Chapbook refund policy

Within 14 days of a payment, you get back what you have not used. That one rule covers plans, renewals and top-ups; the sections below say what "used" means for each. This policy is part of the Chapbook terms. Payments are taken by Polar, our Merchant of Record, and a refund goes back through Polar to the card or method you paid with.

Before you pay

You can judge Chapbook without paying. The free plan's 60 credits cover the full outline, a sample chapter of up to 2,500 words and a cover, and the watermarked preview is the same PDF a paid plan exports, with a watermark on it. Promotional credits have no cash value.

A new plan, or an upgrade

Write to us within 14 days of the payment. What comes back depends on what the plan has done for you in that time:

• Nothing used: no monthly credits spent and no clean (unwatermarked) file created. We refund the payment in full.
• Some credits used, no clean file: we refund the unused share, the payment multiplied by the monthly credits you have left over the credits the plan gives. On Creator ($29, 350 credits), having spent 70 credits, that is $23.20.
• A clean file created, or a book page published: the plan has delivered what it is for, and the payment is not refundable under this policy. Your legal rights, below, are unaffected.

An upgrade is treated the same way, applied to the amount the upgrade charged.

Renewals

A plan renews each month until you cancel it from the billing page, and cancelling stops the next renewal while you keep the plan to the end of the month you paid for. If a renewal went through that you meant to cancel, write to us within 14 days of it: provided you have spent none of that month's credits and created no clean file in it, we refund the renewal in full. Otherwise a renewal is not refundable, and unused monthly credits are not paid out when a month ends.

Free trials

Some accounts are offered a 7-day free trial of Creator. The trial costs nothing: Polar takes your card when it starts and charges the plan's price when it ends, unless you cancel before then from the billing page. Cancel during the trial and nothing is ever charged; the trial's remaining credits end at once, and everything you made, clean files included, stays yours. The first charge after a trial is a new plan's payment under the rules above, counted from that charge: the credits you spent and the files you made during the free trial do not count against it.

Top-ups

Within 14 days of buying a pack, we refund its unused share and withdraw those credits from your balance. Top-up credits are spent only after your monthly and promotional credits, so a pack you have not reached is refunded in full. After 14 days a pack is not refundable; its credits never expire.

When the fault is ours

None of the limits above apply when Chapbook got it wrong: a double charge, a charge after a cancellation had taken effect, a job that failed and kept its credits, or an export we cannot make work. Tell us when you notice and we will fix it, return the credits or refund the payment, whichever puts it right.

What a refund does

A refunded plan ends straight away rather than at the end of the month, and its remaining monthly credits go with it. Your manuscripts stay in your account and stay editable, and files you already exported remain yours. Polar returns the tax charged on the refunded amount along with it. Banks usually show a refund within five to ten working days.

If it was the first payment of an account made through someone's referral link, the 100 referral credits each of the two accounts received are taken back too, apart from any already spent.

What is not refundable

• Payments older than 14 days, except where the fault is ours.
• The part of a month left over after you cancel; the plan runs to the end of it instead.
• Promotional and referral credits, and monthly credits that expired unused.
• Payments on an account we closed for breaking the terms, except where the law requires a refund.

Your legal rights

If you buy as a consumer in the European Union, the United Kingdom or another place with a cooling-off right, you may withdraw from the purchase within 14 days without giving a reason; an email saying so is enough. When you subscribe or buy a top-up you ask us to start straight away, so if you withdraw, the law lets us keep a proportionate amount for what you had already used, which is the unused-share rule above, and the right to withdraw from digital content ends once you have downloaded it on that understanding. Nothing in this policy limits a right the law gives you that cannot be waived, and where the law gives you more than this policy, the law applies.

How to ask

Email support@chapbook.ink from the address on your Chapbook account, with the date of the payment. No reason is needed. We answer within five working days. If a charge looks wrong, please write to us before disputing it with your bank; we can usually settle it faster.

Changes

If this policy changes, the version in force when you paid is the one that applies to that payment.