Summary
Refund policies are mainly at the discretion of the instructor. There is no official Maven refund policy.
You can issue student refunds directly from your Stripe account.
Instructors can issue partial or full refunds.
Stripe will keep a 2.9% +.30 fee on all refunds.
Be sure to remove the student from your Maven course if they've been refunded due to a cancellation.
Should I provide a refund?
Refund policies are up to the instructor. We strongly recommend sharing a written refund policy as an FAQ on your landing page so that you have something to reference with students should they ask for a refund. You may choose to offer full or partial refunds before, during, and after your cohort. Here are some commonly used refund policies:
Full refund up to the start of the cohort.
Full refund within X amount of days after the cohort.
50% refund if requested before the halfway point of the cohort, 25% if requested three-quarters of the way through, etc.
No refunds, but students have the option to defer to later cohorts, etc.
No refunds after the first day of the course.
Instructors use a wide variety of refund policies; you should use the one that feels most comfortable for you and considers the needs of your students. Writing your refund policy on your landing page helps students know your policies before they sign up for your cohort.
If you chose to offer a refund, Maven will also provide a refund of its 10% fee. Stripe will keep its 2.9% + $.30 fee per transaction, even on refunds. So, if your course is $1,000 and you issue a full $1,000 refund to your student, $970.70 will come from you and Maven. The remaining $29.30 (Stripe's 2.9%+30¢ fee) will come out of your Stripe balance. That means you'll have a -$29.30 balance in your Stripe account.
How to issue a refund
Refunding in Stripe
In your Stripe account, find the payment you're looking to refund. It's easy to find by searching the email address of the student you're issuing a refund to. Click into the payment.
In the top right of corner the payment information window, there's a Refund button.
Clicking the refund button creates a modal that gives you the ability to refund a specific or full amount. You can also indicate a reason for issuing the refund.
Once you've issued the refund, you can let the student know that they will receive the refund in 5-10 business days.
Removing the student from your Maven course
Once you've refunded the student via Stripe, be sure to remove them from your Maven course if necessary. This is a step you should take if your student is cancelling their enrollment. To remove the student, go to the Students tab in your course and delete the student from the cohort. This will remove the student's access to all the cohort content, events, and community.
Refund Troubleshooting
If you've already been paid out from Stripe and your account balance is $0 or less than the refund amount, you will either need to:
deposit more funds into your account
or
authorize Stripe to take funds from your linked bank account to cover the refunded amount.
Your student's refund may be delayed if you do not have enough funds to cover the refund amount. If you need help ensuring that your Stripe account has enough funds to issue the refund, you can contact Stripe support.
*Note: In very unique circumstances, Maven may decide to refund a student on your behalf. We will always communicate with you if we need to offer a refund based on a specific student request and we will make every effort to resolve any student issues before a refund is processed.
If you have any additional questions about refunding students, reach out to [email protected]. If you're a student looking for a refund, please be sure to email the course instructor directly.