SpareSeat

Refund & Cancellation Policy

Last updated: July 15, 2026

This policy is part of our Terms of Service. Short version: if you pay and don’t get your invitation on time, you get your money back automatically — no forms, no waiting on support. If your Host removes you mid-period, you get a prorated refund for the unused days. Voluntary cancellations take effect at period end with no pro-rata refund.

1. The invitation guarantee (automatic refund)

  • After your payment succeeds, your Host must send your YouTube Premium Family plan invitation within 48 hours.
  • If the Host marks the invite as sent but you have not yet confirmed it, the deadline may be extended once, by 24 hours, to allow the invitation to arrive in your Gmail inbox.
  • If you do not receive and confirm your invitation within the final deadline, your payment is refunded in full, automatically — your subscription is cancelled and the seat is released. No action is required from you. The Host’s reliability score is penalized.
  • Refunds are issued to your original payment method via Stripe. Processing time is typically 5–10 business days depending on your bank or card issuer.

2. Host-initiated removal (prorated refund)

Hosts may remove an active Member at any time through the Platform by providing a reason. If you are removed by your Host:

  • Your subscription is cancelled immediately — no future charges will be made.
  • You receive a prorated refund for the unused portion of your current billing period, calculated from the day of removal to the end of that period.
  • The prorated refund amount is deducted from the Host’s payout for that seat. SpareSeat issues the refund to you promptly regardless of recovery timing from the Host — your refund is never delayed waiting for the Host.
  • You will receive an email with the reason provided by your Host and instructions for finding a new group.
  • If you believe the removal was made in bad faith (e.g., to avoid a payout obligation or in retaliation for a dispute), you may open a dispute through the Platform or contact us at admin@spareseat.app.

3. Access lost mid-period (dispute)

If you lose access to the plan during a period you already paid for for reasons other than a Host-initiated removal through the Platform — for example, the Host removed you from the underlying YouTube plan without notice, or you were removed by Google — open a dispute from your group page. If we confirm loss of access, you will receive a refund for that billing period and the Host’s payout will be withheld. Depending on the circumstances, the Host may be penalized or removed from the Platform.

4. Voluntary cancellation

  • You may cancel your membership at any time from your dashboard.
  • Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period. You keep your seat and access until then.
  • We do not issue partial or prorated refunds for the remainder of a period you voluntarily chose to cancel. No cancellation fees apply.

5. Failed payments

If your monthly payment fails, we will retry the charge and notify you so you can update your payment method in your dashboard. If payment continues to fail after retries, your membership ends and your seat is released back to the group. You are not charged for periods in which payment did not succeed.

6. What is not refundable

  • Periods in which you had access to the plan and used it (except as described in Sections 2 and 3).
  • The unused portion of a billing period after a voluntary cancellation (Section 4).
  • Charges for accounts terminated by SpareSeat for violations of our Terms of Service (e.g., fraud, false dispute claims, circumventing the payment flow, or misuse of the dispute or removal systems).
  • Platform fees ($0.90/seat/month), which are earned by SpareSeat upon successful payment regardless of subsequent membership events, except where a full refund is issued under Section 1.

7. Disputes and chargebacks

Please open an in-Platform dispute or contact us at admin@spareseat.app before filing a chargeback with your bank. Our automatic guarantees and dispute process typically resolve issues more quickly than the chargeback process (which takes 30–90 days). Filing a chargeback for a charge already covered by an automatic refund may result in account suspension while we investigate. Falsely claiming an invitation was not received is a violation of our Terms of Service and may result in account termination.

8. Host payouts

Host payouts are calculated as $4.50 per active, confirmed seat per month and processed monthly for groups with Members whose seats are in the “active” state. Payouts are withheld for seats where a Member did not receive their invitation, a dispute is pending, or fraud is suspected.

Payout deductions and refund recovery. Amounts owed to Members because of a Host’s failure to provide or maintain access — including prorated refunds for Host-initiated removals and full refunds for invitation SLA breaches — are recovered from Hosts in the following order:

  1. First deducted from any payouts currently being held for the Host.
  2. Then offset against the Host’s future payouts until the balance is recovered.
  3. The Host remains personally liable for any remaining balance.

Members always receive their refund from SpareSeat first — recovery from the Host never delays a Member’s refund.

9. Questions

Refund and billing questions: admin@spareseat.app