Dispute Policy

AirInk turns a signed contract into a payment schedule. Payments run on Stripe, the vendor is the merchant of record, and AirInk never takes custody of the payment. We organize evidence and keep an auditable record. We do not adjudicate, we do not decide who is right, and we do not release or withhold money as a judgment.

• Direct resolution. Either party raises the issue on the milestone. Both sides see the same evidence: the signed clause, the completion record, photos, timestamps, and message history.
• Assisted summary. The dispute assistant compiles a neutral timeline and proposes options. It is a drafting tool, not a decision-maker, and its output is labelled as AI-generated.
• Mediation. If direct resolution fails, either party may request mediation. Costs are shared unless the contract says otherwise.
• Courts, including small claims. Nothing in these steps waives either party's right to go to court. Arbitration between a vendor and a client applies only if both opted into it in their own contract.

• Platform fee is reversed pro-rata. Refund half the payment, and half the AirInk fee comes back. Rounding goes to the payer.
• Processing is never returned. Card networks and Stripe keep processing on a refunded payment. AirInk does not refund it and does not pretend to; it appears as its own line so you always see who kept what.
• Credit is restored. If fee credit was consumed by a platform fee that later reverses, that credit returns to your balance.
• Minimum true-ups are unaffected. A true-up is already a prepayment of AirInk fees, returned to you as credit, so a refund never converts it into a lost fee.

A chargeback is decided by the card network, not by AirInk. The vendor is the merchant of record and bears chargeback liability. We assemble the evidence packet automatically: the signed contract, the signature audit trail, the milestone record, delivery confirmations, and the pre-charge notice we sent before the money moved.

• The AirInk platform fee is reversed pro-rata with the disputed amount.
• The network dispute fee is allocated to the vendor unless the dispute is won, in which case it is not passed through.
• If a reversal leaves a negative balance, we recover in this order: available Stripe balance, then AirInk fee credit, then withholding from future payouts, then a charge to the billing method on file. You are notified before the last step.

Every scheduled charge is preceded by a logged notice three days ahead, sent by email and by SMS if you opted in, with the amount, the date, the milestone it belongs to, and a link to manage or pause it. No charge executes without that notice on record. This is also the first exhibit in any dispute.

Open the milestone and choose "Raise an issue", or write to support@airink.ai. We acknowledge within one business day and share the same evidence packet with both parties. Where a payment is involved, we will tell you plainly what we can and cannot do, and what the network deadlines are.