Refund Policy — plain-language summary
This page explains how cancellations and refunds work on Onflow Ads — for wallet top-ups, Boost Metrics orders and paid ad placements — and walks you through requesting one.
This is a summary, not the policy itself. The full Refunds and Cancellations Policy is at onflowads.com/refunds and runs to 38 numbered sections. If this summary and the full policy ever differ, the full policy controls. The legal page shows its "Last updated" date at the top, and §35 carries any refund term published since the page was last deployed.
How paying works on Onflow Ads
Onflow Ads uses a prepaid wallet. You add funds to your wallet, then spend that balance on platform services. That means two different things can be refunded, under completely different rules:
- Top-ups — money you added to your wallet through a payment provider. Refunding one takes money out of the platform, so extra conditions apply.
- Purchases — services you bought by spending wallet balance. Refunding one puts the balance back in your wallet, ready to spend again.
Wallet balances are held in US Dollars (USD). UPI and card payments are processed in Indian Rupees (INR) — the USD amount is converted at the prevailing exchange rate and the exact INR total is always shown on the secure checkout before you confirm. Cryptocurrency is also supported. Each payment method has its own minimum and maximum per top-up, shown on the Add funds page before you pay.
A withdrawal moves your own earned balance out of the platform on request, under the wallet's own rules and fees. A refund unwinds a specific payment or purchase. If you simply want your balance out, you want a withdrawal — see your wallet.
Payments are taken, held and returned at onflowads.com and nowhere else. The Telegram bot notifies you, delivers what the website arranged and checks that it stayed delivered — but it cannot take a payment, hold a balance or issue a refund. Where one of its checks finds a placement was cut short, it reports that and the website pays whatever compensation is due. Nobody messaging you on Telegram can process a refund for you.
Refund rules at a glance
| Service | Refund rule |
|---|---|
| Wallet top-up | A refund request is possible only within 12 hours of the top-up being credited, and only if none of it has been spent. Requesting one freezes that amount until the team decides. Reviewed manually; not guaranteed. Paid to your external destination, net of fees. |
| Boost Metrics order | If the order cannot start or is rejected: full automatic refund to your wallet. Cancelled or partly delivered: the unfulfilled portion is automatically refunded to your wallet. Fully delivered: not refundable. |
| Paid ad placement | Cancellable for a full wallet refund before the owner accepts it. Cancellable after acceptance but before it is posted — by you or by the owner — for a full wallet refund, no fee and no reliability effect. Once live: not cancellable — except for non-delivery or a fault on Onflow Ads' side, where a re-run, credit or refund is worked out in good faith. |
| Cross-promotion swap | Free — nothing to refund. Opt out of a swap before it is scheduled. Cover is declared, not bought: on a confirmed breach the party at fault pays the amount they declared to their partner, out of their own wallet. |
| Paid pin | An early unpin returns the whole pin charge to the advertiser as non-withdrawable wallet balance, paid when the campaign finishes or within 48 hours — whichever comes first — rather than at the moment of the unpin; the placement itself is not refunded. The owner owes the same amount from the moment the unpin is confirmed, withheld from escrow or — if that is too small — from their wallet, even into debt. Our team can hold, release early or reverse it while it is pending, and any hold expires after 48 hours. |
| Promotional or bonus credit | No cash value; never refundable or withdrawable. |
| Referral commission | Paid as Boost Credit only — no cash value, never withdrawable. If the top-up that earned it is refunded to its source or reversed, the credit may be reversed with it, never below zero. Where the person joined through a partner link set to pay only on referrals that count (Terms §31.8), a deposit they make before meeting that link's conditions earns nothing, and is not paid later. See Referral Programme. |
Top-up refunds
A top-up refund is different from a service refund: it takes money out of the platform, so six conditions apply.
- 12-hour window. You may request the refund only within 12 hours of the top-up being credited. After that, the top-up is final.
- Nothing spent. The refund is only considered if none of the topped-up amount has been spent on anything.
- A request is not a guarantee. Every request is reviewed manually and may be declined.
- Paid externally, net of fees. An approved refund goes to your external destination, not back to your wallet, and the fees in the table below come off it first. You receive the resulting net amount, and the exact breakdown is shown before you submit.
- Refunds go back to source. A UPI or card refund returns to the same UPI ID, card or account you paid from, in INR. It cannot be redirected to a different account.
- Crypto needs a fresh address. If you topped up with cryptocurrency you must provide a fresh USDT BEP-20 (BSC) wallet address with your request. Crypto transfers cannot be reversed, so double-check the address — it is your responsibility.
What comes off an approved top-up refund
| Deduction | Amount |
|---|---|
| Platform fee | A flat 18%, deducted first |
| Gateway fee — UPI and card | An assumed 2% |
| Gateway fee — cryptocurrency | The crypto processor's fee plus the live USDT BEP-20 network withdrawal fee — or 3% of the post-platform-fee amount, whichever is greater |
Wallet refunds on purchases have none of this: they put the balance straight back where it came from.
