What’s the Deal With Refunds on GameWisp?
Refunds can be a tricky subject, when it comes to GameWisp. The money creators make via subscriptions is supposed to enable them to stream and create more, and it’s important that they can rely on those funds really being there. But, at the same time, it’s also important that subscribers feel protected, that they’re not going to be taken advantage of by creators who promise the world, and deliver little.
Straddling that line is important, and we like to think that, when it comes to refunds, we’ve gotten pretty good at it. Here’s how we do it…
First things first: if a subscriber requests a refund, the decision whether or not to return their money is, outside of a few exceptions, to be made by you, the creator. The money has already been allocated to your account, so it is up to you to decide whether to return said funds. Once we receive that request, it is forwarded to you. Agree to their request, and a refund will be issued. Don’t, and it won’t. It’s as simple as that.
We do things this way because a refund request is, almost always, a sign of some other simple-to-fix issue for a creator. Maybe they’ve mistakenly gone a week too long without fulfilling a benefit, or a delivered benefit isn’t everything the subscriber thought it would be. Regardless, we find that getting the subscriber directly in touch with the streamer tends to lead to a swift resolution, often without ever having to issue a refund. Subscribers just want to know they’ll be heard when there’s an issue, and this gives them the platform to do so.
So, what happens when a subscriber is unhappy with this process, and decides to issue a chargeback? That’s also very simple. They’ll get banned, full-stop, and we’ll use all the information we have gathered to fight the chargeback as hard as we can. Chargebacks hurt both the creator and GameWisp itself, and we will use all of our resources to fight every one issued without merit. This is a bit of the ugly side of streaming, and it’s unfortunate that we have to deal with it at all, but it’s a part of the reality, at the moment, and we’re pleased to step in the middle at that point and fight the good fight so you don’t have to.
There are exceptions to these rules, of course. If we catch someone committing fraud (i.e. using stolen payment methods) on GameWisp, we will refund all of those charges. We use pretty advanced tools that help us to detect these sorts of things, so if you see in your accounting page that a charge was refunded due to fraud, rest assured that we were able to find out enough information about it to determine that it was, indeed, fraud.
Additionally, if by some chance a subscriber was charged due to an error in our system, we will refund the charge. But this happens very, very rarely.
What if you are a streamer, and want to issue a refund to a subscriber? All you have to do is email us with the request, and we will take care of it for you. We aren’t going to tell a streamer they can’t refund a charge, unless they have cashed out and there is no money in the account to refund.
Be sure, though, as you resolve issues with your subscribers, that you never tell them to issue a chargeback. That’s a huge no-no that will get you banned from GameWisp. We’ve covered in the past the kind of damage chargebacks can do, and it’s important we stop them to protect ourselves and our creators. Just don’t do it.
And that’s it: our refund system in a nutshell. If you ever have any further questions, be sure to email us at help(at)gamewisp(dot)com, or hop into our Discord chat to talk with ourselves and other creators. It’s not the most fun part of the job, but refunds are a reality, here, and we think we handle them pretty well, making sure everyone gets taken care of the right way. We hope you agree.
