Legal
Refund Policy
Version: 2026-07-30-refund-final
Last updated: 30 July 2026
Refund Policy for Cully Express. Version: 2026-07-30-refund-final. Last updated: 30 July 2026.
Scope and Defined Roles
- This Refund Policy applies to customers using Cully Express, a trading name of A&S Signatures Ltd, for Delivery Orders and Collection Orders, including immediate Orders and Scheduled Orders.
- It covers card-payment authorisations, releases of uncaptured authorisations, captured payments, full and partial refunds, and refund-related investigations.
- In this Policy, "Customer" means the person who placed the Order; "Restaurant" means the food business supplying the food; "Driver" means the approved independent contractor performing delivery where applicable; "Cully Express" means A&S Signatures Ltd as operator of the platform; "Order" includes a Delivery Order or Collection Order; and "Scheduled Order" means an Order requested for a future date or time.
Statutory Rights
- Nothing in this Policy excludes, limits, replaces, or reduces a Customer’s statutory rights or remedies under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or other applicable law.
- Food must be safe, of satisfactory quality, and as described. Services must be provided with reasonable care and skill and, where no binding time has been agreed, within a reasonable time.
- The reporting procedure, internal decision process, evidence requests, and examples in this Policy do not override a legal remedy. Cully Express will consider claims that it is required to consider under applicable law even where an operational policy condition is not met.
Payment Authorisation, Capture and Refunds
- When a Customer submits checkout, Stripe may authorise the Order amount. An authorisation reserves the amount on the card but is not a completed charge and is not a refund.
- For an immediate Order, the authorised amount is captured after the Restaurant accepts the Order. For a Scheduled Order, it is captured after the Restaurant confirms the Order.
- If an authorised amount has not been captured, cancelling or releasing that authorisation returns the reserved amount to the Customer’s available card balance through the card issuer. This is an authorisation release, not a refund.
- A full refund returns the refundable captured amount. A partial refund returns only the approved part of a captured payment. Neither outcome can exceed the remaining amount actually captured and not already refunded.
- A released authorisation may continue to appear as pending, or temporarily reduce the available balance, until the card issuer updates the account.
Restaurant Rejection and Acceptance Timeout
- If a Restaurant rejects an Order before payment capture, the uncaptured payment authorisation will normally be cancelled or released rather than refunded.
- If the Restaurant does not accept or confirm an Order within the period shown in the app, the Order may time out. Where payment has not been captured, the authorisation will normally be released.
- The card issuer controls how quickly a released pending amount disappears. Cully Express cannot make an issuer update the card account immediately.
Customer Cancellations
- A Customer who abandons checkout before payment authorisation completes has not placed an Order. If an authorisation was nevertheless created during an interrupted checkout, Cully Express may reconcile the payment status and cancel an uncaptured authorisation where appropriate.
- For an immediate Delivery Order or Collection Order, the Customer may request cancellation before Restaurant acceptance. A request is effective only when cancellation is confirmed before acceptance and payment capture.
- After Restaurant acceptance or payment capture, cancellation is not guaranteed because food preparation may have begun and the food may be perishable or made to order. Any available refund or other remedy will be assessed under this Policy and applicable law.
- A Scheduled Order cancellation should be requested before the Restaurant confirms it. After confirmation, capture, activation, or preparation, cancellation is not guaranteed.
- The same acceptance and capture principles apply to Collection Orders. Failure to collect is not itself a cancellation and does not automatically create a refund entitlement.
- The usual cancellation right for some distance contracts will not generally apply to prepared or rapidly perishable food or catering for a specified date or time. Rights relating to unsafe, faulty, misdescribed, or non-conforming food or services remain unaffected.
Order Issues
- Customers should report an Order that is incorrect, incomplete, late, damaged, unsafe, contaminated, not delivered, not as described, or otherwise does not conform to contract.
