Refund & Cancellation Policy

Last updated: June 4, 2026 · Effective Date: July 3, 2026 (material changes published June 3, 2026 — 30-day notice per Terms §13)

Short version: GrailGuard is a hand-carry courier service — we deliver an item, we don't sell goods, so there's nothing to "return." The refund you get depends on how close to pickup you cancel:

24+ hours before pickup: full refund.
Within 24 hours of pickup: 75% refund (we charge 25% to cover dispatch + scheduling we've already done).
Within 1 hour of pickup OR after the courier has been dispatched: 50% refund (the courier is en route or already there).
Once your item is picked up: non-refundable, except documented service failures or confirmed loss (claim process).

1. Scope & Definitions

GrailGuard provides a courier service. There is no physical product to return — we transport your item from point A to point B. This policy explains cancellations (before delivery is complete) and refunds (when we fail to deliver the service you paid for). Damage and loss are handled separately under our coverage policy.

For the avoidance of doubt, the following terms have the meanings below throughout this policy:

Dispatch: the moment a GrailGuard courier accepts your booking and begins traveling to the pickup location. Dispatch is recorded by timestamp in our system and shown in your account dashboard.
Pickup: the moment the assigned courier takes possession of your item from the pickup location and the bailment begins (per Terms §1A — courier marks pickup complete with photo + signature chain-of-custody record).
Delivery complete: the moment the recipient signs for the item and the courier captures the proof-of-delivery photo.

2. Cancellation by the Customer

You may request a cancellation at any time before delivery is complete by emailing support@grailguard.io or via your account dashboard. Refund tiers below apply against the time of your scheduled pickup window, not the time you booked. Fees recover operational costs (dispatcher time, courier scheduling, route prep, mileage) and reduce the impact of last-minute cancellations on other customers who could have used the slot.

24 or more hours before scheduled pickup

100% refund, including service fees and coverage fee. Issued to the original payment method within 1 business day of approval; your bank or card issuer typically posts the refund within 5–10 business days.

Within 24 hours of scheduled pickup

75% refund (we retain a 25% cancellation fee). By this point we have committed a dispatcher's time, scheduled a specific courier, and begun route prep. The 25% covers that operational cost.

Within 1 hour of scheduled pickup OR after a courier has accepted the booking

50% refund (we retain a 50% cancellation fee). At this point the courier is en route or already at the pickup location, and the slot can no longer be reassigned. The 50% covers the courier's time and the lost reassignment opportunity. "Courier acceptance" is recorded by timestamp in your account dashboard and is the moment a courier accepts your booking and begins traveling to the pickup location. Cancellations at or after courier acceptance cannot be processed self-serve — please contact support@grailguard.io. The applicable refund tier is determined by the timestamp of your support email, not the timestamp of agent review. Support replies within 1 business day; eligibility is non-discretionary and based solely on the acceptance and email timestamps recorded in your dashboard.

After pickup

Once your item is in our custody, the booking is non-refundable. If you (the customer) need the item returned to the pickup address rather than delivered to the destination, we will do so at the regular booking rate for the reverse trip — this is a new booking, not a refund. This applies to customer-requested post-pickup recalls only. Returns caused by failed delivery attempts the courier could not complete — recipient unavailable after repeated tries — are returned to origin at no additional charge per Terms §8.

Third-party non-refundable charges (read this first)

Heads up — this is the most-asked-about part of our refund policy:

When a booking includes third-party costs we have already paid on your behalf and cannot recover from the vendor — airline tickets, flight upgrades, premium parking, expedited security clearance, toll passes, hotel holds, vehicle rentals, and similar — those costs are deducted from your booking total first, and the cancellation-tier percentage is then applied only to what remains. The cancellation fee never applies to money that was never GrailGuard service revenue.

Worked example. You book a $1,200 Nationwide delivery that includes a $400 non-refundable round-trip airline ticket. You cancel 12 hours before pickup (the 75% refund tier). The calculation is:

Step 1: Subtract the non-recoverable third-party cost from your booking total: $1,200 − $400 = $800.
Step 2: Apply the cancellation-tier percentage to the remainder: $800 × 75% = $600 refund.
Step 3: The retained 25% cancellation fee equals $800 × 25% = $200 (this covers our dispatcher and courier-scheduling time). The $400 airline cost was paid to the airline and is non-recoverable from them.

