Cancellation & Refund Policy

1. Purpose & Governing Commitment

This Cancellation and Refund Policy (the "Policy") is promulgated by ArthaOps. Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "ArthaOps", "Company", "we", "our", or "us"). This Policy establishes the authoritative, binding, and comprehensive framework governing the cancellation of subscriptions and the eligibility, processing, and issuance of refunds pertaining to the proprietary cloud cost optimization software-as-a-service ("SaaS") platform (the "Services").

ArthaOps is unequivocally committed to maintaining transparency, fairness, and strict adherence to the highest standards of enterprise software commerce. We recognize that adopting enterprise-grade infrastructure management tools necessitates financial predictability and operational flexibility. Therefore, this Policy is engineered to provide absolute clarity to our Customers regarding their rights, obligations, and the specific mechanics surrounding the termination of Service engagements and the recovery of previously remitted funds, where expressly permitted.

By registering for an Account, executing an Order Form, or otherwise accessing or utilizing the Services, the Customer unconditionally acknowledges, understands, and agrees to be legally bound by the stipulations contained within this Policy. This Policy operates in conjunction with, and is incorporated by reference into, the ArthaOps Master Subscription Agreement (MSA), Terms of Service, and any applicable Enterprise Order Forms. In the event of a direct and irreconcilable conflict between this Policy and a custom Enterprise Order Form mutually executed by authorized representatives of both ArthaOps and the Customer, the specific terms of the Enterprise Order Form shall prevail strictly to the extent of such conflict.

Furthermore, this Policy is drafted to strictly comply with the applicable provisions of the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (CGST Act), and other relevant statutory instruments under the sovereign jurisdiction of the Republic of India. We reserve the right to amend, modify, or unilaterally update this Policy at our sole discretion to reflect changes in regulatory requirements, operational capabilities, or product architecture, with such modifications becoming effective immediately upon publication on the ArthaOps official web estate.

Our core infrastructure operates across 378 cloud cost waste detectors scanning EC2, RDS, EBS, S3, ElastiCache, EKS, NAT Gateways, and CloudWatch. We recognize the profound technical complexity of such integrations and have designed this Policy to reflect a balanced approach to enterprise financial commitments while ensuring our platform integrity and operational continuity.

2. Definitions & Key Terms

For the purposes of accurate interpretation and enforcement of this Policy, the following capitalized terms shall bear the exact meanings ascribed to them hereunder:

• "Account" means the secure, authenticated digital workspace created by or on behalf of a Customer to access the Services, authenticated via Logto Cloud Inc. enterprise OIDC.
• "Billing Cycle" denotes the recurrent temporal interval—either monthly or annually, as selected by the Customer during the subscription initiation or renewal process—for which ArthaOps levies the Subscription Fees for continuous access to the Services.
• "Cancellation Event" signifies the affirmative, deliberate, and recorded action executed by an Authorized User possessing administrative privileges, or an authorized representative of ArthaOps acting upon valid instruction, to terminate the active subscription to the Services prior to the commencement of a subsequent Billing Cycle.
• "Customer" (also referred to as "Subscriber" or "Client") means the legally competent individual, corporation, partnership, or other organizational entity that has entered into a binding contractual relationship with ArthaOps for the provision of the Services and holds financial responsibility for the associated Account.
• "Data Purge" refers to the systematic, cryptographic deletion of Customer telemetry, audit logs, and remediation history occurring thirty (30) days following account deletion, consistent with our DPDPA 2023 alignment.
• "Proration" or "Pro-rata" refers to the meticulous mathematical calculation utilized to ascertain the precise fractional value of Subscription Fees corresponding to a specific temporal segment of a Billing Cycle, computed down to the minute or second as necessitated by the billing engine architecture.
• "Refundable Amount" designates the exact, quantified financial sum that ArthaOps, following rigorous internal review and validation against this Policy, determines is legitimately owed back to the Customer.
• "Subscription Fees" encompasses all financial levies, charges, and consideration payable by the Customer in exchange for the right to access and utilize the Services, exclusive of any applicable taxes, levies, or duties imposed by taxing authorities.

Any terms not expressly defined within this section shall retain their standard legal and commercial meanings as established in the software-as-a-service industry or as defined within the overarching Master Subscription Agreement.

