Refunds and disputes

Not because they changed their mind or were passed by another business: all bids are final, and the business ticks a box saying it understands that before it pays. The only refunds are the ones the Refund Policy lists, plus the ones you choose to give yourself, from your dashboard or from your Stripe Dashboard.

On a board with approval on, a business can cancel before you approve, because its card is only held; nothing is charged, so nothing is refunded.

• A payment that completes after the cycle has ended. Bids close in the final minutes, but a checkout started just before can still complete late; it is never applied to the next cycle.
• A payment for a website another business had already paid for, or one that was already declined or removed, or held for your approval in another checkout.
• Every payment behind the running cycle when we suspend a board.

Each of these is refunded everything but the card processing, and the business is emailed what was returned.

On every full refund we make, the business gets back everything it paid except the card processing. The bid (and any sales tax) goes back out of your Stripe balance, and we return our whole fee into your balance right after, as a second movement on your Stripe account. So on a card issued in the United States, at Stripe's standard rate and with no sales tax, a full refund leaves you, and us, exactly where we were before the payment.

Stripe does not give back its own processing fee on a refund; the card processing the business paid stays with you to cover it. Where Stripe charged your account more than that covered (on a card issued abroad, for example), the difference stays yours.

Only the account's Owner can. Open "Payments and refunds", find the payment under its board and spot, and press "Refund…". Before anything is sent, the page shows every amount: what goes back to the business's card, what leaves your Stripe balance, our fee coming back into your balance, how much your balance goes down by, and the card processing, which is not refunded and pays Stripe's fee. Refunding here returns our fee to you. A refund from your Stripe Dashboard does not.

The refund returns everything left on the payment except the card processing, in one go: there is no partial form, and only one such refund per payment. The page lists each board's most recent payments; one it does not show is refunded from your Stripe Dashboard.

• When we have already refunded the payment, or you already refunded it from your dashboard.
• When the spot was removed because the business broke our rules; that decision keeps the payment. A goodwill refund from your Stripe Dashboard is still possible.
• While the payment is disputed, or while a card network's inquiry about it is open. Once the inquiry closes, you can press it again.
• When refunds you made from your Stripe Dashboard have already returned more than the bid.

Yes, in whole or in part, as a goodwill gesture. Stripe tells us, and we apply it: the refund counts against our fee first, and only the part that reaches the bid comes off the spot's total, in whole dollars, rounded up, so a part refund can move the spot's place.

A refund from your Stripe Dashboard cannot reach our fee, because only we can return it. If you refund the whole payment there, you pay our fee and the card processing back out of your own balance (Stripe keeps its processing fee). To have our fee returned with the refund, refund from your dashboard on OnTheList.Live instead, or, for a payment it does not list, ask us.

It stays on the board while its total is above $0, at the lower total. Once refunds bring its total to $0 it leaves the board, and the website is open again to whoever pays for it first. A finished cycle's record in the Round Archive is never rewritten: a later refund is noted against it.

We do not email the business about a refund you make from your dashboard; Stripe's receipt, if your Stripe account sends one, is its notice.

A dispute, or chargeback, is the advertiser asking their card issuer to reverse a payment. It is between the card issuer and you, as the seller. When a dispute is opened, Stripe takes the disputed amount and its own dispute fee from your Stripe balance, and the card network decides the outcome.

• We take that payment, and only that payment, off the spot's total at once.
• The spot is suspended automatically only if the payment was the spot owner's own, the card network gives a fraud reason, or what is left falls below the board's starting price. Otherwise a person reviews it.
• We put together the evidence and send it to Stripe: what was bought, the two statements the business ticked before paying (with when, from where and on what device), how long the spot held each place, and how often it was clicked. We cannot promise the outcome.

In your favour: the disputed amount comes back to your balance (Stripe's own terms decide its dispute fee), the payment counts towards the spot again, and the spot returns to the state the dispute took it from (or, once its cycle has ended, to where the cycle's end would have put it). A finished cycle is noted, never re-ranked.

For the cardholder: the money is gone from your balance. We return what remains of our fee on that payment to you; that is our current practice, which we may end for future disputes with notice.

A card issuer's request for information before any chargeback. It takes nothing from your balance and we deduct nothing for it; we record it and send the same evidence. While it is open, the refunds we make (including the one in your dashboard) are held back, because Stripe reverses a partial refund if the inquiry becomes a chargeback. Once it closes, a refund that was owed is issued. If it becomes a chargeback, it is handled as a dispute.

Every payment behind the board's running cycle is refunded to its business, everything but the card processing, and its spots are removed. Each refund comes out of your balance with our fee returned to it. If the suspension was our error, we owe you the bid part of every refund it caused, and pay it to you by hand. If we lift a suspension, the board comes back with bids stopped, and you start it again yourself.

Only one you will give yourself, from your dashboard or your Stripe Dashboard. You may not offer refunds outside the Refund Policy on the platform's behalf.