Return and Refund Policy

Orchidmart Inc. — orchid and horticultural plant import. Last updated 16 August 2026.

1. Scope — What This Policy Covers

1.1 We are an importer, not a grower

Orchidmart Inc. imports orchids and horticultural plants directly from licensed growers abroad and delivers them to customers across Canada. We do not operate a greenhouse and we do not grow the plants we sell. Our role is to select, import, inspect and forward — not to produce.

This distinction matters, and we ask our customers to understand it before ordering. A grower can guarantee a plant they raised themselves under known conditions. An importer cannot. Plants imported into Canada must by law arrive bare-root — without pots or growing medium — and they reach us after international transit, phytosanitary inspection and customs clearance. They arrive stressed. That is the nature of the product.

1.2 What we do commit to

Because we cannot promise a perfect plant, we commit instead to something we can control: an accurate description.

For every listing, we work to describe as precisely as we are able:

• the condition you should expect on arrival, including the bare-root grade (BR-1 to BR-5) typical for that genus;
• the size of the plant, and the pot size it was grown in;
• the maturity — whether it is a seedling, near-blooming size, or blooming size;
• the risks specific to that plant — leaf loss, root loss, transit marks, slow re-establishment, or variation in bloom.

Our commitment is that what arrives will match what we described. We do not promise a flawless specimen; we promise an honest one. Where our description turns out to be wrong, that is our responsibility and we will make it right. Where the plant matches the description but requires skill and patience to establish, that is the nature of imported bare-root material — and it is what you agreed to when ordering.

1.3 Two separate sets of rules

1.4 Documents forming your purchase agreement

This policy must be read together with our Terms and Explanations, which sets out our product categories (Preorder / In Stock / Wishlist), quality grades (A / B / C), the bare-root and AS-IS condition of imported plants, and how size, photographs and fragrance information should be interpreted.

Both documents form part of your purchase agreement. By placing an order you confirm that you have read and accepted both.

1.5 Published policy prevails

If anything in this policy conflicts with a statement made by email, social media, messaging app or in conversation, the published policy applies.

2. Live Arrival Guarantee

2.1 What is guaranteed

We guarantee that your plants leave us alive and correctly packed, and that they arrive alive.

This guarantee is fulfilled at the moment of delivery. If the plant is alive when it reaches you, our obligation has been met. What happens afterwards depends on growing conditions, watering, light, humidity and handling — all of which are outside our control — and is not covered by this or any other guarantee we offer. A plant that arrives alive and declines in the following days, weeks or months is not a valid claim.

2.2 The 24-hour rule

To make a claim you must contact us at info@orchidmart.ca within 24 hours of the delivery time recorded by the carrier (for pickup orders, within 24 hours of collection).

This deadline is not a formality. After 24 hours in your care it is no longer possible for us, or for the carrier, to distinguish transit damage from post-delivery conditions. Claims received after 24 hours cannot be processed, regardless of the condition of the plant.

If you will not be able to receive and open your shipment on the day it arrives, please do not order. Plants left in a vehicle, on a porch, in a mailroom or in a parcel locker are outside our control and outside this guarantee.

2.3 What you must send

Your claim must include:

1. Your order number;
2. Clear photographs or video in which the problem is plainly visible — the whole plant, in good light, against a plain background;
3. Images of the package and packing material as delivered;
4. A short description of what you believe is wrong.

Images must be clear enough for us to identify the problem ourselves. We cannot assess a claim from a written description alone, from a blurred or dark image, or from a single close-up that does not show the whole plant. Images taken after the plant has been watered, trimmed, repotted or otherwise handled cannot be accepted as evidence of transit damage.

2.4 How claims are resolved

We respond within 1–2 business days. We assess the extent of the damage, and you tell us whether you would prefer a refund or a replacement. The outcome will be one of the following:

The store credit option is offered because it is the only way we can return the full amount you paid, shipping included. You are free to choose it or not; refunds to your original payment method remain available in every case.

Where damage is minor and the plant remains viable, a partial refund is normally the appropriate outcome. Where a plant is dead or unsaleable, a full refund, replacement or store credit applies.

