Refund policy
Version 2026-09 · Last updated September 9, 2026
This policy has not yet been reviewed by a lawyer.
This policy describes how PrintFlows actually handles money today.
This policy is part of the Terms of use. It says what happens to your money in each situation, and who ends up paying.
Two things to hold on to:
- PrintFlows holds your payment. From the moment you pay until you confirm delivery (or 5 days after a tracked delivery with no dispute), the money is with us, not with the maker. A delivery the maker records by hand waits for your word.
- Refunds go back to the card you paid with. Not store credit, not a coupon. Card refunds take 5 to 10 business days to appear, depending on your bank.
1. Situations, outcomes, and who pays
| Situation | What happens | Who carries the cost |
|---|---|---|
| You cancel before the maker starts printing | Full refund: part, shipping and taxes | Nobody. Nothing had been spent. |
| You cancel after printing started | Goes through a dispute; outcome depends on the facts | Decided case by case (section 3) |
| The maker cancels before shipping | Full refund | The maker loses the job and any material already used |
| The maker misses the quoted lead time and you don't want to wait | Full refund if it hasn't shipped | The maker |
| No maker quotes your request | Nothing to refund: you were never charged | Nobody |
| Payment fails or is declined | No charge is made; the order doesn't exist | Nobody |
| The package never arrives, tracking says it wasn't delivered | Full refund | The maker, who claims from the carrier |
| Tracking says delivered, you say it didn't arrive | We look at tracking, delivery photos and address; often a partial or full refund | Split or platform-carried, depending on the evidence |
| It arrives broken | Full refund or a reprint, your choice | The maker |
| Wrong material, wrong colour, wrong part | Full refund or a reprint | The maker |
| Dimensions materially off from the file you sent | Full refund or a reprint | The maker |
| Print quality far below what was quoted | Full or partial refund, depending on how bad | The maker |
| Visible layer lines on a Draft-quality print | No refund: that's what draft quality is | You. Layer lines are how the process works. |
| Your file had an error and the part is unusable | No refund; the maker printed what you sent | You |
| The part doesn't fit what you designed it for | No refund; fit is a design question, not a print defect | You |
| You changed your mind after delivery | No refund | You |
| Some parts of a multi-part order are fine, some aren't | Partial refund for the bad ones | The maker, for those parts |
| You never confirm and never dispute | Auto-confirms 5 days after a tracked delivery; maker is paid | |
| A promo code made the order free | Nothing to refund; the order is cancelled | PrintFlows, which funded the code |
| Your bank reverses the charge (chargeback) | The amount freezes; we respond to your bank with evidence | Decided by the card network; PrintFlows pays the chargeback fee |
Where a refund is made after the maker was paid, we recover it from the maker: we reverse the transfer where possible and otherwise take it from future payouts. Where the fault sits with PrintFlows, we carry it ourselves.
2. Cancelling
Before printing starts
Free, no reason needed, full amount back. Press Cancel this order on the order page.
"Before printing starts" means before the maker marks the order as started. That's on the order page, so you can always see where you stand.
After printing starts
Once the maker has started, material and machine time have been spent, and a straight cancellation would mean the maker eats that. Open a dispute instead and tell us what's going on. If you're cancelling because the maker is late, or because they can't do what they quoted, you'll get your money back. If you're cancelling because you changed your mind mid-print, expect to cover at least the material and time already used.
If the maker cancels
You get everything back. It happens: a machine breaks, a material runs out, someone gets sick. What shouldn't happen is a maker cancelling repeatedly, and we suspend makers who do.
3. Disputes
The window
14 days from delivery. After that the order closes for dispute purposes. This doesn't take away rights you have under the Québec Consumer Protection Act or your province's equivalent, which run longer and which we're not trying to shorten.
How to open one
Message the maker first. Most problems get sorted in the thread, and it's faster than we are.
If that doesn't work, press Report a problem on the order page. Say what went wrong, what you expected, and attach photos. Photos of the actual part decide most disputes. Take them before you modify or throw anything away.
What we do
- We tell the maker and ask for their side, with a deadline.
- We look at both accounts, the photos, the tracking, the quote, and the message thread.
- We may ask either side for more. Not replying in the time we give tends to go against whoever didn't reply.
- We decide, in writing, with reasons both sides can read.
We review the information from both sides and tell you what happens next. There is no automatic dispute close for a missing reply.
The four outcomes
Full refund: you get everything back, including shipping and taxes.
Partial refund: part of the order was acceptable, part wasn't. We refund proportionally. Shipping is refunded only if the whole order was unusable.
Reprint: the maker prints it again at their cost, as a new linked order. Only when the maker agrees and you're happy to wait.
No action: we didn't find grounds. You'll get our reasoning, not just the verdict. If you think we missed something, reply and say so.
4. What refunds include
| Component | Refunded in a full refund? | Refunded in a partial refund? |
|---|---|---|
| Part price | Yes | Proportionally |
| Shipping | Yes | Only if the whole order was unusable |
| Taxes | Yes, in proportion to what's refunded | Yes, in proportion |
| Promo discount | Not returned: it was never charged | Not returned |
| PrintFlows' 15% fee | Yes, we give up our fee on a refunded order | Proportionally |
Stripe doesn't return its processing fee on a refunded payment. PrintFlows carries that, not you and not the maker.
5. How long refunds take
We issue the refund to Stripe as soon as the decision is made, usually within one business day.
After that it's your bank's timeline. 5 to 10 business days is normal, and some cards take a full statement cycle. It'll show up as PrintFlows.
If it's been more than 10 business days, write to [email protected] with your order number and we'll send you the Stripe refund reference to give your bank.
6. If you're a maker
A refund can reduce or reverse your payout. How much depends on who was at fault:
- Fault on your side (wrong material, damaged in transit because of packing, missed lead time, never shipped): the refund comes out of your payout. If you'd already been paid, we reverse the transfer, which can leave your Stripe balance negative until your next payout covers it.
- Fault on the customer's side (a bad file, a change of mind after printing): you keep what covers your material and time.
- Nobody's fault (a carrier loses a package that was properly packed and tracked): we usually split it, and you claim from the carrier.
- Our fault (a platform bug, a payment we processed wrong): PrintFlows carries it in full and your payout is untouched.
Your best protection is a photo. Photograph every part before you pack it and keep the tracking. Makers who do that win disputes; makers who don't usually lose them.
Reversals aren't a penalty. They're the money going back where it should have gone. If you think a reversal was wrong, reply to the email: a person reads it, and we do change decisions.
7. Chargebacks
Asking your bank to reverse a charge instead of opening a dispute with us costs everyone more. It takes 30 to 90 days, PrintFlows pays a fee we can't recover, and you usually get the answer more slowly than we'd have given it.
If you do it anyway, we'll respond to your bank with the tracking, the photos and the message thread, and the card network decides. The amount stays frozen until then.
If your card was used without your knowledge, that's fraud, not a dispute. Tell your bank and tell us at [email protected].
8. Your legal rights
If you're a consumer in Québec, the Consumer Protection Act gives you a legal warranty that what you bought works for its normal purpose and lasts a reasonable time. That warranty exists whatever this policy says, and nothing here limits, excludes or asks you to waive it. Similar legislation applies in other provinces, and the same goes there.
This policy is how PrintFlows handles money quickly and without a lawyer. It doesn't replace your rights, and it doesn't stop you from going to court or to a consumer protection body.
9. Questions
[email protected]. Include your order number (it starts with PF-).
PrintFlows · Montréal, Québec, Canada