Refunds Policy

2. Scope

This Policy applies to HFi Shop purchases, including Shard packs, supporter subscriptions, donations, thank-you Shards, web-managed kit grants, in-game product redemptions, billing-portal actions, and payment records tied to shop.hfi.gg.

This Policy does not control refunds for ARK: Survival Ascended, platform purchases, Discord services, Stripe services, Steam, Epic, Microsoft, Sony, Studio Wildcard products, third-party server hosts, or other third-party services. Contact the relevant provider for those purchases.

3. How to request a refund

Use the Contact page or the official HFi Discord support channel announced by staff. Submit the request as soon as possible, preferably within 14 days of the transaction and before using or spending any delivered benefit.

Include:

• Your Discord username and the Discord account used for checkout.
• The HFi order ID, Stripe receipt, checkout email, or approximate payment date and amount.
• The product, Shard pack, supporter tier, donation amount, or in-game redemption involved.
• Your linked survivor, server, and ARK identity details when relevant.
• A clear explanation of what went wrong and screenshots or logs if they help.

Do not send full card numbers, passwords, one-time codes, private keys, session cookies, or other secrets.

4. Refunds HFi is more likely to approve

HFi is more likely to approve a full or partial refund when staff can verify one of the following:

• You were charged twice for the same intended purchase and only one delivery should remain.
• Stripe shows a paid transaction, but HFi never created or fulfilled the matching order.
• HFi charged the wrong amount because of a shop-side configuration error.
• HFi cannot deliver the purchased benefit because of a shop-side issue that cannot be fixed within a reasonable time.
• The payment was unauthorized and the claim is supported by appropriate evidence.
• Applicable law requires a refund or a non-waivable consumer right applies.

5. Purchases that are usually final

Except where HFi approves otherwise or applicable law requires otherwise, the following are usually final once delivered, used, consumed, or made available:

• Shards that have already been spent, transferred through allowed systems, deducted by the in-game shop, or used for kit grants.
• Web-managed kit grants, claimed kits, fulfilled RCON deliveries, in-game redemptions, or other game-side benefits.
• Supporter benefits for a paid period that has already started, especially when monthly Shards, earn boosts, roles, permissions, or other benefits were granted or used.
• Donations that have already been counted toward a community goal, public milestone, donor display, thank-you Shard grant, or event trigger.
• Purchases affected by player bans, community rule enforcement, exploit use, payment abuse, chargeback abuse, buyer's remorse after delivery, or third-party service outages outside HFi control.

6. Shard refunds and clawbacks

Shards are ArkShop points. The authoritative spendable balance lives in ArkShop. If a Shard purchase is refunded, reversed, disputed, or found fraudulent, HFi may deduct the refunded Shards from the linked ArkShop balance up to the available amount, reverse related order records, revoke related kit grants or benefits where practical, and record a shortfall when already-spent Shards cannot be fully clawed back.

HFi may restrict future checkout, manual grants, or redemptions for accounts with unresolved refund shortfalls, fraud flags, disputes, or policy violations.

7. Supporter subscriptions

Supporter subscriptions are monthly digital benefits. You can manage or cancel an active supporter subscription through the Account page and Stripe Billing Portal when available. Normal cancellation generally stops future renewal and leaves paid-period benefits active until Stripe ends the current paid period.

A refund does not automatically cancel a Stripe subscription or automatically reverse every supporter benefit. When a refund should end benefits immediately, HFi staff may use the admin supporter revocation workflow to cancel the Stripe subscription, revoke active shop entitlements, remove HFI-managed ArkPermissions supporter groups, claw back already granted supporter Shards up to the player's current ArkShop balance, and write an audit record.

HFi generally does not prorate supporter periods unless staff approve it, Stripe supports it for the relevant transaction, or applicable law requires it.

8. Donations and thank-you benefits

Donations are one-time payments toward HFi community infrastructure, hosting, tools, plugins, maintenance, or operations goals. They are not charitable tax-deductible donations unless HFi expressly states otherwise in writing.

If a donation is refunded, HFi may remove the donation from goal totals, adjust public donor displays, reverse thank-you Shards, revoke related event credit, and record the adjustment in shop audit records. Donation refunds may be denied when the donation has already been counted toward a public goal, event, or milestone unless law requires otherwise.

9. Chargebacks, disputes, and fraud

If you open a dispute or chargeback with your bank, HFi may pause fulfillment, suspend checkout access, preserve order records, submit evidence through Stripe, revoke or claw back benefits, and restrict the related Discord or ARK-linked account while the dispute is investigated.

Fraudulent payments, false disputes, altered receipts, unauthorized payment use, repeat chargeback behavior, and attempts to keep digital benefits after reversing payment may lead to account restrictions, server bans, benefit revocation, support refusal, and legal remedies to the fullest extent allowed by law.

10. Refund processing time

Approved refunds are processed through Stripe when available. Stripe and the card issuer or bank control how long the refund takes to appear. Some refunds may show as a reversal of the original charge instead of a separate credit, and some payment methods require additional banking details before a refund can complete.

HFi cannot guarantee a bank's processing time, and HFi may not be able to issue a refund until Stripe, payment-method rules, available balance, dispute state, fraud review, or required account information allows it.

11. Legal rights

Nothing in this Policy limits non-waivable legal rights that apply to you. If a law requires a refund, cancellation right, disclosure, or remedy that is stronger than this Policy, HFi will follow the applicable legal requirement.

12. Contact

Refund questions should be sent through the Contact page or the official HFi Discord support channel announced by staff. Include enough detail for staff to find the order and verify the linked account.