3. What Is Not Covered

3.1 Normal characteristics of imported bare-root material

The following are inherent to imported bare-root plants, are disclosed in every listing, and do not constitute damage:

• Leaf loss. Bare-root plants commonly shed lower or older leaves during transit and re-establishment.
• Root loss or dry roots. Roots are trimmed for phytosanitary compliance and may dry in transit. Grades BR-3 to BR-5 are expected to regrow roots.
• Yellowing, wrinkling or dehydration of leaves and pseudobulbs.
• Fold marks, creases, broken leaf tips or damaged spikes from packing and handling.
• Loss of flowers or spikes. We do not guarantee the condition of flowers or spikes on arrival; items marked Not in Spike are not held to any flower standard.
• Minor blemishes, sunburn or marking on plants grown outdoors by our suppliers.
• Slow establishment, or a period of no visible growth after arrival.

3.2 Pests, fungal and bacterial infection

Imported plants are inspected and certified by the exporting authority and by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency before release.

• Found on arrival: if you identify pests, fungal or bacterial infection when you open your shipment, report it within 24 hours with clear images and it will be handled under the Live Arrival Guarantee (Section 2).
• Appearing after delivery: not covered. Imported plants arrive stressed and are more susceptible to infection than established plants. Managing pests and pathogens after delivery is part of growing imported bare-root material, and we sell to growers who are equipped to do it.

3.3 Bloom, size, maturity and fragrance

• Bloom variation. Seed-grown plants vary naturally and may not match the parent. Peloric or spotted traits may revert. Photographs show the best expected outcome, not a guaranteed one. Choose divisions or tissue-culture (TC) clones if you require an exact match — these are labelled.
• Size and maturity. We assess size and maturity from supplier photographs, and we say so on every listing. Reference images are examples of the batch, not the individual plant you will receive. A plant that matches the size stated in the listing is not a valid claim, even if it is smaller than you hoped. Where our stated size proves wrong, that is our error — see Section 8.
• Fragrance. Scent varies with the individual plant, environment, temperature and blooming stage. Fragrance notes are a guide, not a specification.

3.4 After delivery

• Decline or death after delivery, for any reason (see 2.1).
• Failure to acclimatise where the care instructions supplied with your order were not followed.

4. Damage Tolerance & Pre-Shipment Inspection

4.1 We inspect before we ship

Every imported shipment is inspected by us on arrival in Canada, before anything is sent to you. This is the stage at which most problems are caught, and it is the main protection we offer as an importer.

4.2 How damage is assessed

Damage is assessed on the plant as a whole — the proportion of leaves, roots, pseudobulbs or growths affected, and whether the plant remains viable and able to re-establish.

4.3 What this means for you

We do not ship plants we consider damaged. If a plant does not meet our standard, you will hear from us before it is sent — you will not be asked to accept it, and you will not need to file a claim to be made whole. Where an item is cancelled at this stage it is refunded in full, including any shipping attributable to it, because nothing has been shipped and no carrier has been paid.

This is why our Live Arrival Guarantee is limited to condition on arrival: by the time a plant is shipped to you, it has already passed inspection.

5. Shipping & Carrier Delays

5.1 We purchase only the service you select

At checkout you choose the shipping service for your order. We purchase that service and no other. If you select standard ground shipping, your plants travel by ground.

If your plants are time-sensitive, if you are located in a remote area, or if you are ordering in marginal weather, please select Express. The difference in cost is small compared to the value of the plants.

5.2 Transit times are estimates, not guarantees

These are the carrier's own estimates. Routing, sorting, transfers and delivery scheduling are decided by the carrier, not by us. A shipment may travel through sorting facilities that appear indirect; this is normal carrier network routing and is not an error we are able to influence or correct.

We cannot guarantee a delivery date, and we cannot refund, discount or compensate for a delivery that takes longer than estimated.

5.3 If plants arrive dead after a delay

If your plants arrive dead, the Live Arrival Guarantee applies in the normal way (Section 2), whether or not the shipment was delayed. Report within 24 hours of the recorded delivery time, with clear images, and we will resolve it under Section 2.4.

Shipping charges remain non-refundable in all cases, including delayed shipments. The carrier is paid for the delivery whether or not the plants survive it.