3. Subscription Plan Overview (Discovery, Control, Operator, Command) and Billing Mechanics

ArthaOps deploys a sophisticated, multi-tiered subscription architecture designed to accommodate the heterogeneous requirements of modern engineering and financial operations teams. The prevailing subscription tiers—Discovery, Control, Operator, and Command—are delineated by varying degrees of functionality, telemetry retention, and autonomous remediation capabilities.

1. Discovery (Free Tier): Intended for preliminary evaluation and small-scale visibility. This tier requires no initial financial commitment and, ipso facto, is exempt from any refund or cancellation considerations beyond standard account deletion mechanics.

2. Control Tier: The foundational paid tier offering extensive visibility and manual remediation insights. Subscriptions are billed either monthly or annually in advance.

3. Operator Tier: Introduces advanced Autopilot functionality—optional autonomous remediation with dry-run dependency graphs and 1-click snapshot rollbacks. Billing strictly enforces advance payment collection.

4. Command Tier: Designed for complex, multi-organization enterprise environments. Often involves custom negotiated contracts, specialized Service Level Agreements (SLAs) targeting 99.9% uptime, and dedicated support channels.

Billing Engine Architecture & Sovereign Processing: Our proprietary billing infrastructure is strictly integrated with Razorpay, a PCI-DSS Level 1 compliant gateway. We process all financial transactions in sovereign Indian Rupees (INR) (₹) to maintain strict compliance with Indian financial regulations. To provide international pricing stability, ArthaOps utilizes a mathematically fixed, immutable Foreign Exchange (FX) rate of 84.0 INR to 1 USD for all external pricing displays and invoice calculations.

Auto-Renewal Paradigm: To ensure absolute continuity of the critical cost optimization and telemetry analysis services, all ArthaOps subscriptions (excluding specific custom Enterprise contracts that stipulate otherwise) are provisioned with an irrevocable auto-renewal mandate. Upon the expiration of a current Billing Cycle, the subscription will automatically and instantaneously renew for a successive term of equivalent duration. The Customer's designated payment method on file will be automatically charged the then-current Subscription Fees, alongside any applicable sovereign taxes, unless a valid Cancellation Event is registered within the system prior to the renewal timestamp.

It is the Customer's non-delegable responsibility to maintain accurate, up-to-date, and adequately funded payment instruments within the ArthaOps billing portal. Failure to successfully process auto-renewal payments may result in immediate access restriction, functional degradation to the Discovery tier, or outright Account suspension, independent of any ongoing refund claims or disputes.

Furthermore, ArthaOps maintains a strict zero static credential storage policy. No long-lived AWS access keys or secret keys are ever stored on our servers; we utilize AWS STS AssumeRole with External ID validation and tightly scoped read-only IAM bounds (List*, Describe*, GetMetricData) for the core engine. This architectural design ensures that even during a billing dispute or account suspension, the fundamental security posture of the Customer's AWS infrastructure remains entirely uncompromised.

4. 14-Day 100% Money-Back Guarantee — Complete Terms, Scope & Claims Process

ArthaOps operates with supreme confidence in the efficacy, precision, and unparalleled Return on Investment (ROI) generated by our 378 cloud cost waste detectors. To systematically eliminate risk for new enterprise adopters evaluating our platform, we proudly and unequivocally offer a robust 14-Day 100% Money-Back Guarantee (hereinafter referred to as the "Guarantee").

Scope & Applicability: This Guarantee is exclusively applicable to the *initial* purchase of a paid Subscription Plan (Control, Operator, or Command) by a completely new Customer legal entity. It guarantees that if the Customer determines, in their sole and absolute discretion and for any reason or no reason whatsoever, that the ArthaOps platform fails to meet their operational expectations, architectural requirements, or ROI thresholds, they are legally entitled to a complete, unqualified return of the initial Subscription Fee paid.

