GIWAHS Refund and Cancellation Policy

Document: 27 · Legal & Compliance Pack Version: 1.0 – Founder Draft (pre-publication) Status: Authored by AI under Doc 09 Autonomous Execution Standard. MUST be reviewed and signed off by qualified legal counsel in the applicable jurisdictions (NZ, EU/UK, US, AU) before being published on giwahs.com. Effective Date: To be inserted on publication. Last Updated: To be inserted on publication. Cross-references: Docs 24 (Privacy Policy), 25 (Terms of Service), 26 (Founding Partner Terms), 02 (Benefits Matrix), 03 (Lifecycle Policy).

Order of precedence: This Policy supplements and prevails over Doc 25 with respect to refund and cancellation matters. For Founding Partner subscriptions, this Policy is read together with Doc 26 (Founding Partner Terms), with Doc 26 prevailing on Founding-Partner-specific consequences (e.g., forfeiture of Founder Member Number and Price-Lock).

1. Purpose

This Policy explains how subscription cancellations, refunds, and pro rata credits are handled across the GIWAHS Platform.

2. Plans Covered

This Policy applies to: - Standard subscriptions (Gold / Elite / Enterprise); - Founding Partner subscriptions (Gold / Elite / Enterprise); - Tier upgrades and downgrades; - Optional add-ons (where introduced in future); - One-off charges (where introduced in future).

It does not apply to charges levied by third parties (e.g., your card issuer’s foreign-exchange fees, supplier sample fees paid outside the Platform).

3. Cancellation

3.1 How to cancel

You can cancel a subscription at any time: - Self-service: through the Stripe Customer Portal accessible via your GIWAHS account at Settings → Billing → Manage Billing. - By email: by sending an unambiguous cancellation request from the email address registered on your account to billing@giwahs.com. Please include your organisation name and the email address of the account owner.

Cancellation requests submitted by email take effect once acknowledged by GIWAHS within 2 business days. If you do not receive an acknowledgement within 2 business days, please re-send or contact support@giwahs.com.

3.2 Effective date of cancellation

• Within the 14-day cooling-off window (Section 4): cancellation is immediate and a full refund is issued.
• After the 14-day cooling-off window: cancellation takes effect at the end of the current annual subscription term. You retain full access (including all paid features and, for Founding Partners, your Founder Member Number and badge) until that date. The subscription will not renew.

3.3 Re-activation

You may un-cancel a pending cancellation at any time before the end-of-term effective date by toggling “Reactivate” in the Stripe Customer Portal.

4. 14-Day Cooling-Off Window (Full Refund)

GIWAHS offers a 14-day full-refund cooling-off window on the initial purchase of any annual subscription, including Founding Partner subscriptions. This is provided as a goodwill standard across all jurisdictions, and meets or exceeds applicable EU/UK consumer-protection law.

4.1 Eligibility

• The window runs for 14 calendar days from the date of your first successful payment for the subscription.
• The window applies only to the initial purchase, not to subsequent annual renewals, upgrades, or re-entry purchases after cancellation.
• The window applies once per organisation per tier family (Founding Partner / Standard). Re-purchasing the same tier after a prior cancellation does not reset the window for refund purposes.

4.2 How to claim

Cancel via Stripe Customer Portal or email billing@giwahs.com within the 14-day window. Refunds are processed within 5 to 10 business days to the original payment method, less any irrecoverable third-party processing fees (typically nil for Stripe).

4.3 Consequences for Founding Partners

A refund within the cooling-off window terminates your Founding Partner status: - your Founder Member Number is revoked and returned to availability; - your Price-Lock Period is cancelled; - your Founder Badge is removed; - the position is returned to the public allocation pool (or offered to the next waitlist entry, see Doc 26 §6.2).

If you re-purchase later, normal Founding Partner allocation rules apply, subject to availability. There is no guarantee that a Founder position will be available for your tier at the time you re-purchase.

5. Refunds After the 14-Day Cooling-Off Window

After the 14-day window has expired:

• No partial refunds are issued for unused portions of an annual subscription term, except as set out in Section 6 (Exceptional Circumstances) or where required by mandatory consumer-protection law (Section 11).
• You retain full access to all paid features until the end of the current paid term.
• The subscription will not auto-renew if you cancel before the renewal date.

This policy is consistent with the structure of annual SaaS subscriptions and is reflected in the discounted USD pricing relative to a hypothetical month-to-month structure.

All refunds are issued by Whaitiri Black Limited (trading as GIWAHS), NZ GST № 125-955-886, via Stripe to the original payment method. Refund credit notes are issued in the name of Whaitiri Black Limited.