5.4 Carrier claims — what we need from you

Where a shipment is delayed, lost, or arrives damaged, we will file a claim with the carrier on your behalf and supply the shipping records needed to support it. Your cooperation is a condition of resolution, because a carrier will not consider a claim without documentation from the recipient.

You must provide:

• For damage: clear photographs of the package as delivered and of the damaged plants, as set out in Section 2.3.
• For loss or delay: a short written statement describing what happened — when the package was expected, when (or whether) it arrived, and its condition on arrival. The carrier requires this in the recipient's own words.

The carrier alone decides whether a claim is accepted and what it pays. Any amount recovered does not change the resolution already agreed with you under Section 2.4.

5.5 Delays caused at the delivery address

The Live Arrival Guarantee does not apply where delivery was delayed by circumstances at your end — an incorrect or incomplete address, a failed delivery attempt, a package held for collection, a parcel left unclaimed at a depot, or a package that sat unopened after delivery.

6. Cold-Season Shipping

6.1 We do not hold orders for weather

We do not delay shipments waiting for warmer weather. Orders ship on schedule year-round, on the terms below.

Customers who ordered in previous seasons may recall that we held orders during cold spells. We no longer do this. Holding left customers waiting with no certainty of arrival, and it did not reliably protect the plants.

6.2 How we assess cold risk

There is no single temperature threshold. Different genera tolerate cold differently, and we assess each shipment against the optimal temperature range for the plants in it.

We assess conditions at three points — the origin, the transit route, and the destination. A shipment may be treated as cold-season even when your local forecast looks mild, because the route passes through colder regions.

During the cold season, product pages carry a notice indicating that the items below are required.

6.3 Cold-season shipments require protection

When we assess a shipment as cold-season, the following must be added to your order:

These are not optional add-ons. They are the condition on which we ship live plants in cold conditions, and the condition on which the Live Arrival Guarantee applies during the cold season.

Winter Shipping Protection provides the same coverage as our standard Live Arrival Guarantee, set out in Section 2 — no more and no less. It does not extend coverage beyond arrival, and it does not make shipping charges refundable. It is what keeps the guarantee in force during months when we could not otherwise offer it.

6.4 If protection is not purchased

We will not ship live plants in cold conditions without it, and we will not ship at your risk on request.

If the required protection is not added, the order is cancelled and refunded in full, including shipping.

This is the only circumstance in which we cancel a plant order (see Section 1.3). We would rather cancel your order than send plants we expect to freeze.

7. Preorder & Import Orders

7.1 What a preorder is

A preorder is not a purchase from stock. We do not hold the plant when you order it. We collect orders during an open window, then place a single consolidated order with the overseas nursery and import the plants against it.

This is why preorders are priced below our in-stock items: you accept a longer wait and the ordinary risks of import, and in exchange you get access to material not otherwise available in Canada, at a lower price.

7.2 The cut-off date — the point of no return

Every preorder campaign has a published cut-off date.

Before the cut-off: you may cancel your preorder for any reason and receive a full refund, including shipping. Nothing has been ordered on your behalf and nothing has been spent.

After the cut-off: within a few days of the window closing we submit the combined order to the nursery and pay for it. Once that international order has been submitted, no order can be cancelled, changed or refunded. The plants are reserved in your name, the cost is committed, and it is ours whether or not you still want them.

The cut-off date is published on every preorder campaign page and in the campaign announcements. Please treat it as a firm deadline.

7.3 What the arrival window means

Every preorder campaign publishes an arrival window — for example, early to mid September.

This window refers to the date the shipment arrives in Canada and clears inspection — not the date it reaches your door. Once a shipment has arrived and cleared, we unpack, inspect and dispatch orders in batches, which normally takes a further 1–2 weeks. Local pickup is usually available sooner.

Actual arrival depends on the nursery's harvest and preparation schedule, export phytosanitary inspection in the country of origin, flight availability, customs clearance, and CFIA inspection in Canada. Movement within the published window is normal, and we publish progress updates throughout each campaign.

We treat the end of the published window as a commitment. If a shipment has not arrived in Canada by then, see 7.4.

