The Refund Rule on brandmybicycle, Explained

The promise on every page of brandmybicycle is the same: the goal fills and the bike is wrapped, or it does not and everyone on that board gets their money back. This post explains the rule in full, because it is the thing that makes paying for a zone on a bike you have not seen wrapped yet a reasonable thing to do.

The rule

Each bike has a goal, equal to its own list price. Each bike’s zones are priced so that they add up to that goal. If the goal is filled, the board closes forever, the wrap is printed and the bike rides. If the goal is not filled and the campaign closes, every backer of that bike is refunded in full, automatically. No deadline shortens the refund: the money is either turned into the wrap or returned.

Why nothing is printed early

The reason the refund can be clean is that no physical work starts while a refund is still possible. The vinyl is not cut and the wrap is not printed until the goal fills. That means there is never a half-finished billboard that somebody has paid for and somebody else has not. Either the whole wrap goes on with every sponsor on it, or nothing does.

Two bikes, two settlements

The road bike and the gravel bike are separate boards with separate goals, and the refund rule applies to each on its own. If the road board fills and the gravel board does not, the road bike is wrapped and gravel backers are refunded. If both fill, both are wrapped. Taking a zone on both bikes means two separate outcomes, each decided by its own board. Our post on two bikes, two boards covers the rest of the separation.

What triggers a refund

Three things, and only three:

• The campaign closes with that bike’s goal unfilled. Every backer of that bike is refunded.
• Your artwork is declined under the content rules. Your payment is refunded in full.
• A payment is refunded or disputed through the payment processor. The zone is released and goes back on the board.

Nothing else does. A zone you hold on a board that fills is printed, not refunded; you bought it, and it is on the bike.

What the money does meanwhile

Between your claim and the board’s outcome, your payment is held against the goal. The board shows what has been claimed so far against the goal. When the goal fills, the money becomes the wrap. When it does not, it goes back. There is no third place for it to go.

The zone lock and lost races

Each zone is sold once per bike, and that is enforced in the system, not only in the text. If two people try to pay for the same zone at the same moment, one succeeds and the other does not. The one that did not go through is not quietly kept; it is marked for refund and logged, so a lost race never turns into a charge for nothing.

What this is not

It is not a deposit, a subscription or a pledge that may or may not be collected. The payment is taken when you claim, which is what lets the board show real money against the goal rather than promises. It is also not a guarantee that the board will fill; that depends on sponsors arriving. The guarantee is only about what happens in each case, and that is the guarantee worth having.

What you can rely on

Three statements, each of which the site makes in its own words and keeps:

1. No zone is printed before the bike’s goal fills.
2. If the goal is not filled and the campaign closes, every backer of that bike is refunded in full, without asking.
3. Declined artwork is refunded in full.

A fourth is implied by the first three: you are never left holding a zone on a half-finished wrap, because a half-finished wrap does not exist. Either the whole thing goes on the bike, with every sponsor on it, or nothing does and the money comes back.

What the rule asks of you

Only that you pay when you claim, so that the board shows money rather than pledges. In return the rule removes the risk that would otherwise make paying early unreasonable. If the bike you backed rides, your logo is on it for its life; if it does not, you have lost nothing but the time it took to upload a logo.

Where the money is held

Payments go through the payment processor named on the refunds page, and refunds go back the same way, to the payment method used. Nothing is held in cash by the campaign, and a refund does not depend on anyone remembering to send it: the campaign closing with an unfilled goal is the trigger, and every backer of that bike is refunded from it.

Reading the rule on the site

The FAQ on each bike page states the rule in a sentence, the refunds page states it in full with the content rules beside it, and the board shows where the goal stands. If anything in those three places disagreed with this post, those pages would be right; they are the source. How brandmybicycle works puts the rule in the context of the whole mechanic.