Defaults.Exposed › Refund & Guarantee Policy

Refund & Guarantee Policy

This Policy forms part of the Terms of Service. It converts the on-page promises into bounded, honourable terms.

Last updated: 2026-09-24 · Version: 1.3

Refunds, the short version

• A-Grade Playbook (list price $99; $24.75 during the launch offer, until 30 September 2026): a digital product delivered immediately on purchase. No change-of-mind refund once delivered, but if it fails to deliver or is defective, we fix it or refund it (§2). It is the only product we currently sell.
• Guarantees are real and we honour them. They have plain, fair conditions, stated at the point of the promise. Those conditions are below.
• The A-grade guarantee: follow the steps and, if your domain has not reached an A within 60 days, we refund every cent you paid. Our own re-check is the referee (§2.5).
• What counts as an “A-grade”: the exact rubric version that applied on the day you ordered is pinned to your order, so “A” can’t move under you after you buy (§3).

1. How to make a claim

Email billing@defaults.exposed from the address on the order, with your domain and order reference. We acknowledge within 2 business days and resolve eligible claims within 10 business days. Approved refunds are processed to your original payment method via our payment provider within 14 days of approval; the time a refund takes to appear after that is set by your bank or card issuer.

2. A-Grade Playbook: digital good

2.1 The Playbook is a digital product delivered immediately on purchase. Delivery happens after you expressly request immediate delivery and acknowledge that receiving it waives the change-of-mind window, that acknowledgement is ticked and stored with a timestamp at checkout. Because you receive it at once, it is not subject to a change-of-mind refund once delivered. Where your local consumer law gives you a mandatory 14-day withdrawal right regardless, we honour it. Our own promises in this Policy sit on top of any statutory rights and are usually stronger.

2.2 We still stand behind it. If the Playbook fails to generate or deliver, is corrupted, or is materially defective, tell us and we will re-issue it or refund it in full, at your choice.

2.3 What’s inside, and its terms.

• 10 verification re-checks, usable for 12 months from purchase. Unused re-checks have no cash value and are not separately refundable.
• 1 regeneration if your stack changes (for example, you move mail platform), usable within 12 months of purchase.
• Upgrade credit, earlier orders only. Playbooks bought while we sold done-for-you work came with a 90-day credit of the full amount paid against done-for-you work for the same domain. We no longer sell done-for-you work, so a Playbook bought now does not include this credit. If you hold a credit from an earlier order, email billing@defaults.exposed.

2.4 The Playbook is advice, a sequenced runbook with exact record values, console click-paths and gotcha rails.

2.5 The A-grade guarantee: 60 days. Complete the steps your Playbook sets out and, if your domain has not reached an A within 60 days of purchase, we refund every cent you paid. Its conditions, stated plainly:

• Our re-check is the referee. The verification re-checks included with your Playbook are the evidence. Run one after your final step; the grade it returns is the grade we go by. It is the same engine that grades every domain in our census, including our own.
• “Complete the steps” means the ones you can complete. Where a Playbook step depends on something outside your control, a registrar that will not support DNSSEC, a mail platform that cannot sign, that step is left out of your runbook rather than billed, and it is never held against this guarantee. We do not hold you to a step your setup makes impossible.
• The bar is the rubric pinned to your order (see How “A-grade” is defined below), so it cannot move under you.
• If an unavoidable limit puts an A out of reach for your domain (for example, a registry that will not accept DNSSEC), this guarantee does not apply to that domain, because we did not promise a grade your provider makes impossible. The affected step is excluded from your runbook, as above, rather than billed.

This guarantee sits alongside §2.2 and applies to the A-Grade Playbook only.

3. General conditions

3.1 Good faith. Guarantees are for genuine use. We may decline a claim that is fraudulent, or where the domain was submitted without the right to assess it.

3.2 What gets refunded. A refund returns fees you paid us. It does not cover third-party costs you incurred (e.g. a registrar’s own charges), your internal time, or any consequential loss, consistent with the liability terms in the Terms of Service.

3.3 Taxes. Prices exclude any applicable VAT/GST, which is shown at checkout for your country. Where tax was charged, refunds include the tax portion as required by law.

3.4 Chargebacks. We ask that you contact us first, we’d almost always rather just fix or refund it, and it’s faster for you. But chargebacks are never penalised: raising one never forfeits a guarantee you’d already earned.

3.5 We may improve, not worsen. We can make this Policy more generous at any time. A change that reduces rights applies only to orders placed after the change and never removes a guarantee you were promised at purchase.

How “A-grade” is defined

“A-grade” is defined by a named, published, versioned rubric, the exact checks and pass thresholds live at /methodology. The rubric version in effect on the day you order is pinned to your order and recorded on your receipt. We can tighten or improve the rubric later, but a change never revokes an A we already delivered to you and never raises the bar on an order already in flight.