7.4 If we fail to deliver

If we are ultimately unable to deliver the plants you ordered, you are made whole. In each of the following cases the item is refunded in full, including shipping — nothing was shipped, and no carrier was paid:

• the nursery is unable to supply the plant, or supplies fewer than we ordered;
• the plant is refused entry, seized or destroyed by the CFIA;
• the plant fails our inspection under Section 4;
• the shipment has not arrived in Canada by the end of the published arrival window. Waiting is part of a preorder, but the window is a commitment we make to you, and if we do not meet it you are entitled to your money back.

Where an item cannot be supplied, we will contact you. The default outcome is a refund. If you would prefer a substitute plant or a place on a later import, tell us and we will arrange it.

7.5 Substitutions

We do not substitute plants without your agreement. If the nursery supplies something other than what you ordered, we will tell you what arrived, and you may accept it or take a full refund of that item.

8. Wrong or Missing Items

If we send the wrong plant, omit an item, or ship something that does not match its listing, that is our error and we carry the cost.

Report it at info@orchidmart.ca within 7 days of delivery, with your order number and images of what you received. We will either send the correct item at our expense, or refund it in full, as you prefer.

Identification and labelling — plants not true to name

We sell plants under the names given to us by the exporting nursery, and neither we nor anyone else can verify identity before a plant blooms.

If your plant blooms out and is clearly not the variety it was sold as, tell us — we want to know. Send your order number and photographs of the open bloom. We will correct the listing and raise it with the nursery.

You then have two options:

Most customers keep the plant and take the credit; a mislabelled orchid is still a good orchid. Either way, you are not left paying for something you did not order.

Unstable traits are excluded

Peloric and semi-peloric Phalaenopsis (sold as peloric, 3-lip or big lip), heavy spotting, and similar variable traits are known to fluctuate between flowering cycles and to revert to the ordinary form — particularly on recently imported plants that are still re-establishing.

A plant that flowers without its expected trait has not been mislabelled, and is not covered by this section. The trait often returns as the plant strengthens. See Terms and Explanations §7.

9. Non-Plant Items

Growing media, pots, fertilisers, tools and decorative items may be returned within 7 days of delivery, provided they are unopened and in their original packaging.

• Contact info@orchidmart.ca for authorisation before returning anything. Items sent back without authorisation cannot be accepted.
• The buyer pays return shipping. Original shipping charges are not refunded.
• Opened growing media, fertilisers and chemicals cannot be returned, for contamination and safety reasons.
• Refunds are issued once the item has been received and inspected.

10. Order Changes & Cancellations

Delivery address. Tell us as soon as possible. We can change an address at any time before the shipping label is created; once a package is in the carrier's hands we cannot redirect it.

Combining orders. If you place more than one order and they have not yet shipped, we can usually combine them into a single shipment and refund the difference in shipping. Ask us.

Adding to an order. We can add items to an unshipped order where stock allows.

Cancelling an in-stock order. In-stock orders have a processing time of 2–4 business days, during which the order is selected, prepared and packed. You may cancel while your order is still within that window and has not yet been prepared — contact us as early as you can. Once the plants have been pulled and packed for your order they cannot be returned to stock, and the order can no longer be cancelled.

Cancelling a preorder. Before the published cut-off date, yes, in full (Section 7.2). After the international order has been submitted, no.

Cold-season orders without the required protection are cancelled by us and refunded in full (Section 6.4).

11. How to Submit a Claim

Email info@orchidmart.ca. Please do not submit claims by social media, messaging apps or phone — we cannot process a claim without a written record and images.

Include:

1. Your order number in the subject line;
2. Clear photographs or video showing the problem, the whole plant, and the package as delivered;
3. A short description of what is wrong and what outcome you would prefer.

Deadlines:

We reply within 1–2 business days. Our business hours are Monday to Friday, 10:00–17:00 Eastern; messages sent on weekends and holidays are answered the next business day.

12. Refunds — Method & Timing

12.1 When shipping is refunded

There is one principle behind every shipping decision in this policy:

Where you would like the full amount back including shipping on a delivered shipment, store credit is available for that full value (Section 2.4).

12.2 Method and timing

• Refunds are issued to your original payment method. We cannot refund to a different card or account.
• Once issued, refunds normally appear within 5–10 business days, depending on your bank or card issuer. The timing after we issue a refund is not within our control.
• Store credit is issued immediately and does not expire.
• Refunds on returned non-plant items are issued after the item is received and inspected.

