Refund & cancellation policy

This policy explains when an order on FreelancerPeople can be cancelled, when a refund is available, how to request one, and exactly where refund money goes. It is organised in three parts: Part A covers freelance work (SERVE orders, custom contracts and hourly contracts), Part B covers digital products bought from seller stores, and the closing sections cover rules that apply to both.

Two things frame everything below. First, FreelancerPeople ("the Platform") is an intermediary marketplace: sellers are independent, and the contract for the work or the product forms between the buyer and the seller. This policy sets the Platform rules for how money held on the Platform is returned. Second, all amounts on the Platform are in US dollars (USD), and figures that can change over time, such as fee percentages and request windows, are always shown to you at checkout and in your order details rather than fixed in this document. What you see on your order is the authoritative version of any window or amount this page describes. This policy should be read together with our Terms of Service, Payment Terms and Privacy Policy.

1. This policy at a glance

• Freelance orders are escrow-protected. Your payment is held by the Platform and is not released to the seller until you accept the delivery, the review window shown on your order passes, or a dispute is resolved.
• Digital products are delivered instantly, so they follow a request-window model instead: you can ask for a refund within the window shown on the product page and in your order details.
• Approved refunds are credited to your FreelancerPeople wallet promptly on approval. You can spend the balance on the Platform or withdraw it; withdrawal requires identity verification and a verified payout method.
• Tax comes back with the refund. Refunded amounts include the tax that was charged on the refunded items.
• Talk to us before your bank. If something went wrong, open a case or a support ticket first. Chargebacks filed without contacting us may lead to account review.

2. Part A: escrow protection on freelance orders

When you place a SERVE order, accept a custom contract, or fund a direct hire offer, you pay the order amount plus the buyer service fee and any applicable tax shown at checkout. That entire amount is held in escrow by the Platform. The seller can begin work knowing the budget is committed, and you keep the assurance that nothing is released until the work is delivered and you have had the chance to review it.

Funds leave escrow only when one of the following happens:

• You accept the delivery, which releases the seller's payment.
• The review window shown on your order passes without any action from you, after which the order completes automatically (Section 5).
• The order is cancelled, in which case the held amount is returned to you under Section 4.
• A dispute is settled by the parties or decided by FreelancerPeople in the Resolution Center (Section 6).

Because the money sits in escrow rather than with the seller, a refund before release never depends on the seller having funds available to give back. A full refund of a freelance order returns everything you paid into escrow for that order, including the buyer service fee and the tax collected with it, to your FreelancerPeople wallet.

3. Revisions come before refunds

Most delivery problems are fixed faster with a revision than with a cancellation. Every SERVE package states how many revisions are included, and custom contracts carry their own revision terms. While an order is in its review stage you can request a revision, describe specifically what needs to change, and give the seller a fair chance to correct the work.

If the included revisions are used up, you may be able to purchase an extra revision. The price of an extra revision is set on the contract and shown to you before you confirm it, and a paid extra revision goes through checkout like any other order, protected by the same escrow.

A clear, specific revision request also matters later: if the order ends up in a dispute, the record of what you asked for and how the seller responded is central evidence.

4. Cancelling a freelance order

Either the buyer or the seller can request cancellation of an order or contract at any time before it is completed. The request is made from the order page, and the other party can accept or decline it.

• Accepted cancellations end the order and return the full escrowed amount, including the buyer service fee and tax, to the buyer's FreelancerPeople wallet.
• If the other party does not respond within the response window shown on the request, the cancellation is accepted automatically and the same full refund applies.
• Declined cancellations leave the order in place. If you still believe the order should not continue, you can open a case in the Resolution Center (Section 6).

Direct hire offers work the same way at the offer stage: if the seller declines your funded offer, or you withdraw the offer before the seller accepts it, the full funded amount is returned to your wallet.

Cancellation before work starts is normally straightforward, and we encourage sellers to accept it. Once work has started, cancellation becomes a shared decision, because effort may already have been invested. Where the two of you disagree about a fair outcome, the Resolution Center exists precisely for that.

5. Delivery review and automatic acceptance

When a seller delivers, the order enters a review stage and a review window begins. The length of that window, and the exact date it ends, are shown on your order. During the window you can accept the delivery, request a revision, request cancellation, or open a dispute. If you need more time, the order page lets you extend the review window a limited number of times.

If the review window ends and you have taken no action, the order is accepted automatically and the escrowed payment is released to the seller. Automatic acceptance exists so that sellers are not left waiting indefinitely on finished work. Please review deliveries promptly: once an order completes, the remaining paths to a refund are much narrower.

