Refund & Cancellation Policy

This policy applies to all business customers of SMS Bite Limited, trading as SMSBite. It forms part of, and is read together with, our Terms of Service and the Order Form signed by the customer. Where an Order Form and this policy conflict, the Order Form prevails, except that an Order Form will not reduce the refundability of an unused pre-paid balance or the refund windows in section 06 below.

Because every contract is concluded between businesses, no consumer distance-selling or off-premises cooling-off right applies. The commitments set out below are nevertheless given by SMSBite contractually, and a customer may rely on them.

SMSBite is a technical communications infrastructure provider. It does not provide financial services, money transmission, payment processing, e-money, custody or cryptocurrency services. Amounts held as a pre-paid balance are a prepayment for messaging capacity, not a deposit or a stored-value instrument.

Charging is per message submitted. Rates depend on the destination country and operator and on the volume tier agreed. Per-destination rates and volume tiers are quoted before signature and fixed in the contract, so a customer knows the unit price of its traffic before any money changes hands.

• Invoicing.Unless the Order Form says otherwise, the Service is invoiced monthly in arrears and each invoice is payable within thirty (30) days of the invoice date (net 30). Customers are billed for what they have already submitted.
• Pre-paid balances. Where an Order Form requires it — for example for a new account, a high-risk destination or following a credit-risk assessment — the customer tops up a pre-paid balance and message charges are drawn down against that balance as messages are submitted.
• Other charges. An Order Form may also include platform fees, committed minimums, sender-ID or short-code rental, registration fees and regulatory pass-through charges levied by operators, registries or regulators in the destination country.
• Taxes.All fees are exclusive of taxes, duties and similar government charges, which are the customer’s responsibility other than taxes on SMSBite’s net income. Where withholding tax applies, payments are grossed up so that SMSBite receives the full invoiced amount.
• Currency. Invoices are issued, and refunds are made, in the currency stated on the Order Form. SMSBite does not convert currencies for the customer and does not profit from exchange-rate movement.

Pre-paid balances do not expire. SMSBite does not apply dormancy fees, breakage or forfeiture to an unused balance, and a balance remains available to the customer for as long as the account exists.

An unused pre-paid balance is refundable at any time on written request to billing@smsbite.com. The customer does not need to terminate the contract in order to ask for a balance refund, and no reason needs to be given.

• Refunds are issued to the original payment method used for the top-up. SMSBite does not pay refunds to a third-party account or to a payment instrument other than the one that funded the balance.
• The refunded amount is the balance net of messages already submitted through the platform and net of any other amounts then due under the contract.
• Where the original payment method can no longer be credited — for example a closed card or a closed bank account — SMSBite will agree an alternative route in writing with the customer and may deduct the bank, intermediary or foreign-exchange charges actually incurred in making that payment.

SMSBite will refund, on the terms set out in this policy:

• Duplicate or erroneous charges. Any amount charged twice, charged at the wrong rate, charged to the wrong account, or otherwise invoiced in error against the contracted rate card.
• Amounts billed after cancellation took effect. Any recurring or platform charge raised for a period after the effective date of a written cancellation.
• Unused pre-paid balance. As described in section 03.
• Messages charged but never accepted for submission. Where a message was billed but the platform rejected it and never accepted it for submission to an operator or aggregator, the charge is reversed.

Where an error is identified by SMSBite rather than by the customer, SMSBite will correct it without waiting for a request, either by refund or by credit note against the next invoice, and will tell the customer in writing what was corrected.

The following are not refundable:

• Messages successfully submitted to an operator or aggregator. SMSBite incurs the operator charge at the moment of submission. Delivery to a handset is best-effort and depends on mobile network operators, aggregator partners, regulators, filtering decisions and handset conditions that are outside SMSBite’s control. A message that was accepted and submitted is therefore chargeable even if it is not ultimately delivered.
• Traffic that breached the Acceptable Use Policy. Charges for traffic sent in breach of our Acceptable Use Policy or Anti-Spam Policy — including unconsented, fraudulent or artificially inflated traffic — are not refundable.
• Third-party and pass-through fees already paid. Set-up fees, sender-ID and header registration fees, short-code fees and regulatory pass-through charges that SMSBite has already paid to an operator, registry or regulator on the customer’s behalf. These are non-recoverable from the third party and are therefore non-refundable by SMSBite.
• Committed minimums already consumed. Where an Order Form contains a committed minimum, the portion of that commitment already consumed by submitted traffic is not refundable.

Nothing in this section limits a customer’s right to dispute an invoice under section 09, or to claim service credits under section 11.

Send a written request to billing@smsbite.com from an authorised billing or administrative contact on the account, including:

• The account name and account identifier.
• The invoice number, or the top-up reference for a pre-paid balance.
• The amount claimed and the currency.
• The reason for the request and any supporting detail, such as message IDs or a date range.

Business Day has the meaning given in the Service Level Agreement.