Every refund receipt itemizes each deduction line by line so you can see exactly what was retained and why.

Vendor partial refunds and credits. Where the third-party vendor offers a partial refund or credit (for example, an airline issues a travel credit after we cancel), we pass that through to you in the same form we receive it — cash refunds as cash to your original payment method within 10 business days of GrailGuard's receipt, and vendor credits as GrailGuard account credit redeemable for future bookings within 12 months.

Multi-leg deliveries

For bookings that span multiple legs (e.g. pickup → airport → destination), each leg is evaluated separately under the rules above. Cancelling mid-route after the first pickup applies the "after pickup" rule to any leg where the bailment has begun.

Why we charge cancellation fees

Hand-carry courier service requires real-time coordination: a dispatcher confirms the route, a vetted courier is scheduled into the specific time window, and on Metro/Nationwide tiers the courier may have turned down other work for that window. The tiered fees are designed to recover those costs in proportion to how close to pickup the cancellation lands — they're not a penalty for changing your mind early. Cancel 24+ hours out and you pay nothing.

3. Refunds for Service Failure

You are entitled to a full or partial refund — independent of the cancellation rules above — if GrailGuard fails to deliver the service you paid for. The following are the only documented service-failure conditions:

Courier no-show: the courier did not arrive within 4 hours after the close of the scheduled pickup window, and we did not notify you of a delay.
Late delivery (missed the agreed delivery date): remedied by a service credit under the SLA — late delivery entitles you to a service credit of up to 50% of the service fee under the SLA's tiered lateness schedule, which is the sole remedy for lateness (this limitation applies to late delivery only and does not affect your declared-value coverage remedy for loss of or damage to the item). Delays caused by any event listed in §4 below are excluded.
Total non-delivery / total loss: if GrailGuard never delivers the item and the booking is not completed (and the delay is not caused by any event listed in §4 below), you are entitled to a refund of the service fee under this section — because we charged to deliver and did not deliver. This service-fee refund is in addition to the separate declared-value coverage claim for the lost item: for a total loss or non-delivery you receive both the service-fee refund (returning your payment for the undelivered service) and the declared-value coverage payment (compensating you for the lost item). Receiving both is not barred by the anti-stacking rule in Terms §11, because they remedy different things — one returns payment for a service that was never performed, the other compensates the item.
Material breach of the booking terms that affected the delivery outcome: e.g. a broken chain of custody, missing required tracking milestones, or improper handling that materially affected the service delivered. Minor or technical deviations that did not affect the outcome are not material breaches.
Confirmed loss in transit (item never delivered): the item cannot be located after a reasonable search. A confirmed total loss triggers both remedies: a service-fee refund under this section (the service was not performed) and a coverage payout for the item's declared value. The service-fee refund returns your payment for the undelivered service; the coverage payment compensates the lost item. Because these remedy different harms, receiving both is permitted and is not anti-stacking (Terms §11). Damage to an item that is still delivered is handled differently — see the note below.

Damaged but delivered → coverage claim only; service fee retained. If your item is delivered but arrives damaged, you are entitled to the declared-value coverage for the damage, but the service fee is not refunded — the delivery service you paid for was performed. Total loss or non-delivery → coverage and your service fee back. If the item is never delivered (total loss or non-delivery), you receive the declared-value coverage and a refund of the service fee, because GrailGuard charged to deliver and did not deliver. These are different remedies for different harms, so for a total loss both apply and the anti-stacking rule (Terms §11) does not bar receiving both.

Time limit for refund requests: all refund requests under this policy must be submitted within thirty (30) days of the booking date or fourteen (14) days of delivery, whichever is later. Requests submitted after this window will not be processed, except where required by applicable law or by your card-network chargeback rules. For consumers in the UK, EU/EEA, Australia, Quebec, or any other jurisdiction with non-waivable statutory consumer rights (including UK Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.50, EU Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU Art. 16, Australian Consumer Law §§54 and 64, and Quebec Consumer Protection Act §10), the time limit above does not apply where doing so would defeat a statutory remedy. The statutory deadlines under those regimes control.