6. Disputes and the Resolution Center

If you and the other party cannot agree, either of you can open a case in the Resolution Center on any order that is not yet closed. Opening a case does not move any money: the escrowed funds stay exactly where they are until the case is resolved, and while it is open, new deliveries, acceptance and payout clearance on that order are paused. Both sides can add evidence, upload supporting files within the limits shown in the case, and message each other inside the case so the whole record stays in one place.

A dispute ends in one of two ways:

• Mutual settlement. Either side can propose splitting the escrowed amount between a refund to the buyer and a release to the seller, within the range the tool offers. If the other side accepts, the split is applied immediately: the buyer's share is refunded to the buyer's wallet and the seller's share of the payment is released. A full refund is reached by agreeing to cancel the order, and a full release by agreeing to complete it.
• FreelancerPeople decision. If no agreement is reached, FreelancerPeople reviews the case on its facts: the order's agreed scope, what was actually delivered, the message history, the evidence submitted, and any revisions requested and how they were handled. The outcome can be a full refund to the buyer, release of payment to the seller, a split of the escrowed amount, or no action, and both parties are notified of the decision.

We handle disputes as quickly as their complexity allows. We do not promise a fixed decision timeline, because a fair review of a complex order takes the time it takes; what we commit to is that the funds remain protected in escrow throughout.

7. Hourly contracts

Weekly-billed hourly contracts are funded up front into a single escrow pool, which you can top up from your wallet as the work continues. Refunds and cancellations on hourly work are best understood one week at a time:

• Each week the seller logs hours against the contract's weekly limit. You review the week within the review window shown on the contract; weeks you approve, and weeks you take no action on before the window ends, are settled to the seller.
• If you believe logged hours are inaccurate, raise it during that week's review window. A disputed week's funds are frozen until the matter is resolved, by agreement between you or by FreelancerPeople.
• Either party can end an hourly contract. When it ends, open weeks are settled under the rules above and the unused remainder of the escrow pool, including its fee and tax portion, is returned to your wallet.

Hours genuinely worked and settled for a completed week represent time already delivered and are generally not refundable. The focus of an hourly dispute is whether the logged hours are legitimate, rather than whether a single final deliverable was met.

8. Part B: when a digital product refund is available

A digital product is delivered the moment you pay: the files enter your library and can be downloaded immediately. There is no escrow and no delivery to wait for, so digital products follow a request-window model with rules of its own.

• The request window. You can open a refund request within the window shown on the product page before you buy and in your order details afterwards, measured from the time of purchase. Once the window closes, a request can no longer be opened for that purchase.
• The seller response window. Each request shows the deadline by which the seller must respond. If they do not, the case is escalated to FreelancerPeople (Section 9).
• Non-refundable products. A seller can mark an individual product as non-refundable. Where they have, that is displayed on the product page before you buy, and no refund request can be opened for it afterwards.

When you open a request, the system checks eligibility: the request must be within the window, made by the buyer of that purchase, on an item that has not already been refunded, with no other request already open for the same item, and refunds must be available for that product and on the Platform. Each purchased item supports one case at a time.

Downloading does not disqualify you. A digital product is usually downloaded as soon as it is bought, so having downloaded it is never, on its own, a reason to refuse a refund. Your download activity is shown to the seller as context for their decision, which is why an honest, specific description of the problem matters.

A seller's own refund note cannot reduce your rights. Sellers may publish their own refund notes or store terms, but nothing a seller writes can take away a right this platform policy gives you. Seller terms can only add to your protections, never subtract from them.

9. Requesting a digital product refund

Open the request from your library or your orders, and track every request in your refund center. The process is:

• Choose a reason: the product is not as described, files are missing, files are corrupted, the product does not work, a duplicate purchase, the wrong product, an accidental purchase, or another reason you describe yourself.
• Explain and attach evidence: screenshots, a screen recording, or the files you received. Clear evidence is the single biggest thing that moves a request forward.
• The seller responds: they can accept the refund, decline it with a stated reason, or ask you for more information, which restarts their response window.
• Everything is recorded: every message, file and status change is logged on the case so both sides can see exactly what happened and when.

If the seller does not respond within the response window shown on the case, the case is escalated to FreelancerPeople and both of you are notified; the seller remains able to resolve an escalated case at any time. If your request is declined and you believe the decision is wrong, you can raise the case with FreelancerPeople through the Support page for review. You can also withdraw your own request at any time.

10. When a digital product refund is approved

An approved refund reverses the purchase:

• The full amount you paid for that item, including any buyer fee and the tax charged on it, is credited to your FreelancerPeople wallet.
• Your license for that product ends at the same moment, and download access for it is removed from your library.
• Keeping or continuing to use the files after a refund is not permitted, and doing so may lead to account review under our Terms of Service.