Requesting a top-up refund, step by step
- Sign in and open your wallet at onflowads.com/telegram/dashboard/wallet.
- Select the Refunds tab. The page header reads Refund a top-up, with the policy restated above the list.
- Find the eligible top-up in the list. Each eligible entry shows when it was credited and a line reading "you would receive" followed by the net amount "after fees", along with where it would be sent — your original payment method, or a USDT BEP-20 address for a crypto top-up.
- Click Request refund.
- A dialog opens showing the full breakdown — the top-up amount, the platform fee, the gateway fees and the net You receive total. For a crypto top-up, enter your fresh USDT BEP-20 (BSC) address here.
- Submit the request.
Tracking your request
Your request appears in the same tab under Your refund requests, with one of these statuses:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Under review | The team is reviewing your request — up to 5 business days. The requested amount is frozen while it is open |
| Approved | Approved and being paid out — allow 7 to 14 business days from the approval date |
| Refunded | The net amount has been sent to your destination, with the net amount and reference shown |
| Declined | The request was declined; a decision note always explains why, and the freeze is lifted |
A declined request does not stop you re-requesting, as long as the top-up is still inside the 12-hour window and still unspent.
If the tab reads "You have no top-ups eligible for a refund right now. Refunds can be requested within 12 hours of a top-up, and only if none of it has been spent", then none of your recent top-ups meet both conditions.
Cancelling a paid placement
Cancelling is the tool for a booking that has not run yet. What happens depends on how far the booking has got.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Pending — the owner has not accepted yet | Withdrawn and refunded in full to your wallet. No fee, no reliability effect. |
| Accepted — but not yet posted | Cancelled by either side for a full refund to your wallet. The owner's good-faith deposit is returned, any view-guarantee premium comes back, and nobody's reliability changes. |
| Live or delivered | Refused: "This ad is already live — it can no longer be cancelled." A placement that has run cannot be un-spent. |
Steps
- Open onflowads.com/telegram/dashboard/paid-promotion/orders and expand the booking.
- Click the Cancel booking chip. There is no cancellation fee at any stage before posting.
- The button arms into a Confirm label carrying the exact refund amount. Nothing has happened yet at this point.
- Click it a second time to commit. If you do not, it disarms on its own after a few seconds.
- The refund lands in your wallet immediately.
If the placement already ran and something went wrong with it, cancelling is not available and is not what you want — raise a fraud concern instead. See Appeals and fraud concerns.
Service refunds (Boost and placements)
Refunds for Boost Metrics orders and cancelled placements are credited to your wallet immediately, ready to spend again. No request is needed — they happen automatically when the qualifying condition occurs:
- A Boost order is rejected or cannot start — full refund
- A Boost order is cancelled or partly delivered — the unfulfilled portion refunded
- A booking is cancelled in time — refunded per the table above
- A placement fails and your plan includes Verified Delivery Insurance — refunded automatically, with a goodwill service credit, without you raising anything. See Fraud and bot protection
A service refund cannot be redirected to your original payment method. Wallet refunds and top-up refunds are separate mechanisms and neither converts into the other — see onflowads.com/refunds §3.
Failed, duplicate and unauthorized charges
Every payment is verified directly with the payment provider before wallet credit is applied, and each order is credited only once. That means:
- Charged but not credited? The payment reconciles automatically once the provider confirms it. If nothing appears within a few hours, contact support with the date, amount and reference — a genuinely failed charge is traced and refunded in full.
- Charged twice for the same top-up? The duplicate is refunded in full.
- A charge you did not make? Email [email protected] immediately so it can be investigated.
Contact support first. A confirmed fraudulent chargeback or payment reversal costs −2.00 reliability — the heaviest tier of penalty on the platform — and can end an account. A genuine billing problem is always resolved faster by writing in.
What is never refundable
- Services already delivered or completed as ordered
- Placements or campaigns already started or live, except for non-delivery or a fault on Onflow Ads' side
- Promotional, bonus or goodwill wallet credit, including insurance service credit — it has no cash value and cannot be withdrawn
- Non-recoverable payment-provider fees on a refunded transaction
Nothing in the policy limits rights you have under applicable law that cannot be excluded.
What standing costs you, and what it does not get back
§24 is the section people find last and wish they had read first: your reliability score has money consequences, and none of them is refundable.
- A penalty restarts your veteran streak. The veteran rate on the marketplace fee is earned by 100 clean campaigns on one channel (or 100 clean placements as an advertiser), counted from your most recent unforgiven penalty, so every new marketplace order after a penalty is charged at the standard rate until the streak is rebuilt. Fall further and plan allowances may be throttled or withdrawn, and marketplace access can be suspended after repeated confirmed violations.
- A penalty is not a charge, and it is not refundable. A change in your score does not entitle you to a refund of fees already paid, and a marketplace fee charged at the standard rate because of your standing is not a fee levied in error.
- Where an automated check applied the penalty, you may ask for a review within 30 days. If the review finds the flag was mistaken on the platform's own records, the mark is removed and the score restored — and where that same flag forfeited a good-faith deposit, the deposit is restored too.