6. Exceptional-Circumstances Refunds (Goodwill)

GIWAHS may, at its sole discretion, grant a partial or full refund outside the cooling-off window in genuine exceptional circumstances, including:

• a material service failure attributable to GIWAHS that we are unable to resolve within a reasonable time and that materially deprives you of the value of the subscription;
• duplicate payment, billing error, or technical fault;
• legitimate bereavement, insolvency, or business closure where the Founder Member Number / subscription is no longer required (a pro rata credit may be issued at GIWAHS’s discretion).

To request an exceptional refund, write to billing@giwahs.com explaining the circumstances. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. The exercise of discretion in one case is not a precedent for any other case.

7. Tier Upgrades and Downgrades

7.1 Upgrades (within the same Founder/Standard family)

• Effective immediately on payment of the upgrade fee.
• A pro rata credit for the unused portion of the prior tier’s annual subscription is applied against the new tier’s upgrade fee.
• For Founding Partners, the Price-Lock Period for the new tier begins on the upgrade date (Doc 26 §3.5).

7.2 Downgrades

• Founding Partner subscriptions cannot be downgraded to a lower Founder tier mid-term (Doc 26 §3.6). To switch to a lower Founder tier, you must cancel and re-purchase; re-purchase is subject to availability and forfeits the original Price-Lock and Founder Member Number.
• Standard subscriptions may downgrade at the next renewal. No pro rata refund is issued for the difference; the new (lower) price takes effect from the next renewal date.

8. Failed Payments and Involuntary Lapse

If a renewal payment fails: - Stripe retries the charge using its standard smart-retry schedule (typically 4 attempts over ~14 days). - We send up to 3 notification emails (“payment failed”, “payment retry scheduled”, “final notice”). - If payment is not received within 14 days of the original renewal date, access to paid features is suspended. - If payment is not received within 30 days of the original renewal date, the subscription lapses. - For Founding Partners, a lapsed subscription forfeits the Founder Member Number and Price-Lock as described in Doc 26 §4 and §7.

To recover from a lapse, see Doc 26 §7 (re-entry rules) or contact billing@giwahs.com.

9. Chargebacks and Disputes

If you dispute a charge with your card issuer (“chargeback”) without first contacting billing@giwahs.com: - your subscription may be suspended pending resolution; - if the chargeback is upheld in your favour, your subscription will be cancelled and (for Founding Partners) the Founder Member Number and Price-Lock are forfeited per Doc 26 §7; - if the chargeback is reversed in our favour, the original subscription remains in effect and any access suspension is lifted.

We strongly prefer that you contact us first — most billing concerns are resolved within one business day.

10. Tax Treatment of Refunds

• Where a refund is issued, the corresponding VAT/GST/sales tax originally collected by Stripe Tax is also refunded (or reverse-charged) to the extent permitted by applicable tax law.
• Where a refund is partial, tax is apportioned proportionally.
• Stripe issues credit notes automatically; they appear in the Stripe customer portal.

11. Statutory Consumer Rights

Nothing in this Policy excludes, restricts, or modifies any consumer right that cannot be excluded, restricted, or modified by mandatory law in your jurisdiction, including (where applicable):

• EU / UK distance-selling rights — you have at least 14 calendar days to withdraw from a distance contract for digital services without giving a reason, except where you have expressly consented to the service starting during the withdrawal period and acknowledged that you lose your withdrawal right once the service has been fully performed. By clicking “I want immediate access” or equivalent at checkout, you consent to the Platform being made available immediately, and you acknowledge that your statutory withdrawal right may be limited to the extent the service has already been performed. Notwithstanding this limitation, GIWAHS voluntarily provides the 14-day full-refund cooling-off window in Section 4.
• Australian Consumer Law — you are entitled to a refund, repair, or replacement for major failures of services, and compensation for foreseeable loss or damage from those failures.
• New Zealand Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 — where it applies, you are entitled to remedies including refund or service correction where guarantees of acceptable quality, fitness for purpose, or reasonable care and skill are not met.
• US state consumer-protection laws — where applicable, statutory rights are preserved.

If there is a conflict between this Policy and a mandatory consumer right that applies to you, the mandatory consumer right prevails to the extent of the conflict.

12. Examples (Illustrative — not binding)

These examples are illustrative only and do not modify the binding terms above.

13. Contact

• Cancellations and refunds: billing@giwahs.com
• Founder-specific queries: founders@giwahs.com
• General support: support@giwahs.com
• Legal notices: legal@giwahs.com

We aim to respond within 2 business days.

End of Document 27.