Refunds

When you get a refund

You were outbid

The moment someone beats your bid on a spot, your refund is issued to the card you paid with, minus the payment processing fee. Automatic. No form, no email to send. You are free to bid again on the same spot.

We rejected your design

Refunded in full, the fee included. Rejecting a design is our call, so we absorb the processing cost rather than passing it to you. What we reject is listed on the rules page.

You want out

A bid is binding once it is paid — that is what stops the auction being gamed by people bidding money they never intended to spend. If you need to withdraw, email us before the round closes and we will cancel a leading bid where we reasonably can, minus the processing fee. Once the round has closed, a winning bid cannot be withdrawn.

We couldn't deliver

If a spot you won cannot be worn for its 15 days — illness, a skin reaction, an injury — that bid is refunded in full, fee included. If the design was worn for part of the run, the refund is prorated on the days missed, still with the fee on us.

Exactly what is deducted

On an outbid refund, one thing comes off: what the payment processor keeps. It is charged when your card is charged and it is not returned to us when we refund you, so we cannot return it to you either. Here is the whole calculation on a $100 bid, at today's live rate:

How long it takes

The refund is issued as soon as you are outbid. When it lands is up to your bank, not us: normally 5 to 10 business days, sometimes faster on debit cards and slower over weekends and holidays. Some issuers show it as a new credit line, others simply reverse the original charge so it disappears from your statement.

If it has been more than 10 business days since your outbid email, write to us and we will send you the processor's refund reference to give your bank.

How to ask about a refund

Email hello@skinbid.tattoo with:

• Your bid id. It is in your receipt email, and it is the last part of your bid page address: /bid/<id>.
• The email address you paid with.
• Which spot it was, if you held more than one.

We reply within two business days, every time — including to say “still looking” if that is the honest answer.

Before you file a chargeback

Please email us first. A chargeback takes weeks, freezes the amount while the bank decides, and usually ends somewhere we could have got you in a day. We have never argued with someone who was owed money. If you think you are owed a refund and we have got it wrong, say so and we will fix it.

Who takes the payment

Payments are processed by Dodo Payments as Merchant of Record. Both the charge and the refund appear on your statement as DODOPAYMENTS. We never see or store your card number — the card details are entered on the processor's page, not ours.

Refunds always go back to the original payment method. We cannot send one to a different card, to a bank account, or to anyone but the person who paid.