TYCHR — Refund and cancellation policy

DRAFT, FOR LEGAL REVIEW. Not reviewed by a qualified Indian advocate. Every [placeholder] must be filled. Not legal advice.

Version: 1.0-draft · Effective date: [insert] · Last updated: [insert] Applies to: everything bought on app.tychr.com and platform.tychr.com Part of: the Terms and conditions. Where the two differ, this policy governs refunds.

This page is required by our payment gateway (Razorpay) and must be reachable from the footer of every page and from the checkout, before payment.

What our software actually enforces today, so that you can tell the difference between a rule and a proposal. There is no cancel or refund button anywhere in the product: cancelling means writing to us, and a member of staff raises it. A refund can only go back to the original payment method, and the money usually arrives in 5 to 7 working days once it is sent. Your access continues until the refund actually completes. For a content subscription the cancellation steps our staff follow issue the full amount with no fee deducted; for other purchases there is no such step, and a part refund is possible — of which only recording access can actually be taken back (section 6). The time limits and the usage test described below are proposals that nothing in the software measures yet — every one of them is marked. [VEDANT and LAWYER: the rule has to be chosen once, and then the checkout, the admin cancellation steps and this page have to say the same thing.]

1. The short version

2. Before you buy

• Prices are shown in Indian Rupees (INR) unless stated otherwise, and the amount shown at the checkout is the amount we charge — nothing is added to it there. [LAWYER and VEDANT: whether that amount is inclusive of GST, and what the invoice must say, is awaiting our accountant's answer.]
• A content subscription is one payment covering 365 days from purchase. Nothing renews automatically, no card is stored for a future charge, and we will not charge you again. When the 365 days end, access ends; buying another term is a new purchase you make yourself.
• Tutoring is sold as prepaid hours at an agreed hourly rate, or as a fixed-price engagement, set out in the invoice or fee quote (the "Order"). The Order prevails over any rate quoted informally.
• Free trial or preview: where we offer one, you are not charged, and nothing is taken unless you buy.

3. Content subscriptions

3.1 Cancelling a subscription

Write to vedant@tychr.com from the address on your account. There is no cancel button, and nothing is cancelled automatically. A member of staff reviews the request, and when it is approved the refund is the full amount you paid, to the original payment method, with no fee taken off. Your access stays on until the refund completes, and ends then.

[VEDANT and LAWYER: the drafted rule was a 7-day cooling-off window plus a "used no more than 10% of the content" test, after which there would be no refund for the term. Neither is implemented: there is no code that measures either, and the cancellation steps our staff follow give a full refund with no time check. Choose one rule and it goes here, into payment-policy.mjs and onto the checkout screens together.]

3.2 There is no renewal to stop

A subscription is a single payment for 365 days (section 2). Nothing renews, so there is nothing to turn off and no renewal email to expect.

3.3 If we change the plan

If we materially reduce what a plan includes during a term you have already paid for, you may either keep the reduced plan with a pro-rated refund of the difference, or cancel for a pro-rated refund of the remainder. Your choice.

3.4 If we discontinue a plan

We will tell you at least [insert, e.g. 30] days before, and refund the unused part of your term pro rata.

4. Tutoring hours and packages

4.1 Before the first session

Cancel within 7 days of payment and before the first session: full refund.

4.2 After the first session

You may cancel at any time. We refund the unused hours, calculated as:

Refund = (hours paid for − hours used) × the rate on your Order − [insert, e.g. 0]% administration fee

• "Hours used" includes any session treated as delivered under section 5 (late cancellation or no-show).
• Where a package was sold at a discounted bundle rate, the hours already used are first re-charged at the standard single-hour rate for that subject and level, and the balance refunded. We will show you the arithmetic.
• The administration fee, if any, is stated on your Order. It cannot exceed [insert]%.

4.3 Validity and unused hours

• Each package carries a validity period, stated in your Order, running from the date we specify.
• Hours not used before validity ends expire, and are not refundable, transferable or carried forward, unless we agree otherwise in writing or the law requires otherwise.
• We will try to remind you before expiry, but using the hours within validity is your responsibility, and a missed reminder does not extend it.
• You may ask in writing, before expiry, for an extension. We may grant it, and in practice we usually do where there is a genuine reason — illness, exams, travel.
• Hours are specific to the student, subject and level they were bought for, and do not move between students, subjects, levels or formats without our written agreement.

