Refund Policy

1. What a refund is

A refund returns the amount of an order from escrow to your Mason Lab balance. It is an entry on our internal ledger, denominated in USD, and it happens immediately when the refund is decided.

A refund is not a payment to a card, bank account, or crypto wallet. Money leaves the Platform only under section 4, and only to the address it arrived from. Until then, a refunded balance can be used to pay for other orders on the Platform.

2. When you get a refund

• a dispute is decided in your favour, in full or in part (a split);
• the seller fails to deliver, or cannot replace an item that does not work;
• the order is cancelled before delivery, or expires unpaid;
• Mason Lab cancels the order — for example, the listing turns out to be prohibited, or the seller account is terminated while the funds are still in escrow.

While an order is in escrow, the money is still held by Mason Lab and can be refunded in full. After escrow is released, see section 3.

3. The three periods, and why a refund is still possible after release

• Auto-release — 72 hours from delivery. If you neither confirm nor open a dispute, escrow is released automatically.
• Dispute window — 7 days from delivery. Always longer than the auto-release period.
• Replacement guarantee — 14 days from delivery. The seller must replace an item that stops working through no fault of yours.

Auto-release does not pay the seller out — it moves the money into the seller's held balance. The seller cannot withdraw it until the dispute window closes. A dispute opened after auto-release is settled out of that held balance, which is exactly why the dispute window can be longer than the auto-release period, and why the seller tier — which only changes how fast a seller is paid — never shortens your right to dispute or to a replacement.

Once the dispute window has closed and the seller has been paid out, the payout is irreversible. Claims after that point are handled as a moderation matter against the seller account; Mason Lab cannot claw back funds already sent.

4. Where a refunded balance goes

A balance leaves Mason Lab only to the address the payment came from. There is no option to nominate a different address, and we will not act on a request to send funds anywhere else.

Where a balance was funded by several deposits, it is returned to those addresses in the order in which the deposits were received, and never more to an address than was received from it. The network fee of the outgoing transaction is deducted from the amount returned. This applies to a refunded order amount, to a withdrawal of an unused balance, and to the balance returned when an account is closed.

If an originating address cannot receive a return — for example, it belongs to an exchange or to a smart contract — the amount stays on your balance and is released only against instructions we can verify. See the AML Policy for incoming payments that are declined on screening.

Status: no payment provider is connected, deposits are closed, payer addresses are not recorded yet, and no money can currently leave the Platform. Mason Lab does not promise any external payout to a buyer before this section is in operation.

5. How to ask: the seller first, a dispute second

Step one — contact the seller in the order chat and ask for a replacement. The seller has a fixed period to respond; the 14-day replacement guarantee exists for this. Most problems with a key are resolved here in minutes, and a seller who ignores the request loses the dispute on that ground alone.

Step two — open a dispute on the order if the seller does not fix it. Both sides submit evidence. We aim to decide within 72 hours of the evidence period closing; that is a target, not a guarantee, and a complex case takes longer. An arbiter decides one of three outcomes: refund the buyer, release to the seller, or split the amount. The decision is final.

Only one dispute may be opened per order, and a dispute you withdraw cannot be reopened. Withdrawing a dispute closes it without moving any funds.

6. Evidence, and refunds on items you have already seen

We record whether and when a delivered item was revealed to you. Once you have revealed the item, the burden of proof is on you. A revealed secret cannot be un-seen, so a refund after reveal is not automatic and is not the default outcome: you must show what was wrong — for example, the code is rejected as already used, the region does not match the listing, or access is revoked shortly after delivery. Screenshots of the vendor error, with a timestamp, are the strongest evidence.

Claiming an item was not received after it has been revealed, submitting fabricated evidence, or opening a dispute to extract an off-Platform payment ends in the claim being denied, the amount being forfeited, and the account being restricted or terminated. We keep a refund counter per account; above a threshold, purchases are restricted and every claim is reviewed manually.

7. What happens to the item

When an order is refunded, the delivered key, code, or credential is revoked and must no longer be used. Continuing to use it after a refund is a breach of the Terms.

A revealed item is never returned to sale — it is destroyed. An item returned to the seller through a dispute goes to quarantine: the seller may write it off, or return it to stock expressly and at their own responsibility. An item cancelled before it was ever revealed goes back to normal stock.

8. What is not refundable

• Anything arranged outside Mason Lab. A transaction concluded off-Platform is not covered by escrow, cannot be disputed, and is not refundable.
• An item that stopped working because it was resold, shared, or transferred to someone else after delivery.
• A change of mind after the item has been revealed. A digital secret cannot be returned.
• Network fees already spent on an incoming or outgoing transaction.

9. Contact

Refund questions and escalations: [CONTACT_EMAIL_OR_TELEGRAM]. The operator of the Platform is [LEGAL_ENTITY] ([JURISDICTION]).