the payment. We dispatch a piece only once your payment has been confirmed.

Because each piece is one of a kind, we hold the pieces in your order for you while you pay. If you cancel on Yoco’s page, your payment fails, or it isn’t completed within one hour, we release the hold and the pieces go back on sale to other customers. If a payment still reaches us after a hold has been released and the pieces are still available, we will confirm your order. If a piece has meanwhile sold to someone else, we will tell you and refund that payment in full within 30 days.

Even so, a piece can occasionally turn out to be unavailable, faulty or mispriced. If that happens we will tell you as soon as we know, cancel that part of the order, and refund anything you have already paid for it within 30 days.

Your order reference is shown on screen once your payment is confirmed. If you have an account, your order history is also in your profile. We email you an order confirmation once your payment is confirmed, and again when your order ships. If you don’t see them, check your spam folder and that the email address you gave us is right.

8. Delivery

We deliver nationwide within South Africa. The checkout currently accepts South African delivery addresses only, so if you are outside South Africa, email hello@trove-studio.com before ordering and we will tell you whether we can arrange delivery to you. Risk in a piece passes to you once it is delivered to the address you gave us. If we can’t deliver within 30 days of receiving your order, you may cancel it for a full refund. Full delivery details are on our Shipping & Returns page, which forms part of these terms.

If we agree to deliver an order outside South Africa, you are the importer of record into your own country. Any customs duties, import taxes, brokerage or other charges levied by your country are your responsibility and are not included in our prices or delivery cost; we have no control over these charges and can’t predict what they will be. You are also responsible for checking that receiving the piece is lawful in your country before you order - for example, some countries restrict the import of certain animal-derived materials (such as fur, leather, horn, shell or feather) that a vintage piece may contain.

9. Your right to cancel (cooling-off period)

Under section 44 of the ECT Act, because your order is concluded electronically, you can cancel it without giving a reason and without penalty within seven days of receiving the piece (or, for a service, within seven days of the agreement being concluded). This right applies to Archive pieces too. The only cost to you is the direct cost of returning the piece; we refund everything else you paid, to the card or account you paid with, within 30 days of your cancellation. This cooling-off right does not apply to pieces made to your special specification or clearly personalised for you, if any.

Beyond the statutory seven days, our Shipping & Returns page sets out when we accept further returns or exchanges as a matter of our own policy.

10. Faulty or defective pieces

Nothing in these terms limits your rights under the CPA. If a piece is defective, unsafe, or does not do what it should, in a way we did not disclose in its listing, you can return it to us within six months of delivery under sections 55 and 56 of the CPA, at our cost. Because every piece is one of a kind, an identical replacement is usually not possible, so in that case we will repair the fault, or refund you in full (including original delivery charges), whichever you choose. Wear, ageing or condition that we described in the listing when you bought the piece is not a defect for this purpose. Care guidance that helps pieces last is on our Garment Care and Jewellery Care pages.

11. Your rights under the Consumer Protection Act

If you are a consumer as defined in the CPA, nothing in these terms limits or attempts to limit any right the CPA gives you, including your rights to: fair, just and honest dealing; disclosure of information in plain and understandable language; goods that are reasonably suitable for the purpose they are commonly used for, of good quality, and free of defects; fair value, good quality and safety; and to choose or examine goods before buying them where reasonably possible online. If any part of these terms conflicts with a right you have under the CPA, your statutory right prevails.

12. Payment security and your information

Your card or wallet payment details are entered on Yoco’s secure payment page, not on this website, and are never sent to or stored by us. We keep only the order total and Yoco’s payment reference for your order, as explained in section 7. How we collect, use, share and protect your personal information is set out in full in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms.

13. Your account

An account is optional - you can also check out as a guest. If you create one, keep your sign-in details confidential; you are responsible for activity on your account unless it results from our fault. Tell us straight away at hello@trove-studio.com if you think someone else has access to it. You can delete your account at any time from your profile, and we may suspend or close an account that is used to misuse the site or breach these terms.

