About E-manthus
E-manthus is an online marketplace operated by E-Manthus (Pty) Ltd in the Kingdom of Lesotho. Products are sold in two ways, and each product page shows the store selling it:
- By E-manthus: items in the E-manthus store, many of which we buy from overseas suppliers after you order. For these, we are the seller.
- By independent sellers: items listed by other businesses and individuals with their own E-manthus store. The seller is responsible for the item and its description. We run the platform, take your payment, and help resolve any problem.
These terms work alongside our Privacy Policy, which explains how we handle your personal information, and any rules we publish for a particular promotion. If a promotion's rules differ from these terms, the promotion's rules apply to that promotion only.
Your account
- You must be 18 or older to have an account. Younger people may shop only with a parent or guardian, who is responsible for the account.
- Give us accurate details, especially your phone number and delivery address, and keep them up to date.
- One account per person. Extra accounts used to collect rewards, referral points or vouchers more than once can be merged or closed, and the rewards reversed.
- Keep your password private. You're responsible for what happens on your account unless someone got in through no fault of yours. Tell us straight away if you think someone else has used it.
- We may ask you to confirm your identity or payment before we process an order, for example when a payment looks unusual.
Products and prices
- Prices are in Maloti (M). The total at checkout, including delivery, is what you pay.
- Prices and stock can change until you place your order. The price shown at checkout when you place it is the price you pay.
- Photos and descriptions are there to help you choose. Colours can look slightly different on screen, and packaging can change. Small differences like these aren't a fault, but an item that is materially different from its description is (see Problems, returns and refunds).
- If a price is obviously wrong because of an error, for example a phone listed at M10, we'll tell you and you can choose between paying the correct price and a full refund. We won't ask you to pay more without your agreement.
Placing and paying for an order
- You place an order by checking out. It's confirmed once we've received your payment, and we'll send a confirmation with your order number. Until then, the items aren't reserved for you.
- You can pay with M-PESA, a Visa card, your E-manthus wallet or points. The options available for your order are shown at checkout.
- M-PESA asks you to approve the payment on your phone. If an order isn't paid within 24 hours, it's cancelled automatically and nothing is charged.
- We may decline or cancel an order before dispatch if we can't verify the payment, we suspect fraud, there's a pricing error, or we can't deliver to the address. If you've already paid, we refund you in full.
- Never pay a seller outside E-manthus. Payments made outside the platform aren't covered by these terms, and we can't help recover them.
If we can't supply an item
Sometimes an item turns out to be unavailable after you've paid, because a supplier has run out or stock was miscounted. If that happens:
- we'll tell you, and send the rest of your order as normal;
- we'll refund the amount you paid for the item we couldn't supply; and
- we'll only send a substitute if you agree to it first.
Cancelling an order
- You can ask us to cancel an order before it's dispatched, and we'll refund you in full.
- For items we buy from overseas after you order, once we've placed the order with our supplier we may not be able to cancel it. If we can, we may deduct costs we can't recover, and we'll tell you how much before you decide.
- After dispatch, the order can't be cancelled, but you can still use your rights under Problems, returns and refunds.
Delivery
- We deliver to all 10 districts of Lesotho. The delivery fee depends on your district and the seller, and is shown at checkout before you pay.
- Delivery times shown are estimates. Items sold by E-manthus that we buy from overseas usually arrive within 14 to 20 days of your order being confirmed, but customs, weather and courier delays can make them later. We'll keep you updated, and you can follow your order on Track Order.
- Please give a complete address and a phone number we can reach. If a delivery fails because the details were wrong or nobody could be reached, we'll try to arrange another one, but we may charge a reasonable fee for it.
- An order is delivered when it's handed to you or to someone accepting it at your address. The item is your responsibility from then on. You can also confirm delivery yourself under Account → Orders.
- If an order can't be delivered and isn't collected within 30 days of our contacting you, we may cancel it and refund what you paid, less any extra delivery costs.
Problems, returns and refunds
Our Returns & Refunds policy explains these steps in more detail.
Something wrong with your order
Please check your order when it arrives. If an item is damaged, faulty, incorrect, missing, or materially different from its description, contact us within 7 days of delivery, with photos if you can. We'll look into it and, depending on the problem, replace or repair the item, or refund you, including the delivery fee where the mistake was ours or the seller's. If you report it later, we'll still help where the law requires us to, but it may be harder for us to investigate.
Changed your mind
If you simply no longer want an item, contact us before it's dispatched. After delivery, change-of-mind returns aren't guaranteed, and some items can't be returned for hygiene or safety reasons, such as underwear, cosmetics or perishables. Where we or the seller agree to a return, the item must be unused and in its original packaging, and you may have to pay the cost of sending it back.
How refunds work
- Our support team reviews refund requests. Once a refund is approved, we pay it back to the way you paid (M-PESA or card) or, if you agree, to your E-manthus wallet, where you can spend it straight away.
- Card refunds can take extra days to appear because of the bank.
- If a refunded order earned you points, a referral reward or a voucher, those may be reversed.
Your E-manthus wallet
- You can add money to your wallet with M-PESA, and receive refunds and group-buy releases into it. You can use the balance to pay for orders on E-manthus.
- Wallet money is not a bank account and earns no interest. Cashing out the balance is not currently offered on the website. If we offer it in the app, any fee is shown before you confirm.
- Money added to your wallet doesn't expire. If we ever stop offering the wallet, we'll give you notice and a way to use or recover your balance.