- A claim will be assessed on the relevant facts, the affected part of the Order, available records, and applicable law. This Policy does not promise an automatic refund without factual review.
Missing, Incorrect or Unsuitable Items
- Missing items, incorrect items, materially substituted items, materially incomplete Orders, and food that is unsafe, contaminated, not as described, or of unsatisfactory quality may qualify for a partial refund, full refund, replacement where offered, or another remedy required by law.
- Allergy or allergen-information issues will be treated seriously. Restaurants are responsible for accurate legally required allergen information, safe food preparation, and appropriate packaging, while Cully Express remains responsible for its own legal obligations.
- Damaged, opened, leaking, or contaminated packaging may be relevant where it affects safety, quality, identity, or the ability to consume the food.
- Missing-item reports may be assessed using the item value and affected quantity. Where a substantial or essential part of the Order is missing or unusable, a larger partial refund or full refund may be appropriate after review.
Late Delivery and Temperature Complaints
- Preparation and delivery estimates are guidance and may change because of Restaurant workload, traffic, weather, demand, safety conditions, or Driver availability.
- A material delay may qualify for a price reduction, partial refund, full refund, or other remedy depending on the agreed timing, length and cause of the delay, the condition of the food, and applicable law.
- Food arriving unsafe, unreasonably cold, damaged, contaminated, or materially below a reasonable standard of quality may be reviewed. Minor preference, ordinary cooling that does not affect reasonable quality or safety, or subjective dissatisfaction alone may not justify a refund.
Restaurant Cancellations
- If a Restaurant cancels or declines an Order before capture, the uncaptured payment authorisation will normally be released rather than refunded.
- If a Restaurant cancels after capture because it cannot fulfil the Order, the Customer will normally receive a full refund of the captured amount to the original payment method.
- If the Restaurant supplies only part of the Order, the appropriate outcome may be a partial refund or full refund depending on what was supplied, whether the remaining Order retains value, and the Customer’s statutory rights.
Failed Delivery and Driver Issues
- Failed delivery, unreasonable delay, delivery to the wrong address, incorrect handover, an Order marked delivered but not received, Driver failure, and inability to complete delivery will be reviewed using Order status, contact attempts, location or delivery events where available, Driver information, and Customer reports.
- If delivery fails because the Customer supplied an incorrect or incomplete address, the premises were inaccessible, the Customer was absent or did not reasonably respond, or lawful delivery could not be completed safely, a refund is not automatic. The outcome depends on responsibility, whether the food was prepared or collected, and applicable law.
- If no Driver is available or delivery fails because of Driver or platform responsibility, Cully Express may continue seeking a Driver, cancel the delivery, or provide an appropriate full or partial remedy according to the circumstances.
- An Order marked delivered but not received will be investigated rather than rejected solely because of the recorded status.
Collection Orders
- If a Restaurant cannot supply an accepted Collection Order, does not have it ready within a reasonable period, or makes an incorrect collection handover, the Customer may be entitled to a full or partial remedy according to the circumstances.
- Customers should attend within the collection window and provide the Order number, name, or other reasonable identification requested by the Restaurant.
- Customer lateness or a no-show does not itself cancel the Order or automatically create a refund right. The outcome will take account of whether the food was prepared, whether it could reasonably remain available, the cause of the problem, and statutory rights.
Scheduled Orders
- A Scheduled Order is not confirmed until the Restaurant confirms it. A decline before confirmation normally results in release of an uncaptured authorisation.
- If a Scheduled Order cannot be activated for preparation, cannot be fulfilled at the requested time, or is cancelled after capture because the Restaurant cannot supply it, an appropriate full or partial refund will be considered according to what was supplied and applicable law.
- A Customer should request cancellation before Restaurant confirmation. After confirmation, payment capture, activation, or preparation, cancellation is not guaranteed, particularly for prepared or perishable food.
- Failure to provide the scheduled food or service as agreed may give rise to statutory remedies even where the ordinary cancellation rules do not apply.
