Here's the part people brace for: when you refund a sale, does everyone else keep their cut?
No. And that's good news.
A refund on OfferLab unwinds proportionally. Whatever share of the sale goes back to the customer, that same share comes back out of every party who was paid on it — your earnings, your partner's commission, and our fee. Refund half a sale and you've paid half the fee. Refund all of it and you've paid nothing at all.
The one-line version: a refund isn't a cost you absorb alone. Everyone who shared in the sale shares in the refund, in exactly the proportion they shared in the sale.
A worked example
Take that $60 bundle from Refund an order — sold by you, promoted by a partner who earns a commission. You refund $30 of it, which is half the sale.
Who | On the sale | After a half refund |
Your customer | Paid $60.00 | Paid $30.00 |
Your partner's commission | Earned in full | Halved — the other half is adjusted back |
The OfferLab fee | Charged in full | Halved — you only pay a fee on what you kept |
What you earned | Your full share | Half of it — no more, no less |
You'll see this on the order itself. The Fees line drops to reflect the fee you actually paid, a Refunded line appears for what went back, and You earned lands on the figure you genuinely kept. The column still adds up — it just adds up to less.
Fees drop to the share you actually paid, Refunded shows what went back, and You earned lands on what you genuinely kept.
For the fee rates themselves — what OfferLab charges and when — see Fees & Transaction Costs in OfferLab. This article is about what happens to those fees on a refund, not what they are.
If a partner promoted the sale
When someone else drove the sale, their commission moves with it. Refund part of the order and their earning is adjusted down by the same proportion; refund all of it and the commission goes away entirely.
A few things worth knowing:
The adjustment is automatic. You don't have to chase anyone or ask us to reverse anything.
Your partner can see why. The change shows up against the original sale in their earnings, so it reads as an adjustment to a specific order rather than money quietly vanishing.
Commissions that haven't been paid out yet are simply adjusted before they land. If a commission has already been withdrawn, the adjustment applies against the balance instead.
If you're the one who promoted it
You didn't do anything wrong. A refund on a sale you drove means the customer gave the product back, so the commission on it unwinds too — the same way it would have if the sale had never gone through.
You'll see the adjustment against that specific order in your earnings, so you can always trace a change back to the sale it came from. If a refund looks wrong to you, the brand that issued it is the place to start.
Not the same as a dispute. A refund is a brand choosing to send money back. A chargeback is a customer's bank pulling it back, and it follows a different path with different timing.
Related
Refund an order — how to actually issue one
How orders work on OfferLab — the whole journey, start to finish
Fees & Transaction Costs in OfferLab — what we charge, and when