Strict Conditions Precedent for Guarantee Invocation:

• Temporal Limitation (The 14-Day Window): The formal request for a refund under this Guarantee MUST be demonstrably transmitted to ArthaOps (via the prescribed communication channels detailed in Section 11 of this Policy) within exactly fourteen (14) calendar days. This duration is precisely calculated down to the exact second from the original transaction authorization timestamp recorded by the Razorpay payment gateway (the "Guarantee Window").
• Initial Subscription Exclusivity: The Guarantee is strictly limited to the absolute first transaction associated with a new Account and legal entity. Any renewals, tier upgrades, cross-grades, or subsequent purchases made by the same Customer, its subsidiaries, parent companies, or affiliated corporate entities are explicitly, permanently, and irrevocably excluded from the protection of this Guarantee.
• Account Standing & Compliance: The Customer Account invoking the Guarantee must be in good standing. It must not be under active investigation by our Trust & Safety team for any violation of the ArthaOps Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, anti-abuse regulations, or any suspected fraudulent activity, including but not limited to the circumvention of our multi-tenant workspace isolation protocols.
• Data Purge Consent & Tier Reversion: The explicit invocation of this Guarantee mandates the immediate, programmatic termination of the paid subscription and the instantaneous reversion of the Account to the free Discovery tier. The Customer unconditionally acknowledges that advanced telemetry data, historical ledger entries stored in our SHA-256 linear hash-chained audit ledger, and custom configurations associated uniquely with the paid tier may become immediately inaccessible and subsequently permanently purged in accordance with our standard data retention lifecycle policies.

Claims submitted subsequent to the exact expiration of the 14-Day Guarantee Window, even if delayed by a margin of mere seconds due to network latency or administrative oversight on the Customer's part, shall be summarily, automatically, and unequivocally rejected by our billing systems. Absolutely no exceptions, waivers, extensions, or equitable tolling of the 14-day temporal limitation shall be granted under any operational, technical, or business circumstances.

Upon successful validation of a Guarantee claim, the entire Subscription Fee (inclusive of any previously remitted Sovereign Indian taxes, such as CGST/SGST/IGST, subject to the issuance of a valid Credit Note as described in Section 15) shall be refunded in full. No administrative fees, processing penalties, or prorated usage deductions shall be applied to valid 14-Day Guarantee claims.

5. Refund Eligibility Matrix

The determination of refund eligibility across the entire Customer lifecycle is a precise, deterministic process governed strictly by the following operational matrix. This matrix constitutes the definitive, binding logic applied by the ArthaOps billing operations and finance teams. Any deviations from this matrix require explicit, written authorization from the ArthaOps executive leadership team.

This matrix is exhaustively detailed and serves as the single source of truth for all dispute resolutions. Our frontline support agents do not possess the operational authorization to override these strict programmatic parameters.

6. Non-Refundable Fees, Exceptions & Special Circumstances

Notwithstanding any other provision contained within this Policy, the ArthaOps Master Subscription Agreement, or any accompanying legal instruments, certain specific categories of financial transactions are strictly, permanently, and irrevocably non-refundable under any operational, technical, or legal circumstance. These explicitly non-refundable categories include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• Professional Services & Integration Fees: Any fees levied for bespoke implementation, custom architectural reviews, dedicated technical account management (TAM) onboarding, specialized engineering consultancy, or managed migration services are considered fully consumed upon the commencement of the service delivery and are completely irrecoverable.
• Custom Feature Engineering & Dedicated Development: Financial consideration paid upfront for the expedited development, dedicated deployment of specialized cloud cost detectors, custom Autopilot remediation workflows (e.g., writing custom Terraform modules or Lambda functions specific to the Customer), or bespoke API endpoints tailored exclusively to the Customer's specific operational environment.
• Overage Charges, True-up Fees & Usage Spikes: Charges incurred due to exceeding provisioned limits (e.g., connected cloud accounts, unexpectedly high volumes of processed telemetry, excessive Sentry error tracking ingestion originating from customer-side misconfigurations) are strictly based on past, mathematically verified consumption and are immutable and non-refundable.
• Taxes, Levies, and Sovereign Duties: Sovereign taxes, including but not limited to Goods and Services Tax (GST), Value Added Tax (VAT), or other localized levies successfully remitted to the respective governmental tax authorities, cannot be refunded by ArthaOps directly except where a formal Credit Note is legally permissible and successfully processed within the strict statutory timeframes dictated by the governing law.
• Third-Party Marketplace Fees: If the ArthaOps Services were procured through a third-party cloud marketplace (e.g., AWS Marketplace, Azure Marketplace), any platform fees, listing fees, or transaction costs levied by that specific marketplace provider are entirely outside the control of ArthaOps and are non-refundable by us.

