Subscription, Trial, Cancellation & Refund Policy

This policy applies to a paid Coul subscription sold through a self-serve web checkout. The checkout, order confirmation, and invoice must identify the verified Coul contracting entity, geographic address, monitored billing contact, seller of record, plan purchaser, and workspace or personal account receiving access. Do not purchase if those facts are missing or inconsistent.

For a personal purchase, the account holder is the customer. For a workspace purchase, the organization identified at checkout is the customer and an authorized owner or billing manager acts for it. An Enterprise order form may set negotiated commercial terms, but it cannot remove consumer rights that mandatorily apply to an eligible natural person acting outside a trade or profession.

These rules supplement the Terms of Service. The transaction-specific checkout and retainable confirmation control the selected plan, amount, currency, tax treatment, billing period, renewal date, and offer-specific terms. Marketing copy cannot replace or override a less favorable checkout term without renewed disclosure and consent.

As of the effective date, source code supports Stripe-hosted Checkout for self-serve Starter, Pro, and Agency subscriptions and a Stripe-hosted customer portal after a verified customer link exists. Enterprise is a custom plan. No App Store or Google Play purchase flow was found in the reviewed source.

The public plan cards are intentionally non-transactional previews: they do not state a price, currency, tax, cadence, trial, or entitlement promise. The current in-app Billing screen is also labeled as a design preview, does not display a real card, invoice, renewal, or subscription state, and keeps transaction controls disabled until live billing data and actions are connected. Neither preview is a billing record or an offer capable of acceptance.

A Stripe lookup key identifies a recurring Price, but the reviewed application does not yet expose the Price amount, currency, interval, tax behavior, or live portal configuration before redirect. Those facts must come from one verified production catalog and be shown before billing information or consent is requested.

The live plan selector and checkout must use the same canonical plan name and version as entitlement enforcement. Before purchase, Coul must disclose material included features, seats, storage, generation and analysis allowances, publishing availability, overage or hard-stop behavior, and any feature that is beta, separately metered, or unavailable in the buyer's location.

A statement such as unlimited is permitted only when the service does not enforce an undisclosed finite limit for ordinary use. Reasonable anti-abuse or technical safeguards must be described without turning unlimited into a materially different capped offer. A plan change, provider cost limit, or service discontinuation cannot silently deprive a consumer of a material prepaid feature where mandatory conformity or refund rights apply.

Starter can also describe a default level of access that is not a time-limited trial. Coul must not present indefinite Starter access as a seven-day Pro trial, and it must not imply that creating an account reserves a paid price, cadence, discount, or entitlement unless that reservation is actually implemented and confirmed.

Before collecting billing information, checkout must clearly show the seller, plan, exact currency, amount due now, billing frequency, first charge date, next renewal date or rule, and the total commitment for the selected period. A bare dollar sign is not enough: the currency must be identified, such as USD, CAD, or AUD.

For an annual plan advertised with a monthly equivalent, Coul must also show the full annual amount charged, not only an amount per month. Tax-inclusive totals must be shown where required; otherwise checkout must explain when and how tax is calculated before consent. Any exchange-rate or foreign-transaction charge imposed independently by a bank is not controlled by Coul, but Coul must not conceal its own conversion or cross-border fee.

Prices do not change during a prepaid period. A renewal may use a properly disclosed new price only after the advance notice, direct cancellation path, and regional timing described below. Coupons, credits, discounts, and promotions must identify duration, eligibility, exclusions, and the regular post-promotion amount.

The reviewed product does not implement a seven-day paid-plan trial, automatic trial conversion, or trial reminder workflow. Coul must not advertise one until provisioning, eligibility, start and end time, time zone, included limits, conversion behavior, reminders, and cancellation are implemented and tested.

A no-card trial or evaluation cannot charge automatically. It ends, loses trial-only features, or returns to the disclosed free/default access unless the user later enters a separate checkout, sees the recurring terms, supplies a payment method, and gives express informed consent.

If Coul later offers a card-backed or automatically converting trial, the offer and confirmation must state the exact conversion date and time zone, post-trial amount and currency, cadence, cancellation deadline and method, and any reminder required by law. Ending a trial must be as direct as starting it, and silence, continued account existence, or use of a no-card feature is not consent to pay.

