Billing, renewal and cancelling

The first charge

When your application is approved, the approval email and the Certification page show Activate Verification. That opens Stripe Checkout with the plan you applied for and any introductory price you qualify for already applied (the founding first year, the add-on's first-year price, or both). Pay, and Stripe sends you back to the dashboard; the badge appears on your listing within a few seconds, dated for one year.

Stripe emails the receipt. Your Billing page shows the plan and the renewal date from then on.

The Billing page

Billing shows:

• Current plan: TGS Verified, or TGS Verified with the Certified add-on.
• Renewal amount: the standard price for what you have.
• Renews on, or Valid through if the plan is cancelled or expired.
• Status: Active, Payment past due, Expired or Canceled.
• Manage subscription, which opens Stripe's customer portal.

In the portal you can update the card, download invoices, remove the Certified add-on while keeping Verified, and cancel. Changes made in the portal reach your listing automatically; there is nothing to save on our side.

Renewal

The subscription renews yearly on the anniversary of the first charge, at the standard price in effect then. Introductory prices, the founding first year and the add-on's first-year price, apply to the first year only. The terms commit us to emailing you before renewal.

On a successful renewal the badge's "Next review by" date moves forward a year from your current date, and the listing carries on without a gap.

If a renewal payment fails

Stripe retries a failed card on its own schedule. On the first failure:

• Your status becomes Payment past due and we send one email with the date the badge would come off.
• The badge stays on your listing until your paid-through date. There is a grace period; nothing disappears the day the card bounces.
• Update the card in the portal from your Billing page. When a retry succeeds, the status returns to Active and the renewal date moves forward.

If the paid-through date passes with the payment still failing, the badge is removed and the status shows Expired. Your listing and reviews are untouched. Renew from the dashboard and the badge returns; you do not reapply.

Cancelling

Cancel from the Stripe portal via Manage subscription on your Billing page. Cancelling stops the next renewal. Your badge stays active until the end of the period you already paid for, then comes off and the status shows Canceled. Your listing stays live, free, with everything you added.

You can also drop just the Certified add-on in the portal and keep Verified; the label changes from Certified back to Verified at that point.

To come back later, restart from the Certification page.

Adding the Certified add-on later

If you took Verified alone, the Certification page offers Add Certified. You submit the training document, setup photos and code of ethics for review, and once approved the add-on is added to your existing subscription at $149 a year, invoiced right away for the remainder of your current year. The first-year price of $99 is only available when the add-on is part of your first checkout.

Refunds

From the terms, in plain words:

• Within 14 days of a first charge, if the badge has not yet been issued, we refund it in full. In practice the badge is issued at the moment of payment, so this covers the rare case where something went wrong between checkout and your listing.
• Once the badge is issued, the fee pays for a review that has already happened and is not refundable.
• Renewal charges are not refundable. Cancel before the renewal date if you do not want to continue; the Billing page shows the date.
• Suspension or removal for a breach of the terms does not create a refund.
• Prices exclude sales tax where it applies.

Franchise and organization listings

Listings managed through an organization account are normally set up with a badge by us, without a card on file, so their Billing page has no portal. A member can still pay for one location through the normal checkout if they choose. See Franchise and multi-location accounts.