Exceptions to these non-refundable strictures are vanishingly rare and require unprecedented executive-level authorization from the ArthaOps Chief Financial Officer (CFO) or authorized external legal counsel. Such exceptions are granted solely in scenarios involving demonstrable, catastrophic billing infrastructure errors originating exclusively from ArthaOps' internal systems and independently verified by a third-party audit.

7. Subscription Cancellation Mechanics (Self-Service, Email, API)

ArthaOps mandates a frictionless, deterministic process for subscription cancellation, ensuring Enterprise Customers maintain absolute, unimpeded sovereignty over their financial commitments and infrastructure integrations. A valid Cancellation Event can only be executed via the following explicitly sanctioned mechanisms:

• Self-Service Application Portal (Primary & Recommended): Authorized administrators possessing the requisite role-based access control (RBAC) permissions can execute an immediate cancellation directive by navigating to Workspace Settings > Billing > Subscription Management > Cancel Subscription within the ArthaOps application dashboard. This action securely interfaces with the backend Razorpay billing engine via secure API and provides an instantaneous, cryptographically verifiable receipt of cancellation.
• Authenticated REST API Endpoint: Enterprise Customers leveraging our programmatic interfaces for Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) or automated lifecycle management may issue an authenticated HTTP DELETE request to the /api/v1/billing/subscription endpoint, passing the required Workspace ID and valid authorization bearer tokens. Rate limits and standard API authentication protocols apply.
• Formal Email Directive (Failsafe Mechanism): In circumstances where self-service access is compromised (e.g., loss of SSO provider availability), an authorized officer of the Customer may dispatch a formal, written cancellation directive to billing@arthaops.com. The email MUST strictly originate from the primary administrative email address associated with the Workspace and contain explicit instruction to terminate. The Cancellation Event timestamp shall be the precise moment the ArthaOps mail transfer agent successfully receives and logs the transmission.

Crucial Operational Caveat regarding Unsanctioned Channels: Telephonic requests made to support lines, messages transmitted via SMS or instant messaging platforms (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams), communications delivered to personal employee email addresses, or communications dispatched via disparate public social media channels (e.g., X, LinkedIn, Reddit) absolutely DO NOT constitute a valid Cancellation Event under any circumstances. ArthaOps bears zero financial or legal liability for subsequent charges incurred if a Customer attempts cancellation through these non-sanctioned, unmonitored channels.

8. Mid-Cycle Cancellation: Access Rights & Pro-rata Credit Policy

ArthaOps employs a strict, uncompromising "Cancel-at-End-of-Term" operational paradigm for all self-service subscriptions. The SaaS model requires significant upfront provisioning of compute resources, database capacity (AWS AP-SOUTH-1 Mumbai region), and analytical engine reservations. Consequently, when a Customer executes a valid Cancellation Event midway through an active Billing Cycle (be it monthly or annual), the following specific mechanics are irrevocably triggered:

• Immediate Billing Cessation: The automated billing engine is instructed to halt any future recurring charges. The auto-renewal flag within the Razorpay subscription object is flipped to a negative, terminal state.
• Continuous Uninterrupted Access Guarantee: The Customer shall retain full, unfettered, and completely unimpeded access to all features, telemetry, detectors, and Autopilot capabilities of their provisioned subscription tier for the absolute remainder of the current, previously paid Billing Cycle. Access is merely scheduled for future demotion, not immediately terminated.
• Absolute Pro-Rata Refund Prohibition: ArthaOps emphatically DOES NOT issue pro-rata fiat refunds, fractional returns, or partial credits for the unutilized duration of a partially consumed Billing Cycle. The advance payment model guarantees resource availability and dedicated infrastructure capacity for the entire temporal term, and this commitment is immutable regardless of actual platform usage.
• Downgrade Execution Sequence: Precisely at the temporal expiration of the current Billing Cycle, the automated orchestrator will seamlessly downgrade the Account to the completely free "Discovery" tier. At this exact transition point, advanced features (e.g., Autopilot remediation, extended SHA-256 ledger history, RBAC granularity) will immediately cease functioning. Telemetry retention policies will conform to the strict limitations of the Discovery tier, and any data exceeding those limits may be subject to immediate Data Purge protocols.

