Refund and Cancellation Policy

Version 2026-07-30. All policies

DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW. This document was prepared as a first draft for review by a qualified attorney admitted in South Africa. It has not been reviewed or approved by a lawyer. It is not legal advice and must not be published or relied on until it has been reviewed. Text shown in square brackets must be filled in before publication.

Ideas Central — Refund and Cancellation Policy Version 1.0 (draft), prepared 30 July 2026. Not yet in force.

This policy forms part of the Terms of Service at https://www.ideas-central.com/legal/terms. Words defined there have the same meaning here.

1. The short version

1.1 If you buy a paid Plan for the first time, change your mind within 14 days, and have used fewer than 5 Exports, we refund you in full.

1.2 Renewals are not refundable by default, but if a renewal charges you for a month or a year you did not want and you have not used it, tell us within 7 days and we will almost always refund it.

1.3 You can cancel at any time, in two clicks, and you keep access until the end of the period you have paid for.

1.4 If you are a consumer in South Africa, the EU or the UK, you have statutory cancellation rights that are stronger than this policy in some cases. Those rights come first. Sections 4 and 5 explain them.

2. Who takes the money and who gives it back

2.1 Paddle.com Market Ltd is the merchant of record for every paid Plan. Paddle charges you, issues your invoice, handles tax, and processes every refund.

2.2 Refunds are always issued to the original payment method. We cannot pay a refund to a different card, to a bank account, or in cash. If your card has expired or been cancelled, Paddle will work with your bank to route the refund; that can take longer.

2.3 Ask us for a refund at info@ideas-central.com, or use the support link on your Paddle receipt. Either route works. We decide, Paddle executes.

2.4 Once we approve a refund, Paddle normally processes it within 1 to 3 business days. Your bank then takes its own time, usually 5 to 10 business days, sometimes longer for international cards. That part is outside our control and Paddle's.

2.5 Refunds are made in the currency you were charged in. If exchange rates have moved, the amount that lands in your account may differ slightly from the amount that left it. Neither we nor Paddle can compensate for that.

3. Our 14-day first-purchase refund

3.1 We refund your first purchase of any paid Plan in full if:

(a) you ask within 14 days of the charge; and

(b) you have used fewer than 5 Exports since the purchase.

3.2 You do not need to give a reason. Telling us what went wrong is helpful, but it is not a condition.

3.3 Why the 5-Export condition exists. An Export is a downloaded file that you keep. Once a file is on your computer, it does not come back when we refund you. The condition is there so that the trial period stays a genuine trial and does not become a way to take fifty parts and ask for the money back. Five Exports is enough to test whether the Service does what you need, on every Plan. Generating, previewing, editing and regenerating are unlimited and never count against it.

3.4 The condition in 3.1(b) is our own policy. It does not apply where a statutory right in section 4 or section 5 gives you a stronger right. If the law says you may withdraw regardless of how many files you downloaded, the law wins.

3.5 "First purchase" means the first time you pay for a Plan on your account. Upgrading from Maker to Studio later is not a first purchase. If you cancelled a Plan and come back a year later, that is not a first purchase either, but ask us anyway and we will look at it.

3.6 If the Service simply does not work for you because of a fault on our side, at any time, tell us. Section 3 is a no-questions-asked window, not the limit of what we will do when something is broken.

4. If you are a consumer in the European Union or the United Kingdom

4.1 EU and UK consumer law gives you a statutory right of withdrawal, usually 14 days from the day the contract is concluded, for a service or digital content bought at a distance. You may withdraw without giving a reason and without penalty.

4.2 The consent and waiver at checkout. A subscription to Ideas Central starts working immediately. The law lets you have it immediately, but only if you agree to two things at checkout, by ticking a box that is not pre-ticked:

(a) you expressly request that we begin supplying the Service straight away, before the 14-day withdrawal period ends; and

(b) you acknowledge that once the Service has been fully supplied, or to the extent it has been supplied, you lose or reduce your right of withdrawal.

4.3 What that actually means for you.

(a) If you do not give that consent, you wait until the 14 days pass before your subscription starts, and you keep the full withdrawal right in the meantime.

(b) If you do give it and then withdraw within 14 days, you are charged for the part of the period you actually had, in proportion to the whole period, and we refund the rest. On a $29 monthly Plan, withdrawing on day 7 means you pay roughly a quarter of the month.