While a refund request is open, the seller's payout for that item is frozen, so the money stays available for whatever the outcome is. If a product raises an intellectual-property concern rather than a quality one, you can also report it under our IP and Copyright Policy.

11. Where refund money goes

All approved refunds, freelance and digital alike, are credited to your FreelancerPeople wallet promptly on approval, in USD. Refunds are not pushed back to the original card, bank or other payment method.

• Your wallet balance is visible in your account and can be spent immediately on any order on the Platform.
• You can withdraw the balance to a payout method instead. Withdrawal requires identity verification and a saved, verified payout method, and any minimum amount or withdrawal fee is shown to you at the time of withdrawal. Our Payment Terms describe withdrawals in full.
• Refunds are credited to the account of the buyer who paid, never to a third party.

12. Taxes, platform fees and coupons on refunds

Taxes. Refunded amounts include the tax that was charged on the refunded items: in full on a full refund, and in proportion on a partial settlement. Buyers in India are charged 18% GST on their orders, and that GST is returned as part of the refund of those orders. Buyers outside India are not charged GST.

Platform fees. On freelance orders, the buyer service fee is collected into escrow together with the order amount, so a full refund returns it to you as part of the escrowed total, and a settlement splits the escrowed total in the agreed or decided proportions. On digital products, an approved refund returns the full amount you paid for the item, including any buyer fee charged on it.

Coupons and discounts. If a coupon or a sale price reduced what you paid, the refund is the discounted amount you actually paid, not the pre-discount price.

13. Chargebacks and payment reversals

FreelancerPeople already provides escrow on freelance orders, a request process on digital products, and a Resolution Center for disagreements, so the right first step for almost any payment concern is this policy, not a chargeback with your bank or card issuer. Please contact us before disputing a charge externally.

If a chargeback or external payment reversal is filed:

• Funds connected to the affected order may be placed on hold while the reversal is investigated.
• We will respond to the payment provider with the order record, delivery evidence and message history, which is why keeping your communication on the Platform is valuable.
• A reversal filed without first raising the issue with us, or filed in bad faith for work or products that were genuinely delivered, may lead to a review of the account under our Terms of Service.

If you believe a charge is genuinely unauthorized, contact us through the Support page right away so we can investigate.

14. Wallet top-ups and unspent balances

Money you add to your wallet as a top-up is a balance, not an order, so it is not "refunded" in the sense above; it simply remains yours. An unspent balance, whether it came from a top-up or from a refund, can be withdrawn at any time by making a withdrawal request from your wallet. As with any withdrawal, you need verified identity and a verified payout method, and the minimums and any fee are shown before you confirm. See our Payment Terms for details.

15. Fair use of the refund system

Refund protection exists for orders that genuinely went wrong. It is not a way to obtain free work or free products, and to keep the marketplace fair to the sellers who earn on it, some situations do not qualify:

• Work delivered as agreed and within the order's scope, where you simply changed your mind afterwards.
• Requests that go beyond the original scope or the included revisions; those are new work, not a fault in the delivery.
• Problems caused by the buyer not providing required materials, access or feedback in time.
• Hours genuinely worked and settled on an hourly contract (Section 7).
• Digital product requests opened after the request window, or on products clearly marked non-refundable before purchase.

Abuse of the refund system, such as repeated requests without a genuine basis, keeping and using digital files after a refund, or misusing chargebacks, may limit your refund eligibility and can lead to action on the account under our Terms of Service and Trust and Safety rules.

16. Your rights under consumer law

This policy is governed by the laws of India, and any court proceedings are subject to the jurisdiction set out in our Terms of Service. Nothing in this policy or those terms limits any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 or any other applicable law that cannot be excluded by agreement. Where this policy and a mandatory legal right differ, the legal right prevails.

17. Questions and contact

If you are unsure whether an order qualifies for a refund, want help cancelling, or need a hand with a request, contact us through the in-app Support page or by email at support@freelancerpeople.com. For a disagreement you cannot resolve directly with the other party on a freelance order, open a case in the Resolution Center.

Complaints about how a refund or cancellation was handled are received by our Grievance Officer, a designated role reachable at support@freelancerpeople.com. Every complaint receives a ticket number for tracking, an acknowledgment within 24 hours, and a resolution within 15 days.

This policy works alongside our Terms of Service, Payment Terms, Privacy Policy and Community Guidelines. We may update it from time to time as the marketplace evolves, and the current version published on this page always governs.