It is the strict, non-delegable responsibility of the Customer to execute any necessary data extraction, export any critical operational data, audit logs, or compliance reports prior to the execution of the downgrade process at the definitive end of the Billing Cycle.

9. Annual vs. Monthly Subscription Refund Differences

The ArthaOps commercial model provides significant financial incentives (substantial percentage discounts) for Customers committing to extended Annual Billing Cycles. This discount reflects the reduced operational risk and improved revenue predictability for the Company. Consequently, the operational mechanics and refund leniencies differ substantially between temporal commitments.

Monthly Subscriptions (Zero Flexibility): As detailed exhaustively in Section 8, monthly subscriptions are entirely inflexible regarding mid-cycle refunds. The ~30-day term is considered a fundamental, indivisible unit of consumption. Absolutely no grace periods exist for accidental renewals of monthly plans. If the renewal processes, the Customer is locked for that specific month.

Annual Subscriptions (The 72-Hour Grace Protocol): We recognize the significant financial magnitude and potential operational impact of an annual auto-renewal event for enterprise accounts. While annual commitments are fundamentally non-refundable mid-cycle, ArthaOps extends a highly specific "72-Hour Accidental Renewal Grace Protocol" exclusively for Annual Subscriptions.

If an annual subscription successfully auto-renews, and the Customer determines it was entirely unintentional (e.g., an administrative oversight in canceling a deprecated project), they may petition for a refund ONLY IF the formal written request is received by ArthaOps support within exactly 72 hours (computed down to the minute) of the auto-renewal transaction authorization timestamp.

If explicitly approved under this strict protocol, ArthaOps will reverse the annual charge, subject to an immediate, non-negotiable deduction of a 5% Administrative Processing & Payment Gateway Reversal Fee. The subscription will be immediately downgraded to the Discovery tier upon processing, severing access to premium features instantly. Requests submitted after the 72-hour window will be summarily, automatically denied, and the annual contract will remain forcefully in effect for the entire remainder of the 365-day term.

10. Enterprise & Custom Contract Refund Procedures

Customers provisioned under custom "Command" tier Enterprise Order Forms (which typically involve multi-year commitments, bespoke pricing structures, custom Master Subscription Agreements, guaranteed resource allocations, or tailored legal liability caps) are entirely exempt from the standard self-service refund protocols detailed in the preceding sections of this Policy.

Absolute Contractual Supremacy: All matters concerning refunds, cancellations, early termination penalties, SLA breaches, and data extraction protocols for Enterprise custom contracts are governed exclusively, entirely, and completely by the heavily negotiated terms within the specific, countersigned Master Subscription Agreement (MSA) and corresponding Order Forms.

In the specific absence of explicit early-termination for convenience clauses within a negotiated Enterprise Order Form, such contracts are legally considered absolute, non-cancellable, and entirely non-refundable for the entire duration of the committed term. Any requests for contract restructuring, financial restitution, or early exit must be directed to the Customer's designated dedicated Account Executive or the ArthaOps legal department at legal@arthaops.com. Such requests are entirely subject to bilateral negotiation, executive approval, and typically involve substantial early termination financial penalties.

11. Refund Request Submission Process (Step-by-Step)

To invoke any mathematically eligible refund claim (e.g., exclusively within the 14-Day Guarantee window, or the specific Annual 72-Hour Grace Period), the Customer must strictly adhere to the following procedural workflow. Any deviations from this rigid workflow may result in significant processing delays, failure of regulatory compliance checks, or outright rejection of the claim.