(c) In practice we usually refund EU and UK consumers in full within the 14 days rather than charging the pro-rata amount, because the sums are small and arguing about them is not worth anyone's time. That is a goodwill practice, not a reduction of your rights.

4.4 To withdraw, email info@ideas-central.com with your account email and the words "I withdraw from the contract". Any clear statement works. You may also use the model withdrawal form in the consumer legislation of your country; we do not require a particular form of words.

4.5 We will refund you within 14 days of receiving your withdrawal notice, to the original payment method.

4.6 Nothing in this policy limits your rights under EU Directive 2011/83/EU as implemented in your country, or under the UK Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, or under any other mandatory consumer law where you live.

5. If you are a consumer in South Africa

5.1 Two South African statutes are relevant, and they interact.

5.2 Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002, section 44. For a transaction concluded electronically, a consumer may cancel without reason and without penalty within 7 days after concluding the agreement for the supply of services. The only charge that may be levied is the direct cost of returning goods, which does not arise for a digital service. The Act lists some categories of transaction that fall outside this right. We do not rely on those exclusions for your first purchase. If you are in South Africa and you cancel within 7 days of your first purchase, we refund you in full.

5.3 Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008, section 16. The CPA gives a 5-business-day cooling-off right for goods and services bought as a result of direct marketing. Section 16 does not apply where section 44 of ECTA applies to the transaction. So for an ordinary online purchase from our website, the ECTA 7-day right is the one that governs, and it is the longer of the two.

5.4 Our 14-day policy in section 3 is longer than both statutory periods. Where our policy gives you more time, use our policy. Where a statute gives you a better outcome in your situation, the statute applies and we will honour it.

5.5 Your other CPA rights are unaffected, including your rights to fair and honest dealing, to fair value and quality, and the protections in section 51 that make certain contract terms void. See clause 17.6 of the Terms.

5.6 If we cannot resolve a complaint, you may refer it to the National Consumer Commission or to an accredited consumer court or ombud with jurisdiction. See clause 22 of the Terms.

6. Renewals

6.1 Subscriptions renew automatically. Paddle emails you a receipt each time.

6.2 A renewal is not refundable by default. You had the whole previous period to cancel, and the renewal date is the same date every month or every year.

6.3 Goodwill on an unused renewal. We know that renewals surprise people. If a renewal charged you and:

(a) you tell us within 7 days of the charge; and

(b) you have used no Exports in the new period,

then we will refund the renewal in full and cancel the subscription. We do not require a reason. This applies to monthly and annual renewals alike.

6.4 If you have used a few Exports in the new period, ask anyway. On an annual renewal in particular we would usually rather refund the unused months than keep money from someone who does not want the Service.

6.5 We do not repeatedly refund the same account for the same reason. If we have refunded a renewal for you once, we will point you at the cancellation setting the second time.

6.6 To stop renewals for good, cancel. See section 9.

7. Annual plans

7.1 Annual billing costs ten times the monthly price, so two months are free. That discount is the reason annual plans are treated differently.

7.2 Section 3 (first purchase) and section 6.3 (unused renewal) apply to annual plans in the same way as monthly plans.

7.3 Outside those windows, annual plans are not refundable pro-rata as of right. You keep full access until the end of the year you paid for.

7.4 We will consider a pro-rata refund of the whole unused months, at our discretion, where there is a real reason: a business closing, a long illness, a bereavement, or a change on our side that materially reduces what your Plan gives you. Write to info@ideas-central.com and tell us what happened.

7.5 Where we terminate your account for convenience, discontinue the Service, or make a material change that disadvantages you and you cancel because of it, we refund the unused portion. See clauses 9.8, 19.3, 19.4 and 20.4 of the Terms. That is a right, not a discretion.

7.6 No refund is due where we terminate your account for a material breach of the Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy.

8. Upgrades and downgrades

8.1 Upgrades take effect immediately. Paddle calculates a pro-rata credit for the unused part of your current period and applies it to the new Plan, so you pay only the difference. Your new quota is available at once.

8.2 An upgrade is not a first purchase, so section 3 does not restart. If an upgrade turns out to be wrong for you, tell us within 14 days and we will look at it on its merits.

8.3 Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period, not immediately. You keep the higher Plan, and its quota, until the period you have paid for runs out. Downgrading does not generate a refund of the current period.

8.4 Switching from monthly to annual billing takes effect immediately, with pro-rata credit. Switching from annual to monthly takes effect at the end of the annual period.

