Refunds, payouts and disputes
Refunds are your decision
You decide whether to refund a ticket. Open your event's dashboard, tap the ••• next to a guest, and choose Refund ticket. The buyer gets an email, their ticket stops working, and the money reaches their card in 5–10 business days. Gatherly never pays for a refund: it always comes out of your money from that event.
If a refund doesn't go through, you'll see why straight away, and we email you a summary of who wasn't refunded and why, with a link back to try again. To retry, choose Refund ticket for that guest again. Retrying is safe: nobody is refunded twice. If the problem is on our side, the Gatherly team is told automatically and sorts it out, so you don't need to do anything.
How much is refunded
A refund gives the buyer back what they paid, minus the card processing fee. That's exactly what you received for the ticket. To give back the card fee too, send it to the guest directly. If you already refunded them the difference after lowering your price (below), a refund gives back what's left.
Changing the ticket price after tickets are sold
You can change your ticket price at any time in Edit event, even after people have bought. Everyone who already has a ticket keeps it, and keeps the price they paid. We don't tell guests that the price changed.
Raising the price: new buyers pay the new price. Nothing changes for anyone who already bought.
Lowering the price, or making the event free: nothing happens automatically. As you type the new price, the form tells you how many tickets were sold for more. After you save, your event page shows the same number and offers to refund the difference. That's up to you: you don't have to.
Refunding the difference
You or a co-host can do this, from the notice on the event page. Each buyer gets back what they paid for their ticket above the new price, less anything already refunded to them. For example, if you lower a $50 ticket to $40, each $50 buyer gets $10 back. If you later lower it to $30, they're offered the next $10, not $20. Each ticket is compared on what was actually paid for it, and nobody is ever refunded twice.
The card processing fee isn't part of it, the same as for any other refund. If buyers paid the fee on top, they get back the difference in the ticket price. If you cover the fee and make the event free, each buyer gets back what you received for their ticket, and is told that the card processing fee isn't included.
Their tickets stay valid. Each buyer gets an email, and a text if we have their number, saying how much was refunded and that their ticket still works, and sees the money on their card in 5–10 business days. The money comes out of your payout for the event, or, if you've already been paid, back out of your Stripe balance first. If there isn't enough left of that payout to cover a buyer's difference, they get back only what could be taken from it. While your payout is being prepared (from a day after the event starts, or from when it ends if that's later, until the payout is sent), wait until it has gone out. Tickets sold at the door price, and comped tickets, aren't included. If a refund doesn't go through, you'll see why, and we email you the list.
Turning a free event into a paid one
You'll need a connected bank account first (You → Payouts). Everyone who already RSVP'd keeps their free ticket and isn't asked to pay; the form reminds you of this before you save. If you want only paying guests, cancel the free event instead (everyone who RSVP'd is told), then create a new, paid event. It gets a new link, so share that one.
Card processing fees
Card processing fees are charged by our payment processor, Stripe, on every payment. Stripe doesn't return them when a payment is refunded. Depending on your event's settings, either you absorb the fee (it comes out of your payout) or the buyer pays it on top of the ticket price.
Cancelling an event
If you cancel, every buyer is refunded automatically: what they paid, minus the card processing fee. Everyone who bought or RSVP'd gets an email, and the event page shows that it's cancelled. Only the primary host can cancel.
You can cancel any time until you've been paid for the event, even after it has ended. Once your payout has been sent, or while it's being sent, it can't be cancelled any more, and Edit → Danger zone says so. To give a guest their money back after that, refund them from your guest list (see below).
If some refunds don't go through, the event is still cancelled. The guests who weren't refunded are listed under Edit → Danger zone, and we email you the same list with the reason for each. Retrying there refunds only those guests, and nobody is refunded twice. You can also refund them one at a time from your guest list.
When you get paid
Your earnings are ready about a day after your event starts, or when it ends if that's later, so late refunds and door sales are settled first. We then ask you to confirm the event took place (below), and send the money in the next daily payout run after you do. Stripe pays it on to your bank, usually within 1–2 business days. A refund made before that simply comes out of the payout. A refund made after it comes back out of that payout, from your Stripe balance. If your balance is too low, the refund won't go through: wait for your next sales to arrive, then try again.
Confirming your event took place
We don't send your money until you tell us the event happened. When it's ready, we email you and put a card on your event's dashboard. Tick the box and choose Confirm and release my payout, and it goes out in the next daily payout run.
What you're confirming is on the box itself, and it's two things: that the event took place as described, and that you know of no refund still owed to guests. We keep a record of it — who confirmed, when, and the exact wording you agreed to — and you can see that record on the same card afterwards. If it turns out not to be true, you have to pay back any refunds your guests are owed, and your account can be suspended; that's in our Terms too.
Only the primary host can confirm, because the payout is theirs. A co-host sees that the money is ready and who has to confirm it, and nothing is ever charged to a co-host.
If the event didn't happen, don't confirm it. Cancel it instead, from Edit → Danger zone, and every buyer is refunded automatically. You can still do that at this point precisely because nothing has been paid out yet.
If you never confirm, nothing happens to your money: we hold it, it stays yours, and none of it expires. We email you a couple of reminders, and after 14 days someone from Gatherly gets in touch. We never release a payout without a confirmation, however long it waits — so if you've lost the email, open your event's dashboard and the card is still there.
When a refund is more than what’s left of your payout
Once you've been paid for an event, a refund can only come back out of that event's payout. Earlier refunds and chargebacks on the event use it up, so there may not be enough left for another refund. Gatherly doesn't pay refunds on a host's behalf, so when there isn't enough left, the refund doesn't go through, and nothing is taken from you or sent to the guest.
The refund window tells you before you confirm: how much is left of the payout, how much the refund is, and how much it's short. The Yes, refund button stays off. If you still want to give the guest their money back, you can pay them directly. Their ticket stays valid in Gatherly, so it still works at the door.
This only happens after you've been paid. Before that, this never stops a refund, because the money is still with us and simply comes out of your payout.
Disputes (chargebacks)
Sometimes a buyer asks their bank to reverse a payment. When that happens, their tickets are cancelled, and the ticket money plus Stripe's dispute fee (currently $15) is taken back from your payout, or kept out of it if you haven't been paid yet. We email you when it happens.
Gatherly doesn't contest disputes by default. If you have evidence the buyer got what they paid for (for example, their ticket was scanned at the door), reply to that email within 5 days and ask us to contest it. If we contest and lose, Stripe charges an extra fee, which you cover. If we win, the ticket money comes back to you, but Stripe keeps its dispute fee (currently $15) either way.
See also Contacting a host, for how guests reach you about a refund, and our Terms of Service.