1. Comprehensive Documentation Gathering: The Customer must compile the following critical identifying data prior to submission: The exact Workspace Name, the primary Administrator Email Address associated with the Logto OIDC login, the specific ArthaOps Invoice Number in question, and the unique Transaction ID (or Acquirer Reference Number - ARN) provided by Razorpay.
2. Formal Submission via Authenticated Channel: A comprehensive email encompassing all the aforementioned documentation must be dispatched directly to billing@arthaops.com. The subject line of this email MUST strictly conform to the following specific nomenclature format: REFUND REQUEST - [Exact Workspace Name] - [Invoice Number].
3. Articulation of Rationale (Optional but Heavily Requested): While not strictly required for the invocation of the unconditional 14-Day Guarantee, providing a detailed technical or business rationale for the cancellation (e.g., missing specific compliance detector, budget constraints, incompatible architecture) significantly aids ArthaOps in our continuous product engineering and quality assurance efforts.
4. Automated Ingestion & Acknowledgement: Upon successful ingestion by our support ticketing system, the Customer will receive an automated algorithmic acknowledgment containing a unique internal tracking identifier (e.g., TKT-REF-1094). This identifier serves as the definitive reference point and must be cited in all subsequent correspondence regarding the claim.

12. Refund Review & Verification Timeline

ArthaOps strictly adheres to a rigorous, multi-stage verification and audit protocol for all financial disbursements to ensure total compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) directives, internal financial controls, and security protocols.

• Stage 1: Initial Triage & Temporal Verification (T+1 to T+2 Business Days): The billing support unit conducts an initial assessment to verify the temporal eligibility of the request against the strict parameters delineated in Section 5 (e.g., Did the request arrive precisely within the 14-day window?).
• Stage 2: Technical Audit & Compliance Review (T+2 to T+4 Business Days): A secondary review by the compliance team verifies that no Terms of Service (TOS) or Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) violations have occurred. This includes assessing system usage logs to confirm there was no deliberate exploitation of resources or scraping of the SHA-256 ledger prior to the refund request, and ensuring alignment with Indian tax and regulatory mandates.
• Stage 3: Executive Approval & Gateway Dispatch (T+5 Business Days): Upon successful clearance of all prior audits, a formally authorized financial officer approves the disbursement. The refund instruction is then computationally transmitted via secure, encrypted API to the Razorpay payment gateway for execution.

The Customer will receive a formal, automated email notification at the exact moment the refund instruction is successfully accepted and queued by the Razorpay systems. The entire internal review process shall not exceed five (5) full business days under standard operational conditions, excluding sovereign holidays.

13. Payment Channel Refund Mechanics (Credit/Debit Cards, UPI, Net Banking)

ArthaOps operates under a rigid, unyielding "Original Origin Return" operational mandate. To prevent complex financial fraud, unauthorized wealth transfer, and ensure strict compliance with international anti-money laundering (AML) frameworks, all Refundable Amounts shall exclusively and irrevocably be routed back to the precise payment instrument, banking account, or digital wallet utilized for the original transaction.

• Credit & Debit Cards (Domestic & International): Refunds will be posted back to the original card Primary Account Number (PAN). ArthaOps cannot, under any circumstances, redirect funds to a different card, even if the original card has expired, been reported lost, or the associated account closed. In cases of defunct cards, it is the sole responsibility of the issuing bank to route the received funds to the Customer's new active card or provide a direct deposit settlement.
• UPI (Unified Payments Interface - India Only): Funds will be pushed directly back to the originating VPA (Virtual Payment Address) associated with the transaction.
• Net Banking / Direct Bank Transfer (NEFT/RTGS): Refunds will be routed via standard electronic clearing mechanisms back to the originating bank account utilizing the specific Account Number and IFSC code recorded during the original checkout.

Under no circumstances, without exception, will ArthaOps issue refunds in the form of physical cheques, cash, disparate cryptocurrencies (e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum), or direct wire transfers to alternative banking accounts, personal accounts, or third-party corporate entities.

14. Razorpay Gateway Processing & Banking Partner Settlement Times

Customers must definitively understand that while ArthaOps entirely controls the speed of our internal review and the initiation of the refund API call (as detailed in Section 12), the ultimate realization of funds into the Customer's account is entirely dependent upon external, sovereign financial infrastructure and banking networks beyond our direct control.

Once ArthaOps transmits the refund instruction to our designated payment processor, Razorpay, the following estimated external banking settlement timelines typically apply:

• Domestic Indian Credit/Debit Cards: Typically 5 to 7 standard business days for the issuer to post the credit.
• International Credit/Debit Cards: Typically 7 to 14 standard business days. This is heavily dependent upon the acquiring bank's geographical location, global clearing house efficiency, and correspondent banking relationships.
• UPI Transactions: Generally 1 to 3 standard business days (often processed significantly faster, but never guaranteed).
• Net Banking (NEFT/IMPS/RTGS): Typically 3 to 5 standard business days.

