Effective: October 6, 2026 (prospective new orders)
Clarifications updated: October 12, 2026. Earlier orders retain their accepted terms.
This policy applies to orders purchased through VUGA Publish and VUGA Agency, including agency quotes and invoices, subject to mandatory legal rights and any different lawful terms in a signed agreement or accepted quote.
1. Before payment
You may leave checkout without charge before payment is confirmed. An agency may decline a quote before accepting it or paying its invoice. An unpaid, failed or still-pending payment does not by itself establish that paid order processing has begun.
2. When paid order processing starts
Paid order processing begins when payment is confirmed. Change-of-mind cancellations are not refundable after that point, including before article submission or publication. Verified service failures, incorrect charges and mandatory legal rights are reviewed separately.
Once payment is confirmed and VUGA accepts the order, fulfillment preparation starts: the order is processed, fulfillment tasks are created and the purchased placements are prepared for the editorial workflow. This can precede the customer's article submission, writing, review or publication; it does not mean that an article has already been written or published, or that a publication date is guaranteed.
3. Change of mind after payment
For orders accepted under this version, VUGA does not refund a customer-requested cancellation because the customer changes their mind after confirmed payment and order acceptance. This also applies when the customer has not yet supplied an article, clicked Submit, approved a draft or selected a publication date. Waiting for customer materials or approval does not restart the cancellation window.
Changed preference, customer delay, search-engine action, lack of ranking, traffic, leads, sales, media pickup or indexation does not create refund eligibility. A placement published as approved is nonrefundable for those reasons.
4. Service failures and payment exceptions
The change-of-mind rule does not remove remedies for a verified failure to deliver the agreed service, an incorrect or duplicate charge, an unauthorized payment or any mandatory legal right. Authorized staff investigate the facts and applicable terms before deciding the remedy; Support AI cannot approve or promise a refund.
If VUGA cannot accept the purchased scope or cannot provide the agreed service, we may offer a suitable substitute for the customer's agreement. If no mutually acceptable substitute is agreed, staff review a refund for the affected unprovided service. In an order with several placements, an issue with one placement does not make independently completed or deliverable placements refundable. A partial or full refund depends on the affected scope and any mandatory rights, and is never automatic merely because a request was submitted.
5. Content review and prohibited material
Payment does not entitle a customer to publish prohibited or unlawful material. Every submission remains subject to the Content Rules. A first confirmed prohibited-link violation receives a written warning and one correction opportunity; uncertain or unavailable checks do not count as confirmed violations. Further confirmed violations require staff review of cancellation, any applicable refund for unperformed work and account restrictions. Uploading pornography or other prohibited content does not automatically qualify an order for a full refund.
VUGA may request corrections or a lawful substitute and pause fulfillment while waiting for compliant materials. Staff review any cancellation under the accepted order terms and applicable law. Work already performed or published is not automatically refundable. If a rights holder files a copyright complaint about an image or other media the customer supplied, the affected article is removed upon that complaint and the removal is not eligible for a refund.
6. How to request a review
Contact Support from your account and include the short order number (for example, O373), order date, reason and relevant evidence. If you cannot access the account, contact [email protected]. Requests are reviewed by authorized staff; a submitted request, AI answer or handoff is not approval of cancellation or refund.
Approved refunds are issued through the original Stripe payment path. Bank processing time is outside VUGA's control. Contact us promptly about an unauthorized or incorrect charge. Nothing in this policy limits chargeback rights or mandatory consumer remedies; knowingly submitting false dispute information is prohibited.
7. Policy version and earlier orders
This version applies prospectively to new quotes and orders that record this Refund Policy version and notice in their checkout or order snapshot. Paying an earlier quote, retrying an earlier payment or continuing an existing order does not replace its accepted refund terms. Orders without a recorded acceptance of this version require staff review under their original terms; we do not apply this change retroactively merely from the payment date or current article status.
Publication selection and required replacement
Check each publication’s categories before payment: your article must match its subject. Under the topic agreement accepted at checkout, if you choose an off-topic publication, you must accept a suitable replacement within that order’s terms. Review the proposed eligible publications in Articles and confirm your choice. The affected placement waits for confirmation; independently deliverable placements continue. A wrong-topic selection or refusal of a suitable replacement merely because you changed your mind is not by itself a refund reason. Replacements must respect the accepted scope and recorded order terms; any changed scope or total requires customer confirmation. If VUGA cannot provide the agreed service or a suitable replacement, staff review the affected unprovided service under the Refund Policy. Mandatory rights and the original terms of earlier orders remain applicable.