Immediately before purchase, Coul must place the recurring-charge terms next to a separate, unchecked affirmative control and purchase button. The disclosure must include the seller, product, amount and currency, tax treatment, charge date, cadence, renewal, trial or discount end, material limits, cancellation deadline and method, and refund position. A preselected box, bundled marketing consent, or buried link is not enough.

Coul must retain evidence of the offer and consent, including account and workspace, timestamp, policy and offer version, displayed price and tax terms, cadence, trial terms, user action, and confirmation delivery. Retention must meet the longest applicable consumer-law, tax, payment, dispute, and limitation requirement while minimizing unrelated data.

After enrollment and after each renewal, cancellation, plan change, or refund, Coul must provide a retainable acknowledgment showing the seller, plan, charged or credited amount, currency, tax, effective date, next charge or end of access, and direct cancellation or support method. A success URL alone is not proof of payment; server-verified Stripe state controls.

A paid self-serve subscription renews for the same disclosed cadence until canceled. Coul may not silently change a monthly subscription to annual, or annual to monthly. The renewal charge is the then-current properly disclosed price plus applicable tax, subject to advance notice and mandatory protections.

Checkout and confirmation must state the cut-off for avoiding renewal, including the relevant time zone. Coul must calculate renewal and trial reminders for the buyer's location and offer, account for weekends, leap years and daylight-saving changes, and monitor delivery failures. A bounced email does not excuse Coul from providing an in-product notice when one is required and reasonably available.

Annual plans, long trials, certain short trials, price changes, and other negative-option offers can require advance reminders at different times. Coul must implement the strictest applicable timing for a supported location before offering that term there and must keep the direct cancellation route available from every reminder.

Usage is measured according to the units and reset period shown before purchase, such as generations, analyses, media storage, seats, reports, exports, scheduled posts, or publishing actions. Coul must say whether a limit is a hard stop, causes a downgrade, requires a new purchase, or permits separately priced overage. It may not create an undisclosed overage charge.

Unused usage does not roll over and is not stored monetary value unless checkout expressly says otherwise. A failed generation or publishing action must be handled under the disclosed meter rules; Coul must not count provider failures as successfully delivered paid usage without a fair correction mechanism.

Downgrade consequences for over-limit media, collaborators, templates, scheduled jobs, and automations must be previewed before confirmation. Coul should provide a reasonable export or adjustment opportunity where required and must not automatically publish, delete, or expose content merely because a limit changed.

A downgrade normally takes effect at the next renewal unless the confirmed order says otherwise. An upgrade may take effect immediately only after Coul shows the exact immediate charge or credit, tax, new renewal amount and date, proration method, lost or added limits, and obtains affirmative acceptance.

If the live Stripe portal cannot present the exact consequence of a change, Coul must not offer that change through the portal. Support must not make an unconfirmed paid change, split one subscription across multiple Stripe customers, or open a second subscription merely to change plan or cadence.

Workspace plan changes may be requested only by an authorized owner or billing manager. Removing or transferring that person does not by itself cancel the workspace subscription; Coul must preserve a verified owner and accessible billing route.

A subscription accepted online must have a continuously available direct online Cancel renewal control in Billing or an equally direct authenticated route while recurring renewal is active. It must not require a phone call, sales chat, survey, explanation, or retention offer. Any authentication, confirmation, feedback request, or optional save offer may not obstruct, delay, hide, or reverse a clear cancellation choice.

After no more than one clear, non-obstructive confirmation step, Coul must immediately display and send the effective date, last paid-access date, renewal status, and any refund or withdrawal consequence. The control must remain keyboard and screen-reader accessible and usable on mobile. A monitored, account-recovery-compatible fallback must handle users who cannot sign in or whose Stripe customer link is missing or ambiguous.

The reviewed Billing screen does not yet perform cancellation, and live portal behavior is not verified. Coul must keep purchase disabled until the direct path, fallback, webhook reconciliation, confirmation, and audit evidence work end to end in live mode.

Unless checkout or mandatory law gives a different result, ordinary cancellation is effective at the end of the current paid period, stops the next renewal, and allows access until then. It does not erase already incurred charges. Coul must not continue recurring billing after confirmed cancellation.

