Complaints, Disputes and CGSO Process

Document code: RJ-LS-14

Version: 3.4

Version date: 29 September 2026

Effective date: 1 October 2026

Issued by: Ralph Jacobs SA (Pty) Ltd (reg. 2019/101093/07) and Ralph Jacobs NZ Limited (company no. 9334729) — see Where We Sell for which company sells to you

Supersedes: all earlier published versions of this document

This Policy explains how customers can raise complaints and how Ralph Jacobs handles disputes relating to products, services, returns, warranty, delivery, payments, privacy and legal compliance.

If you are buying from outside South Africa, read this together with Where We Sell and Who You Buy From.

Customers should email complaints@ralphjacobs.org (or, for a fault, damage or a repair, claims@ralphjacobs.org) with:

• full name and contact details;
• order, invoice or quote number;
• proof of purchase;
• description of the complaint;
• photographs, videos, packaging photographs or supporting documents where relevant;
• preferred outcome; and
• any urgent timing issue.

Help-centre articles at https://ralphjacobs.help may assist customers, but the binding legal process, forms and contact route must remain available through https://ralphjacobs.org and complaints@ralphjacobs.org.

Ralph Jacobs aims to acknowledge complaints promptly and to provide a substantive response, proposed next step or escalation position within 15 business days after receiving enough information to assess the complaint.

Some matters need workshop inspection, supplier input, laboratory review, courier investigation, payment-provider investigation or legal/compliance review. Ralph Jacobs may need more time for a final outcome, but should still give reasonable progress updates.

We will not use the need for a specialist assessment as a reason to delay a remedy you are entitled to by law. If an assessment is going to take time, we tell you why and how long.

Nothing in this process prevents a customer from exercising rights under the CPA, ECTA, POPIA, PAIA, New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act, New Zealand Fair Trading Act, Australian Consumer Law, privacy law, payment-provider rules or other applicable law.

Ralph Jacobs SA (Pty) Ltd is bound by the Consumer Goods and Services Industry Code of Conduct, approved under section 82 of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, and falls under the jurisdiction of the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (CGSO).

If a customer is not satisfied with the outcome of a complaint, the customer may refer it to the CGSO. The service is free to the consumer. The CGSO process may ask Ralph Jacobs to attempt to resolve the complaint directly within the first 15 business days after referral.

*Details verified against https://www.cgso.org.za on 18 September 2026. Re-verify before each publication. A revised CGSO Code was published on 9 May 2025 for public comment — check whether it has taken effect before publishing.*

New Zealand has no compulsory ombud scheme for jewellery retail, so there is no equivalent of the CGSO. If we have not resolved your complaint:

• you may take a claim to the Disputes Tribunal for amounts within its limit. It is quick, low-cost and you do not need a lawyer;
• you may complain to the Commerce Commission about misleading or deceptive conduct under the Fair Trading Act;
• you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner about how we handled your personal information; and
• for orders delivered to Australia, you may approach the ACCC or your state or territory consumer affairs office. For the Pacific Islands, your local consumer authority.

Going to any of these does not affect your Consumer Guarantees Act rights against us.

You may also approach any other regulator with jurisdiction over your purchase — in South Africa the National Consumer Commission or the Information Regulator, and in other countries the equivalent consumer or privacy authority. Nothing in this process prevents you from going to a court.

Any settlement discussion may be marked without prejudice where appropriate. A goodwill offer does not admit liability unless Ralph Jacobs expressly states otherwise.

We keep records of your complaint, the evidence we reviewed, our correspondence with you and the outcome, for as long as the law requires us to.