Refunds, disputes and renewals

You refund in your processor's dashboard. We hear about it, and the watch follows: it locks at its next check, or at once if its buy screen is open.

What the watch does

What happened	What the watch does
Paid	Unlocks within about a second if its buy screen is open. Otherwise, when it next asks.
Refunded	Locks at its next check. At once if its buy screen is open.
A dispute opened	Locks while the dispute is open.
The dispute won	Unlocks again, unless the payment was refunded.
The dispute lost	Stays locked.
A fraud warning (Stripe)	Stays unlocked. We tell you, so you can refund before a dispute fee.
A renewal paid	Stays unlocked.
A renewal declined	Locks, with no grace period. The buyer is asked to update their card. A retry that goes through unlocks it again within about an hour.
The bank wants the buyer to confirm	Shows a QR code to the processor's invoice page.
Canceled	Stays unlocked to the end of the period paid for, with a line showing the day it ends. Then locks.
The retries ran out	Locks.
The purchase moved to a new watch	The old watch locks at its next check.

When the watch checks

Our server can't reach a watch: the watch asks us. Our server picks when.

The watch	Its next check
Paid	Once a day: 24 hours after the last, plus up to 10 minutes fixed per watch, at the first start of the app after that
Paid, a renewal coming	2 hours after the renewal time
After a declined renewal	An hour after the processor's next try
Its buy screen open	All the time, so a payment or a refund shows at once
Its clock set back	At once, so a clock set back can't keep Premium after a refund

An app nobody opens asks nothing. A refunded watch locks the next time the app is used.
Watch faces and data fields check in the background: see Watch faces and data fields.

Offline watches

"Paid" counts for 30 days after our server last confirmed it, then pauses. The next answer brings it straight back, with no unlock animation. So a watch kept away from its phone and Wi-Fi keeps a refunded purchase for 30 days at most.

Refunding

Refund in your processor's dashboard. A sale in Sales links straight to it, and shows the result once we hear of it.
Refunds lower your counted sales for your plan.
Refunding a subscription charge doesn't stop the subscription. Cancel it in your processor too, or it renews.
A buyer paid twice? The second payment is marked as a duplicate in Sales, so you can refund it.

Testing refunds and disputes

Stripe: refund from the test dashboard. Make a test dispute by paying with 4000 0000 0000 0259.
PayPal: refund from your sandbox.
Keep the buy screen open to see the watch lock within seconds.

Never run refunds, declines or disputes on a live account to test. Use test mode.

Buyers' rights the checkout handles

You're the seller, so these duties are yours. The checkout is built to help you meet them.

The EU's 14-day withdrawal right

EU buyers of digital content can withdraw within 14 days. They give that right up only by consenting to immediate supply and acknowledging they lose it, and the seller must confirm both on a durable medium, such as an email.
The checkout asks EU buyers for both, with a box they tick themselves, and keeps the time and the words with the purchase. The confirmation goes to the buyer in your name.
Each app has a "Withdraw from a purchase" page. The buyer gives the watch's code and the purchase email; we tell you and log the request, for your refund.
The processor's final Pay or Subscribe button makes clear the buyer is ordering with an obligation to pay.

The checkout shows the renewal terms and asks for the buyer's consent. We keep the proof for 3 years.
Buyers get a Manage or cancel link, to your processor's customer portal.
Renewal reminders and price-change notices go out through your processor's own settings. We check them when you go live.

Garmin's rules

State a refund policy, say from the outset what's free and what isn't, and never bait-and-switch. Your refund policy link is one of the go-live checks.