REFUND & CANCELLATION POLICY

1. Overview and General Principle

SageRank subscriptions are available on two billing cadences: Monthly (recurring) and Annual (12-month upfront). Both billing options are non-refundable except as explicitly provided in this Policy. By purchasing any subscription to SageRank (SAGE Pro or SAGE Sentinel, on any billing cadence), you agree that all fees are charged on an auto-renewing basis.

When you cancel a monthly subscription, your account remains fully active through the end of the current paid monthly billing cycle. When you cancel an annual subscription, your account remains fully active for the entire 12-month period you paid for — and then automatically converts to a free account at the end of that 12-month period. No prorated refunds are issued in either case. This policy applies uniformly to transactions processed via Stripe and via Paddle as the Merchant of Record.

2. How Billing Works

SageRank utilizes Stripe and Paddle to process payments. Depending on your onboarding route and region, your billing will be managed under one of these two platforms:

2A — Monthly Billing

• Monthly Billing Cycle: Subscriptions are billed on the calendar date corresponding to the day you initiated your paid plan. For example, if you subscribe to SAGE Pro ($79/mo) on June 5, your card on file will be automatically charged on July 5, August 5, and so forth.
• Direct Stripe Billing: SageRank processes charges directly via Stripe. Card transactions are processed securely, and recurring invoices are sent to your administrative email. All charges are in United States Dollars (USD).
• Paddle Merchant of Record (MOR) Billing: For users billed via Paddle, Paddle acts as the legal merchant of record, responsible for billing, tax calculation (VAT, GST, sales tax), and tax remittance. Paddle transactions appear as "PADDLE.COM * SAGERANK" on your bank statements.

2B — Annual Billing

• Annual Billing Cycle: Annual subscriptions are billed as a single upfront payment covering 12 months of access. SAGE Pro Annual: $790.00 USD. SAGE Sentinel Annual: $1,990.00 USD. These amounts represent 10 months of the monthly price — effectively giving you 2 months free.
• Billing Date: The annual charge is processed on the date of your annual plan activation. Your next annual renewal date is exactly 12 months from this date.
• Auto-Renewal Notice: SageRank will send a renewal reminder email to your registered address at least 7 days before the annual renewal charge is processed. The renewal charge is the same annual amount unless pricing has changed and you were notified per Section 14.
• Annual Billing via Stripe: Annual charges of $790 or $1,990 are processed as single Stripe charges. Stripe invoices are emailed immediately after successful payment.
• Annual Billing via Paddle: If on Paddle, the same annual amounts apply. Paddle handles tax calculation on the annual charge in the same manner as monthly billing.

3. Cancellation Procedure

You may cancel your subscription at any time. To avoid being charged for the next billing cycle, you must initiate the cancellation at least 24 hours prior to your scheduled renewal date.

To cancel your subscription, please use one of the following official channels:

1. In-App Settings: Navigate to the Billing tab within your Account Settings at app.sagerank.io/settings and click "Cancel Subscription".
2. Direct Email Request: Contact our billing desk at billing@sagerank.io using the administrative email address associated with your SageRank account. Email cancellation requests are processed within 1 business day of receipt.
3. Stripe Billing Portal: For Stripe-billed accounts, you can access the self-service portal directly from your dashboard to download historical invoices, update payment methods, or cancel your plan.
4. Paddle Customer Portal: For Paddle-billed accounts, cancellations and billing inquiries can be processed through Paddle's buyer platform at customer.paddle.com or via Paddle support at paddle.net/support.

4. Access Timeline After Cancellation

The following matrix outlines the administrative and access status of your account following a cancellation action, across both monthly and annual billing cadences:

5. Standard No-Refund Policy

Subject to applicable regional legislation detailed below, SageRank maintains a strict standard no-refund policy across both monthly and annual subscriptions. Payments are non-refundable, and we do not issue credits, refunds, or adjustments under any of the following circumstances:

• Partial use of a billing period or unused scan quotas on a monthly plan.
• Any unused portion of an annual subscription term, regardless of when cancellation occurs. The annual payment of $790 (Pro) or $1,990 (Sentinel) is non-refundable in full.
• Forgetting to cancel the subscription before the monthly or annual auto-renewal date (it is the user's sole responsibility to manage subscription renewals).
• Dissatisfaction with LLM or generative search engine citation scores. Since LLMs update their models and indices dynamically, search citations are advisory and cannot be guaranteed.
• Temporary technical disruptions or downtime resolved within twenty-four (24) hours of being logged by our engineering team.
• Annual plan cancellation mid-term. Cancelling an annual plan does not trigger a refund; it only prevents the next annual auto-renewal charge.