8.5 What a downgrade does to your files. If your saved parts or stored files exceed the limits of the lower Plan, nothing is deleted straight away. The excess becomes read-only for 30 days, during which you can view and download everything, subject to the Export quota of your new Plan. After 30 days, files above the limit of your Plan are permanently deleted. We email you before the read-only period starts and again before deletion. We keep the parameter sets for your saved parts for the life of your account, so you can regenerate geometry even where a file has gone. This is clause 10.6 of the Terms.

8.6 Commercial-use rights follow the Plan you were on when you generated a file. Output generated on a paid Plan keeps its commercial licence after a downgrade. Output generated on the Free Plan does not gain one from a later upgrade. This is clause 12.4 of the Terms.

9. Cancellation

9.1 How. Cancel in your account settings, or through the manage-subscription link on any Paddle receipt. If neither works, email info@ideas-central.com and we will cancel it for you.

9.2 When it takes effect. Cancellation stops the next renewal. It does not end your subscription immediately and it does not refund the current period, except where section 3, section 4, section 5 or section 6.3 applies.

9.3 Access until period end. You keep your Plan, its quota and its features until the last day of the period you have paid for. There is no advantage to cancelling early in a period.

9.4 Then what. At the end of the period your account moves to the Free Plan. You keep your account, your login and your saved parameter sets. Files and saved parts above the Free Plan limits go read-only for 30 days and are then deleted, exactly as in section 8.5.

9.5 Closing your account entirely is different from cancelling a subscription. If you close your account, you have 30 days from closure to download your files, during which the account is read-only. After that we delete your stored files. Some records, such as invoices and subscription history, are kept for tax and legal reasons for the periods set out in the Privacy Policy. This is clause 19.6 of the Terms.

9.6 Export what you need before you cancel. Downloading files still counts against your Export quota, so plan for it while you are on the higher Plan.

10. Chargebacks

10.1 Please talk to us first. A chargeback is a dispute you raise with your bank. It is slow, it costs us a fee whatever the outcome, and it usually takes longer than simply asking us for a refund. Email info@ideas-central.com and give us a chance. We have a 14-day no-questions-asked window and a goodwill policy on renewals; most chargebacks we see would have been refunded on request.

10.2 We suspend an account when a chargeback is raised against it. Access stops until the dispute is resolved. This is automatic and it is not a judgement about who is right.

10.3 If the chargeback is resolved in your favour, or you withdraw it, we reinstate the account promptly. If it is resolved in our favour, we may reinstate the account only when the disputed amount and any fee charged to us have been paid.

10.4 We may decline to supply you again after a chargeback that we consider was raised in bad faith, and we may recover the amount and our costs. See clause 19.2(f) of the Terms.

10.5 If you do not recognise a charge, check for "Paddle" on your statement before disputing it. Paddle is the merchant of record and its name, not ours, appears on card statements. See clause 4 of the Terms.

11. Failed payments and dunning

11.1 If a scheduled payment fails, Paddle retries it over a period of several days and emails you each time. Your Plan stays fully active during the retry period.

11.2 Update your card through the link in Paddle's email or in your account settings. Once payment succeeds, the subscription continues as if nothing happened, on the same renewal date.

11.3 If no payment succeeds by the end of the retry period, the subscription is cancelled and your account moves to the Free Plan. Files above the Free Plan limits go read-only for 30 days and are then deleted, as in section 8.5.

11.4 There is no penalty or reconnection fee. Resubscribe at any time; if your files were still within the read-only window, they come back with the Plan.

11.5 A failed payment does not create a debt for the period that was not supplied. You are not charged for time you did not have.

12. Things we do not refund

12.1 Fees for a period you have already used, outside the windows in sections 3, 4, 5 and 6.

12.2 Accounts terminated for a material breach of the Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy.

12.3 Bank charges, currency conversion costs or card fees applied by your own bank.

12.4 Anything you spent because of Output: filament, resin, machine time, labour, failed prints, scrapped parts, postage or a third party's fees. See clause 17.2 of the Terms.

12.5 Downtime, unless the law requires a remedy. There is no service level agreement on anonymous use, Free or Maker, and the availability figures on Studio and Workshop are targets, not guarantees. See clause 14 of the Terms.

13. Changes to this policy

13.1 We may update this policy. Material changes are notified by email at least 30 days in advance, under clause 20 of the Terms. A change never removes a refund right that had already accrued to you before the change took effect.

14. Contact

Refund requests and billing questions: info@ideas-central.com Formal complaints: legal@ideas-central.com

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