Refund, Cancellation & Return

1. Prepaid food, not a mall return desk

The Gud Co sells perishable and semi-perishable food. Hygiene, FSSAI-style packing integrity, and the fact that jaggery is eaten, not worn, shape this policy. We follow the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020. We do not hide behind a “no returns on food” line when the pack arrived smashed, empty, or was our mistake.

2. Cancellation before dispatch

Write to founder@thegudco.in with your order id. If the crate has not been packed and handed to the courier, we cancel and refund the full amount paid (including dispatch fee) to the original payment method.

Once a shipment is with the courier, treat it as a return or a refusal-at-door under the sections below — we cannot always pull a bag off a line.

3. Unopened packs you no longer want

If a pack is unopened, unused, in its original inner wrap or jar, and still within its best-before, you may request a return within 7 days of delivery. Email photographs of the unopened pack and the outer courier bag. We will share a return address or arrange a pickup where a route exists.

Refund (or store credit, if you ask for it) is issued after we receive the pack back and confirm the seal is intact — usually within 7 days of that receipt, and we push the payment aggregator to credit you within 7–10 business days of our refund instruction. Dispatch fee is refunded only if the whole order comes back.

We may refuse a “changed my mind” return on sweets, ladoos, nolen gur, and opened kakvi even if you say they are unused, because we cannot honestly put them back on a food shelf. Blocks and factory-sealed powder are the SKUs this section is written for.

4. Opened food

Opened jaggery, tasted sweets, or a jar you have spooned from cannot be resold. We do not accept opened food for a change-of-mind refund.

Exception — quality, safety, or our error: if the food is mouldy on arrival, infested, leaking, the wrong SKU, short-weighted in a way you can show, or unsafe to eat, write within 48 hours of delivery with clear photographs (and a short video if it is a leak). Keep the pack. We will replace it or refund it without asking you to eat around the fault. Do not send used food back through the ordinary courier unless we ask; some lots are destroyed, not returned to the shed.

5. Damaged or lost in transit

If the outer bag is torn, the box wet, cubes powdered into dust from a crush, or a jar broken, photograph the pack in the bag before you throw the courier packaging away, and write within 48 hours of delivery (or of the ‘delivered’ scan if you were not home).

We will replace the damaged lines, or refund them if that boil is finished. You should not have to argue with a courier script. We claim from the carrier; you should not have to.

If the courier marks delivered and you have nothing, write the same day. We will trace once, then replace or refund if the trace fails.

6. Replacement vs refund

Where a replacement from the same boil is on the bench, we prefer to send it — you ordered food, not a credit note. If the SKU is seasonal (nolen) or out of stock, we refund the line.

Refunds go only to the original prepaid instrument or, if that fails, another method we both agree in writing. We do not refund in cash from a kolhu.

7. Timelines in days

Cancel before dispatch: same or next business day instruction to refund.

Report transit damage / wrong item / safety issue: within 48 hours of delivery.

Change-of-mind on unopened blocks or sealed powder: within 7 days of delivery; pack must reach us within 14 days of our return approval.

Our decision on a complete complaint: within 7 days of receiving your photographs (and the returned pack, if we asked for it).

Money back after we approve: 7–10 business days from our refund instruction, depending on your bank or UPI app. Consumer commissions remain available if we miss these marks without cause.

8. What we will not refund

Humidity weep or caking after a clean delivery because the tin was left open in a wet kitchen — gur does that.

Taste preference (“too smoky”, “too dark”) on a village boil that matches the listing.

A pack opened and mostly eaten, unless the leftover shows a safety fault.

Orders you had refused at the door without photographing a genuine defect, after the courier has returned an empty or ransacked bag we cannot verify. Write to us anyway; we look at each case.

9. Grievance

Grievance officer: Saumya Dutta, founder@thegudco.in. Acknowledgement within 48 hours; disposal within one month, as the e-commerce rules require.