Refund policy

Due to the perishable nature of our products and food safety and hygiene considerations, products ordered in error or due to a change of mind cannot be returned once received.

Please ensure your delivery address is entered correctly at checkout. Where an order cannot be delivered or is incorrectly delivered because incorrect or incomplete delivery information was provided by the customer, a refund or credit may not be available.

Product Quality Concerns

If you believe any product purchased through Online Meats is damaged, defective, or does not meet the quality described on our website, please contact us as soon as possible after discovering the issue.

To allow us to investigate effectively, we ask that concerns are reported wherever possible:

  • Fresh or chilled products: within 48 hours of delivery or 7 days of delivery, provided they have remained properly stored.

  • Fresh or chilled products frozen by the customer after delivery: within 1 month of delivery.

These reporting timeframes assist us with product traceability and investigation and do not limit any rights you may have under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.

We ask customers to inspect products promptly upon receipt and refrigerate or freeze them immediately in accordance with the product's storage instructions and safe food handling practices.

Products Frozen or Stored After Delivery

Where a fresh or chilled product has been frozen by the customer after delivery, we ask that any quality concern is reported within 1 month of delivery wherever possible.

Claims raised after a product has been frozen or stored for an extended period will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. As storage temperature, freezing, thawing and handling conditions are outside our control once an order has been delivered, the length of time the product has been stored may affect our ability to determine when or why an issue occurred.

We may request supporting information including:

  • Photos of the affected product;

  • Photos of the original packaging and product label;

  • Best Before or Use By information and batch details, where available;

  • Details of when and how the product was refrigerated or frozen; and

  • Details of how the product was thawed or prepared, where relevant.

Where a concern is reported after an extended storage period and the cause of the issue cannot reasonably be verified, we may be unable to provide a refund, replacement or credit. This does not affect any rights or remedies available under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.

Missing Items

If an item is missing from your order, please notify us as soon as possible, preferably within 48 hours of receiving your delivery, so that we can check our packing and dispatch records.

Claims raised significantly later may be more difficult for us to verify and will be assessed based on the information available.

Affected Products

Where an issue is confirmed, any refund, replacement or credit will normally apply only to the specific product or pack affected.

Additional unopened products from the same order will not automatically be refunded, replaced or credited unless there is evidence that they are also affected or there is another reason a remedy is required under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.

Assessing Your Claim

We will review the information and any digital or physical evidence provided and advise you of the outcome as soon as reasonably possible.

Where a product issue is verified, an appropriate replacement, refund or store credit may be provided for the affected product(s), depending on the circumstances and in accordance with our obligations under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.

For other refund or product quality enquiries, please contact us at info@onlinemeats.co.nz. All requests will be considered reasonably and in accordance with our obligations under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993.