Refunds & cancellation

About this policy

This policy explains when you can cancel a VirtualCloud service and get your money back, and how we pay refunds. It is part of our Terms of service and applies to every order placed with [Registered company name] ("VirtualCloud", "we", "us") through our website, client area or sales team.

We publish it in line with the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, which ask online sellers to state their refund and cancellation terms clearly before you pay. Nothing in this policy takes away a right you have under those laws.

Prices on our website are in Indian rupees and exclude GST, which is charged at 18%. Where this policy says "the fee", it means the amount before GST; the GST charged on any amount we refund is refunded with it.

Money-back periods by product

Each product has a fixed money-back period, counted in calendar days. If you ask for a refund within that period, you get back what you paid for the service, with the deductions described in this policy.

Add-ons and support plans follow the service they're attached to. A dedicated IP on a hosting plan is refundable within that plan's 30 days; Priority or Managed support on a dedicated server isn't refundable, because the server isn't. Licence fees are never refundable.

Conditions of the guarantee

• When the clock starts. The money-back period starts on the day the service is first activated. If an order is held for verification, the period starts only once the service is live.
• New orders only. The guarantee covers the first billing term of a new service. Renewal payments aren't covered, so cancel before the renewal date if you don't want to continue. We email a renewal invoice before every due date.
• The whole term. If you paid for 12, 24 or 36 months up front, the whole amount for that term is covered, not just the first month.
• Upgrades. If you upgrade a service during its money-back period, the guarantee covers what you've paid for it, including the upgrade.
• Once per product. The guarantee applies once per customer for each type of product. If a service was refunded under it, a later order of the same product isn't covered.
• Breaches. Services we suspend or terminate for a breach of the Acceptable Use Policy, such as spam, phishing, malware or fraud, aren't refundable.
• The date that counts. Your request must reach us within the period. We honour every request made in time, even if we process it after the period has ended.

Free domains and refunds

Web hosting and WordPress plans bought for 12, 24 or 36 months come with a free domain with hosting: the first year of a .com, .in or .co.in domain. If you cancel such a plan within its 30 days, we deduct the domain's first-year registration price from the refund, because we have already paid the registry for it.

The deduction is the first-year price on our domain pricing page when you ordered: currently ₹899 for .com, ₹499 for .in and ₹399 for .co.in, plus GST. Here is how a refund works out for an Orbit plan bought for 12 months with a free .com:

What isn't refundable

Some costs are committed to a third party the moment you order, or the service is used up as soon as it's delivered. These aren't refundable at any time:

• Dedicated servers, once provisioned. The hardware is reserved and configured for you, and build-to-order servers are assembled to your order.
• Domain registrations, renewals, transfers and restores. The fee goes to the registry when the request is submitted, and the registry doesn't return it.
• SSL certificates, once the certificate authority has issued them.
• Software licences such as cPanel/WHM, Plesk and Windows Server.
• Setup fees, including the ₹2,999 dedicated server setup fee on monthly billing.
• Renewals and unused time after the money-back period has ended. See After the money-back period for the exceptions.
• Free migration and other work we've already carried out for you. These are free, so there is nothing to refund, and they don't extend the money-back period.

How to ask for a refund

1. Open a billing ticketUse the client area, or the contact form or billing@virtualcloud.in from the email address on your account. Tell us which service and quote the invoice number. A reason helps us improve, but you don't have to give one.
2. Save a copy of your dataA refunded service is cancelled, and its data is deleted 7 days later. Download your files, databases and mail first; our backup guide shows how.
3. We confirm the amountWe reply on the ticket with the amount we'll refund and any deduction, such as a free domain, so you can check it before anything happens.
4. We issue the refundThe money goes back to your original payment method within 5–7 business days of approval, and we email you a GST credit note.

How refunds are paid

We refund to the payment method you used for the order, in Indian rupees. We never refund in cash, to a different person, or to another account unless the original method can no longer accept it.

• Timeline. We issue approved refunds within 5–7 business days. After that, how quickly the money shows depends on your bank or card issuer.
• GST. We issue a credit note under section 34 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 for every refund. If your GSTIN was on the invoice and you claimed input tax credit, the credit note must be reflected in your GST returns.
• Account credit instead. If you'd rather keep the money with us for another order, ask for account credit. It's added straight away and you can use it on any future invoice.

Cancelling a service

You can cancel any service from the client area or by opening a ticket. There are two ways to cancel:

Domains work differently: a registration can't be cancelled for a refund. Turn off auto-renew if you don't want to keep a domain, or transfer it away. Step-by-step instructions for each product are in the Service delivery policy and our guide to renewing, upgrading or cancelling a service.

After the money-back period

Once the money-back period has ended, we don't refund unused time, whether you cancel, downgrade or stop using a service. Cancelling at the end of the term means you're never billed for time you don't want. We do refund the unused, prepaid part of a service if:

• we withdraw the service, or change it in a way that materially reduces what you paid for;
• we end the service when you haven't breached our Terms or the Acceptable Use Policy;
• an event beyond our control stops the service for more than 30 consecutive days; or
• you cancel because a change to our Terms materially reduces your rights, before that change takes effect.

Downtime is handled separately, through service credits under the Uptime SLA: 10%, 25% or 50% of the affected service's monthly fee, paid as account credit.

Orders we can't deliver or verify

Whatever the product, including domains, SSL certificates and dedicated servers, you get back everything you paid, including GST, if:

• we cancel the order because identity or business verification can't be completed, or the order doesn't pass fraud screening;
• we can't provision the service you ordered, in the location you chose;
• a registry rejects a domain registration or the name turns out not to be available;
• a certificate authority refuses to issue a certificate; or
• you were charged twice for the same invoice.

You don't need to ask: we start these refunds ourselves and tell you by email. They follow the same 5–7 business day timeline. Verification holds are explained in the Service delivery policy.

Chargebacks and payment disputes

If something looks wrong with a charge, please write to billing@virtualcloud.in before you dispute it with your bank, card issuer or UPI app. Most problems are fixed faster that way, and a refund we issue directly reaches you sooner than a dispute.

• While a chargeback or payment dispute is open, we may suspend the services paid for by that payment.
• If the dispute is decided in your favour, those services are cancelled and the amount isn't charged again.
• If it's decided in our favour, we restore the services once the account is back in good standing.
• A dispute raised for a payment that has already been refunded will be answered with the refund record.

Account credit and balances

• Credit we give you, such as SLA service credits, promotional credit or goodwill credit, is applied to future invoices. It can't be exchanged for cash or moved to another account.
• Funds you add yourself to your account balance can be refunded on request, less anything already used, to the method you paid with.
• A refund you chose to take as credit stays on your account until you use it, and is treated as funds you added.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our products, our payment partners or the law change. The current version is always on this page with its "Last updated" date. A change applies to orders placed after it's published; the version in force when you paid applies to that payment.

Contact us

Refunds, invoices and payment questions: billing@virtualcloud.in, or a billing ticket from your client area. Billing tickets are answered 24/7, in English and Hindi.

If you're unhappy with how a refund request was handled, write to our Grievance Officer. Complaints are acknowledged within 24 hours and resolved within 15 days. By post: [Registered company name], [Registered office address], India. GSTIN: [GSTIN].