This Policy describes when you can cancel an Eats order, when you can request a refund, and how Zuta resolves issues with restaurant orders.
1. Who Prepares Your Food
Zuta Eats is a marketplace. Food is prepared by independent restaurants ("Restaurants"). Zuta provides the ordering, payment, delivery routing, and dispute handling, but the Restaurant is responsible for food preparation, food safety, and order accuracy.
2. Cancellation Before Preparation
You may cancel an order without charge while it is in any of the following statuses:
- RECEIVED — the order has been submitted to Zuta but not yet sent to the Restaurant or has not yet been accepted.
- PENDING_RESTAURANT — the Restaurant has not yet accepted.
- ACCEPTED but not yet PREPARING — the Restaurant has accepted but not started food preparation.
After the Restaurant moves the order to PREPARING (or any later status — READY, OUT_FOR_DELIVERY, DELIVERED), you can no longer cancel through the in-app cancel button. A refund request through §4 may still apply.
3. Cancellation by the Restaurant
If the Restaurant cancels — for example because an item is unavailable, the kitchen is closed, or there is a system issue — you receive an automatic full refund.
4. Refund Requests After Delivery or Pickup
You may file a refund request within 60 minutes of delivery confirmation (or pickup confirmation, for pickup orders) for any of the following reasons:
- Missing items — items in your order were not delivered.
- Wrong order — you received a different order or substituted items you did not authorize.
- Unsafe or spoiled food — the food is contaminated, undercooked in an unsafe way, expired, or otherwise unsafe to consume.
- Non-delivery — the order was marked delivered but you did not receive it.
- Duplicate charge — you were charged more than once for the same order.
- Restaurant cancellation processed late — the Restaurant cancelled but the cancellation was not reflected on your statement.
Requests filed after the 60-minute window will generally be denied as outside policy. Health-and-safety claims (unsafe / contaminated food) may be reviewed outside the window at Zuta's discretion.
5. Evidence
For most claims you must provide:
- Order number.
- Description of the issue.
- Photos where applicable (e.g., a missing-item photo of the delivered bag, or a photo of food quality issues).
- Time of delivery (auto-attached from your order record).
6. Decision and Outcomes
Zuta may:
- Approve the request and issue a full refund to your original payment method.
- Partially approve (e.g., refund only the missing items).
- Deny the request with explanation.
Refunds for Restaurant-cancelled orders are issued automatically. Other refunds may take 5–10 business days depending on processor.
7. Repeated Claims and Abuse
Zuta may decline requests, suspend the refund privilege, or restrict the account when there is evidence of repeated bad-faith claims, fabricated evidence, or coordinated fraud.
8. Delivery Tips
Tips are paid to the delivery agent and, where they have been disbursed, are typically not refundable. Zuta may credit a tip back at its discretion when there is a clear failure (e.g., non-delivery).
9. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Policy. Material changes are versioned and may require re-acceptance before your next Eats order.