4.4 If we cannot deliver

If we cannot provide a tutor for the subject and level you paid for within a reasonable period, you get a full refund of the undelivered hours, with no administration fee.

5. Individual sessions: rescheduling, late cancellation, no-show

5.1 You reschedule

Free, with at least [insert, e.g. 24] hours' notice, through the platform or your coordinator. As many times as you reasonably need.

5.2 You cancel late, or do not turn up

A session cancelled with less than [insert, e.g. 24] hours' notice, or where the student has not joined within [insert, e.g. 15] minutes of the start, is treated as delivered and deducted in full from your hours. The tutor was there.

5.3 We cancel

• We reschedule at no cost, and no hour is deducted.
• If we cannot reschedule within a reasonable period, the hour goes back into your balance, or we refund it — your choice.
• If a tutor is more than [insert, e.g. 10] minutes late, the session is extended by the lost time, or rescheduled free, or returned to your balance.

5.4 Technical failure

• Our side — the platform, the video service, our tutor's connection: the session is rescheduled free or returned to your balance.
• Your side — your internet, device or power: the hour is used, but as a goodwill matter we will reschedule free once per [insert, e.g. 3] months where you tell us promptly.

5.5 Illness, bereavement and emergencies

Tell us as soon as you can, even inside the notice period, and we will not deduct the hour. We may ask for something in support for a repeated claim. We would rather be generous here than right.

6. Add-ons, recording access and application fees

7. How a refund reaches you

1. Ask. Email vedant@tychr.com from the email address on your account. Tell us what you bought, when, and why. Email is the only route — there is no refund button in the product.
2. We confirm we have your request within 48 hours, with a reference number.
3. We decide within [insert, e.g. 7] working days and tell you the amount and the arithmetic.
4. We pay to the original payment method — the same card, UPI handle, netbanking account or wallet you paid from. This is a payment-gateway requirement and we cannot pay a refund to a different account.
5. Money reaches you in 5 to 7 working days after we process it, sometimes up to [insert, e.g. 10] working days for an international card. The exact timing is your bank's, not ours.
6. Charges. The steps our staff follow for an approved cancellation issue the full amount with no fee deducted, and that is what we do. [LAWYER: the draft of this clause said bank, gateway and foreign-exchange charges are not refundable, which contradicts those steps and may be a prohibited cancellation charge under the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020. Decide once.] A refund of a payment made in a foreign currency is made in INR at the rate on the refund date, so an exchange-rate movement is at your risk.
7. Tax. GST on a refunded amount is refunded with it, and the credit note is issued as GST law requires.

We never ask you for your card number, CVV, UPI PIN, one-time password or netbanking password to process a refund. Anyone who does is not us. Report it to vedant@tychr.com.

8. Chargebacks

If you believe a charge is wrong, come to us first — it is faster than a chargeback and we will tell you plainly whether we agree. If you raise a chargeback instead, we may suspend the account while the gateway investigates, and we will give the gateway the Order, the session and access records and this policy.

9. If you disagree with our decision

1. Grievance Officer: Vedant Patnaik, vedant@tychr.com. We acknowledge within 48 hours and answer within 30 days. See the Grievance policy.
2. Consumer Commission under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, or the National Consumer Helpline on 1915 / consumerhelpline.gov.in.
3. Nothing in this policy takes away a right you have under Indian consumer law. Where this policy is less favourable than a right you have by law, the law applies.

10. Things that are not refundable

For clarity, not as a trap:

• Taxes already paid to the government, except where GST law allows a credit note (section 7.7).
• Bank, gateway, card and foreign-exchange charges we never received.
• Hours expired at the end of a validity period (section 4.3).
• Content already consumed beyond the cooling-off threshold.
• Sessions treated as delivered under section 5.2.
• Add-ons already delivered.
• Application, registration and enrolment fees.
• An account closed by us for a serious breach of the Terms and conditions — academic dishonesty, abuse of a tutor, sharing a paid account. We will set out the reason, and this does not apply to a suspension we later find was unjustified.

11. Changes to this policy

A change applies to purchases made after it is published. What you bought is governed by the version of this policy in force on the day you bought it, and we keep the previous versions and will send you yours on request.

12. Contact

Draft, for legal review.