6. EU & UK Statutory Right of Withdrawal

Under the European Union Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU) and the United Kingdom Consumer Rights Act 2015, consumers residing in the EU, EEA, or United Kingdom have a statutory right to withdraw from digital service agreements within fourteen (14) days of the date of purchase without giving any reason.

However, this right of withdrawal is subject to the following statutory exclusions:

• Immediate Execution Waiver: When you purchase a SageRank subscription, you explicitly request and agree that the execution of the digital services (specifically, the provisioning of access to the scanning engine and generative ranking diagnostics) begins immediately. By checking the waiver box at checkout, you acknowledge that you waive your 14-day right of withdrawal once the performance of the service has begun.
• Platform Usage Check: If you have logged into the SageRank portal and initiated any scan audits (including SEO, AEO, GEO, or active Security Matrix tests) or accessed the proprietary dashboard databases during the 14-day cooling-off period, you have actively commenced the service. As a result, the right of withdrawal is voided.

If you have registered an account, paid the subscription fee, and have not executed any scans, accessed data reports, or utilized the platform tools, you are entitled to exercise your right of withdrawal. To claim a full refund under this provision, you must send an unambiguous written request to billing@sagerank.io with the subject line "Statutory Right of Withdrawal - [Your Registered Account Email]" within 14 calendar days of your initial transaction. Upon verification that the account has zero usage metrics, we will refund your payment in full within 14 days of receiving your request.

7. India — Consumer Protection Act 2019

For consumers located in India, this Refund and Cancellation Policy is aligned with the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, and the rules framed thereunder. SageRank operates fairly and transparently. If you encounter any discrepancies, billing errors, or service deficiencies:

• You have the right to file a grievance directly with our billing support team. We pledge a 7-day resolution window for initial investigation and review of payment irregularities.
• If a billing error is confirmed (such as double-charging or charging after a documented, successful cancellation), SageRank will issue a complete refund to the original payment source within 7-10 business days.
• Under the Consumer Protection Act, you may escalate unresolved consumer disputes to the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (CDRC) or seek assistance through the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) portal. SageRank will act in good faith to resolve all issues amicably. Please contact our designated Grievance Officer at grievance.officer@sagerank.io for escalation.

8. Australia — Australian Consumer Law (ACL)

For consumers in Australia, our services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) set out in Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. Nothing in this Refund and Cancellation Policy limits, modifies, or excludes any consumer guarantees or rights you may have under the ACL.

If our service fails to meet a consumer guarantee, your remedies are governed by the following rules:

• Major Failure: If the service has a major failure (e.g., the platform is completely unusable or significantly different from what was described, and cannot be repaired within a reasonable time), you are entitled to cancel your subscription and receive a full refund, or seek compensation for the difference in value.
• Minor Failure: If the failure is minor and does not amount to a major failure, SageRank is entitled to remedy the failure within a reasonable time. If we fail to do so, you may cancel your contract and receive a refund for the unused portion of the billing cycle.

To request a remedy under the Australian Consumer Law, contact our team at billing@sagerank.io and provide details of the service failure.

9. Exceptional Refund Considerations

Outside of statutory regional mandates, SageRank may consider refund requests on a discretionary, case-by-case basis. Exceptional refunds are evaluated by our billing committee and will only be approved under the following conditions:

• System Outages: If SageRank experiences a severe system-wide outage resulting in 0% platform availability (excluding scheduled maintenance) for more than 72 consecutive hours, and our engineering team acknowledges the failure.
• Double Billing Errors: If our billing systems charge your card multiple times for the same subscription plan within a single billing cycle due to an API or webhook error.
• Verified Fraud: If unauthorized individuals gained access to your payment card and established a subscription, provided that the fraud has been reported to your financial institution and we receive confirmation of the unauthorized use from Stripe or Paddle.

All exceptional refund requests must be submitted to billing@sagerank.io within seven (7) days of the disputed charge. Discretionary refunds, if granted, will be processed using the original payment method and may take 5 to 10 business days to reflect on your account.