An overturned mark restores your veteran streak, but the difference between the standard rate and the veteran rate on fees already charged while the mark stood, and allowances already throttled in the meantime, are not refunded or reinstated. That is stated outright in §24, and Terms §15.4 says the same. Appeals are filed on the website, from the entry in your ledger — a button in Telegram that offers to open an appeal opens that page and nothing more.
Where a placement fails through your fault as a channel owner, your good-faith deposit is forfeited to the advertiser in full, per order, and is not reduced by partial delivery. A suspension does not forfeit your wallet balance, but orders in flight may be cancelled and refunded to the counterparty.
When your balance is negative
Two settlements — and only two — can take a wallet below zero: the cross-promotion cover you declared and locked (§21.3), and the pin charge on a pin you unpinned early where the payout in escrow was too small to cover it (§19.8) — charged when the unpin is confirmed, and not given back by a later re-pin. §28.4 sets out what follows:
- Every credit goes to the negative first. A top-up, a service refund, a payout you earn elsewhere, a reward — all of it shrinks the debt before any of it is spendable. A refund credited while you are in debt is real and recorded, but you see it as a smaller negative.
- Nothing new can be started until the balance is back to zero, and you have 14 days to clear it before the debt starts costing more than money. Adding funds, reading your account and support always stay open.
- A debt is not recovered under §28.2 and carries no added fee. If the penalty behind it is overturned under §24, the amount is credited back and the debt shrinks or clears with it.
- The debt follows the device: another account used from the same device is blocked from starting anything — not billed — until it is cleared.
Full walkthrough of contesting one: Appeals and fraud concerns.
Asking for help with a refund
Email [email protected] or use the contact form, which returns its own OFM- reference you can quote. Include:
- The Onflow Ads ID of the thing you are asking about —
OFD-…for the top-up,OFI-…for the invoice raised for it,OFR-…for a refund request you already submitted,OFT-…for a single credit or debit in your wallet - The date and the amount
- Whether you want wallet credit or a refund to your original payment method
Quoting the ID is what makes this fast: it opens the exact record instead of leaving the team matching an amount against a payment history. If you do not have it, send the date, the amount, the payment method and any reference the provider gave you, and you will be told the ID. An ID on its own discloses nothing, so it is safe to send — see onflowads.com/refunds §37.
Requests are usually acknowledged within one business day. A top-up refund request itself is reviewed within up to 5 business days.
Money is taken, held and returned at onflowads.com and nowhere else. The bot cannot take a payment, hold a balance or issue a refund, and there is no support desk inside it. Anyone messaging you on Telegram offering to refund you, unlock a balance or "verify" a payment is not Onflow Ads.
Frequently asked questions
I topped up by mistake. Can I get the money back?
Only within 12 hours of the top-up being credited, only if none of it has been spent, and only as a manually reviewed request. Request it from the Refunds tab of your wallet.
Why is a top-up refund not the full amount?
Because it leaves the platform. A flat 18% platform fee comes off first, then the payment gateway's own fees. The exact breakdown is shown before you submit, so there are no surprises.
I spent part of the top-up. Can I refund the rest?
No. The condition is that none of it has been spent. Partial top-up refunds are not offered.
My refund request was declined. Can I try again?
Yes, as long as the top-up is still inside the 12-hour window and still unspent. The decision note on the declined request explains why it was refused.
Can I have a crypto top-up refunded to my card?
No. Refunds go back to source. A crypto top-up refunds to a USDT BEP-20 (BSC) address you supply; a UPI or card top-up refunds to the same UPI ID, card or account, in INR.
A Boost order only partly delivered. What happens?
The unfulfilled portion is refunded to your wallet automatically. You do not have to request it.
Can I cancel a paid placement after the owner accepted it?
Yes, up until it is posted — for a full refund, with no fee and no reliability penalty. The owner can cancel on the same terms. The Cancel booking button names the refund before you commit.
The post went up but it was wrong. Can I get a refund?
Not through cancelling — that is closed once it is live. Raise a fraud concern from your orders page; if it is upheld you are made whole. See Appeals and fraud concerns.
How long does a refund to my bank take?
Wallet refunds are immediate. An approved top-up refund to your original payment method takes 7 to 14 business days from the date it is approved — and the review itself takes up to 5 business days before that. Business days exclude weekends, public holidays and national festivals in India.
I was charged but my wallet was not credited.
Payments reconcile automatically once the provider confirms them. If nothing appears within a few hours, contact support with the date, amount and reference.
Related
- Appeals and fraud concerns — the route when a placement ran and went wrong
- Trust and safety — escrow, good-faith deposits and when a payout actually releases
- Terms and Conditions (summary) — the wallet's two pockets, and why a top-up is not withdrawable
- Your Onflow Ads IDs — which prefix names which record
Next: the trust side of the platform starts with Your reliability score — the number that decides what you can book, what you pay in fees, and what a late cancellation costs you.