This policy explains how subscription cancellations and refunds work for restaurants subscribing to WAO. It forms part of our Terms of Service.
Two different things, often confused. This policy covers your subscription to WAO. It does not cover refunds for food orders your customers place. WAO never collects money from your customers , payment goes directly to you , so refunds for orders are handled by you, under your own refund policy. See section 5.
1. Cancelling your subscription
- You can cancel at any time. Write to info@getwao.com from your registered email, or send a cancellation request on your WAO management WhatsApp line.
- We will acknowledge within 2 working days and confirm the date your subscription ends.
- Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period. Your ordering line keeps working until then, so orders in flight are not disrupted.
- There is no cancellation fee and no minimum lock-in, unless you have separately signed an annual or fixed-term agreement, in which case that agreement governs.
- You will not be billed for any period after the one in which you cancel.
2. What happens after you cancel
- Your WhatsApp Business number remains yours. It was never ours, and disconnecting WAO does not affect your ownership of it.
- You can export your customer database and order history for 30 days after your subscription ends. Ask us and we will send it in a standard spreadsheet format.
- After 30 days, we delete our copy of your data in line with our Data Processing Agreement and Privacy Policy, unless the law requires us to keep records longer.
- If you want us to delete your data sooner than 30 days, say so and we will.
3. Refunds on subscription fees
Subscription fees are billed in advance for a service that is made available throughout the period. As a general rule, fees already paid for the current period are not refunded on cancellation, and you keep access until the period ends.
We will, however, issue a refund in these cases:
- Duplicate or incorrect charge. Refunded in full, promptly, once identified by either of us.
- Billing after cancellation. If we charge you for a period after you cancelled, refunded in full.
- Service never delivered. If you paid and we did not get your ordering line live, refunded in full, less any setup work already completed at your request.
- Prolonged failure attributable to us. If the service is materially unavailable for an extended period because of a fault on our side, and we cannot fix it within a reasonable time, we will refund a pro-rata share of the fee for the affected period. This does not apply to outages at Meta, WhatsApp or other third parties, or to restrictions Meta places on your account.
Outside these cases, we would rather fix the problem than argue about a refund. If the service is not working for you, tell us before you cancel , most issues are solvable within a day.
4. Setup fees and pilots
- Any one-time setup or onboarding fee covers work we do up front: menu digitisation, WhatsApp Business setup, testing and go-live. It is refundable in full if you cancel before that work begins, and not refundable once it is underway.
- Pilot or free periods involve no payment, so no refund arises. You can stop at any point during a pilot with no obligation.
- Discounted introductory pricing applies for the period stated when it was offered. Cancelling during it does not create a refund entitlement for earlier months.
5. Refunds for food orders
WAO does not process payments for orders and does not hold your customers' money. Payment is made directly to you, whether in person, by QR code or by any other method you use.
- If you are a diner seeking a refund or a fix for an order , wrong item, missing item, quality, delay, cancellation , the restaurant you ordered from is responsible. Contact it directly, including through the same WhatsApp line you ordered on.
- If you are a restaurant, you set and apply your own order refund policy. We can help you communicate it to customers over the ordering line, but the decision and the money are yours.
- WAO has no authority to refund an order on a restaurant's behalf, and does not do so.
6. How refunds are paid
- Approved refunds are returned to the original payment method.
- We initiate the refund within 7 working days of approving it. Your bank or payment provider may take a further 5 to 10 working days to credit it.
- Where a refund to the original method is not possible, we will agree an alternative with you, usually a bank transfer to your registered account.
- Refunds are net of any taxes already remitted, where those cannot be reclaimed.
7. Questions and disputes
Write to info@getwao.com with your registered business name and the invoice or payment reference. We will respond within 7 working days. If we cannot agree, the dispute resolution process in section 18 of the Terms of Service applies.