10. Stripe Platform — Billing & Dispute Resolution

For subscriptions billed directly through the Stripe payment gateway, the following policies apply:

• Dispute Resolution Process: Before filing a formal dispute or chargeback with your credit card company or banking institution, you agree to contact our billing team at billing@sagerank.io. Most billing issues can be resolved rapidly without escalating to a dispute.
• Chargebacks and Account Suspension: Initiating an unauthorized chargeback or disputing a valid SageRank payment through your bank will result in the **immediate suspension of your SageRank account** and the termination of all active SEO, AEO, and GEO scanning crons.
• Administrative Fees: In the event of an unsuccessful or bad-faith chargeback dispute, SageRank reserves the right to charge a $15 administrative fee to recover processing costs incurred during the dispute mediation process.
• Terms of Service: Direct Stripe payments are subject to the Stripe Services Agreement, available at stripe.com/legal/ssa.

11. Paddle Platform — Billing & Dispute Resolution

If your account is billed via Paddle, Paddle operates as our Merchant of Record (MOR). The following platform-specific terms govern your payment transaction:

• Legal Seller: Paddle is the legal seller of the software and services. You are purchasing your subscription from Paddle, and Paddle is responsible for handling payment processing, customer billing inquiries, local tax calculations (such as VAT or GST), and invoice generation.
• Billing Inquiries & Support: For all payment failures, card updates, tax invoices, and refund requests related to Paddle billing, you should contact Paddle support directly at paddle.net/support or manage your purchase via the Paddle Buyer Portal at customer.paddle.com.
• Terms of Purchase: All transactions processed by Paddle are subject to Paddle's Checkout Buyer Terms and Conditions, available at paddle.com/legal/buyers-terms.
• VAT/GST Refund Adjustments: If you are a business entity eligible for a tax refund or exemption, you must submit your valid tax identification number (VAT ID / GSTIN) to Paddle during or after the checkout process to secure a tax adjustment. SageRank cannot directly adjust or refund tax amounts collected by Paddle.

12. Subscription Pause

SageRank does not currently support temporary subscription pausing. If you need to stop your scans or take a break from monitoring, you must cancel your subscription. You may re-subscribe at any time through your dashboard. Re-subscribing will establish a new monthly billing cycle starting on the date of your renewal payment, and any previously configured scan setups and historical reports will be re-associated with your active account status.

13. Plan Upgrade / Downgrade

You can adjust your subscription level at any time through the in-app billing manager. Adjustments are handled as follows:

• Monthly Upgrades (SAGE Pro to SAGE Sentinel): Upgrades take effect immediately.
  • On Stripe: You will be charged a prorated amount for the remaining days of your current billing cycle, and your monthly billing date remains unchanged.
  • On Paddle: Paddle will compute the adjustments, typically starting a new monthly billing cycle with a prorated credit for the remaining days of your previous tier.
• Monthly Downgrades (SAGE Sentinel to SAGE Pro): Downgrades do not take effect immediately. Your account remains on Sentinel until the end of your current paid monthly cycle, then downgraded to SAGE Pro ($79/mo).
• Monthly to Annual Upgrade: You may upgrade from a monthly plan to an annual plan at any time. Your remaining monthly balance is credited as a pro-rated deduction against the annual fee. A new 12-month annual period begins from the upgrade date.
• Annual to Monthly Downgrade: Not permitted mid-cycle. The annual plan runs its full 12-month course. Upon expiry or cancellation of auto-renewal, you may select monthly billing for the subsequent period. If no plan is selected, the account converts to the free tier.
• Annual Plan Upgrades (Pro Annual to Sentinel Annual): Contact billing@sagerank.io. A pro-rated difference for the remaining months will be calculated and charged via Stripe.

14. Price Change Notice

SageRank reserves the right to modify subscription fees. Current rates: SAGE Pro — $79/mo or $790/yr; SAGE Sentinel — $199/mo or $1,990/yr. If we adjust pricing on any billing cadence, we will provide at least thirty (30) days' advance notice via your registered administrative email and an in-app banner alert. The notice will detail the adjustment, effective date, and cancellation instructions. Continued use of the platform after the adjustment date constitutes acceptance of the new rates. For annual subscribers, price changes take effect at your next annual renewal date — not mid-term.

15. Contact for Billing Issues

For any questions, issues, or disputes regarding billing, renewals, payments, or refunds, please reach out to our billing desk. We aim to respond to all inquiries within 1 to 3 business days.

• General Billing Desk: billing@sagerank.io
• Legal Escalations: legal@sagerank.io
• Registered Corporate Entity: AURATEKK, [AURATEKK REGISTERED ADDRESS]