Platform & seller responsibility

You buy from the grower, not Gate + Gather.

Gate + Gather is a platform — a hosted piece of software — that helps independent New Zealand sellers show what's available, receive orders, take payments and manage sales. We are not the seller, the wholesaler, the courier, the fulfilment centre, or the underwriter of the transaction. We don't own the plants, we don't handle stock in a warehouse, and we don't set prices.

Each Gate is operated by its seller. The seller decides what they sell, at what price, in what condition, with what fulfilment options, under what pickup or delivery arrangements, and using which of the payment methods Gate + Gather supports. When a customer buys through a Gate, they are entering a contract with that independent seller, on the terms the seller has shown on their Gate. Gate + Gather facilitates the transaction; it isn't a party to it.

By opening a Gate, the seller takes on responsibility for the everyday operating decisions that anyone selling their own goods would carry:

• Legality of products — anything listed must be lawful to sell, possess, propagate and distribute in New Zealand.
• Right to possess, propagate and sell the specific plant material, seeds, bulbs, cuttings or associated goods on offer.
• Product accuracy — names, photos, descriptions, sizes, quantities, condition, cultivar and provenance.
• Pricing, including any GST or other taxes required by law and clear disclosure of delivery charges.
• Inventory — keeping the stock counts on the Gate reasonably current relative to markets and other channels.
• Product condition and safety at pickup or delivery, including any care instructions the buyer needs.
• Required registrations, permits, council consents or biosecurity approvals that apply to the seller's operation.
• Tax obligations under New Zealand law, including income tax and, where applicable, GST.
• Pickup and delivery — providing the promised collection window, address details, delivery lead time and any fulfilment communication.
• Customer fulfilment, including responding to reasonable questions about an order in a reasonable time.
• Refunds, replacements and other remedies for products they've sold, in line with the seller's own policies and applicable New Zealand consumer law.
• Compliance with the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, Fair Trading Act 1986 and any other law that governs their sales.

Sellers cannot contract out of rights that customers have under mandatory New Zealand consumer law, and nothing in Gate + Gather's platform terms or a seller's own Gate terms should attempt to do so.

Gate + Gather takes responsibility for operating the platform itself — the software, the moderation ladder and the personal information that flows through it:

• Providing the Gate + Gather platform according to its own Terms of Service.
• Handling the personal information that Gate + Gather controls in a way that meets our obligations under New Zealand's Privacy Act 2020.
• Operating platform functionality (storefronts, orders, checkout, payment integrations, inventory management, reporting, email notifications) with reasonable care.
• Providing the moderation process described in our Moderation & takedowns policy, including responding to reports and, where necessary, hiding listings or suspending Gates.
• Meeting Gate + Gather's own obligations under applicable New Zealand law, including consumer, competition and privacy law.

Gate + Gather is not responsible for a seller's product decisions, a seller's compliance with law outside of the platform, or a courier's performance. Where Gate + Gather integrates with third-party services (Stripe for card payments, Resend for transactional email, Emergent object storage for images, and so on), those providers are governed by their own terms — Gate + Gather remains responsible for choosing appropriate providers and configuring them competently, but not for their independent acts and omissions.

If something goes wrong with a purchase, contact the seller first — they operate the Gate, so they have the fastest path to a fix. If a seller isn't responding, or if you're concerned that a Gate is misrepresenting products, breaking the law or acting in bad faith, use the Something wrong with this Gate? link that sits in the footer of every storefront. Reports flow directly into the Gate + Gather moderation queue.