When customers purchase a support plan, it’s usually because they need help solving a specific challenge. Occasionally, customers purchase them like insurance or for cost certainty over a subscription term, but most of the time, they buy a VIP support plan because they have a problem that needs fixing.
When this happens, our commitment is to partner with them to achieve that outcome. From the start, we dedicate time and expertise to scoping the issue, proposing solutions, and executing those solutions. If refunds were an option, it could unintentionally create a dynamic where the customer "giving up" becomes easier than working through the problem. That undermines the shared goal we set at the beginning: resolving your issue successfully. By keeping both sides fully committed, we ensure the best chance of reaching the desired result.
This policy isn’t about limiting flexibility—it’s about staying aligned and focused on solving problems together.
Immediate Value Delivered
Support plans also provide instant access to resources such as:
- Knowledge bases, priority support channels, and dedicated account managers
- Access to membership perks like Act4mail, Day-Minder, and Campaign Dashboard. We've invested heavily in developing these membership perks, and a customer declining to use them does not reduce their value, any more than not reading a newspaper would not entitle a person to a refund.
Once these benefits are available, we've partially delivered these services—even if the customer hasn’t used it yet.
Non-tangible Service
Furthermore, support plans are different from physical products in that they're intangible and time-based. Keystroke must allocate sufficient resources (staff availability, infrastructure) from the moment the plan starts, which incurs costs regardless of usage. All our support staff are full-time employees, and we must commit enough resources to respond in a timely manner.
Avoid Gaming the system
While most customers act in good faith, refund policies can be exploited. For example:,
- Customers could purchase a plan for a quick fix and then cancel.
- As mentioned at the outset, customers could purchase a plan to scope a problem, and then determine it's easier and cheaper to stop using the program. This may reduce their cost, but it does not reduce the value of the service we provided.
- Customers may purchase a support plan as a precautionary measure against potential issues, only to request a refund once they believe the emergency has passed. A popular example might be the deprecation of Windows 10 or SQL 2014. A customer could perceive these events to be urgent and then feel differently when nothing calamitous happens. The fact they chose not to make a claim does not reduce the value of the insurance.
- A customer may also purchase a bigger support plan than is immediately necessary to get a quantity discounts, and then demand a partial refund when that extra time isn't used. We mitigate these risks by offering discounts for on-time VIP renewals and allowing unused time to carry forward.
Such practices would undermine the sustainability of the service, and hurt the majority of the customers not trying to game the system.
The Bottom Line
Our non-refundable policy ensures:
- Alignment and commitment to solving your challenges
- Fairness for all customers
- Sustainability of the high-quality support you expect
We’re here to help you succeed—and that starts with both sides being fully invested in the outcome.
