Refund & Cancellation Policy

1. The Cancel-Anytime Promise

You can cancel a SoloCogs subscription at any time from your account settings, or by emailing hello@solocogs.co.uk. There is no hold-period, no penalty, no phone call required. The cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period you have already paid for - the platform stays open until that date, then closes automatically. We never auto-charge a fresh period after cancellation.

The cancel-anytime model is here because we want parents to feel safe trying SoloCogs. If your child does not get on with the platform, you should not feel locked in.

2. 14-Day Cooling-Off Right (Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013)

Under UK consumer law, you have a statutory right to cancel a distance-purchased digital service within 14 days and receive a full refund of anything you have paid. We do not ask you to give that right up.

We used to. Until 13 September 2026 we asked for the two consents the Regulations allow, so that we could start supplying the service immediately. We have stopped, because on our plans it was asking for something that cost you a right and gained you nothing:

• Every subscription starts with a free trial of at least 14 days. If you subscribe on or before 17 December 2026, your trial runs until 31 December 2026 and your first payment is taken on 1 January 2027. If you subscribe after 17 December 2026, your trial lasts 14 days. The 14-day cooling-off period always falls inside it.
• No payment is taken during it. If you cancel before your trial ends you are charged nothing at all, so there is no refund to waive.

What this means in practice:

• Cancel at any point before your trial ends and you pay nothing. Your child keeps nothing, we keep nothing, and there is no form to fill in.
• If you are charged and nobody on your account has used the platform, email us and we refund that charge in full. This is more than the law requires and it is not going anywhere.
• None of this limits your Consumer Rights Act 2015 remedies where the service was faulty, misdescribed, or not performed with reasonable care and skill.
• After your trial ends, the cancel-anytime rule in section 1 takes over.

3. Monthly vs Annual Plans

Plan	What you've paid for	Refund on cancellation
Monthly	One month of access at a time	None mid-month - you keep the remainder of the month you paid for, then the subscription stops. Next month is not charged.
Annual	12 months of access at a discounted rate	Pro-rata refund of unused full months remaining at the equivalent monthly rate. No admin fee is charged; the annual saving you enjoyed for the months you did use is retained by us, which naturally means an annual cancel-and-rebuy cycle is worse for you than staying on monthly - so no penalty is required to prevent it.
School / tutoring-company licence	Custom-built per the signed contract	As specified in your signed contract. Schools that pre-pay an annual licence can cancel year-to-year; pro-rata refunds for mid-term termination follow the terms in your contract, not this consumer policy.

4. We Will Always Refund If…

Some situations override the standard policy. We will issue a full or appropriate refund - no questions asked - if any of the following apply:

• We materially break the service. An outage or content removal that prevents you accessing what you paid for, for an extended period.
• You were charged in error. Duplicate charges, charge after cancellation, wrong tier.
• Accessibility makes the platform unusable for your child. If something about how SoloCogs is built genuinely blocks your child's access (we work hard to prevent this, but if you tell us during the cooling-off period that the platform does not work for your child, we refund the lot).
• Safeguarding makes continued use inappropriate. If a safeguarding situation arises that means the platform is not safe for your child to keep using, we end the subscription immediately and refund the unused remainder.
• The student has died. We are sorry to even type that. Email us and we will refund the unused remainder, close the account compassionately, and follow the data retention rules in our Privacy Policy.

5. We Will Not Refund For…

We are clear in advance so there are no surprises. We will not normally refund:

• A period you have already paid for and used. Cancelling stops the next charge; it does not undo a month your child has had the run of. The free trial exists so you can find out before paying anything.
• A change of mind after your trial has ended - cancellation works as described in section 1 (you keep what you paid for; the next period is not charged).
• A grade or exam result that did not meet your expectations. Per our Terms of Service §7, SoloCogs is an educational support tool and does not guarantee any particular grade.
• Issues caused by the user's own device, connection, or browser where the platform works correctly elsewhere.
• Acceptable-Use violations (cheating on assessments, account sharing, etc.) - per the Terms of Service §6 these can lead to account termination without refund.

6. How to Cancel

• From your account: Sign in > Account settings > Manage subscription > Cancel. Available to every account holder without contacting us.
• By email: hello@solocogs.co.uk with the subject line "Cancel my subscription" from the email address on the account. We confirm within 1 working day.
• Via Stripe: if you signed up through Stripe Checkout, you can also manage or cancel your subscription via the Stripe Billing Portal - the link is on your Account settings screen. We see the cancellation signal from Stripe and treat it the same way as an in-app cancellation. We recommend telling us anyway so we can confirm the cancellation took effect.
• By post: if you would prefer, you can request cancellation in writing - see the postal service address in the Privacy Policy.

7. How to Request a Refund

1. Email hello@solocogs.co.uk from the account holder's email. Subject: "Refund request". Tell us the reason.
2. We acknowledge within 1 working day and either approve straight away (most cases under section 4) or ask a clarifying question.
3. Once approved, refunds are issued back to the original Stripe payment method within 5-10 working days (Stripe's standard processing time).
4. If we decline a refund request that you believe should have been approved, you can escalate via our Complaints Policy.

8. Statutory Rights Notice

None of the above limits your statutory consumer rights under UK law. Where this policy is more generous than your statutory rights, this policy applies. Where this policy is somehow narrower than your statutory rights, your statutory rights apply. If you are unsure, see the Citizens Advice page on digital services.