Draft — this text has not been reviewed by a lawyer yet and may change before launch.
Coach session refund, cancellation and complaints policy
1. Price shown to the learner (all markets)
- The coach sets one session price. That price is the total the learner pays. Careely adds no booking fee or service fee, and any applicable tax is included. This avoids drip pricing, which CPFTA's Second Schedule (SG, from 2024-07-01) and VN consumer law forbid.
- The price, the session length and this policy are shown before the learner sends a request, and again next to the Pay button.
- Careely's fee is the take-rate on the price (
COACH_TAKE_RATE_PCT, default 15% — owner decision 2026-10-09, was 10%). It comes out of the coach's share and is never added on top. A new coach's firstCOACH_FREE_SESSIONS_Nsessions (default 3) carry no Careely fee.
2. How the money moves
| Market | How the learner pays | Who holds the money | Careely's revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| US, SG | Card through Stripe Checkout (Stripe Connect destination charge to the coach's connected account) | Stripe, in the coach's own Stripe balance; payouts are held until the session is confirmed | Stripe application fee = the take |
| VN | Directly to the coach, outside Careely | The coach | A referral fee that the coach pays Careely through a VN payment gateway |
Careely never holds learner funds and never takes a VN learner's money.
3. Cancellation and refunds (US, SG)
| Who cancels | When | Learner gets back |
|---|---|---|
| Learner | at least 24 hours before the start | 100% |
| Learner | less than 24 hours before the start | 50% (the coach keeps 50%) |
| Coach | any time before the start | 100% |
| Nobody: the coach did not show up | the learner opens a complaint | decided by an admin, normally 100% |
- A refund reverses the coach's share and Careely's fee in proportion (Stripe
reverse_transferandrefund_application_fee). Careely never keeps a fee on money that went back to the learner. - Before a coach accepts, the learner can withdraw the request for free. Nothing has been charged yet.
- A request or an unpaid booking that reaches its start time expires. Nothing is charged.
- Once the session has started it cannot be cancelled; the learner confirms it or opens a complaint.
4. Confirmation and payout (US, SG)
- After the session the learner taps "Session happened". The coach's share is then paid out.
- If the learner does nothing, the session counts as completed 48 hours after it ends (
COACH_SESSION_CONFIRM_HOURS), and the coach is paid.
5. Complaints
- The learner can open a complaint from the start of the session until the end of the confirmation window. Types: the coach did not show up, the session was not as described, something else.
- While a complaint is open the coach's payout is frozen.
- An admin decides what share the coach keeps (0–100%); the learner gets the rest back. Every decision is written to the admin audit log (
coach.session.dispute.resolve).
6. Vietnam
- The learner and the coach agree on payment between themselves; the price shown is the coach's price. Careely has no part in that payment and cannot refund it.
- Careely charges the coach a referral fee (the take-rate on the agreed price; first sessions free) through a VN-local gateway (MoMo / ZaloPay / VNPay / payOS). If the session is cancelled before it starts, the referral fee is refunded to the coach.
- Complaints from VN learners are recorded and reviewed by an admin, but no money moves through Careely.
- The gateway is a fake today (
VN_FEE_GATEWAY=fake). A real integration needs a VN legal entity or a licensed partner. Until then VN stays out ofCOACH_SESSION_MARKETSin production.
7. Records kept after account deletion
Bookings, the fee ledger and complaint outcomes are financial records. Tax and accounting law (SG IRAS: 5 years; VN: 10 years for accounting documents) and the consumer-complaint periods require keeping them. When an account is deleted these rows are kept but pseudonymised:
- the link to the user is removed;
- the booking note and the complaint text are erased;
- the user's own reviews and the coach's price are deleted.
Vietnamese version: coach-session-refund-policy.vi.md.