How our order acceptance and pay link works, explained simply

It is a quarter past ten at night. Yaw has just paid for a laptop on his phone, the Mobile Money prompt has come and gone, and the screen says thank you. But his order page does not say confirmed yet. It is waiting to be accepted. Accepted by whom? He has already paid.

If you have shopped with us, you may have had the same moment. This article explains what happens between "thank you" and "your order is accepted", and why we do it this way.

A person looks at every order

Every order that comes to iVillage is checked by someone on our team before it is confirmed. Not a script, a person. They look at three things:

• Stock. Is the exact item you chose, in that colour and that configuration, physically available to send to you?
• Price. Is the price you saw the right one? Prices can change before an order is accepted, and mistakes on a product page, although rare, do happen.
• Payment. Has the payment actually come through, in full, from a payment method that looks right?

We aim to do this within 12 hours. The moment it is done, you get an email saying your order is accepted. That acceptance is what confirms your purchase. Placing an order, or even completing payment, does not on its own mean the order has been accepted.

That can feel slower than a shop that says "confirmed" the instant you tap Pay. We think it is kinder. The alternative is the call nobody wants, a week later, explaining that the item you paid for was never actually there.

If for any reason we cannot accept your order, we tell you, and any money due back to you is refunded, normally to the way you paid.

Two kinds of item: in stock, and order request

Most of what we sell is in stock. Some products are sold as order requests, and the product page tells you which is which. The difference shows up at checkout.

Items in stock

You pay at checkout, in full. Our team then checks the order and accepts it, and it moves on to packing and delivery. This is the ordinary route for most orders.

Order request items

Here, nothing is charged at checkout. You place the request, and we first confirm that we can get the item for you. Once we have, we email you a secure pay link.

A few things about that link:

• It stays open for 24 hours.
• While it is open, the item is held for you. Nobody else can buy the unit we have set aside.
• It takes you to the same secure payment page as an ordinary checkout.

If you pay within the 24 hours, your order carries on exactly like any other. If the link expires, nothing has been taken from you.

The point of an order request is simple: you should never pay for something we have not yet confirmed we can deliver.

How paying works

Payment is by card or Mobile Money, through Paystack. When you pay, you leave our site for Paystack's own payment page, enter your details there, and come back to us once it is finished. We never see or store your full card number.

One detail surprises people. Your Mobile Money approval prompt, the Paystack page, receipts, SMS alerts and card or bank statements show Kality Ltd, not iVillage Africa. That is expected. iVillage Africa is a trading name of Kality Ltd, the company your contract of sale is with. If you ever see a charge from Kality Ltd that you do not recognise, write to us and we will look into it straight away.

We do not currently offer instalment plans or payment on delivery. Full payment is needed before an order is dispatched or collected.

What the emails look like

We email you as your order moves. For most customers, the order of events looks like this:

1. Pay link (order requests only). Availability is confirmed; pay within 24 hours.
2. Accepted. A person has checked it, and your purchase is confirmed.
3. Packed, out for delivery, delivered. Each of these gets its own email.

Your order number looks like IV-XXXX-XXXX-X. Keep it handy if you contact us, because it takes us straight to your order. You can also see every step in your account under Orders. If you checked out as a guest, your orders move into your account once you create one with the same email address and verify it.

Why we bother

We sell high-value, sealed electronics. For a phone or a laptop, a customer in Kumasi or Ho is trusting us with a significant amount of money, and we would rather be certain than fast. A person checking stock, price and payment before we say yes is the cheapest way we know to avoid disappointing anyone.

It also protects you in ways you may never notice. Unusual or high-value payments sometimes need a second look to make sure the card or wallet really belongs to the person using it. That check happens here too, quietly, before your order is accepted.

Yaw's laptop was accepted the next morning, before he had finished his tea. The wait overnight was not a problem; it was the check. If you want the fine print, it is all in our Terms of sale.