What comes back to you, from whom, and when.

This Refund Policy explains what comes back to you, from whom, and when, for payments made through the Pick Me Pets Payment Services. It is incorporated into, and forms part of, the Pick Me Pets Terms & Conditions of Service (the "Terms"), and it sits alongside the Buyer Protection Policy, which governs deposit protection claims. Capitalized terms not defined here have the meaning given in the Terms.

Two things decide every outcome below: what the payment was for, and whether the puppy was placed with you. A deposit is the breeder's commitment money and is paid to them when you pay it. A final payment is held until you confirm the hand-off. Those two facts are why a deposit and a balance behave differently, and the sections that follow set out each case.

This summary is for orientation only; the numbered sections below govern.

• Breeder never places the puppy, and you paid the Buyer Protection Fee — the whole deposit comes back to you.
• Breeder never places the puppy, and you did not pay the Buyer Protection Fee — the breeder's share of the deposit comes back to you. The platform fee does not.
• A final payment was made through the platform and the puppy was never handed over — the final payment comes back to you in full. It is held until you confirm the hand-off, so it has not been paid out.
• You change your mind — nothing is refunded by Pick Me Pets. The breeder may choose to refund you under their own policy or your contract with them.
• A health, genetics, temperament, or listing-accuracy issue — this Policy does not apply. That is between you and the breeder, under their health guarantee and your contract.
• Pick Me Pets unwinds the transaction — every party returns to zero, including our own fees.

A deposit reserves a specific puppy and takes it off the market for other buyers. It is paid to the breeder when you pay it, and it is non-refundable by default. That is the ordinary rule on this platform and across the industry, and it is what makes a reservation mean something.

There is no cooling-off period on a deposit. Please treat a deposit as a commitment you are ready to make before you make it, and read the breeder's own deposit terms, which may differ from and be more generous than this Policy.

The exceptions are set out in sections 3 and 7 below, and nowhere else.

This is the one situation where Pick Me Pets returns deposit money to you. What you get back depends on whether you paid the Buyer Protection Fee at checkout.

WITH the Buyer Protection Fee. Your deposit comes back to you in full — both the breeder's share and the platform fee — subject to the eligibility conditions, exclusions, and claim process in the Buyer Protection Policy. Non-delivery there means the breeder has stopped responding to you for at least 14 calendar days, or has cancelled or otherwise decided not to place the puppy with you after accepting your deposit. Reasonable delays the breeder is actively communicating about are not non-delivery.

WITHOUT the Buyer Protection Fee. The breeder's share of the deposit is returned to you. The platform fee is not: it paid for the introduction, the identity checks, the platform-mediated communication and the payment handling, all of which were provided. This is why the fee is offered at checkout, pre-selected, and why declining it is a decision worth making deliberately.

Either way, the Buyer Protection Fee itself is not refunded. It is the price of the protection, not part of the deposit, and it is earned when the protection attaches.

A final or balance payment made through the Payment Services is not paid to the breeder at checkout. It is held and released when you confirm that the puppy has been handed over to you, or when Pick Me Pets confirms the hand-off in your place under the Terms.

If the puppy is never handed over, that money has not left the platform and is returned to you in full. You do not need the Buyer Protection Fee for this: it is how the payment works, not a protection you buy. The Buyer Protection Policy does not cover final payments precisely because they are held rather than paid out.

If a payment plan or financing provider is used, the money is authorised or held on the same terms, and your agreement with that provider governs your repayments to them.

Once you have confirmed the hand-off, the final payment has been released to the breeder and is no longer refundable by Pick Me Pets. Anything arising afterwards is between you and the breeder.

Pick Me Pets does not refund a deposit because you changed your mind, your circumstances changed, the timing no longer works, you found another puppy, or you decided not to proceed. This includes a puppy you have not yet met.

The breeder may still choose to refund you, and many do. That is their decision under their own policy and your contract with them, not ours to make or to overturn.

Breeders may refund deposits or purchase payments under their own contracts, stated policies, or as required by law, and may process those refunds through the Payment Services. Any such refund is issued by and from the breeder, not Pick Me Pets.

A breeder's refund to you does not entitle you to a refund of Pick Me Pets fees, including the Buyer Protection Fee and any payment-processing fees. We may, at our discretion and case by case, refund some or all of our own fees, but we have no obligation to do so and no past refund creates one.

Where we determine that a transaction should be undone — because of a platform error, a payment taken in error, fraud, or a case both parties agree should be reversed — every party returns to zero. You are made whole, the breeder returns what they received, and Pick Me Pets refunds its own fees, including the platform fee and the Buyer Protection Fee.

This is decided by Pick Me Pets in our reasonable discretion on the facts available. It is not a route you can elect, and it is separate from a Buyer Protection claim.

Except where section 7 applies, the following are not refunded in any scenario: the Buyer Protection Fee; payment-processing and service fees shown at checkout; and any payment made outside the Payment Services, which is never eligible for anything under this Policy or the Buyer Protection Policy.

Travel, boarding, transport, veterinary costs, and other out-of-pocket expenses are never reimbursed by Pick Me Pets.

For non-delivery, file a Buyer Protection claim through the Pick Me Pets app (Account, then Buyer Protection, then File a Claim) or by emailing hello@pickmepets.com with "Buyer Protection Claim" in the subject line. A claim must be filed within 7 calendar days of the non-delivery event — that is, within 7 days of the 14-day non-response period ending, or within 7 days of the breeder cancelling. Do not wait: this window is short, and a claim filed after it closes is not eligible.

For anything else, email hello@pickmepets.com with your account email, the order or transaction reference, and what happened.

• We acknowledge a claim within 3 business days.
• We aim to decide within 10 business days of receiving everything we asked for. Complex claims can take longer, and we will tell you if that happens.
• If a claim is denied and you believe we got it wrong, you may request reconsideration within 14 calendar days of the decision.
• Approved refunds are returned to the original payment method. Your bank or card issuer sets how long it then takes to appear.

Please contact us before filing a chargeback with your bank or card issuer. A chargeback filed for a payment you are also claiming on makes you ineligible for that claim under the Buyer Protection Policy, and it takes the decision out of a process built to look at both sides.

We may suspend or close accounts that file chargebacks in bad faith, and we may recover from the responsible party any amounts and fees we incur.

This Policy is not insurance, and it is not a warranty or guarantee of any kind regarding any breeder or animal. We may change or discontinue it at any time, effective for transactions completed after the change, and we will post the updated Policy with a revised "Last Updated" date. It does not limit any refund or remedy a breeder independently owes you under their own stated policy, your contract with them, or applicable consumer protection law, and nothing in it waives any right you have under law that cannot be waived by agreement.

Questions about this Policy or a refund: hello@pickmepets.com