Skip to main content

Refund confirmation email templates, and how to reply to a customer asking for a refund

Eight refund emails for a software business: subscriptions, one-off licences, partial refunds, duplicate charges, forgotten annual renewals, and payments through Stripe, Paddle or the App Store. Copy one, fill in the brackets, send it once the refund is issued.

The templates

Each one copies with its subject line. The parts in brackets are the parts to change; where a bracket offers a choice, keep the one that is true and delete the rest.

Full refund of a subscription payment

Subject: Refund issued: [amount] for [Product]

Hi [Name], I have refunded your [month / year] of [Product] in full: [amount] back to the card ending [last four digits]. You do not need to do anything else. Refunds usually take 5 to 10 business days to show on your statement, depending on your bank. If it has not appeared after that, reply here and I will send you the refund reference to give them. [If you cancelled it too: I have also cancelled your subscription, so you will not be charged again, and your access ends today.] [If you did not: Your subscription is still active, so nothing changes on your side.] Thanks for giving [Product] a try. If there was something specific that did not work for you, I would like to hear it, but there is no need to explain. [Your name]
One-off purchase or licence

Subject: Refund issued for your [Product] licence

Hi [Name], Done: I have refunded your [Product] purchase in full, [amount] to the card you paid with. It usually takes 5 to 10 business days to appear, depending on your bank. Refunding also deactivates the licence key, so [Product] will go back to [trial mode / asking for a licence] [the next time it checks in]. That is only because the key and the payment are linked; it is not a judgement on anything. If you ever want to come back, a new purchase is all it takes, and your [settings / files] will still be there. Thanks for trying it. [Your name]
Partial refund

Subject: Partial refund of [amount] for [Product]

Hi [Name], I have refunded [amount] of your [original amount] payment for [Product], to the card ending [last four digits]. That covers [what it is for, for example the unused nine months of your yearly plan, or the difference between the plan you were charged for and the one you meant to buy]. Your [plan / licence] stays active [until date / as it was], so nothing changes on your side. The refund usually shows on your statement within 5 to 10 business days, depending on your bank. If the numbers look wrong to you, tell me and I will go through them with you. [Your name]
Accidental duplicate charge

Subject: Refunded: the duplicate charge on [date]

Hi [Name], You are right, you were charged twice on [date]. That was my mistake, and I have refunded the second charge of [amount] in full. You keep the [subscription / licence] from the first payment, so nothing changes about your access. [If you know the cause: It happened because the checkout retried after a timeout, and I have fixed it.] The refund usually takes 5 to 10 business days to appear, depending on your bank. If the second charge was still pending, it may simply drop off your statement instead of showing as a refund. Sorry for the scare, and thank you for flagging it. [Your name]
Annual renewal they forgot to cancel

Subject: Your annual renewal is refunded

Hi [Name], No problem at all. I have cancelled the renewal and refunded the [amount] charged on [date], to the card ending [last four digits]. It usually takes 5 to 10 business days to show, depending on your bank. Your account is back to [the free plan / closed / how it was before the renewal], and nothing further will be charged. A renewal that comes once a year is easy to forget. [Optional, only if true: I now send a reminder a week before each one, so it should not catch anyone out again.] [Your name]
Paid through Stripe, Paddle or another platform

Subject: Refund issued: [amount] for [Product]

Hi [Name], I have refunded your payment in full: [amount], issued through [Stripe / Paddle / the platform you paid through], which handles payments for [Product]. On your statement, the refund appears under the same name as the original charge: [the name on the charge, which may be your company or the reseller rather than the product]. That is normal, and it is also why the original charge can be hard to recognise. It usually takes 5 to 10 business days to appear, depending on your bank. You may also get a confirmation from [Paddle] directly; that one and this one are about the same refund. [Your name]
Bought through the App Store

Subject: Re: [their subject line]

