Refunds & cancellation

Archaeology Teahouse is a small, independent publication run by one archaeologist. The weekly blog is free to read and always will be. A paid subscription unlocks additional subscriber-only writing. This page explains what you pay for, how cancellation works, and how to get your money back.

What you can pay for

You can support the Teahouse with a once-off contribution of any amount, or with a recurring subscription that renews until you stop it. A subscription gives you access to all subscriber-only posts. The support page shows the current options, billing periods and prices.

A once-off contribution is treated as a single one-month subscription: it unlocks all subscriber-only posts for one month from the date of payment. After that month, those posts are paywalled again, and nothing further is charged.

All payments are charged in South African rand (ZAR). If you are paying from outside South Africa, your bank converts at its own rate on the day. The amount on your statement may differ slightly from the approximate figure on our support page, and that difference is your bank's, not ours.

Cancelling a subscription

One click, any time, no email required and no questions asked. Sign in and use the cancel button on your account page. It takes effect immediately: no further payments will be taken.

Cancelling stops future charges. It does not refund the period you have already paid for, and it does not cut that period short. If you cancel a week into a paid month, you keep access to subscriber-only posts until that month runs out, and then it lapses. If you would rather have the remainder back as money instead, that is a refund, and you are entitled to ask for one. See below.

A once-off contribution needs no cancelling: it never renews and simply lapses on its own at the end of its month.

Refunds

Within 14 days of a payment, if a refund is requested, you get your payment back in full. We will not ask why, we will not try to talk you out of it. We do reserve the right to decline repeated subscribe-and-refund cycles from the same account.

After 14 days, ask anyway. For a monthly subscription we will normally refund the most recent payment if you had not meant to be charged again — a renewal you forgot about is a perfectly good reason, and we would rather return the money than keep money someone didn't mean to spend. Older payments we generally treat as spent, but if something has gone wrong, say so and we will sort it out.

Payments that were never right in the first place — a duplicate charge, a wrong amount, a payment you did not recognise or authorise — are refunded in full whenever they come to light. No time limit applies to those.

A refund ends supporter status and, with it, access to subscriber-only posts, including any you had not yet read. Your account, your comments, and your free newsletter subscription are untouched, and the weekly blog remains open to you as always.

How to ask

Write to us through the contact page, or simply reply to the receipt Paystack emailed you. Tell us the date and amount, or forward the receipt — that is enough to find the payment.

We aim to answer within 2 business days and to send the refund instruction to our payment provider within 5 business days of agreeing to it. Once sent, the money is out of our hands: Paystack and your bank typically take a further 5 to 10 business days to put it back on the card, and it returns to the card that paid, which is the only place it can go. Refunds are issued in rand for the rand amount originally charged; if exchange rates have moved, your bank may convert back at a different rate, and we cannot make up that difference.

If we ever cancel from our side

If the site shuts down, or the owner stops publishing, any subscription is cancelled and any period already paid for but not yet served is refunded — nobody should be left paying for a teahouse with the lights off. In the rare case of an account being closed for abuse, support already paid is refunded pro-rata for the unserved part.

Chargebacks

You are of course free to dispute a charge with your bank. We would genuinely rather you asked us first — it is faster for you and cheaper for us, and we have never refused a reasonable request. But nothing here removes any right you have under consumer law, including the South African Consumer Protection Act and, for readers in the EU and UK, the 14-day right of withdrawal on distance sales.

Who you are dealing with

Archaeology Teahouse, an independent publication based in South Africa. Payments are processed by Paystack; card details never reach this site, and what we do store is described in the privacy policy. The fastest way to reach a human is the contact page.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top of the page changes with it. Any change applies to payments made after that date — never retroactively to money you have already given.