This summary explains asking an expert for a refund on open contracts. Please read this article if you need to dispute a billable timesheet on an hourly job contract. Alternatively, read this article if you want a fixed-rate contract refund, and your payment is currently held in the escrow account.
🚀 In this article
If you ask for a refund on a completed job before 180 days have passed, you can talk with your expert directly on Cad Crowd. Please contact our support team if you have issues or request a refund between 181 and 365 days ago.
📡 Note: Your expert must send a refund through the platform and not through another payment method. The terms of service require users to communicate through Cad Crowd.
Tips when you ask experts for refunds
Note the following information for refund requests:
- Fixed-rate contracts (milestones): Are you requesting a refund on a milestone or a fixed-rate job contract before the escrow payment is released? Please read this article since the refund steps differ when requesting a refund on escrow payments.
- Hourly contracts: You can submit a dispute if you are unhappy with the results of an hourly job contract.
- Closing a job: Remember to talk with your expert about a refund on billable hours before ending your hourly contract. If you close a job, your expert can only issue a refund after you have paid the total billable hours at the end of your weekly billing period (Sunday night/UTC timezone).
How to ask for a refund
Steps to ask your expert for a refund:
- Visit your Job contracts > select a contract
- Select ••• dropdown > click Ask for refund
- Choose the invoice (dropdown) > add an amount > click Send button
Refunds for closed job contracts
The 14-day deadline for posting a work review still applies when you wait for an answer to your refund request. If the 14-day deadline passes, you won’t be able to post a review on the expert’s public profile.
Your expert can allow you to edit your review if you have already posted one and wish to modify the review after.
If you don’t ask for a refund request, your expert can approve a refund for a contract’s total amount, partial amount, or no amount. In addition, the expert can issue a refund for both open or closed job contracts, assuming the following criteria are met:
- End date: The expert approves a refund before the 180-day window has ended
- Amount: Experts cannot give a refund for an amount that exceeds the total value of a contract
Expert approves refund
When an expert approves a refund, the system automatically returns the funds to your account balance.
What happens when a refund is approved:
- Refund timeline: The refund is returned to your payment method within 3-5 business days.
- Status: Go to your Transaction history to see an update on the status of your refund request.
- Review: Your review and the expert’s review are hidden if the total contract value is under $25.00 USD (after the refund is applied).
📡 Tip: You can request a withdrawal if you want to transfer the funds from your account balance to your payment method.
Expert declines refund
You have several options if the expert declines your request for the job contract.
Hourly job contracts:
- Escalate issue: You can escalate your refund request to our support team if the expert rejects a refund on an hourly contract.
- Dispute deadline: You have a 5-day deadline to file a dispute for an hourly job contract after your weekly billing period ends. The weekly billing period ends Sunday night (11:59 p.m./UTC timezone), and the dispute deadline is the following Friday night (11:59 p.m./UTC timezone). Please read our article to learn more about filing a dispute on an hourly contract.
- Missed a dispute deadline: You have five days to submit a dispute for the prior week’s billable hours after the billing period ends. You can discuss a reasonable refund compromise with the expert if you miss the current (or prior) billing period deadline.
Fixed job contracts:
- Approved escrow payments: If you have approved and released an escrow milestone payment for a fixed-rate job contract, you have agreed that work was successfully completed. If you have concerns about the approved work, you can talk with the expert about a potential compromise.
- Escrow balance refund: You can ask for an escrow refund if you have a funded milestone and the balance was not released from escrow.
Cad Crowd dispute resolution team
The Cad Crowd support team offers dispute resolution for hourly contracts paid over the past 30 days and fixed-rate job contracts with unreleased escrow balances. You can contact our support team to open a request for dispute resolution.
Questions and answers
âš¡ How can I ask the expert for a refund?
Steps to ask your expert for a refund:
- Visit your Job contracts > select a contract
- Select ••• dropdown > click Ask for refund
- Choose the invoice (dropdown) > add an amount > click Send button
âš¡ When is the deadline for the expert to approve a refund request?
Your expert can approve a refund for up to 180 days after invoice payment. Contact our support team if your expert approves a refund between 181 to 365 days of the invoice payment.
âš¡ Where are the funds for my refund sent?
Your refund is transferred to your user account balance. You can use the account balance for future job payments or request a payout to your financial institution.
âš¡ Can I ask an expert to send me a refund payment directly?
Refund requests and payments must be sent on the Cad Crowd platform per the terms of service. We process refunds directly on the platform to prevent fraudulent transactions and protect confidentiality.
