Most billing questions we get are one of four. Here they are, answered plainly.
"Who is Waffo, and why is it on my statement?"
Waffo is the merchant of record for ScanChess web subscriptions. That means Waffo — not ScanChess — is the legal seller for that transaction: it takes the payment, calculates and remits the tax for your country, and issues the receipt. This is a normal arrangement for small software companies selling internationally, and it is why the line on your card statement reads Waffo rather than ScanChess.
Practically, it means two things for you. Your card details go to Waffo and never touch our servers — we receive an order id, the billing email, and whether the subscription is active. And the receipt email worth keeping is the one from Waffo, because it carries the order id we use to find your payment.
Subscriptions bought inside the iOS app go through Apple instead, and appear on your statement as Apple.
"Can I get a refund?"
No. Payments to ScanChess are final. That covers the unused remainder of a period, a renewal you meant to cancel, and credits you bought but did not spend.
We would rather say that plainly than bury it. It is also why the free tier is not a demo: every account starts with 10 credits, no card required, with nothing held back — no watermark on exports, no cap on your library, no feature that only unlocks when you pay. Five scoresheets is enough to find out whether the recognition handles your handwriting, which is the only question that actually matters before you subscribe.
Three things are outside that rule:
- Anything the law requires. The policy does not reduce mandatory consumer rights where you live; EU and UK customers keep their statutory withdrawal rights where the conditions are met.
- App Store and Google Play purchases. Those are refunded by the platform under its own policy — request it there. We can neither approve nor block them.
- Billing errors. A duplicate charge or the wrong amount is not a refund question, it is a mistake, and we will correct it.
"So what do I do if I don't want to be charged again?"
Cancel, and cancel before the renewal date rather than after it. It is self-serve and takes two clicks: sign in, open the pricing page, press Cancel subscription. No email, no form, no retention call.
Cancelling stops all future charges. You keep Pro until the end of the period you have already paid for, and the credits in your balance stay yours — they never expire, and they survive the subscription ending. Step by step: how to cancel.
On a yearly plan, the reliable habit is to deal with it the day the renewal reminder arrives.
"What exactly are credits?"
They are the internal unit for using the service, not stored value. They have no cash value, cannot be paid out, and cannot be transferred to another account. That applies equally to credits you bought and credits we gave you for signing up or referring someone.
What credits do have is permanence: they never expire, and cancelling does not wipe them. See how ScanChess credits work.
When to write to us anyway
A policy is a policy, and a person is a person. If a scan comes back genuinely unusable rather than merely imperfect, if your account was charged in a way that looks wrong, or if your situation seems like it should not be handled by the general rule, email support@scanchess.com with your account address and the order id from your Waffo receipt. We reply within two business days and look at cases on their facts.
The full wording is on the refund policy page.