Payments, Reservations & Refunds

Sides and quarters

A reservation holds an animal for you in a given season. We raise a finite number of animals each year, and a reservation takes one of them off the schedule for everyone else.

No deposit is required. Your reservation is confirmed in writing at the confirmed rate. The full balance is calculated on the actual hanging weight of your animal and is due at delivery — you may optionally prepay or pay in installments from your account after ordering. If you placed a deposit before the disruption, it will be honored — it remains on account as a credit. See what happened and what we changed.

Cancelling: before your animal is committed to processing, contact us and we will cancel at no charge or hold your reservation for a future season. After your animal is committed — scheduled, harvested, or cut to your sheet — that beef cannot be resold as someone else’s custom order, and we ask that you honor the order. We will always tell you when the cutoff is approaching. If we cannot supply the animal you reserved, you get the next available animal or a full release — your choice, at no cost.

One-time beef boxes

Boxes are flat-priced. If you choose to pay when ordering, your card is charged through Square’s secure checkout at that time; otherwise the balance is due at delivery. Shipping (where offered) is included in the box price; farm pickup is free.

Cancelling: contact us any time before your box is packed and we will cancel and refund any payment in full. Once a box is packed or shipped, our replace-or-credit guarantee below applies instead.

Subscriptions

Subscribing authorizes Vermont Natural Beef to charge your card the stated box price on a recurring schedule. Your first charge happens at signup, and your card is charged on that same date each cycle after (monthly, every 2 months, or every 3 months, whichever you chose). Boxes go out during the second full week of each month. Your card is stored in Square’s secure vault — never on our systems — and Square emails a receipt for every charge.

Skip, pause, or cancel anytime from your account: skipping stops exactly one box and resumes automatically; pausing stops charges until you resume; cancelling ends the subscription. Changes take effect when made at least 7 days before your next charge — inside 7 days, the change applies to the following cycle. A box that has already been charged and packed will be delivered; the change starts with the next one.

Failed payments: if a charge fails, Square retries it and emails you; if it still fails, we pause the subscription and get in touch — nothing ships unpaid and no fee is added.

Our replace-or-credit guarantee

If any product arrives damaged, thawed, spoiled, or materially different from what you ordered, contact us within 48 hours of delivery. We will replace the affected packages or credit them to your account — every time, no argument. Details are on our shipping & returns page.

Rescheduling a side or quarter

Plans change. If you need to move your order to a later date, tell us as early as you can and we will do our best to move your reservation to the next available slot.