Refund and Cancellation Policy

1. In short

• Subscriptions renew automatically every month until you cancel. The renewal terms are shown before you pay, and you accept the Terms with a tick-box at checkout.
• Cancel any time on the Billing page of the Site or through your Link account. You keep access until the end of the paid period; no further charges.
• Upgrades apply immediately and restart your monthly period from that day (you pay the new plan's price minus a credit for the unused part of the current period); you confirm an upgrade with the same consent box as any purchase; downgrades apply from the next period.
• 14-day right of withdrawal (EU/EEA/UK consumers): if you withdraw, we return the price of the Sparks of the purchase you have not spent; the Sparks you have spent are kept at the price of one Spark of the purchase. You lose the right of withdrawal once all Sparks are spent. To withdraw, use the link “Withdraw from contract here” on the Billing page or email us (section 6).
• Used Sparks are not refundable, except where the law says otherwise or something went wrong on our side.
• Refunds of purchases on the Site go back to the original payment method and are processed by Sold through Link, LLC (Stripe Managed Payments), the merchant of record. A refund removes the Sparks that came with the payment.
• Accidental renewals, outages and billing mistakes: tell us — we handle these case by case and we try to be fair.

2. Who processes payments and refunds

Purchases on the Site are processed through Stripe Managed Payments. Sold through Link, LLC ("Link"), a Stripe affiliate, is the merchant of record: it charges you, issues receipts and invoices, collects the applicable taxes and pays out refunds to your original payment method. Your statement shows a descriptor beginning with "LINK.COM*".

You can request a refund either from us ([to be added]) or, for payment-related problems, from Link support (support.link.com). Link may issue refunds directly within 60 days of a purchase in certain cases, including to resolve a payment dispute. Any refund — whoever issues it — has the effects described in section 9.

Refunds include the tax you paid. They are made to the original payment method only; we cannot refund to a different card or account, in cash, or as a transfer.

Purchases in Steam. Sparks bought inside Steam are paid to and processed by Valve, and refunds of those purchases follow Steam's refund rules and are requested through Steam. A Steam refund also removes the Sparks that came with the purchase (section 9).

3. Subscriptions and automatic renewal

3.1 The monthly plans currently on sale, their prices and the Sparks they include are shown on the Billing page of the Site (after you sign in), in the App and at checkout; taxes are shown at checkout.

3.2 Your subscription starts when your first payment succeeds and renews automatically for successive one-month periods at the then-current price until you cancel. At each renewal your payment method is charged and your plan's Sparks are credited.

3.3 Your consent. The price, the billing period, the automatic renewal, the renewal price and how to cancel are shown to you before you pay. You cannot subscribe without ticking the box at checkout that confirms you accept the Terms, which include the automatic renewal.

3.4 Renewal reminders. We or Link send reminder emails before certain renewals as required by law in your country, and always before a renewal that follows a price change (see section 11).

3.5 Failed renewal. If a renewal payment fails, we retry and notify you. If payment still cannot be collected, the subscription is cancelled and paid features stop.

4. How to cancel

Cancel at any time:

• on the Billing page of the Site;
• in your Link account at link.com;
• or by emailing [to be added] from your account email — we confirm within [to be added] business days.

Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current paid period. Until then you keep your plan and can use your Sparks. You will not be charged again. We do not refund the unused remainder of a period you have already paid for, except as set out in sections 6, 10 and 12.

We want satisfied customers, not hostages: cancelling takes a few clicks, there are no retention calls and no questions you have to answer.

5. Changing plans

• Upgrade (to a plan with more Sparks): takes effect immediately, and a new monthly period starts on the day of the upgrade. You are charged the new plan's full monthly price minus a credit for the unused part of your current period, and you immediately receive the new plan's Sparks minus the Sparks that correspond to that credit — the Sparks you already have are kept. Example: halfway through the month you move from a $10 plan with 1,000 Sparks to a $40 plan with 4,000 Sparks — you pay $35 and receive 3,500 Sparks. Your subscription then renews every month on the day of the upgrade at the new plan's price. Before paying you tick a box asking us to start immediately; the rules of section 6 for consented purchases apply (Sparks you have spent are not refunded). The credit is based on the regular price of your current plan, even if it was discounted.
• Downgrade (to a plan with fewer Sparks): takes effect at the end of the current period. You keep your current plan and Sparks until then; the new price and Sparks apply from the next renewal.
• You can change your mind about a pending downgrade before the period ends.

