Refund policy

Whether you can refund a purchase depends on whether you have already downloaded the product:

• Within 7 days of purchase, before any download: a full refund is self-serve from your purchases page. No seller approval, no questions asked.
• After any download: sales are final. A refund requires (i) opening a support ticket with the seller, (ii) the seller failing to respond within their declared SLA or failing to fix a genuine seller-caused defect, and (iii) escalation to SudoSell adjudication.

The reason for the policy: digital products are infinitely duplicable. A blanket refund window after download enables abuse where buyers copy code and refund. The download-locked approach protects sellers’ legitimate revenue while preserving real buyer protection through the support-and-escalation path.

You may request a full refund yourself within 7 calendar days of purchase, provided you have not clicked any download link for any release of the product. The refund:

• returns the full purchase price to your original payment method;
• typically lands on your card or bank statement within 5–10 business days, depending on your bank;
• terminates your license and removes the product from your purchases list.

After 7 days, or after any successful download, the self-serve window closes and any further refund must follow the post-download process below.

A “download” for purposes of this policy means any successful HTTP GET on a release artifact via the SudoSell-hosted download URL, served to your authenticated session. Bot-driven or accidental clicks count if the download succeeded; we log the IP and timestamp of every download.

A buyer may receive a refund after download only when SudoSell determines, on review, that one or more of the following applies AND the seller failed to fix it within their support SLA:

• Broken core functionality. A primary feature advertised on the product page does not work as described in any supported environment.
• Missing files. The release archive omits files the product page or documentation explicitly references.
• Critical security vulnerability.A vulnerability disclosed to the seller that allows arbitrary code execution, credential theft, or data exfiltration, and is not patched within the seller’s SLA.
• Material misrepresentation.The product page substantively misstates what the product does, supports, or includes (e.g. claiming features that don’t exist).
• Seller unresponsive. The seller has not acknowledged the support ticket within 7 calendar days for a sev1 issue or 14 days for sev2, and the issue is genuinely seller-caused.

• Change of mind, “decided I don’t need it”, buyer’s remorse.
• “Didn’t read the description” or product was as described but didn’t match buyer’s expectations.
• Compatibility issues clearly stated on the product page (e.g. the product requires Postgres 14, you run MySQL).
• Environment-specific failures: incompatible Node version, OS quirks, Docker setup mistakes, hosting provider quirks not caused by the seller.
• User configuration errors or operator mistakes.
• Feature requests outside the documented scope of the product.
• Buyer no longer needing the product (project cancelled, architecture change, etc.).
• Non-functional concerns about the seller (response style, timezone, communication tone) absent a genuine product defect.
• Issues caused by a third-party service the product integrates with (e.g. an upstream API or SDK change), unless the seller’s documentation guaranteed compatibility with that exact version and the seller has not patched.

The escalation path is support-first. If you skip the support step, your refund request to SudoSell will be returned to you with instructions to open a ticket first.

1. Open a support ticket on the product. Describe the issue concretely: steps to reproduce, expected behavior, actual behavior, your environment (OS, runtime version, hosting). Attach logs and screenshots where helpful.
2. Wait for the seller’s SLA window. The seller’s declared SLA is on the product page. If unstated, the default is 7 calendar days for sev1 issues and 14 days for sev2.
3. Escalate to SudoSell.If the seller has not responded, has refused to fix the issue, or has shipped a fix that does not address the genuine defect, click “Escalate to SudoSell” on the ticket. The full thread, your evidence, and the seller’s responses are forwarded to our review team.
4. SudoSell adjudication. We review within 5 business days. We may ask for additional information from either party. The decision and reasoning are emailed to both parties.

When reviewing an escalated refund, we consider:

• The product page content at the time of purchase (we keep a snapshot).
• The release artifact contents at the time of download.
• Reproducibility of the issue from the buyer’s evidence.
• Whether the issue is genuinely seller-caused vs. environmental, configurational, or third-party.
• The seller’s response timeline and whether it met the declared SLA.
• Prior refund and dispute history on both accounts (in aggregate, not per-decision).
• Whether the seller’s proposed fix addresses the root cause.

Adjudication is done by a SudoSell team member who is not the seller’s account manager. Decisions can be appealed once within 14 days through the appeals form.

• The full purchase amount is returned to your original payment method.
• Your license to the product is terminated.
• Your downloads and access to releases are revoked.
• If you re-purchase the product, your new sale is treated as a fresh purchase under the same policy.

If you have integrated the product into your own work in a way that would survive license termination, that’s your responsibility to address. SudoSell does not require deletion of code already shipped, but the seller may pursue separate remedies if you continue to use the product after termination.

Filing a chargeback with your payment card issuer instead of using this refund process generally results in: (i) the disputed amount plus any chargeback fee being deducted from the seller’s payout, (ii) loss of access to the product, and (iii) potential suspension of your buyer account.

If the chargeback is later won by the seller through the issuer, your access may be restored at our discretion, but the chargeback fee is not refunded.

Nothing in this policy limits any statutory consumer right that applies to you. In jurisdictions where digital-content right-of-withdrawal protections apply (e.g. EU consumer law), you may waive those rights when accepting immediate access to a download. The waiver is clearly indicated at checkout. Where waiver is not legally permitted, this policy is read consistently with the stronger statutory entitlement.

Excessive refund requests, evidence of buying-then-copying-then-refunding patterns, or fabricated defect claims may result in: refusal of future refunds, suspension of the account, and reporting to fraud databases or law enforcement where warranted.

If the seller of a product you bought is suspended after your purchase, the rules depend on why. SudoSell publishes the underlying reason category to affected buyers via email.

• Reason affects what you bought (malware, stolen IP, materially false advertising, abandonment of a promised feature): you may request a refund through the appeals form. Approved refunds are funded from the seller’s withheld balance first, then from platform reserves. Existing access to already-downloaded releases is revoked when the refund clears.
• Reason does not affect what you bought (off-platform conduct, harassment of other sellers, billing disputes unrelated to product quality): your purchase remains valid. You keep your license and access to releases you have already downloaded. No refund is owed unless you can otherwise qualify under the post-download criteria above.

In either case, future releases that the seller may have planned will not ship — “lifetime updates” cannot extend beyond the existence of the seller. This is not, by itself, grounds for a refund.

Questions about a specific refund? Reply to your support ticket or open a new support request.