- Your wallet statement in your account lists every amount in and out. Tell us promptly if something looks wrong.
Points, rewards and referrals
Points
- You earn points on qualifying orders, from loyalty levels, from reaching order milestones, and from referrals. Your account shows the current rates.
- Each point is worth M1.00 when you spend it. Points can pay for up to 50% of an order's items.
- Points expire 12 months after you earn them. They can't be transferred or sold.
- You can also convert points into your E-manthus wallet at the same value. Converted points stop expiring and can be spent on any order, but they're for spending only: they can't be withdrawn or exchanged for cash.
Referrals
- Share your referral link. When someone new signs up through it and their first order is paid, you receive 100 points, and your friend may receive a welcome discount, shown on the invite.
- If that order is cancelled or refunded within 30 days, the reward is reversed.
- Referring yourself, creating accounts for others, or any other way of gaming referrals isn't allowed. We may cancel the rewards involved and close the accounts.
We may change how points and rewards are earned, with notice, but we won't take away points you've already earned fairly, except as described above.
Group buys
- On eligible products (priced at M50.00 or more), you can start a group buy at the discounted group price shown on the product page, or join one a friend shared.
- A group needs 3 people to join within 24 hours. When you join, your share is held in your E-manthus wallet. If the wallet doesn't cover it, you top up with M-PESA.
- If the group fills, each member's order is placed at the group price and delivered as normal.
- If the group doesn't fill in time, no order is placed, and the money held is released back to your wallet.
Reviews, photos and your content
- You can review items you've bought, on the website, in the app or on WhatsApp. Reviews must be honest and about your own experience. They can't be abusive, contain other people's personal details, or advertise something.
- Reviews appear without being checked first. We remove reviews and photos that break these rules, but we don't remove or edit a review just because it's negative.
- Sellers must not offer anything in exchange for a review, or ask for a review to be changed or removed.
- You keep ownership of what you post: reviews, photos, and parcel photos you send us for our Delivered This Week wall. You give us permission to show it on E-manthus and in our marketing, free of charge, until you ask us to remove it. You must have the right to share anything you post, including permission from anyone who appears in a photo.
Selling on E-manthus
If you open a store, these extra terms apply to you:
- Your listings: describe and price items accurately, keep stock levels true, and sell only items you're allowed to sell. No counterfeit, stolen, illegal or unsafe goods.
- Your orders: prepare paid orders promptly, and keep the order status up to date. If you can't supply an item, tell us at once so the buyer can be refunded.
- Buyer details: use the buyer's name, phone number and address only to fulfil that order. Don't add them to your own lists or contact them for other reasons.
- Earnings: what you earn from an item is recorded when the order is delivered, less any commission agreed for your store. If the order is later cancelled, returned or refunded, those earnings are reversed.
- Payouts: we pay your earnings by M-PESA, to the payout number you register with us and we verify. We may hold a payout while we investigate a complaint, a suspected fraud, or an unverified payout number.
- Responsibility: you're responsible for your items, for meeting any law that applies to them, and for any tax on your sales. We may remove listings, or suspend or close a store, that breaks these terms or puts buyers at risk.
Read more about selling on Sell on E-manthus.
Using E-manthus fairly
Please don't:
- give false information, pretend to be someone else, or use someone else's account or payment details;
- place orders you don't intend to pay for or accept, or misuse refunds, chargebacks, vouchers or rewards;
- interfere with E-manthus or try to get around its security, upload harmful files, or copy our content or listings in bulk with bots or scrapers;
- harass sellers, riders, staff or other shoppers; or
- use E-manthus for anything unlawful.
Suspension and closing accounts
- We may pause orders, refunds, rewards or payouts while we look into suspected fraud or a serious breach of these terms, and may ask you for information to help. If we find a breach, we may cancel the orders and rewards involved, and suspend or close the account. Where possible, we'll tell you why and give you a chance to respond.
- You can close your account at any time, in the app or by contacting us. Closing it doesn't cancel orders already paid for. Any wallet balance and unused points should be used first, and we'll keep order records as described in our Privacy Policy.
Our responsibility to you
- We'll provide our services with reasonable care and skill. Items you buy must match their description and be fit for their normal purpose.
- If we break these terms, we're responsible for loss you suffer that was a foreseeable result. We're not responsible for loss that wasn't foreseeable, or for business losses where you use E-manthus as a business.
- Except where the law says otherwise, our total responsibility for an order is limited to the amount you paid for it.
- We're not responsible for delays or failures caused by events beyond our reasonable control, such as strikes, severe weather, border or customs closures, power or network outages, or the failure of a payment or courier provider. If that happens, we'll tell you and, if we can't deliver, refund you.
- Nothing in these terms limits responsibility we can't limit by law, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or under your statutory consumer rights.
General terms
- Changes: we may update these terms, for example when we add features or the law changes. The date at the top shows the latest version. Significant changes take effect 30 days after we tell you about them, and they never apply to orders already placed.
- Our content: the E-manthus name, logo, website and app belong to us or our licensors. You may use them only to shop or sell on E-manthus.
- Links: we're not responsible for other websites we link to.
- Transfer: we may transfer this agreement to another company that takes over E-manthus. Your rights under it won't be reduced.
- If part of these terms is invalid, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later.
- Law and disputes: these terms are governed by the laws of the Kingdom of Lesotho. Please contact us first; most problems can be sorted out quickly. If not, the courts of Lesotho will decide.