Refund Request Process
- Customers should use the in-app refund request flow where available and select the reason that most closely describes the issue. If the in-app reason or reporting route is unsuitable or unavailable, the Customer should contact support@cullyexpress.com.
- Customers should normally report an issue within 24 hours of delivery or collection so that food condition, packaging, communications, and Order records can be reviewed promptly.
- The 24-hour period is an operational reporting period, not an absolute legal deadline or time bar. It does not remove or reduce statutory rights, longer legal limitation periods, or remedies under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or other applicable law.
- A later report will be assessed according to the circumstances and applicable law. Delay may affect the practical investigation only where relevant evidence has genuinely become unavailable or less reliable; it does not automatically defeat a valid claim.
- Where the in-app flow no longer accepts a later request, the Customer should contact support@cullyexpress.com so that any claim Cully Express is legally required to consider can be reviewed.
Evidence
- Cully Express may reasonably request the Order number, affected item details, descriptions, photographs, timestamps, packaging, relevant communications, Restaurant confirmation, or Driver and delivery events.
- The in-app flow may require a photograph for certain food, item, temperature, or damage reasons. If taking or retaining a photograph is unsafe, or the requested evidence is not reasonably available, the Customer should contact support@cullyexpress.com.
- Evidence requests must be proportionate to the issue. Lack of optional evidence is not an automatic reason for rejection, although the absence of reasonably available relevant evidence may affect what can be established.
- Customers should not retain, consume, transport, or handle unsafe or contaminated food where doing so may create a health risk. Disposal for safety reasons does not automatically invalidate a claim.
- Requests for evidence and the internal investigation process do not remove or restrict statutory rights.
Responsibility and Decision Process
- A Restaurant may respond where food, preparation, packaging, availability, or fulfilment is involved. A Driver may provide information where collection, transport, handover, delay, or failed delivery is involved.
- An administrator may review the Order, payment records, evidence, Restaurant response, Driver events, communications, previous refund activity, and any disputed responsibility.
- Cully Express makes the platform refund decision. Restaurant rejection is a recommendation rather than a final determination of the Customer’s rights.
- Responsibility may be allocated to the Restaurant, Driver, Customer, Cully Express platform, or shared between relevant parties. Each party remains responsible for its own legal obligations.
- An internal responsibility or accounting allocation does not remove the Customer’s rights against a party that is legally responsible.
Refund Outcomes
- Following review, the outcome may be a full refund, partial refund, no refund, release of an uncaptured payment authorisation, or further investigation.
- A full refund may be appropriate where the whole captured Order is cancelled by the Restaurant, cannot be supplied because of platform or delivery failure, is not received, or is materially unsafe or unusable.
- A partial refund may be appropriate for missing or incorrect items, an issue affecting part of the Order, material delay, a partial delivery-service failure, or an approved delivery-fee adjustment.
- No refund may be appropriate where the Order conformed to contract, the complaint is based only on personal preference, the loss was caused by the Customer without a separate legal entitlement, or the facts do not establish a refund right after a fair review.
- Further investigation may be required for disputed delivery, payment reconciliation, duplicate payment, safety, fraud, chargeback, or shared-responsibility issues.
Full Refund Eligibility
- A full refund may be appropriate where the whole Order is cancelled by the Restaurant, cannot be delivered because of platform or Driver failure, is not received, or is materially unsafe or unusable.
- The outcome may differ where the Customer provided incorrect details, was unavailable, refused delivery without a valid reason, or prevented safe completion. Each case will be assessed fairly and statutory remedies remain unaffected.
Partial Refund Eligibility
- A partial refund may be appropriate for missing items, incorrect items, quality issues affecting part of an Order, material delay, partial fulfilment, or delivery-fee adjustments.
- Item-level calculations may use the affected item and quantity, subject to the amount actually paid, any promotion applied, the overall remaining refundable balance, and any greater remedy required by law.
