Refund Policy

Last updated: 11 July 2026

This page sets out how Marlaio (operated by KEI HOLDINGS LIMITED, NZ) handles refund requests for the Marlaio subscription (including AI deployment features), legacy plan subscriptions, and one-time content pack purchases.

Free trial first: the subscription starts with a 7-day free trial. Cancel any time during the trial and you are never charged — nothing to refund.

This policy operates alongside the NZ Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and the Australian Consumer Law. Nothing in this policy limits the rights you have under those laws.

1. Full refund — Marlaio fault

You are entitled to a full refund, including all fees, when:

• Marlaio could not deliver for you for more than 3 consecutive days within a single billing period — whether content generation failing (technical outage, or our compliance system refusing all channels with no workable alternative) or a deployed service you are paying for (such as online bookings or AI enquiry answering) being non-functional, or any other delivery failure on our end
• We charged you for a tier you did not select, or charged you after cancellation
• The output materially misrepresented your business in a way our compliance checks should have caught (e.g. invented prices or fabricated awards)
• Any major failure under the NZ Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or Australian Consumer Law

For full refunds we cover the payment processor fee out of pocket. Customer receives 100% of the amount paid.

2. Partial refund — change of mind

If you change your mind about a subscription or one-time pack (i.e. the service worked but you decided not to use it), we offer a refund minus the non-refundable payment processor fee.

The payment processor (Stripe) charges 2.9% + NZ$0.30 per transaction and does not return this fee to Marlaio when we refund you. We pass this cost back to you on change-of-mind refunds so that Marlaio does not lose money on a service we delivered as promised.

Eligibility for change-of-mind partial refunds:

• Request made within 14 days of the original payment, AND
• You have generated fewer than 3 packs since that payment

Example:

Original charge:        NZ$59.00 (Starter monthly)
Stripe fee retained:    NZ$  2.01  (2.9% + $0.30)
Refund to you:          NZ$56.99

3. Recommended alternative — Hibernate plan

Before requesting a refund or cancelling, consider our Hibernate plan (NZ$5/month). It pauses all generation, preserves your brand voice, asset library, and history, and waives the full subscription fee. You can resume your main plan any time.

Many seasonal businesses (cafés in winter, tradies on holiday) use Hibernate instead of cancelling. For most users it ends up cheaper than re-onboarding later.

4. After 14 days or 3+ packs

Refunds at our discretion. We'll consider the request individually and respond within 7 business days. If we decline, we will offer 1 month of Hibernate free as a goodwill gesture.

5. Subscriptions and unused portions

You can cancel any subscription at any time via /account (Stripe Customer Portal). After cancellation:

• You retain access until the end of the current billing period
• We do not offer pro-rata refunds for the unused portion of the period (industry standard for SaaS)
• Your stored data (brand voice, history, asset library) is retained for 90 days; you can export it any time during that window

6. One-time pack purchases (NZ$6)

One-time top-up packs purchased via the “Just this one” option fall under change-of-mind rules above. Once the pack has been generated, refunds are at our discretion (the AI cost has already been incurred).

7. How to request a refund

Use our contact form (topic: Refund request) with:

• The email address on your Marlaio account
• Date and approximate amount of the charge you are disputing
• Reason for the refund request

We respond within 7 business days. Approved refunds appear on your card statement within 5-10 business days depending on your bank.

8. Chargebacks

If you dispute a charge directly with your bank instead of contacting us first, we may be charged a dispute fee by Stripe (currently NZ$25 per dispute). We reserve the right to recover that fee from any eventual refund. Please email us first — we will always try to resolve the issue.

9. Contact

Questions about refunds, billing, or this policy: contact form.