Whether you are a Player who needs a refund for a game that they were charged for, or a Game Master who needs to refund one of their players, in this article we will cover everything you need to know about requesting and sending refunds on StartPlaying!
What is the Refund Policy, and where can I find it?
Any time a Player joins a game, they can skip a session and/or leave a campaign/one-shot, without charge, up to 24 hours before the start of the session. After that time, players will no longer be able to leave the campaign/one-shot or skip the session through the site.
If a player needs to skip a session or wants to leave the campaign/one-shot less than 24 hours before the start of the session, they will need to reach out to their GM to request a session skip or to be removed from the campaign.
If a player contacts their GM less than 24 hours before the start time of the session, it is up to the discretion of the GM if they will approve the skip request.
If the player is requesting to skip for one of the reasons outlined in the "When should a GM give a refund?" section of the Refund Policy, the GM should help make sure that the player is not charged for the session, to ensure that they are in compliance with the Refund Policy.
All refunds on StartPlaying are issued as site credit.
StartPlaying’s Refund Policy is outlined here. At a minimum, you must issue refunds for the causes stated in the policy. You can, however, go above our policy and offer refunds for things not listed here. Choosing to disregard the outlined refund policy will result in a strike on your profile, as described at the bottom of the Code of Conduct.
Players: How to request a refund
If you ever need to request a refund for a game, the first step is to contact your GM, who will be able to issue a refund for your session directly from their account. When contacting your GM, always make sure to explain the reason that you are requesting the refund, and the session that you are looking to have refunded.
If your GM is causing problems or is unresponsive in helping with your refund, please reach out to support, and we can contact them directly.
I recommend any time you need to contact a GM about a refund, you should use the messaging here on StartPlaying to communicate with them, as this makes it very easy for us to see the conversation if our team needs to reach out to your GM about the refund.
You can read all about what sort of things qualify for a refund in our Refund Policy!
Game Masters: How to give a refund to a player
If you are ever in a situation where you need to refund your player, you can do so by following the steps in our article: "How do I give my players a refund?".
You will be able to issue a refund to your players up to 14 days after the session that is being refunded. If you ever need to issue a refund to a player more than 14 days after the session, you will need to reach out to the Support Goblins at support@startplayinggames.com, and we can make that happen for you and your player!
A REMINDER FOR GMs: At a minimum, you must issue refunds for the causes stated in the Refund Policy.
You can, however, go above our policy and offer refunds for things not listed here. Choosing to disregard the outlined refund policy will result in a strike on your profile, as described at the bottom of the Code of Conduct.
Game Masters: Refunding a player who's payment failed for the session
If you ever have a session that you are refunding, but one of the payments has failed, you will not be able to refund the session on your end. In this situation, just reach out to the Support Goblins at support@startplayinggames.com and we are happy to delete that transaction for you so that it is removed from the player's account!