6. Right of withdrawal — 14 days (consumers in the EU/EEA and the UK)

6.1 If you are a consumer in the EU, EEA or UK, you may withdraw from a purchase made on the Site or in the App within 14 days of the day of purchase without giving a reason. The quickest way: sign in, open the Billing page, use the link “Withdraw from contract here” at the bottom of the page, choose the purchase, check your name and press “Confirm withdrawal”. You can also email [to be added] or send the model withdrawal form annexed to the Terms. After we receive your statement, we email you an acknowledgement with its text and the date and time we received it. The deadline is met if you send your statement before the 14 days are up.

6.2 When the right is limited. Sparks and the Service are a digital service that starts as soon as the Sparks are credited. The effects below apply only if, before the supply begins, you have expressly requested immediate supply and acknowledged them — by ticking, before you pay on the Billing page or in the App, the box next to the buy button: “Start now; I understand I pay for Sparks I spend and lose the right of withdrawal once all Sparks are spent.” Where yearly plans are offered and you view the yearly prices, the box next to the plans reads instead: “I ask you to start the service now. If I withdraw within 14 days, I pay for the Sparks I have spent.” Sparks Packs and the Trial Pack each have a box of their own, always with the first wording. You cannot buy without ticking the box for that purchase.

Price of one Spark. The price of one Spark of a purchase is the amount you paid for it divided by the number of Sparks it gave you. If you withdraw, you get back the price of the unspent Sparks: amount paid × unspent Sparks ÷ Sparks of the purchase (for a subscription period we compute it as the amount paid minus the price of the spent Sparks). Amounts are rounded to whole cents. Examples:

• Pack: 500 Sparks for $4.99, of which you spent 120. The 380 unspent Sparks are worth $4.99 × 380 ÷ 500 = $3.79 (rounded down) — we refund $3.79.
• Starter plan: $11.99 a month for 1,500 Sparks, of which you spent 300 in the period. The spent Sparks cost $11.99 × 300 ÷ 1,500 = $2.39 (rounded down) — we refund $11.99 − $2.39 = $9.60.
• All Sparks spent: if you spent all 500 Sparks of the pack, the service has been provided in full and there is no right of withdrawal.

The confirmation of your purchase (6.3) states this rule in these words: “You may withdraw from this purchase within 14 days of the date of purchase without giving a reason. If you withdraw, we return the price of the Sparks of this purchase you have not spent; the Sparks you have spent are kept at the price of one Spark of this purchase. You lose the right of withdrawal once all Sparks are spent: when every Spark of this purchase has been used, the service has been provided in full.”

6.3 Confirmation by email. Before we credit the Sparks of a Sparks Pack, of the Trial Pack or of the first period of a plan, we email a confirmation of the purchase to your account email; it repeats the box you ticked and the rule above. For these purchases, if you did not tick the box, or if that email was not sent before the Sparks were credited, the limits in 6.2 do not apply: if you withdraw within 14 days, we refund the full amount you paid, and only the unspent Sparks of the purchase are removed from your balance. This step does not apply to renewals and upgrades: renewals follow 6.5, upgrades follow section 5.

6.4 Refund timing. When we carry out your withdrawal, the unspent Sparks of the purchase are removed from your balance first. We then refund without undue delay and no later than 14 days after we receive your withdrawal statement, through Link to your original payment method.

6.5 Renewals. Each monthly renewal is a new supply under the same contract. Within 14 days of a renewal charge you may ask for a refund of that renewal; the rule in 6.2 for subscriptions applies (deduction for Sparks spent since the renewal).

6.6 Subscriptions: automatic renewal. If you submit a withdrawal statement for a subscription, we switch off its automatic renewal. You keep access and the period's Sparks until the end of the paid period, unless the payment for the period is refunded; then the subscription is cancelled at once. Cancelling a subscription (section 4) is a separate action: it stops the renewal and is not a withdrawal.

6.7 When we do not start a new purchase. We do not start a new purchase on the Site or in the App (purchases in Steam are not affected): (a) while the email address of your account does not accept our emails — for example, after a spam complaint or when the mailbox refuses them — because we could not send you the confirmation of the purchase; write to [to be added] to resolve it; or (b) after a documented abuse of the purchase-confirmation procedure, for example when a confirmation was not accepted because of the address, the Sparks were spent and a full refund was taken. If a payment is nevertheless made in case (b), we do not credit the Sparks and we refund the full amount. A withdrawal statement on its own is never a reason for either.

