Refund policy

We would rather refund someone who is unhappy than keep the money and lose the reader. This page says exactly when that happens and how to ask.

This is our voluntary policy. It sits on top of your statutory rights, it never replaces them, and where the two differ the one better for you applies.

You have 14 days from purchase to ask for a full refund, for any reason. You do not have to justify it, and you do not have to delete anything to qualify — although the Product licence ends when the refund is issued, so continuing to use the material after that point is not permitted.

We are able to offer this because we publish sample pages for every title. Read them before you buy and you will usually know.

The window is 14 days for everyone deliberately. It matches the EU statutory period, which means one rule for every buyer rather than two — a shorter window would save nothing, because EU and UK consumers keep 14 days regardless of what we write here.

If you are a consumer resident in the EEA or the UK, you have a statutory 14-day right to withdraw from a distance contract without giving a reason.

For a downloadable product, that right is lost only if you expressly consented to the download starting immediately, acknowledged that you were giving up the right, and we confirmed both to you on a durable medium. If any of those three steps did not happen, your right of withdrawal survives the download in full, and you can withdraw within 14 days and get everything back.

In practice this changes nothing about what you get, because our voluntary 14-day refund above is offered on the same timescale to every buyer whether the statutory right applies or not.

To withdraw, send us a clear statement through the contact form before the 14 days expire. The model withdrawal form in Annex I(B) of Directive 2011/83/EU is available to you but not required. We refund within 14 days of being informed.

The full mechanism is set out in the Terms of sale.

Separately from any time limit above, if a product is faulty, corrupt, materially not as described, or not fit for a purpose you told us about before buying, tell us. We will fix it, replace it, or refund it.

EU consumers have these rights under the Digital Content Directive (EU) 2019/770 and UK consumers under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and they are not limited by the 14-day window — they run for the statutory period regardless of what this policy says.

This also covers accessibility: if you cannot use a title with your assistive technology, that is a conformity problem, not a preference. Ask, and we will supply an accessible version or refund you, whichever you prefer.

Workshops are booked, scheduled, and resourced ahead of time, so they work on notice periods rather than a flat window. The cancellation and rescheduling scale, the position on deposits, and what happens if we have to cancel are all set out in the Workshop and engagement terms.

If you are a consumer rather than a business booking a workshop, your statutory cancellation rights apply on top of that scale.

Use the contact form and include:

• The email address used for the order
• The order or receipt number
• Which product or booking it concerns
• Optionally, what went wrong — it is genuinely useful, but it is not a condition

You do not need to argue a case. Asking is enough.

• Refunds go to the original payment method. We cannot send them anywhere else.
• We aim to process within 5 business days of approving a request, and always within the 14 days statutory withdrawal requires.
• Your bank or card issuer then takes its own time — usually 5 to 10 business days — which is outside our control.
• Digital products are sold by Stripe as merchant of record, so refunds on them are issued through Stripe and appear under Stripe's name on your statement. Workshops are billed by Geist Labs directly and refunded by us.
• Stripe may also issue a refund on a digital product of its own accord within 60 days of purchase, as part of how it handles disputes as merchant of record. If that happens, your Product licence ends on the same terms as any other refund.
• We refund the full amount you paid, including tax. We do not deduct payment processing fees from your refund.

Please contact us before contacting your bank. A chargeback on a digital product is handled by Stripe as merchant of record, which means it takes weeks, it involves a party who has never spoken to you, and we would almost certainly have refunded you on the first email.

Filing a chargeback without contacting us first may result in your licence being terminated and future orders declined. This does not apply where you contacted us and we failed to respond within a reasonable time.

We reserve the right to decline a refund where there is clear evidence of abuse — for example, repeatedly buying and refunding the same title, or refunding after redistributing the material in breach of the Product licence. This does not apply to, and cannot be used to defeat, a statutory withdrawal or conformity right.

We may change this policy. The version that applies to your purchase is the version published at the time you bought, and the Last updated date at the top of this page tells you which that is.