ArthaOps assumes zero legal or financial liability for any consequential damages, overdraft fees, bounced checks, or operational disruptions resulting from standard or non-standard banking network delays in the final realization of refunded capital.

15. Tax Invoice, GSTIN Credit Note & GST Reversal Under Indian Tax Law

As an entity legally incorporated and operating within the sovereign jurisdiction of the Republic of India, ArthaOps is strictly bound by the compliance mandates of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017, the Integrated Goods and Services Tax (IGST) Act, 2017, and applicable state GST frameworks.

B2B Transactors (Registered GSTIN): When a full refund is approved for a commercial Customer who provided a valid Goods and Services Tax Identification Number (GSTIN) during the checkout process (classifying the transaction as B2B), ArthaOps is statutorily required to issue a formal GST Credit Note. This Credit Note computationally reverses the original tax liability. The Refundable Amount remitted to the Customer will precisely include the base Subscription Fee plus the proportionately reversed IGST, CGST, or SGST amounts, as applicable.

It is the Customer's explicit, statutory responsibility to correspondingly adjust their Input Tax Credit (ITC) ledgers and GSTR filings (specifically GSTR-3B) to reflect this tax reversal, thereby preventing unlawful enrichment. ArthaOps will upload the details of the Credit Note in our GSTR-1 filing, which will auto-populate in the Customer's GSTR-2B.

B2C Transactors (Unregistered): For Customers without a valid Indian GSTIN (classified as B2C transactions), ArthaOps will issue a standard commercial credit note and process the refund inclusive of the initially charged tax amounts, handling the necessary internal tax reconciliations with the sovereign tax authorities directly.

Crucial Temporal Limitation on Credit Notes (Section 34 CGST Act): Under Section 34 of the CGST Act, Credit Notes reversing a tax liability cannot be legally issued after the 30th of November following the end of the financial year in which the original supply was made. Therefore, refunds requested beyond this statutory limit (even if theoretically eligible under extraordinary circumstances) will be processed purely on the base Subscription Fee; the previously remitted GST amount shall be deemed permanently non-refundable and forfeit to the Government of India.

16. Currency, FX Rate & INR Sovereign Refund Guarantees

ArthaOps prices its SaaS Services dynamically in United States Dollars (USD) for global market uniformity, while strictly processing all underlying financial transactions through the gateway in Indian Rupees (INR) for sovereign regulatory compliance. Our billing engine utilizes a mathematically fixed, immutable Foreign Exchange (FX) parity rate of precisely 84.0 INR to 1 USD.

The Absolute INR Value Guarantee: This fixed parity architecture entirely insulates the refund process from the volatility of global macroeconomic currency fluctuations. If an international Customer is entitled to a refund of $1,000 USD based on their original invoice, ArthaOps mathematically guarantees the instruction sent to the Razorpay payment gateway will be precisely for ₹84,000 INR (excluding any applicable tax adjustments).

Customer Risk Profile on FX: For international Customers utilizing foreign-denominated credit cards (e.g., USD, EUR, GBP), the final settled amount realized in their local fiat currency will be entirely determined by their issuing bank's dynamic spot FX rates and cross-border conversion fees applied at the exact moment of refund realization. ArthaOps bears absolutely zero liability for any fractional financial discrepancies, losses, or incidental gains arising from these external banking network currency conversions.

17. Failed Refund Escalation Path

In the statistically improbable event that a formally approved refund fails to manifest in the Customer's originating financial account within fifteen (15) standard business days subsequent to the formal Razorpay dispatch notification, the following rigid escalation protocol must be initiated:

1. Mandatory Customer Action (Tier 0): The Customer must actively initiate contact with their issuing bank or financial institution, explicitly referencing the exact Acquirer Reference Number (ARN) or Razorpay Transaction ID previously provided by ArthaOps support.
2. Tier 1 Escalation (Documentation Required): If the issuing bank formally claims they cannot locate the inbound funds, the Customer must transmit a detailed email to billing@arthaops.com including official, written correspondence from their bank explicitly confirming the non-receipt of funds associated with the specific ARN.
3. Tier 2 Investigation (Gateway Trace): Upon receipt of the bank's denial, ArthaOps will initiate a priority trace directly with the Razorpay nodal banking partners. We will provide the Customer with comprehensive clearing network documentation proving the successful outbound transmission of funds from our ledgers.