7. Trial Pack

The Trial Pack is a one-time, non-renewing purchase of a small amount of Sparks at a low price, available once per account and once per Steam account, whether you buy it on the Site or in Steam. It is sold on the same terms as a Sparks Pack: if you withdraw within 14 days, we refund the price of its unspent Sparks, and the right of withdrawal is lost once all its Sparks are spent (section 6). Buying Trial Packs through several accounts breaches the Terms and may lead to suspension of the accounts involved. If a second Trial Pack is nevertheless paid for, its Sparks are credited and we review the purchase; we do not refund it for that reason (your rights under section 6 are not affected).

8. Sparks Packs

Sparks Packs are one-time purchases. On the Site, they are available only while you have an active subscription. In Steam, Sparks are sold as one-time packs (section 2). Packs are supplied immediately. If you withdraw within 14 days, we refund the price of the unspent Sparks of the pack, and the right of withdrawal is lost once all Sparks of the pack are spent (section 6). Unspent Pack Sparks do not expire and stay on your balance after your subscription ends, like the Sparks that came with your subscription (Terms 5.5).

9. What a refund does to your Sparks (and the negative-balance rule)

9.1 Every payment comes with a specific number of Sparks. When a payment is refunded, reversed or charged back — by us, by Link, by Steam or by your bank — those Sparks are removed from your balance. The exception is a refund after a withdrawal (section 6): it removes only the unspent Sparks of the purchase.

9.2 If you have already spent some or all of them, your balance becomes negative. A negative balance is settled automatically from your next Sparks credit (renewal, pack or grant). While your balance is negative, Altless does not perform paid actions.

9.3 Independently of refunds, during normal use we may allow your balance to go negative by the amount of the overrun so that an answer is not cut off halfway. This shortfall is likewise deducted from your next credit. It is a convenience, not credit: you never owe us money for it, and we never charge your payment method for it.

9.4 We may suspend paid features of an account with a negative balance caused by a refund or chargeback until it is settled, and we may decline further purchases from accounts with a history of chargebacks.

10. Refunds outside the withdrawal period (all customers)

Beyond your statutory rights, we handle requests case by case. We will usually refund:

• a renewal charged by mistake — for example, you cancelled or tried to cancel before the renewal, or you forgot to cancel, have not used any Sparks from the new period and ask shortly after the renewal;
• duplicate charges or other billing errors;
• purchases where the Service was unavailable or materially broken for a significant part of the period, or where you were charged Sparks for answers that failed because of a fault on our side (we usually fix this by re-crediting the Sparks rather than refunding money);
• purchases made from a compromised account, once we have secured it.

We will usually not refund:

• Sparks that have been spent on answers delivered as described, including answers you found unhelpful (we may credit Sparks for clearly broken answers — just ask);
• subscription periods that have already run, where the Service was available;
• Trial Packs or Packs obtained in breach of the Terms;
• promotional or compensation Sparks.

To ask, email [to be added] with the account email and the receipt or order ID. Please contact us before opening a dispute with your bank: a chargeback removes the Sparks (section 9) and may lead to account suspension, while we can usually solve the problem faster.

11. Price changes

If we change the price or Sparks allowance of your plan, the change applies only from the first renewal at least 30 days after we notify you by email or in the App. If you do not agree, cancel before that renewal; nothing changes for the rest of your current period.

12. Changes to the Service, termination by us, discontinuation

• If we change the Service in a way that negatively affects a paid feature more than minimally, EU/EEA consumers may terminate within 30 days of the notice and receive a prorated refund of the unused period (Terms 14.1).
• If we terminate your account for a reason other than your breach, or if we discontinue Altless, we refund the unused part of the current period and unspent purchased Sparks pro rata (Terms 17).
• If we terminate your account for breach, spent Sparks are not refunded; unspent purchased Sparks are refunded unless they were obtained in breach of the Terms.

13. Deleting your account

Deleting your account cancels your subscription immediately, so you will not be charged again. We do not refund the unused remainder of the period you have already paid for, and remaining Sparks are forfeited and cannot be refunded, unless a statutory right applies (for example the right of withdrawal in section 6). If you want to use the rest of the paid period, cancel your subscription first (section 4) and delete your account after it ends. A deleted account cannot be restored or signed into again; signing in later with the same Steam account creates a new, empty account, and a Trial Pack already used with that Steam account stays used.

14. Legal guarantee and statutory rights

Nothing in this policy limits your statutory rights as a consumer, including the legal guarantee of conformity for digital content and digital services (Terms 15) and your rights under the consumer-protection law of the country where you live.

15. Complaints and dispute resolution

Email [to be added] first. You can also use the Portuguese electronic complaints book at www.livroreclamacoes.pt, or — for disputes up to EUR 5,000 — a Portuguese consumer arbitration centre such as CNIACC (www.cniacc.pt), as described in Terms 18.