4. Reasons That Do Not Qualify for a Refund

To set expectations clearly, the following situations are not grounds for refund:

Recipient refused delivery (the item was successfully transported; we delivered the service).
Customer-provided pickup or delivery address was incorrect, incomplete, or otherwise caused a failed delivery attempt.
Customer changed their mind after booking and cancelled after dispatch (use the cancellation rules in §2).
Item arrived as booked but the customer is dissatisfied with the underlying transaction (we transport; we are not a party to the transaction between buyer and seller).
Delays or non-performance caused by events outside our reasonable control, including but not limited to: weather, flight cancellations or rebookings, airport closures, customs holds, security holds, government action or restrictions, quarantine, epidemics or pandemics, acts of war or terrorism, civil unrest, labor strikes or work stoppages (including third-party carriers), utility or internet outages, acts of God, or any other event meeting the legal definition of force majeure. (The causation requirement is intentional: a listed event must actually have caused the delay or non-performance — the mere existence of the event during the booking is not by itself a defense.)

Non-waivable consumer rights preserved. Where applicable consumer-protection law (including California Civil Code §1670.5, the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015, the EU Consumer Rights Directive 2011/83/EU, the Australian Consumer Law §§54 and 64, the Quebec Consumer Protection Act §10, or analogous statutes in your jurisdiction) requires a refund notwithstanding a force-majeure or other category above, GrailGuard will issue that refund.

5. Damage or Loss Claims

Damage and loss go through our coverage process, not this refund policy. The full claims procedure — including timelines, evidence requirements, and payout caps — is on the coverage page. In short:

Inspect your item at delivery and document any damage immediately (photos, signed inspection sheet).
File the claim within the applicable window: visible damage — refuse at handoff or file within seven (7) calendar days of delivery; concealed damage — within thirty (30) calendar days of delivery; loss / non-delivery — within thirty (30) calendar days of the scheduled delivery date. Submit by emailing support@grailguard.io with the subject line "Claim — [your booking ID]", or via the claim form. Coverage Policy §6 (claim windows) controls if any other document conflicts; the longer of two applicable windows wins in favor of the Shipper.
Coverage Policy payouts are capped at the declared value selected at booking. (GrailGuard’s Coverage Policy is a contractual loss-coverage promise funded from company reserves, not insurance — see Coverage Policy.) Coverage included in the base price varies by tier — Metro $25,000, Nationwide $50,000, International $75,000, Animal-Nationwide $100,000. Declared values above the included amount add a surcharge in checkout, scaling up to the tier's per-shipment ceiling (Metro $99,000; Nationwide, International, and Animal-Nationwide $249,000); shipments above your tier's ceiling, or above $500,000 in any tier, require manual review (contact support before booking). Under-declaring caps the payout — you cannot retroactively raise the cap after a loss.

6. How Refunds Are Paid

Approved refunds are issued to the original payment method (the card or wallet used at booking). We cannot redirect a refund to a different card or to a check. Processing time:

Card payments: 5–10 business days for the credit to appear on your statement (Stripe + your bank's posting cycle).
Apple Pay / Google Pay: same as card; the refund posts to the underlying card.
Account credit (referral, courtesy): applied to your GrailGuard balance immediately, available for your next booking.

If your refund hasn't appeared after 10 business days, contact support@grailguard.io with your booking ID. We will provide the Stripe refund ID for you to share with your card issuer.

7. Disputes & Chargebacks

If you believe a refund decision was wrong, contact support@grailguard.io first — most refund disputes resolve faster through us than through your card issuer. We aim to respond within 2 business days and to close all refund disputes within 30 days.

Filing a chargeback before contacting us suspends our ability to process a voluntary refund and may delay resolution. Where a chargeback is filed, we will submit to the card network the evidence described in §11A of our Terms of Service, including booking confirmation, declared value, pickup and delivery timestamps and GPS traces, chain-of-custody photos, recipient signature, and your correspondence with support. Your chargeback rights under your card agreement are not affected by this policy.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent change. Changes apply to bookings made after the update date — bookings already in flight are governed by the policy in effect at the time of booking.

9. Reservation of Rights

This policy supplements, and does not replace, our Terms of Service and Coverage Policy. In the event of a conflict between this policy and the Terms of Service, the Terms of Service control as to matters of liability, limitation, governing law, and dispute resolution. Nothing in this policy waives any right we have under the Terms of Service or applicable law, and nothing here is intended to limit any non-waivable rights you may have under your state's consumer-protection statutes.

Questions?

Email support@grailguard.io.