- Restaurant, Driver, platform, Customer, or shared responsibility may be recorded for an approved refund. Internal commission, payout, or accounting treatment does not reduce a Customer’s statutory remedy.
Promotions and Refunds
- Where an Order used a fixed discount, percentage discount, Restaurant-funded promotion, Cully Express-funded promotion, or free-delivery promotion, a refund will be based on the amount actually paid and the affected part of the Order.
- A Customer does not receive the cash value of an unused or unapplied promotional discount. The use of a promotion will not unfairly reduce a statutory remedy for food or services that do not conform to contract.
- A free-delivery promotion does not create a cash delivery-fee refund where no delivery fee was paid.
- If a payment fails or an uncaptured authorisation is cancelled, a provisionally consumed promotion may be released by the payment process. A promotion used on a captured Order is not automatically restored merely because a full or partial refund is later issued.
Delivery Fees and Service Amounts
- A delivery fee may be refunded in full where the entire captured Delivery Order is cancelled or the delivery service is not supplied because of Restaurant, Driver, or platform responsibility.
- A delivery fee may be refunded partially where there was a material delivery-service failure but the food retained value and was received.
- Where the issue concerns only food and delivery was properly completed, the delivery fee may be retained, subject to the circumstances and applicable law.
- Where delivery failed because of an incorrect address, inaccessible premises, Customer absence, non-response, or unsafe instructions for which the Customer was responsible, the delivery fee may be retained. This is not an absolute rule and any statutory entitlement will still be considered.
Stripe Refund Processing
- Refunds of captured card payments are sent through Stripe to the original payment method. Cully Express cannot redirect a card refund to a different card or payment destination.
- A bank or card issuer may take several working days to display the refund. Confirmation that Cully Express or Stripe has initiated or completed a refund does not mean that the funds will appear instantly.
- An authorisation release is separate from a refund and may also remain visible as pending until the issuer updates the account.
- Duplicate-payment, payment-status, authorisation, capture, or refund discrepancies may require reconciliation against Stripe and Cully Express records before a final outcome can be confirmed.
Chargebacks
- Customers should contact support first where reasonably practicable so that an Order or payment issue can be investigated promptly. This does not remove any lawful right to ask a card issuer for a chargeback.
- Customers must not knowingly make a false chargeback or pursue duplicate recovery for the same loss. A Customer must not retain both a refund and chargeback payment for the same amount of the same loss.
- Cully Express may provide relevant Order, payment, delivery, communication, and refund evidence to Stripe, the card network, or the card issuer when responding to a chargeback.
Fraud and Misuse
- False refund claims, manipulated evidence, collusion, multiple-account abuse, repeated abusive claims, and attempts to retain duplicate refund and chargeback recovery are prohibited.
- Cully Express may investigate, refuse a fraudulent claim, recover a duplicate payment where legally permitted, or proportionately restrict an account where reasonably necessary for fraud, safety, or security.
- Fraud controls and account action will not remove a valid consumer claim or statutory right. A Customer may request review through the complaints process.
Contact Process
- For an initial request, a later statutory claim, or review of a refund decision, contact support@cullyexpress.com.
- Include the Order number, account email, Restaurant name, issue summary, decision being challenged where applicable, and reasonably available supporting information.
- Cully Express will review the request and respond as soon as reasonably practicable. The Customer may ask for an initial refund decision to be reviewed.
- The internal decision does not remove the Customer’s ability to seek advice from Citizens Advice, contact an appropriate regulator, exercise lawful chargeback rights, or pursue a court or other remedy available by law.
- Written correspondence may also be sent to the registered office shown in the Company Information section below.
Company Information
Cully Express (a trading name of A&S Signatures Ltd) Company Number: 15693230 Registered Office: 33 Raleigh Drive Cullompton Devon EX15 1FZ United Kingdom Support: support@cullyexpress.com