Refund Policy

How Boughly charges work

Boughly is a coin economy. When you buy a coin bundle (e.g., $4.99 for 499 coins), Stripe charges your card and Boughly credits your account with coins. You then spend those coins to unlock individual stories that have a coin price set by their author.

Two transaction types are happening:

• Coin bundle purchase — a real charge against your card. Refundable per the policy below.
• Coin spend — internal balance deduction. You unlocked a story and the corresponding amount has been credited toward creator earnings calculations. Not a card transaction; not refundable as a card refund.

What can be refunded

• Coin bundle purchase, within 7 days of purchase, unspent portion only. If you bought a bundle of 499 coins for $4.99 and have spent 200, we'll generally refund the equivalent of the 299 unspent coins (~$2.99). The 200 spent coins aren't returned as cash, but you keep access to whatever you unlocked with them.
• Coin bundle purchase, fully unspent, within 7 days. A full $4.99 refund. Easiest case.
• After 7 days — refunds are reviewed case-by-case for the following:
  • Failed unlock — you spent coins but the platform didn't deliver the story.
  • The delivered story materially differs from what was previewed or described.
  • The author has been banned for severe Terms violations and your spend was within 30 days of removal.
  • A duplicate coin bundle charge or other clear payment error.

What cannot be refunded

• Coins already spent. Once you've unlocked a story, the spent coins aren't returned to you as cash. You retain ongoing access to the story through the Platform, subject to the Terms; where available, this includes the EPUB download. (If the bundle is refunded or charged back, the matching creator earnings are reversed on our side — that doesn't affect your access.)
• Bundle purchases older than 7 days that don't fall under one of the post-window cases above.
• Bundles for which a chargeback has already been filed with your card issuer. Please use this refund process first — chargebacks take longer and incur fees that affect creator earnings.

How to request a refund

1. Find the Stripe transaction ID for the coin bundle in your purchases (or the receipt email you received at purchase).
2. Email support@boughly.com from the email address on your Boughly account, including the transaction ID.
3. If your bundle is within the 7-day window and at least partially unspent, the refund is generally processed automatically and credited back to your original payment method, typically within 5–10 business days depending on your payment provider. Unspent coins are removed from your balance when the refund is issued.
4. If the bundle is outside the window, we'll review and respond within 3 business days.

After a refund

• The refunded portion of coins is removed from your balance when the refund is issued.
• If you had spent some coins from the bundle on stories before the refund, those unlocks generally remain available in your library, subject to the Terms.
• Any EPUB copy you've already downloaded to your device remains on your device — we cannot remove files from your local storage.
• Creator earnings corresponding to coins from the refunded bundle are reversed, so creators aren't paid on purchases that were returned — but your access to anything you already unlocked remains.

Abuse and fraud

Boughly reserves the right to deny refund requests, including within the 7-day window, in cases of suspected abuse, fraud, chargeback manipulation, or attempts to exploit the refund system. Accounts engaged in such activity may also have access to the Platform restricted, consistent with the Terms of Service.

Mature content

Coin bundles purchased to unlock Mature content are governed by the same 7-day refund window as any other bundle. There is no special “all sales final” clause for Mature content — we want buyers to be able to back out of a bundle that turned out not to be for them.

Platform availability. Certain Mature content may only be available through the Boughly web platform and may not be accessible through iOS or Android applications. Refund routing for purchases made through mobile stores follows the relevant store's refund policy, as described in the Mobile section below.

Mobile (when iOS / Android launch)

Coin bundles purchased through the iOS app are governed by Apple's refund policy and processed via Apple. Bundles purchased through the Android app are governed by Google Play's refund policy and processed via Google. In both cases, you may need to file your refund request through the relevant store rather than Boughly directly. We will surface store-specific links from your library when those channels are live.

EU consumers

EU sales are not currently enabled. When EU sales are enabled, EU consumers will have additional statutory rights under applicable consumer-protection law, including the right of withdrawal where it applies to digital content. Specific implementation details — including how those rights are presented at checkout and any options for waiver in exchange for immediate delivery — will be disclosed at that time and will be designed to comply with then-current EU and member-state law.

Why we have this policy

The 7-day window exists so you can buy coins, see what's available to unlock, and decide it's not for you without losing your money. Once a coin is spent on a story, you keep access to what you unlocked. If a bundle is later refunded or charged back, we reverse the matching creator earnings so creators aren't paid on money that was returned, while your access to anything you already unlocked is preserved.

The case-by-case review for materially mis-described content (see “After 7 days” above) preserves your protection when an unlock did not deliver what was previewed.

Contact

For refund requests, email support@boughly.com. For questions about this policy, contact us at the same address.