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MotoBay Refund and Cancellation Policy

Effective date: 1 September 2026

Last updated: 25 August 2026

Operated by: Motobay (Pty) Ltd (Registration No. 2026/260359/07) ("MotoBay", "we", "us")

1. What this policy covers

This policy explains when you can cancel a paid MotoBay service and when you are entitled to a refund.

It applies to the services MotoBay sells directly:

  • Subscription packages — Private Seller, Dealer Standard, Dealer Pro, and Dealer Enterprise
  • Vehicle history and verification reports — paid, once-off reports purchased on a listing
  • Promotional add-ons — featured listings, boosts, banner placements, and similar paid visibility products

It does not apply to the purchase or sale of a vehicle. Please read section 2 carefully.

2. Important: MotoBay does not sell vehicles

MotoBay is an online marketplace. We provide the platform on which dealers and private sellers advertise vehicles. We are not the seller, importer, agent, or guarantor of any vehicle listed on the platform.

This means:

  • Any payment you make to a seller for a vehicle — including deposits, holding fees, and the purchase price — is a transaction between you and that seller. MotoBay cannot refund it.
  • Disputes about a vehicle's condition, mileage, roadworthiness, title, or delivery must be raised directly with the seller. Your rights against that seller are governed by your agreement with them and by applicable law, including the Consumer Protection Act where the seller is a registered dealer.
  • MotoBay will, on request, assist by providing listing records and communication logs relevant to a dispute, but we cannot compel a seller to refund you.

We strongly recommend that you never transfer funds to a seller before independently verifying the vehicle and the seller's identity.

3. Vehicle history and verification reports

3.1 Reports are delivered immediately and are non-refundable once accessed

When you purchase a vehicle report, we retrieve data from a third-party data provider in real time and deliver the result to you immediately. Because the report is generated and delivered the moment payment succeeds, reports are not refundable once they have been generated and made available to you.

At checkout you will be asked to expressly consent to immediate delivery and to acknowledge that, by doing so, you give up any cooling-off right that would otherwise apply to the report under section 44 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002.

3.2 When we will refund a report

We will refund the full purchase price of a report where:

  • The report failed to generate. You were charged but no report was delivered to your account.
  • The report is technically defective. The file is corrupted, unreadable, or materially incomplete, and we cannot deliver a working replacement.
  • You were charged more than once for the same report on the same VIN.
  • The VIN was rejected or returned no data at all. Where our data provider returns no record for the VIN submitted, the transaction is reversed automatically.

3.3 What is not a ground for a refund

  • You did not like the outcome of the report. A report showing that a vehicle is flagged, coded, or has a recorded finance or insurance interest is a correctly delivered report. So is a report that comes back clear.
  • You bought a report on the wrong VIN. Check the VIN before purchasing. As a gesture of goodwill we may, at our discretion, issue a one-time credit toward a corrected report if you contact us within 24 hours and the original report has not been downloaded.
  • The seller withdrew the listing after you purchased the report.
  • You believe the underlying data is inaccurate. The report reflects the records held by our third-party data provider and by the relevant registries at the time of the query. MotoBay does not create, verify, or amend this data. Where you believe a record is wrong, contact us and we will refer the query to the data provider, but we cannot guarantee an amendment or a refund.

4. Subscription packages

4.1 Billing

Subscriptions are billed monthly in advance and renew automatically on the same day each month until cancelled. The applicable package fee is the fee displayed on the platform at the time of purchase or renewal.

4.2 Cancellation

You may cancel your subscription at any time from your account dashboard, or by emailing info@motobay.co.za.

  • Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing month.
  • You retain full access to your package until that date.
  • Part-months are not refunded. Cancelling on day 3 of a billing month does not entitle you to a refund of the remaining days.
  • Active listings that exceed the allowance of the free tier will be unpublished when the paid period ends. Your listing data is retained for \[90] days so that you can reactivate without recapturing it.

4.3 First-month refund for new subscribers

If you are a new subscriber and cancel within 7 days of your first payment, we will refund that first payment in full, provided you have not published a listing, used a paid add-on, or consumed any bundled report credits during that period. This applies once per account.

4.4 Upgrades and downgrades

  • Upgrades take effect immediately. You are charged the pro-rated difference for the remainder of the current billing month.
  • Downgrades take effect at the start of your next billing month. We do not refund the difference for the current month.

4.5 Fixed-term dealer agreements

Where a dealer has signed a fixed-term agreement (for example, a discounted 12-month commitment), the Consumer Protection Act permits early cancellation on 20 business days' written notice. A reasonable cancellation penalty may be charged, calculated on the discount already enjoyed and the remaining term. The penalty will be disclosed to you in writing before cancellation is processed.

4.6 Failed payments

If a subscription payment fails, we will retry and notify you. If payment is not received within \[7] days, listings are unpublished and the account is suspended. Reactivation requires settlement of the outstanding amount.

5. Promotional add-ons and featured listings

Add-ons are once-off purchases that begin running as soon as they are activated.

  • Before the placement starts: fully refundable if you cancel before the scheduled start date.
  • After the placement starts: non-refundable, because the advertising inventory has been consumed.
  • If we fail to run the placement, or run it for materially less than the purchased period, we will refund pro-rata or extend the placement, at your election.

Add-ons attached to a subscription that is cancelled mid-term will run to the end of their purchased period and are not refunded.

6. How to request a refund

Email info@motobay.co.za with:

  1. The account email address used for the purchase
  2. The transaction or invoice number
  3. The VIN, listing reference, or subscription package concerned
  4. A short description of the problem, with screenshots where relevant

Timelines:

  • We acknowledge refund requests within 2 business days.
  • We resolve them within 10 business days of receiving everything we need.
  • Approved refunds are paid to the original payment method within a further 5 to 10 business days, depending on your bank or card issuer.

Refunds are always made to the original payment method. We do not refund to a different card, account, or third party.

7. Chargebacks

If you believe a charge is incorrect, please contact us first. Raising a chargeback with your bank before contacting us delays resolution for everyone.

Where a chargeback is raised against a validly delivered service, we will submit our transaction records in response and may suspend the account until the matter is resolved. Accounts with repeated fraudulent chargebacks may be closed permanently.

8. Our right to refuse or reverse

We may decline a refund, or reverse a service without refund, where we reasonably believe the account has been used for fraud, misrepresentation, listing of stolen or misrepresented vehicles, abuse of the report service (including bulk or automated querying), or any breach of our Terms of Use.

9. Your statutory rights

Nothing in this policy limits any right you have under South African law, including the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002. Where this policy conflicts with a right you cannot lawfully be deprived of, that right prevails.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The version published on the platform at the time of your transaction governs that transaction. Material changes affecting subscribers will be communicated by email at least \[30] days before they take effect.

11. Contact

Motobay (Pty) Ltd

Registration No. 2026/260359/07

Email: info@motobay.co.za

Phone: 081 005 4928

Address: 14 Duet Crescent, Sonstraal Hoogte, Durbanville, 7550, Western Cape, South Africa