What happens after you order: from acceptance to delivery at your door

Ama lives in Tema, Community 25. On a Sunday evening she orders a pair of AirPods for her brother's birthday, which is on Thursday. She checks out as a guest, because she does not want another password, and pays with Mobile Money. The prompt on her phone says Kality Ltd. She has read enough to know that is right: iVillage Africa is a trading name of Kality Ltd.

Here is what happens to her order next, step by step.

Sunday night: waiting to be accepted

Ama's payment has gone through, but her order is not confirmed yet. Every order at iVillage is checked by a person before it is accepted: that the item is in stock, that the price is right and that the payment has arrived. We aim to do this within 12 hours.

If Ama had chosen an item sold as an order request, she would not have paid anything yet. We would first confirm availability, then email her a secure pay link, open for 24 hours, with the item held for her while it was.

Monday morning: accepted

A little after eight, Ama gets an email. Her order is accepted. That is the moment her purchase is confirmed.

The email carries her order number, which looks like IV-XXXX-XXXX-X. It is worth keeping, because it is the quickest way for us to find her order if she gets in touch.

Monday: packed

Later that day another email arrives: the order is packed. The box is still factory-sealed, exactly as it left the manufacturer. We never send a refurbished or returned unit as new.

Tuesday: out for delivery

On Tuesday morning comes the email that matters most. Ama's order is out for delivery, with a four-hour time window for when the rider expects to reach her. She can plan her day around it rather than waiting in all day.

The same message brings her a delivery code. This is the part people most often ask about.

The delivery code is how we know a parcel reached the right person. The rule is simple: give the code to the rider only once the parcel is in your hands and you have checked it is yours. Not over the phone before the rider arrives, not to someone who says they are calling on the rider's behalf, and not before you have seen the box.

Once the correct code is given and the parcel handed over, the delivery counts as complete. So treat the code the way you would treat a Mobile Money PIN, and keep it to yourself until that moment.

Tuesday afternoon: at the gate

The rider calls from the gate a little after two, inside the window. Ama goes out, takes the parcel, and does the thing we would like every customer to do: she looks at the seal before anything else. It is intact. She checks the name on the label. It is hers.

Then, and only then, she reads out the code.

If the seal had been broken, she would have been right to refuse the parcel, tell the rider, and tell us. The same goes for an item that is plainly not what she ordered.

Tuesday: delivered

A few minutes later the "delivered" email lands. Indoors, Ama compares the serial number on the box with the one on the AirPods case and in the settings on her phone. They match. The manufacturer's warranty now starts with her brother, not with anyone before him.

An hour later: how did we do?

About an hour after delivery, Ama gets one more email, inviting her to review her order. She can leave a star rating and a comment, and add photos if she likes. It is entirely optional, and it is the most useful thing a customer can send us.

Where the order lives

Ama checked out as a guest, so the emails were her whole view of the order. When she later creates an iVillage account with the same email address and verifies it, her earlier orders move into that account. From then on she can see every step under Orders, the same as someone who signed in from the start.

Customers who already have an account can follow each step there as it happens.

What delivery costs, and how long it takes

Ama pays nothing for delivery, because delivery is free across Greater Accra, which covers Accra and Tema. Orders to other regions carry a delivery charge. You see it at checkout, once you have entered your address and before you pay, and that is the amount charged.

Our typical targets are up to 24 hours in Greater Accra, up to 7 days elsewhere, and up to 5 days for a regional pickup point. They are targets rather than promises, and pre-orders or special orders carry their own estimate.

Where a pickup point is offered, collecting your order is free, in any region. You may be asked for your order details, your code and suitable identification before the parcel is released.

If something goes wrong

If you receive the wrong item, or it arrives damaged or faulty, tell us within 3 days so we can put it right quickly. Please give us an accurate address and a phone number that will answer, because a rider who cannot reach you cannot hand anything over.

Ama's brother opened his present on Thursday morning, two days after it arrived. She had wrapped it herself. Our Delivery policy has the rest of the detail, if you like to read the small print.