Terms and privacy

Version 1.0 · effective 9 October 2026. Plain-language terms for the PriceMapper service in South Africa, including refunds, cancellation, our price guarantee and how we handle your personal information.

1. Who we are

PriceMapper is operated by the supplier below. These details are published as required by section 43 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 (ECTA).

Supplier

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Trading as

PriceMapper

Registration number

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Physical address (also for legal notices)

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Email

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Telephone

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Website

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2. What PriceMapper does

PriceMapper tracks the prices of products you choose at South African shops. Once a day we read each shop's own product page, show you the cheapest price, the price history and our research on the product, and alert you when a price drops by the amount you choose.

We are not a shop. We don't sell, deliver, guarantee or support the products we track. You buy directly from the shop, on the shop's own terms, at the price the shop charges at checkout.

3. Your account

• You must be 18 or older, or have a parent or guardian's consent, and give a real email address.
• Keep your password private. You're responsible for activity on your account; tell us at once if you think someone else has used it.
• You can change your details, alerts and plan at any time on the Settings page.

4. Plans, prices and payment

• Plans and prices are shown on the sign-up and Settings pages: Free, Plus and Pro. All prices are in South African rand. We're not registered for VAT, so no VAT is charged.
• Paid plans are billed monthly in advance by card through our payment provider, Paystack. We never see or store your full card number; we keep only the card type, last four digits and expiry date to show you which card is used.
• You receive an invoice by email for every payment.
• If a payment fails, we retry daily for up to 7 days and tell you by email. If it still fails, your account moves to the Free plan; your list and history are kept, and items above the Free limit are paused (not deleted).
• Upgrades start as soon as the payment goes through. Downgrades take effect at the end of the month you've paid for.
• The Free plan costs nothing and has no card on file.

5. Our price guarantee

The guarantee covers what you pay PriceMapper. It doesn't cover the prices shops charge for products; see section 9.

6. Cancelling

• Cancel any time on the Settings page (choose the Free plan). There is no fixed term, no cancellation fee and no notice period.
• After cancelling you keep your paid plan until the end of the month already paid for, and you are not charged again.
• Apart from the cases in sections 7 and 8, we don't refund the unused part of a month.

7. 7-day cooling-off

You may cancel a paid plan within 7 days of first signing up for it, without giving a reason and without any penalty, and get a full refund of that first payment. Your plan starts straight away when you pay, but we give you this cooling-off right anyway, in line with section 44 of ECTA. To use it, email us from your account's email address within the 7 days, or cancel in Settings and then email us. The refund is paid within 30 days of cancelling (usually much sooner, see section 8).

8. Refunds and how they're paid

When you get a refund

• Cooling-off: full refund of the first payment for a plan, if you cancel within 7 days (section 7).
• Billing mistakes: a duplicate charge, a charge after you cancelled, or a charge above the published price: the extra amount, in full.
• Service failure: if PriceMapper is unavailable, or prices aren't checked, for more than 72 hours in total in a paid month for reasons within our control, you can ask for a refund of that month's fee in proportion to the time lost.
• Any other refund the law requires, including under the Consumer Protection Act, 2008.

How to ask

Email us from your account's email address with the date and amount of the charge. We reply within 5 business days to confirm the refund or explain why it doesn't apply.

How refunds are paid out

• Refunds go back to the same card that was charged, through Paystack. We can't refund in cash, to another card, or to a different account.
• We process an approved refund within 5 business days, and always within 30 days of cancellation. Your bank then usually takes another 5–10 business days to show it on your statement.
• Refunds are for the full amount you paid, and we confirm each one by email.
• If a refund can't reach the card (for example, the card was closed), we'll contact you to arrange an EFT to a bank account in your name.

9. Shop prices, research and alerts

• Prices, stock status and ratings come from the shops' own pages, read automatically once a day. They can change at any time, can be wrong on the shop's page, or can differ by branch, so the price at the shop's checkout always applies. Each price shows when it was last read.
• Product research, roles (such as "Best pick") and verdicts are produced with the help of AI from public information and reviews. They are opinions to help you compare, not advice or a guarantee about a product. The same goes for answers in Compare.
• Alerts are sent as soon as practical after each daily check, but email and push messages can be delayed or missed. Don't rely on an alert as the only way to catch a deal.
• Links to shops take you to third-party websites we don't control. Your purchase is between you and that shop.

10. Acceptable use

Please don't: copy or scrape PriceMapper's data or pages with automated tools; resell the service; try to break, overload or get around its security or plan limits; use someone else's account; or use PriceMapper for anything unlawful. The PriceMapper name, design and software belong to us and our developers; shop names and product names belong to their owners.

11. Liability

We take reasonable care to keep PriceMapper accurate and available, but we can't promise it will be uninterrupted or error-free. To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for loss caused by a shop's price, stock or conduct, by a missed or late alert, or by events outside our reasonable control, and our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the fees you paid us in the 3 months before it. Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act, 2008, ECTA or any other law that can't be excluded.