Suspension for security, nonpayment, platform risk, or an Acceptable Use investigation does not by itself cancel renewal. Coul must disclose access and refund consequences, stop future charges when cancellation is confirmed, and avoid forfeiting all prepaid fees for a minor breach where that would be unfair or unlawful.

Account deletion and subscription cancellation are distinct choices. The deletion flow must state whether it will cancel the Stripe subscription, when access and renewal stop, whether a refund applies, and what billing records must remain. Coul must never delete the local customer link while leaving an inaccessible external recurring charge, or delete the Stripe customer without a durable cancellation result and required invoice history.

Ordinary cancellation is prospective and does not by itself refund elapsed or unused time in a prepaid period. That default does not apply where law, the checkout offer, or the circumstances require a refund, credit, price reduction, or immediate termination.

Coul will review a request involving a duplicate, incorrect, or unauthorized charge; failure to deliver paid access; material digital-service nonconformity; a valid statutory withdrawal; a Coul-caused billing error; or another mandatory remedy. Approved refunds normally return to the original payment method. Processor and bank timing can vary, but Coul must initiate and confirm the result within the legally required period.

A promotional credit has no cash value unless the offer says otherwise. Requesting help does not waive a chargeback, regulator complaint, small-claims route, or other non-waivable right. Coul may ask for proportionate transaction details but must not demand unrelated identity data or use the complaint process to obstruct a valid cancellation.

For an eligible EU or EEA consumer, Coul treats this adaptive, personalized subscription as a digital service. The consumer generally has 14 days from contract conclusion to withdraw. Coul will not claim that the right is automatically lost merely because the consumer signed in, generated content, or asked the service to adapt to behavior.

If the consumer expressly requests performance during the withdrawal period after receiving the required information, Coul may deduct only a lawful, properly disclosed amount proportionate to service supplied before withdrawal. A blanket click-to-waive clause is not used. The cancellation interface and accountless monitored contact must accept a clear withdrawal statement; a model form may be offered but cannot be mandatory.

Separately, mandatory digital-service conformity rights can require Coul to bring the service into conformity, provide a proportionate price reduction, terminate, or refund. These remedies remain available after the ordinary withdrawal period when their conditions are met, and this policy does not shorten them.

Eligible UK consumers retain applicable pre-contract information, cancellation, fairness, and service-quality rights under current consumer law. Where a service begins during a cooling-off period at the consumer's express request, only a lawful and properly disclosed proportionate amount may be due if the consumer cancels in that period.

As of this policy's effective date, the subscription-contract chapter of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 depends on commencement and implementing measures. The UK Government currently anticipates commencement in spring 2027. Coul will not present those future duties as already operative, but it will monitor the final commencement date and guidance and implement the required pre-contract information, reminders, cooling-off notices, exit process, and refunds before offering an affected subscription.

If current UK law or the commenced regime provides stronger rights than this policy, those rights control. Coul will not use a choice-of-law clause or business-plan label to remove a right that applies to a consumer purchase in the UK.

For covered U.S. online negative-option transactions, Coul follows ROSCA's requirements to disclose material terms clearly before obtaining billing information, obtain express informed consent before charging, and provide a simple way to stop recurring charges. Coul also applies direct online cancellation as a nationwide product standard even when a particular state uses a different minimum rule.

The FTC's 2024 amended Click-to-Cancel rule was vacated and is not described here as current nationwide law. The FTC Act, ROSCA, the restored federal rule within its scope, and state automatic-renewal laws still apply. Coul monitors the FTC's 2026 rulemaking and will update controls before a new requirement becomes effective.

Where applicable, California customers receive the required clear terms, affirmative consent, retainable acknowledgment, online termination for online enrollment, renewal or trial reminders, fee-change notice, and consent-record retention. The direct online termination action remains continuously available while the offer renews; any confirmation, feedback, or retention step may not obstruct or delay it. Coul applies another state's stronger timing, language, reminder, telephone, or cancellation rule when it governs the transaction.

If a charge fails, the payment provider may retry according to verified billing configuration. Coul may restrict paid features or return the account to the disclosed default level after notice and a reasonable cure path, but no grace period is promised unless checkout or a later notice states one.

The application must reconcile incomplete, trialing, active, past-due, paused, unpaid, canceled, and refunded states consistently across Stripe, entitlements, Billing, and support. It must not show Active from a checkout redirect alone, deny paid access after verified recovery, or continue charging after cancellation.

