Refund and Cancellation Policy

The short version

Claiming a name is free, so there is nothing to cancel or refund when you claim one. A contribution is a voluntary gift to the project that pays its running costs. Once a contribution is recorded it is not refunded on request, whatever the reason, with the three exceptions below.

Contributions are not tax-deductible, and nothing here is a claim of any tax benefit.

The three cases where money is returned

• A payment that fails to reflect. If a payment cannot be recorded correctly (for example a duplicate charge, a campaign that had already closed, a buyout that could no longer be paid, or a payment we cannot match to an order), we refund it in full automatically. You do not need to ask.
• A campaign closed with “refund”. A campaign stays open until we close it. If we close it and choose to refund, every supporter gets their full contribution back automatically. If we close it and keep the money, it goes to that domain’s upkeep fund.
• A buyout whose domain turns out to be unavailable. If the domain you funded cannot be bought, we email you a secure link with a choice: a full refund, or keep it with the project to be used where it is needed most. If you do not answer within 30 days, after one reminder, it is kept.

A buyout we decline because the domain does not meet our domain acceptance policy is not refunded: the money stays in that domain’s fund. The checkout says so before you pay.

What is not refunded

• A contribution you made and later regret, or made by mistake, unless it falls under one of the three cases above.
• A contribution after the project has used the money for the costs it was given for.
• Payment-gateway fees. Razorpay charges them; they are shown on the public ledger.

If you dispute a payment with your bank or card issuer, we record the dispute and respond to it through Razorpay. We do not offer refunds in place of a dispute. Opening one takes back the Trust Points that payment earned and holds the account at the Ping tier for 180 days; losing it removes all of its points.

How a refund reaches you

A refund goes back to the same payment method you paid with, through Razorpay. Razorpay states that a refund reaches you in 7 to 10 working days after it is issued, and the exact time depends on your bank or card issuer. A refund is for the full amount of the contribution; the fee Razorpay charged on the original payment is not something we control.

We email you when an automatic refund goes through. If you believe a payment qualifies and no refund arrives, write to us with the payment id from your receipt.

Cancelling

Contributions are one-time. There are no subscriptions and nothing renews, so there is nothing to cancel. You can delete your account at any time from Settings; that does not refund earlier contributions.

Asking about a payment

Write to the address on the Contact page. Namestead is an independently operated project owned and maintained by Sushil Kumar. It is not a registered nonprofit, NGO, charitable trust, society or Section 8 company.