Refund policy

This policy is meant to be fair to both sides. A student should not pay for mentoring they did not receive. A mentor should not go unpaid for work they have already done. So the rule is simple: work that has been reviewed is not refunded, and work that has not been reviewed is.

How we work it out

Your project is divided into milestones. Each time your mentor returns feedback on a milestone, or our team signs it off, that milestone counts as reviewed. Milestones added after your project started are not counted. What you paid is spread evenly across the milestones it covers:

• your deposit (70 percent of the price, or the full price for a project idea request) covers the milestones before the final phase;
• your balance covers the final phase milestones.

A refund is the part of what you paid that belongs to milestones not yet reviewed. For example, if your deposit covers seven milestones and two have been reviewed, five sevenths of the deposit is unused.

When you get a full refund

• No mentor has accepted your project within 7 days of your payment, and you ask to cancel.
• You cancel before any mentor has accepted your project.
• A payment reached us but could not be applied, for example a second payment for a request that was already paid, or a payment for a quote that had been replaced. We refund these without being asked.
• We cancel your project before any milestone has been reviewed, for a reason that is not your doing.

When you get a partial refund

• You cancel after a mentor has accepted: the unused part of what you paid, less an administration fee of 10 percent of that unused part.
• We cancel, or we cannot give you a mentor: the unused part of what you paid, with no fee. This includes the case where your mentor stops responding and we cannot replace them within 7 days of your report.
• You paid your balance and then cancel before any final phase milestone is reviewed: the balance, less the 10 percent fee.

When there is no refund

• For milestones your mentor has already reviewed.
• For a project that has been completed.
• For a project idea request once your mentor has returned topic suggestions.
• Because of a grade, a supervisor's decision or any other outcome at your institution. We mentor; we cannot promise a result.
• Where an account is closed for breaking our academic integrity rule, for arranging payment outside AcademHep, or for abuse.
• For anything arranged or paid for outside AcademHep. We can only cover what happened here.

Before you ask for a refund

If the problem is with your mentor (slow replies, unclear feedback, a poor match), tell us first through "Report a problem" on your project page. We can usually fix it, including by giving you a different mentor at no cost, and your progress carries over.

How to ask

• Use "Report a problem" on your project page, or write to billing@academhep.com from the email address on your account.
• Ask within 14 days of the event you are asking about.
• We will reply within five working days with our decision and how we worked it out.
• Refunds go back through Paystack to the card or account you paid with. They usually arrive within ten working days, depending on your bank. Charges made by the payment provider that are not returned to us may be deducted.

For mentors

A mentor's fee is paid after we confirm a project is complete. If a project is cancelled part of the way through, the mentor is paid the part of their fee that matches the milestones they reviewed. Nothing a student is refunded is taken back from a mentor for work already reviewed.

Nothing in this policy takes away rights you have under Nigerian consumer protection law.