Refund given, access still open
A student asks for a refund on day eleven of your fourteen-day window. You agree and refund through Stripe. Three weeks later you notice she is still posting in the community. She also still has the course login, the bonus templates in a shared Google Drive folder and the private podcast feed.
You remove what you can find, by hand. Then you wonder how many other refunded students still have access, and realise you have no quick way to check.
Refunds and access live in different tools
Your course access is granted in several places when someone buys, often by different automation steps set up at different times. Refunds happen in the payment tool, and nothing tells the other tools. Some platforms remove course access on refund if the payment runs through them, but not community access in Circle or Discord, not shared files, not a private podcast, not email tags.
- Community access in Circle, Discord or a Facebook group is separate from the course.
- Bonus files are shared by link, which stays open.
- Email tags still mark the person as a buyer.
- Partial refunds and payment plan cancellations are handled differently.
- Nobody keeps a list of what each purchase unlocked.
What open access costs
Money, obviously, when people keep what they did not pay for. But also fairness to the students who did pay, and the integrity of your community if refunded people stay in it. Email tags that still say 'buyer' mean refunded people miss your launch sequence, or get customer-only emails they should not. And when a refund leads to a chargeback dispute, you want a clean record of what access was removed and when.
Refund handling that closes every door
- We list, with you, everything each product unlocks: course, community, files, podcast feed, live call invites, email tags.
- Each of those is granted by one service when a purchase completes, so there is a record of what was given.
- When a refund is issued in Stripe or PayPal, the same service reads the event and removes each access through the relevant API.
- Anything that cannot be removed automatically, such as a file someone downloaded or a Facebook group without an API, is listed for you with a one-click link to the place to do it.
- Email tags change from buyer to refunded, so the right emails follow.
- Partial refunds and payment plan cancellations follow rules you set, such as keeping the course but removing the community.
- A monthly check lists any refunded person who still appears as a member anywhere.
| Access | Removed automatically? | Otherwise |
|---|---|---|
| Course platform | Yes, through its API | Listed if the API fails |
| Circle or Discord community | Yes, through the API or bot | Listed if not |
| Shared Drive folders | Yes, if shared per person | Switch to per-person sharing |
| Private podcast feed | Yes, if the host supports it | Listed |
| Facebook group | No usable API | Listed with a link |
We will not promise that downloaded content can be taken back. We can make sure everything that can be closed is closed.
Refunds that are finished when you click
When you issue a refund, you see what was removed within minutes and anything left for you to do. Your community contains the people who paid. Email tags are accurate, so the right sequence follows the right people. If a dispute arises later, you can show when access was removed.
Consider that day-eleven refund again. You click refund in Stripe at lunchtime, and by the time you have finished your coffee the student is out of the course and the community, the Drive folder no longer opens for her, and her email tag says refunded. The only thing left on your list is the Facebook group, with a link straight to her member entry.
Signs your refunds leak
- Refunded students are still in your community.
- Bonus files are shared by one public link.
- You remove access by hand, and sometimes forget.
- Email tags do not change when someone is refunded.
- You cannot quickly list who has access to what.