14. Intellectual property

The photographs, product descriptions, text, graphics, logos and overall design of this site belong to trôve studio or our licensors and are protected by copyright, trade mark and other laws. You may view, print or download a reasonable extract for your own personal, non-commercial use. You may not reproduce, republish, sell or otherwise commercially exploit any of it without our prior written permission.

15. Third-party links and sign-in

The site links to third parties, including our social media pages, Yoco’s payment page and, if you choose it, ‘Continue with Google’ sign-in. We don’t control those third-party sites or services and aren’t responsible for their content, availability or how they treat your information - their own terms and privacy policies apply to your use of them.

16. Availability of the site and changes

We try to keep the site running, accurate and secure, but we don’t promise uninterrupted or error-free access, and we aren’t liable for a piece being unavailable due to a fault, maintenance, or a cause outside our reasonable control (including load-shedding, internet or telecommunications failures, or a failure of a service provider such as our hosting, database or payment provider). We may change, suspend or withdraw pieces, prices, features or content at any time before you place an order, without notice.

17. Liability

Subject always to any right you have under the CPA that we cannot lawfully exclude or limit, and to the extent permitted by law: we are not liable to you for any indirect or consequential loss arising from your use of the site or a piece you bought, and our total liability to you in connection with an order is limited to the price you paid for that order. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that the law does not allow us to exclude or limit.

18. Indemnity

You agree to compensate us for any loss, claim or expense (including reasonable legal costs) arising from your breach of these terms or your misuse of the site, except to the extent it results from our own fault, and except where the CPA does not allow such an indemnity to be enforced against you as a consumer.

19. Force majeure

Neither party is liable for a delay or failure to perform caused by something reasonably beyond that party’s control, such as natural disaster, fire, power or network outage, courier or postal disruption, civil unrest, or government action. If this continues for more than 30 days, either party may cancel the affected order and any payment already made for it will be refunded.

20. Electronic communications and notices

By using the site and giving us your email address, you agree that we may communicate with you electronically, including by email, about your orders, account and these terms, and that this satisfies any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. A notice you send us under these terms should go to support@trove-studio.com, and a notice we send you is treated as received the day after we email it to the address on your order or account, unless we hear it bounced.

21. International visitors and customers

This site can be viewed from outside South Africa, and we deliver outside South Africa only by arrangement, as explained in section 8, but we make no representation that the site, its content, or a piece is appropriate, lawful or available to buy in every country. If you access or order from the site from outside South Africa, you are responsible for complying with local laws that apply to you, including import and customs rules. If you are in the European Union, the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction with its own consumer protection laws that would otherwise apply, nothing in these terms is intended to remove a protection that law mandatorily gives you and cannot lawfully be contracted out of; where there is a genuine conflict on such a mandatory protection, your local law prevails to the extent it must.

22. Complaints and dispute resolution

If something goes wrong, email hello@trove-studio.com first and we will do our best to put it right quickly. We don’t subscribe to an industry ombud scheme or alternative dispute resolution code as a member, but if we can’t resolve a complaint directly, you may refer it, free of charge, to:

• the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (CGSO), at cgso.org.za or info@cgso.org.za, toll-free on 0860 000 272; or
• the National Consumer Commission, at thencc.org.za or complaints@thencc.org.za; or
• the National Consumer Tribunal, for matters within its jurisdiction under the CPA.

This clause does not stop you from bringing a claim in a competent South African court at any time.

23. Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or your use of the site, are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa. You and trôve studio both submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the South African courts, without preventing you from bringing a claim in your local courts where the law gives you that right as a consumer.

24. General

If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply. A delay or failure by us to enforce any part of these terms is not a waiver of our right to do so later. You may not transfer or assign your rights under these terms without our consent; we may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms, for example if the business is sold or restructured, provided that doesn’t reduce your statutory rights. These terms, together with the policies they link to, are the entire agreement between you and trôve studio about your use of the site and your orders, replacing any earlier understanding on the same subject.

25. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time, for example to reflect a change in the law or how we do business. The version published on this page at the time you place an order is the one that applies to it; a later change doesn’t affect an order you have already placed. The date at the top of this page shows when these terms last changed.