Our ultimate legal and financial responsibility entirely concludes the moment we furnish verifiable, cryptographic proof of the successful refund transfer execution from the Razorpay gateway into the global banking clearance network.

18. Dispute & Chargeback Prevention Policy

ArthaOps strictly views the initiation of a credit card chargeback or formal banking dispute without prior communication as a hostile, destructive action, to be utilized strictly as an absolute measure of last resort in cases of proven, malicious fraud.

Mandatory Pre-Dispute Negotiation: Customers are contractually obligated to exhaust all available internal remediation channels—specifically, contacting billing@arthaops.com and allowing a minimum of three (3) full business days for investigation and resolution—prior to initiating any formal chargeback proceedings with their card issuer.

This mandatory negotiation period is designed to resolve misunderstandings, correct potential billing engine anomalies, and process eligible refunds without incurring the substantial financial and reputational penalties levied by global card networks (e.g., Visa, Mastercard) against merchants for chargebacks.

Consequences of Unjustified Chargebacks ("Friendly Fraud"): If a Customer initiates a chargeback for charges that are demonstrably valid and mathematically correct according to the terms of this Policy (e.g., initiating a chargeback following a failure to cancel an auto-renewal prior to the deadline, or attempting to claw back funds after utilizing the platform extensively), ArthaOps reserves the immediate, unequivocal right to:

• Instantaneously suspend all access to the Services, severing all cloud integrations, disabling all Autopilot functionality, and ceasing all telemetry processing immediately without prior notice.
• Vigorously and aggressively contest the chargeback with the acquiring bank, submitting exhaustive audit logs, IP address history, active session metrics, executed Autopilot remediations, and cryptographic proofs of service delivery to reverse the dispute.
• Permanently blacklist the Customer, all associated legal entities, parent companies, subsidiaries, and authorized users from provisioning any future Services from ArthaOps.
• Engage third-party collections agencies to recover the disputed amount.
• Pursue aggressive legal recourse for the recovery of the disputed funds, applicable legal fees, and administrative penalty costs incurred during the dispute process within the jurisdiction of Maharashtra, India.

By agreeing to these terms, the Customer explicitly acknowledges that ArthaOps maintains comprehensive, tamper-evident audit trails of all user activity, login events, and resource consumption. These records are deemed conclusive evidence of service delivery and will be utilized to their fullest extent in any chargeback arbitration process.

19. Account Reactivation After Cancellation

A Cancellation Event does not necessitate the immediate destruction of the Customer Account identity or organizational structure. Following a downgrade to the Discovery tier or a full cancellation of paid services, the fundamental Account structure remains dormant but accessible.

Should the Customer wish to subsequently reactivate premium Services (Control, Operator, or Command tiers) after a period of dormancy, they may effortlessly do so by navigating to the billing portal, updating or validating payment credentials, and authorizing a new Subscription Agreement.

Data Recovery and Restoration: It is critical to note that if reactivation occurs after the 30-day Data Purge window has elapsed, any historical telemetry, configured Autopilot policies, or custom dashboards will have been irrevocably deleted in compliance with our data minimization principles. The reactivated account will start with a completely fresh data baseline.

Crucially, a reactivated Account is treated as a fundamentally new commercial engagement for the purposes of billing, but entirely distinct regarding refund eligibility. The 14-Day 100% Money-Back Guarantee (as detailed exhaustively in Section 4) is absolutely and permanently inapplicable to reactivated accounts, as the Customer has already experienced prior exposure to the platform's capabilities and ROI profile.

Any legacy pricing, grandfathered discounts, or specialized contractual terms associated with the originally cancelled subscription are permanently forfeited upon the initial Cancellation Event and will not be reinstated upon reactivation, unless explicitly authorized in writing by the ArthaOps sales leadership team.