Refund Policy

This policy applies to all paid plans on merchguard.app ("MerchGuard", "we", "us"). Payments are processed by our payment partners — Lemon Squeezy or Paddle — acting as the Merchant of Record. Refund requests are handled jointly with the Merchant of Record under their respective terms.

1. Monthly subscriptions

You may request a full refund within 30 days of your first subscription payment, provided you have used fewer than 100 scans during that period.

• · The 30-day window starts at the moment of the initial successful payment.
• · The scan-count condition exists because compute is consumed on each scan and cannot be reclaimed; sellers who scan extensively before requesting a refund have already received the substantive value of the service.
• · Refunds outside the 30-day window are at our discretion and not guaranteed.
• · Renewal payments (month 2 onward) are not refundable. To avoid charges, cancel before the next billing date — your access continues until the end of the paid period.

2. Annual subscriptions

If you purchase an annual plan, you may request a full refund within 30 days of the initial purchase, provided you have used fewer than 200 scans during that period.

• · After day 30 we do not offer pro-rated refunds on annual plans.
• · If MerchGuard discontinues a feature you purchased the annual plan specifically for, contact us — we will assess pro-rata on a case-by-case basis.

3. Top-up purchases (extra scans / extra appeal letters)

Top-up purchases are non-refundable once any portion of the top-up has been consumed.

• · Unused top-up balance is refundable within 14 days of purchase by request.
• · Top-up balance does not expire and rolls over month to month.
• · If your subscription is canceled, unused top-up balance remains usable until consumed; we do not auto-refund unused top-ups on cancellation unless requested.

4. EU and UK customers — Right of Withdrawal

If you are a consumer in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you have a statutory 14-day right of withdrawal under the Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU and the UK Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013.

• · This right applies regardless of the conditions in §1 above and overrides them where they conflict.
• · By starting to use MerchGuard during the 14-day withdrawal period (running scans, generating appeal letters, connecting an Etsy shop), you expressly agree that we have begun providing the digital service. You will lose your right of withdrawal once the service has been fully performed, which we consider to occur once you have run your first scan.
• · If you withdraw within the 14-day window before any scan has been run, you receive a full refund.
• · If you withdraw within the 14-day window after running scans, we may charge for the value of the service provided up to that point.

The Merchant of Record (Lemon Squeezy or Paddle) handles the formal withdrawal process and refund disbursement.

5. Failed scans, downtime, and service issues

If MerchGuard fails to deliver scan results due to a service-side error (not user error such as an invalid Etsy URL or unsupported listing format), we will:

• · Restore the consumed scan credit to your account, and
• · Investigate the failure and respond within 2 business days.

If MerchGuard experiences extended downtime (more than 24 consecutive hours in a billing period), eligible customers may request a pro-rated credit toward their next billing cycle. This is not a money-back refund but a service credit.

6. Account suspension or termination by MerchGuard

If we suspend or terminate your account for violating our Terms of Service (e.g., scraping, automated abuse, sharing credentials, fraudulent payment), you are not entitled to a refund of the current billing period.

If we suspend your account in error, we will restore service and credit any affected billing period.

7. How to request a refund

Send a request to support@merchguard.app with:

• · The email address associated with your MerchGuard account
• · The order ID or last 4 digits of the payment method used
• · Brief description of the reason

We respond within 2 business days. Approved refunds are issued by the Merchant of Record (Lemon Squeezy or Paddle) and typically appear on your statement within 5–10 business days.

You can also initiate refund requests directly through:

• · Lemon Squeezy customer portal
• · Paddle customer portal: linked from your purchase confirmation email

8. Chargebacks

We strongly prefer that you contact us before initiating a chargeback. Chargebacks initiated without a prior refund request, where we would have honored the refund, may result in account suspension and forfeiture of any remaining service credit.

9. Affiliate commission clawbacks

If a customer who signed up via an affiliate link requests and receives a refund within the windows defined in §1 or §2, the corresponding affiliate commission is reversed.

• · Automatic clawback window:the full duration of the customer's eligible refund window — i.e. 30 days from the customer's first payment (monthly subscription) or 30 days from the annual renewal/initial purchase.
• · Mechanism:the previously credited commission is deducted from the affiliate's next scheduled payout. If the next payout is smaller than the clawback amount, the negative balance carries forward to subsequent payouts.
• · Chargebacks: in addition to commission reversal, chargebacks incur a $15 dispute fee charged to the affiliate, matching the Lemon Squeezy default fee schedule.
• · Recurring commissions:for affiliates entitled to ongoing commission on a customer's subsequent monthly renewals, only the specific refunded billing period is clawed back — prior paid renewals that the customer did not refund remain payable.
• · Cancellations without refund: if a customer cancels their subscription but does not request a refund, the affiliate keeps the commission already paid for prior billing periods. Future renewals (which will not occur) generate no further commission.
• · Audit: affiliates can see all clawbacks, refunds, and chargebacks in their affiliate dashboard with the original transaction reference.

This clawback structure is automated through our payment partner (Lemon Squeezy or Paddle) and is also reflected in the MerchGuard Affiliate Terms.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The "last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent change. Existing subscriptions are governed by the policy that was in effect at the time of purchase for the duration of that billing period.

11. Contact

Email: support@merchguard.app

Merchant of Record: Lemon Squeezy (Stripe Payments Europe Ltd.) or Paddle.com Market Limited, depending on the payment processor selected at checkout.