12. Suspension and closing accounts

We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms or is used to harm the service or others; where reasonable we'll warn you first and give you a chance to fix it. If we close a paid account without fault on your side, we refund the unused part of the month. You can ask us to delete your account at any time (see section 15).

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. For changes that affect your rights or what you pay, we email you at least 30 days before they apply; you can cancel before then. The version number and date are at the top of this page.

14. Complaints and disputes

1. Contact us first at our email. We acknowledge complaints within 2 business days and aim to resolve them within 10 business days.
2. If you're not satisfied, you can refer the matter to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (CGSO) or the National Consumer Commission.
3. For personal-information complaints, see section 15.

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa.

15. Privacy (POPIA)

We process personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA). We collect only what we need to run PriceMapper and never sell it.

What we collect and why

• Account: your name, email address and a secure hash of your password, to run your account and send alerts, invoices and service messages.
• Your list: the products you track, your categories, notes, alert settings and shop trust scores, to provide the service.
• Area (optional): a town or a location rounded to about 10 km, only if you add it, to show branch prices and nearby shops. We never store a street address.
• Billing: your plan, payments, invoices, and the card type, last four digits and expiry from Paystack. Paystack processes the card itself.
• Technical: sign-in times and security events (such as failed sign-ins), to protect your account.

Who processes it for us

• Microsoft Azure (hosting, database and email delivery), Paystack (card payments), and ntfy (push messages, only if you turn them on; messages contain item names, prices and links only).
• An AI service provider researches products and reads shop pages for us. It receives product names, models and shop pages, and the questions you type in Compare (with PriceMapper's details of the products you ask about), never your name, email address or account details. Don't put personal details in a Compare question.
• Shops' pages are read through our own page-reading service; shops never learn who tracks their products.

Some of these providers may store data outside South Africa; we only use providers bound by data-protection terms that give protection comparable to POPIA.

How long we keep it

For as long as your account is open. If you delete your account we remove your personal information within 30 days, except tax invoices, which the law requires us to keep for 5 years. Price history of products isn't personal information and is kept.

Your rights

You can ask to see, correct or delete your personal information, object to its processing, or withdraw consent for optional processing (such as your area or push alerts), by emailing our Information Officer, —, at our email. If you're unhappy with how we handle it, you may complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa) at inforegulator.org.za.

Marketing

We only email you about your account, your alerts, invoices and important changes. We don't send marketing without your consent, and every optional message can be switched off in Settings.

Security

Passwords are stored only as secure hashes, connections are encrypted (HTTPS), push access tokens are stored encrypted, and our systems only accept the connections they need. If a breach affects your personal information, we'll tell you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.

16. Cookies and browser storage

We use one essential cookie to keep you signed in. Your browser also remembers display choices on your device (theme, folded categories, open sections). We don't use advertising or tracking cookies.

17. Merchants

These terms apply to businesses that register on the merchant page ("merchants"), together with sections 1, 10, 11, 13, 14 and 15. Merchant terms version 1.0.

1. Who can register. Only businesses selling in the ordinary course of business. The person registering confirms they're authorised to act for the business. Private individuals can't register.
2. Reading your prices. You give us an address where your prices already are (your website's search, a product feed or API, or a shared spreadsheet). You allow us to read it automatically, usually once a day, and to show your prices, stock, product links, pictures and business name on PriceMapper, including in alerts, browse pages and to users' AI agents. You don't upload anything, and you can change or withdraw the address at any time.
3. Accurate prices. Prices must include VAT, be the price a shopper actually pays you, and match what your own site or shop shows. Remove sold or unavailable items, or mark them out of stock. You're responsible for your listings, your goods, delivery, returns and after-sales service; the sale is between you and the shopper, not PriceMapper.
4. Lawful goods. You only list goods you may lawfully sell. You comply with the Consumer Protection Act, including its implied warranty of quality (at least six months, also for refurbished and second-hand goods sold by a business), and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.
5. Refurbished and second-hand goods. You state the condition truthfully and give at least the warranty you told us. If you deal in second-hand goods you're registered with SAPS as a dealer under the Second-Hand Goods Act, 2009 (unless exempt) and keep the records it requires. We show these prices apart from new prices.
6. Review, pausing and removal. We review each registration and may decline it. We may pause or remove a merchant, or individual listings, if prices are wrong, the address stops working, shoppers complain, or these terms are broken. We tell you why unless the law or an investigation prevents it.
7. Fees. Registering and being listed is free at the moment. If we introduce fees, we tell you at least 30 days before; nothing is charged unless you agree.
8. Your information. We keep your business and contact details to run the listing and contact you, and an access key you give us for an API encrypted. We don't sell them. Your published prices may be stored in PriceMapper's price history.
9. Ending. Either side can end the listing at any time by email. We stop reading your prices from the next daily check; prices already in the price history stay as a record.
10. Liability. PriceMapper isn't liable for losses from how shoppers use your listings or from our reading your prices late or not at all. You indemnify PriceMapper against claims arising from your goods, your prices or your breach of these terms, to the extent the law allows.