Hi [Name], I am sorry [Product] did not work out for you, and I would refund you myself if I could. Because you bought it through the App Store, Apple holds the payment, and only Apple can refund it. Developers have no way to issue App Store refunds. It takes a couple of minutes: 1. Go to reportaproblem.apple.com and sign in with the Apple ID you bought it with. 2. Choose "Request a refund", pick the reason, then select [Product]. 3. Submit it. Apple makes the decision and will email you. If it is a subscription, cancel it too, in the Subscriptions section of your Apple ID settings, so it does not renew. And if the problem was something I can fix, I would still like to hear about it. [Your name]
The short version

Subject: Re: [their subject line]

Hi [Name], Refunded: [amount] to your card. It usually takes 5 to 10 business days to show. Sorry it was not the right fit. [Your name]

Subject lines for a refund email

Put the word refund and the amount in the subject. People search their inbox for it a week later, while they are checking their statement, and a subject that says “Quick update” is the one they cannot find.

  • Refund issued: [amount] for [Product]
  • Re: [their original subject line] (keeps it in the thread they started)
  • Your [Product] refund is on its way
  • Refunded: the duplicate charge on [date]
  • Your refund for [Product], and what happens to your account

What makes a refund email land

  • Past tense. “I have refunded”, not “your request will be processed”. If you cannot do it today, say which day you will, and then do it that day.
  • The amount and the card. “$49 to the card ending 4242” is exactly the line they will check against their statement.
  • Bank timing, with “usually”. The bank decides how long it takes, not you. Saying 5 to 10 business days up front saves you the “I still have not got it” email on day three.
  • Access, spelled out. Whether their account keeps working, and until when, is the question they will write back about if the email leaves it out.
  • No interrogation. Asking why is fine as one optional line. Making the refund depend on an answer is not.
  • No offer attached. A discount code under a refund they asked for reads as “you could have paid less”, which is not the note to end on.

Where refund replies go missing

A refund happens in two places. You issue it in Stripe or Paddle, and you tell the customer in your inbox. The first step feels like the finish line, so the second is the one that slips: the money went back on Tuesday, and on Friday the customer writes “any news on my refund?”, which is a worse email to receive than the one you meant to send. An automatic receipt from the payment provider does not count; it is a record, not a reply.

Moorline treats those as two separate facts about the conversation: is the work handled, and has the customer been told. A refund issued but not yet confirmed sits in reply owed until you write back. With Stripe connected, the customer’s payments and refunds show beside the thread, read-only; the refund itself still happens in Stripe, because Moorline cannot refund, cancel or charge anything. The playbook on customer support as a solo founder explains why that state is the one that costs you customers.

Questions people ask

How long does a refund take to show up?

For a card payment, usually 5 to 10 business days after you issue it, and it depends on the customer’s bank rather than on you or your payment provider. Say "usually" in the email rather than promising a date. If it has not appeared after that, the refund’s reference number (the ARN, for card refunds, which most payment dashboards show once it is available) lets their bank trace it.

How do I respond to a customer asking for a refund?

If you are going to refund, do it first and then reply, so the reply can say it is done: the amount, where it is going, how long it usually takes and what happens to their access. Do not ask them to justify it, and do not attach a discount offer to a request they have already made. If you are not going to refund, say so plainly in the first two sentences and give one specific reason.

Does refunding a payment cancel the subscription?

Not on its own. In Stripe and most billing platforms, refunding a payment and cancelling the subscription behind it are separate actions, so a refund without a cancellation means the next renewal still lands. Unless the customer only wanted a mistaken charge back, cancel it too, and say in the email which of the two you did.

Can I refund an App Store purchase myself?

No. Apple takes App Store payments, so only Apple can refund them. Point the customer to reportaproblem.apple.com, where they sign in with the Apple ID they bought with and request a refund, and Apple makes the decision. You can still reply kindly and explain how, which is what the App Store template above does.

Do I need to send a refund email if my payment provider already sends a receipt?

Yes, if the customer asked a person for the refund. An automatic refund receipt is a record of a transaction. It does not answer their email, say what happens to their account, or tell them that someone read what they wrote. Send both; yours can be two lines.