Scheduled or automated work can fail after a downgrade or restriction. Coul must warn about affected schedules, preserve content according to the Privacy Policy and plan terms, prevent surprise publishing or deletion, and provide a clear restoration or export route where required.

Stripe processes current self-serve web payment details on its hosted pages. Coul receives transaction and subscription records needed for access, accounting, fraud prevention, support, cancellation, and legal compliance, but does not need the full card number. Stripe's own notice applies to its independent processing; Coul's Privacy Policy explains Coul's processing.

No App Store or Google Play billing is currently offered in the reviewed source. If Coul later adds provider-billed subscriptions, the product page, checkout, and receipt must clearly identify that provider as biller or seller where applicable and explain its cancellation and refund route. Coul must not tell a Stripe-billed customer to cancel with an app store or vice versa.

A payment provider's portal configuration does not excuse Coul from its own disclosures, consumer support, accessible fallback, or legal duties. Coul must verify live-mode tax, receipts, cancellation timing, proration, plan mapping, payment updates, invoices, and customer identity before relying on the portal.

The reviewed invoice API and Billing screen do not yet supply live invoice history. Until a verified Stripe-hosted or Coul-hosted history is connected, Coul must not show sample invoices, cards, renewal dates, or statuses as if they belong to the user. A purchase must not launch without a retainable receipt and a way to retrieve legally required records.

Billing support must be available without a sales call, including to a person locked out of an account. Requests should include only enough information to locate the transaction, such as account email, seller, receipt or charge identifier, amount, date, and last four digits when appropriate. Never send a full card number, password, OAuth token, private key, or unrelated identity document.

Coul must acknowledge cancellation, withdrawal, refund, unauthorized-charge, and duplicate-charge requests; prevent additional renewal where appropriate; preserve a bounded audit record; and provide the result, effective date, reason for any denial, and available appeal or regulator route.

The following are implementation requirements, not promises that source code alone already satisfies. Paid self-serve checkout must stay unavailable until each control is owned, tested in Stripe live mode and representative regions, monitored after release, and rechecked after a plan, price, portal, provider, tax, trial, or legal change.

• Use one canonical source for plan names, prices, currency, cadence, taxes, features, seats, limits, checkout Price IDs, entitlements, Billing, receipts, marketing, and this policy.

• Block a new checkout when the customer already has a live or unresolved Stripe subscription; make plan changes on the verified existing subscription and prevent multiple customer records and duplicate charges.

• Show complete recurring terms before billing information; collect separate express consent; retain offer/version evidence; and deliver server-verified enrollment, renewal, change, cancellation, and refund confirmations.

• Connect a direct online cancel-renewal control and accessible fallback; verify portal timing and webhook reconciliation; test missing, duplicate, ambiguous, locked-out, transferred-workspace, and provider-outage cases.

• Handle invoice, payment-failure, refund, dispute, chargeback, tax, trial, and renewal events; reconcile entitlement states; and stop charges after confirmed cancellation.

• Reconcile account deletion with Stripe cancellation, refund consequences, invoice retention, scheduled work, and removal of billing identifiers so no external recurring charge becomes orphaned.

• Implement jurisdiction-aware reminders, withdrawal routes, price-change notices, consent retention, refund deadlines, accessible communications, delivery-failure monitoring, and an auditable consumer-location basis.

• Verify the seller's legal name and address, monitored billing contact, Stripe terms and configuration, tax position, privacy disclosures, support ownership, incident escalation, and Enterprise order-form process.

Coul will show an effective and last-updated date. A change that affects an existing subscription applies prospectively and receives the advance durable notice and cancellation opportunity required by the contract and law. Coul will not use a policy update to create a new charge, shorten a prepaid period, retroactively remove a refund right, or treat silence as consent to a materially different recurring offer.

Before accepting payment, Coul must replace all placeholder identity and contact details with the verified seller's legal name, geographic address, monitored billing email, response owner, and escalation procedure. Checkout and every receipt must repeat or link to those details in a retainable form.

Questions and requests should be routed through the live Billing control or the monitored contact shown on the transaction record. Until billing@coul.app is verified and tracked, the presence of that address on this draft page does not prove operational readiness.