12.3 Preorders and payment disputes

Please contact us before contacting your bank. We are a small business; a payment dispute costs us the disputed amount plus a non-refundable bank fee whatever the outcome, and it is almost always something we could have resolved in one email.

This matters most on preorders. A preorder is an order placed for the future, and it is not overdue until the arrival window has passed. Your order confirmation email states the arrival window for your campaign, and we email progress updates as the campaign moves. If you have not seen those updates, check your spam folder and write to us — we will resend them.

If your shipment has not arrived in Canada by the end of the published window, you are entitled to a full refund including shipping under Section 7.4. Just ask us. You do not need to go to your bank to get it, and asking us is faster.

Where a dispute is filed, we will respond to your bank with your order confirmation, the published campaign terms and arrival window, our correspondence with you, and this policy.

13. Requests We Cannot Accommodate

We are asked for the following often enough that it is worth setting out clearly. Declining them is not a judgement about you — it is how we keep the same terms for every customer.

13.1 We do not hand-select plants

Plants are shipped as described, not as chosen. We cannot accept requests to select:

• a plant that is in spike, in bud or in flower;
• a plant with more roots, more growths or more leaves than another;
• a plant with particular variegation, patterning or markings;
• the largest, the fullest, or "the best one you have";
• a specific individual plant from a photograph, unless the listing states it is a one-of-a-kind item.

On a preorder, selection is not something we could offer even if we wanted to. When you place a preorder the plants are still overseas and have not been grown, harvested or packed. We do not know what condition they will arrive in, and neither does the nursery. A promise to hand-pick would be a promise about something nobody has seen yet.

Nor could we price it fairly. A customer ordering ten plants cannot reasonably be charged more at the last minute because a selection was requested, and a customer who did not ask would end up with whatever was left over — having paid exactly the same price.

Random allocation is the only fair method, and the standard we hold is the floor, not the ceiling. Every plant is inspected before it ships and anything falling outside our standard is rejected (Section 4). Even the least impressive plant in a batch has passed that inspection and matches its description. That is the guarantee — not that you receive the best one, but that there is no bad one.

13.2 Sales tax and payment

Every sale we make is recorded and taxed. Orchidmart Inc. is registered for GST/HST and is required by law to charge it on all applicable sales, whatever the payment method, and whether the order is shipped or collected in person.

We are not able to process a sale without tax, off the books, or outside our order system. This is not a matter of discretion or negotiation.

13.3 Requests outside our published terms

We cannot ship without the cold-season protection described in Section 6, cancel a preorder after the international order has been submitted (Section 7.2), or extend the Live Arrival window beyond 24 hours (Section 2.2). These are firm.

14. Refusing and Suspending Service

14.1 This works both ways

Everything above describes what we owe you. This section describes the small number of situations in which we will stop trading with a customer.

We are a small import business. We publish detailed descriptions, grades, arrival windows and terms precisely so that both sides know what has been agreed. When we have met what we described — the plants match the listing, the shipment arrived within the published window, and our policies were followed — we expect those terms to be honoured in return.

14.2 Grounds

We may decline an order, cancel an order, or permanently suspend a customer where there is:

• Abusive conduct — threatening, abusive, harassing or discriminatory behaviour toward our staff, in any channel;
• Claims falling outside this policy, pursued after our position has been explained;
• A payment dispute raised without contacting us first, where the goods matched their description and arrived within the published window;
• Refusal to comply with the cold-season requirements in Section 6;
• A demand to cancel a preorder after the international order has been submitted (Section 7.2);
• Misuse of our guarantees, including claims supported by images that do not correspond to the order received.

14.3 What this is not

This is about conduct, not people. We do not decline service on the basis of any personal characteristic, and disagreeing with us — including firmly — is not grounds for anything. Customers are entitled to challenge our decisions, and we would rather hear it than not.

14.4 What happens

Where we suspend a customer we will tell you by email and explain why. Any order already paid for and not yet fulfilled will be refunded in full, including shipping. We do not keep money for goods we have decided not to send.

Suspension is permanent, and applies to future orders placed under any name, email address or delivery address associated with the account.

This policy is read together with our Terms and Explanations. Both form part of your purchase agreement.
Orchidmart Inc. · Richmond Hill, Ontario · info@orchidmart.ca