SMSBite undertakes to meet the following windows, counted in business days at our registered office (Monday to Friday, excluding Hong Kong public holidays):

• Acknowledgement — SMSBite will acknowledge the request within three (3) business days of receipt.
• Decision— SMSBite will decide the request within ten (10) business days of receipt of a complete request. If more information is needed, SMSBite will ask for it within that window and the clock restarts when the information arrives.
• Payment— SMSBite will issue an approved refund to the original payment method within fourteen (14) business days of approval. Settlement timing at the customer’s own bank or card issuer is outside SMSBite’s control.

If a request is declined, SMSBite will say so in writing and give the reason, so that the customer can escalate under section 09 if it disagrees. Where an Order Form provides a shorter period, the shorter period applies.

A customer may cancel by giving thirty (30) days’ written notice to billing@smsbite.com from an authorised contact. No cancellation fee is charged for giving notice, and no reason needs to be given.

• Effective date. Cancellation takes effect thirty (30) days after the notice is received, or on a later date the customer nominates.
• Current billing cycle. Because the Service is invoiced in arrears, the customer pays for traffic actually submitted up to the effective date. Recurring platform or rental fees are charged up to the effective date only; any such fee billed for a period after that date is refundable under section 04.
• Committed terms. Where an Order Form has a fixed term or a committed minimum, the terms of that Order Form govern early cancellation. The unconsumed portion of a commitment is dealt with as the Order Form provides; the consumed portion is not refundable.
• Pre-paid balance on cancellation. Any unused balance is refunded under section 03 without the customer needing to make a separate request.
• Offboarding.On request during the notice period and for thirty (30) days after the effective date, SMSBite will export the customer’s message and delivery records held on the platform, and will provide the release or porting authorisations reasonably required to move a leased sender ID, long code or short code to another provider, subject to the rules of the operator or registry that controls the number. Retention and deletion after that period follow our Privacy Policy.

The grounds on which SMSBite may suspend or terminate an account are set out in the Terms of Service. This section states what happens to money.

• Suspension. Suspension pauses the ability to submit traffic. It does not, by itself, forfeit a pre-paid balance. If the account is reinstated, the balance remains available; if suspension leads to termination, the rules below apply.
• Termination for convenience. If SMSBite terminates for its own reasons — including withdrawal of a route or of the Service — the unused pre-paid balance is refunded in full to the original payment method, and pre-paid recurring fees are refunded pro rata for the unexpired period. Sections 03 and 06 govern the mechanics.
• Termination for cause. If SMSBite terminates for breach of the Acceptable Use Policy, the anti-spam provisions or the prohibited-activities provisions of the Terms, the unused pre-paid balance remains refundable, but only after deduction of charges for traffic already submitted, any amounts then outstanding, and any operator fines, pass-through charges or third-party costs incurred by SMSBite as a result of the breaching traffic. SMSBite will provide a written account of any deduction made.
• Sanctions and law. Where a payment or refund is prohibited or frozen by applicable sanctions, court order or law-enforcement instruction, SMSBite will hold the amount and inform the customer to the extent it is legally permitted to do so.

A customer that believes an invoice is wrong should raise the dispute in writing to billing@smsbite.com within thirty (30) days of the invoice date, identifying the disputed line items, the amount in dispute and the reason. An invoice not disputed in good faith within thirty (30) days of the invoice date is deemed accepted.

• Undisputed amounts on the same invoice remain payable on the original due date. Raising a dispute does not suspend the whole invoice.
• SMSBite will review the dispute in good faith against its submission and delivery records, and will respond within ten (10) business days with its findings and any supporting data.
• While a dispute is under review in good faith, SMSBite will not apply late-payment interest to, or suspend the account for non-payment of, the disputed amount.
• If the dispute is not resolved at billing level, either party may escalate it in writing to legal@smsbite.com. The parties will attempt to resolve the matter in good faith before commencing proceedings.

Please contact billing@smsbite.com before raising a chargeback with a card issuer or bank. Most queries are billing questions that can be resolved directly, and far faster, under sections 06 and 09.

If a chargeback is raised, SMSBite will respond to the acquirer or issuer through the normal dispute process and will supply the evidence available to it, which typically includes the signed Order Form and rate card, the invoice and payment record, and the platform records showing the messages submitted and the delivery status reported by the operator or aggregator for the period in question.

An account with an unresolved chargeback may be suspended until the dispute is resolved, and any amount recovered by chargeback remains payable if the underlying charge is upheld. SMSBite will tell the customer in writing before suspending on this ground.

Availability shortfalls against the platform availability target are dealt with under our Service Level Agreement, which sets out the target, the measurement method, the claim window and the credit scale. Service credits are the customer’s sole and exclusive remedy for a failure to meet an availability target.

Service credits are applied against future invoices. They are not paid out in cash, are not refundable, and are not exchangeable for a payment to the customer’s bank or card. A credit that is unused when the contract ends lapses, except where it can be set off against a final invoice.

Message delivery is best-effort and depends on mobile network operators, aggregator partners, regulators and handset conditions. Non-delivery of an individual message is not an availability event and does not give rise to a service credit.

Refunds, invoices, balance queries, cancellation notices and billing disputes: billing@smsbite.com. Escalations and contractual matters: legal@smsbite.com.

This policy is governed by the laws of Hong Kong and is read together with the Terms of Service, the Acceptable Use Policy and the Service Level Agreement.