Suwa Care

Your Health is safer than ever

Refund and Cancellation Policy

Version 1.0 · Effective 2026-10-01

Draft This document is a draft that has not yet been reviewed by counsel. It is published for the closed beta; a counsel-reviewed version will follow before public launch.

Refund and Cancellation Policy

This policy explains when you pay for a Consultation, how to change or cancel a Booking, and when you can get your money back. It forms part of our Terms of Service.

In an emergency, do not use Suwa Care. Call 1990 (Suwa Seriya ambulance, free) or 119, or go to the nearest hospital.

Suwa Care ("we", "us" or "our") is Softx LLC, a limited liability company registered in Montana, United States (file number 17056359), with its mailing address at 21 Miller Aly, Pasadena, CA 91103-3643, United States.

Summary

  • Prices. The Doctor sets the Consultation Fee, plus a travel fee for a Home Visit. You see the full price before you pay, and no tax is added. Section 2 explains what we keep.
  • Paying. For a scheduled Booking you pay when you book: we hold your time for 5 minutes, and an unpaid Booking is cancelled after 15 minutes. For Consult Now, nothing is charged when you ask; section 3.2 explains when you pay.
  • If you cancel or reschedule. Rescheduling is free until the booking time. You can cancel a scheduled Booking until then: a full refund with at least 2 hours' notice (6 hours for a Home Visit), and a refund of half of what you paid after that. You can withdraw an unpaid Consult Now request at any time, but not one you have paid for.
  • If the Doctor cancels or does not attend, [OPTION A: you get a full refund.] [OPTION B: you choose a full refund or a free new Booking.]
  • If you do not join a Consult Now call while the Doctor waits for you, the Doctor is paid and you are not refunded. The wait is never shorter than [[MINIMUM WAITING TIME — recommended: at least 10 minutes, whatever the Doctor sets]], we show it before you pay, and you can ask us to look again (section 6.2).
  • If the Doctor's session ends before they reach you, you can book that Doctor within 7 days with the payment you have made. If you do not, we offer you a refund.
  • Asking for a refund. If something went wrong, tell us within 14 days of [[THE CONSULTATION DATE OR THE PAYMENT DATE]] by emailing support@suwa.care. This is the time limit for asking; whether we refund depends on the rules in sections 4, 5, 7 and 9. Refunds go back to the card you paid with.
  • Your legal rights, including your right to complain to the Consumer Affairs Authority, are not affected.

1. About this policy

  • This policy uses the words defined in our Terms of Service. You means the Patient: a person who uses the Platform to receive care, including a Guardian acting for a Patient who cannot consent for themselves.
  • A Booking is a reserved Consultation with a Doctor, a medical practitioner registered with the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC). A scheduled Booking is one for a set time, Consult Now is an on-demand Consultation with the next available Doctor, and a Home Visit is our "Doc to Door" service, when available. The Consultation Fee is the fee set by the Doctor.
  • Amounts are in Sri Lankan rupees. Some times in this policy are default settings that a Doctor can change for their own live sessions, and we say so where this applies.
  • Nothing in this policy limits your rights under Sri Lankan law, including the Consumer Affairs Authority Act No. 9 of 2003.

2. Fees and who receives them

  • The Doctor sets the Consultation Fee. It can be zero. You pay the fee shown when you book, even if the Doctor changes their fee later.
  • Travel fee for Home Visits (when available). The Doctor also sets a travel fee: a fixed amount plus an amount for each kilometre, up to any maximum they set. Distance is measured in a straight line from the centre of the Doctor's nearest service area, not by road.
  • You see the full price, including any travel fee, before you pay, and no tax is added.
  • Who you are paying. Suwa Care does not practise medicine, does not employ Doctors to direct their clinical judgement, and is not responsible for a Doctor's clinical decisions. We are taking legal advice on how the sale itself is structured, and the answer will be one of these:
  • [STRUCTURE 1 — Suwa Care as the Doctor's agent: The Doctor provides and sells the Consultation. We act for the Doctor in collecting what you pay, and pass it to the Doctor after deducting our fee.]
  • [STRUCTURE 2 — Suwa Care as principal for the booking: We sell you the Consultation and engage the Doctor as an independent professional to deliver it. The Doctor alone is responsible for the medical care and for their clinical judgement.]
  • [OPTION A: There is no Platform Fee. We keep 15% of the Consultation Fee as commission, pay the rest to the Doctor, and take no commission from the travel fee.]
  • [OPTION B: You also pay a Platform Fee of [[PLATFORM FEE]], shown on its own line before you pay. We keep it, and the Doctor receives the whole Consultation Fee and any travel fee. A full refund includes the Platform Fee.]
  • [OPTION C: There is no Platform Fee. The Doctor pays us a subscription, and receives the whole Consultation Fee and any travel fee.]

3. When you are charged

You pay by card through one of our payment providers. You enter your card details on the provider's own page, and we do not store them. Your card is charged in full at the moment you pay. Our payment providers are PayHere, for payments in LKR, and Stripe, for payments in USD, and the provider named on the payment screen is the one that takes your money. LKR card payments are collected in Sri Lanka by BAWA ENTERPRISES (PVT) LTD for Softx LLC through PayHere, so your card statement shows that name; USD payments are taken by Softx LLC through Stripe; your contract and any refund are with Softx LLC.

3.1 Scheduled Bookings

  • You pay when you book. We hold the time you choose for 5 minutes while you pay; if the 5 minutes run out before you have paid, you will need to book the time again.
  • A Booking that is not paid within 15 minutes is cancelled automatically, and you are not charged.
  • If your payment goes through but your Booking is not confirmed, contact support@suwa.care: we will confirm it or refund you in full.

3.2 Consult Now

  • Nothing is charged when you ask for Consult Now. Your request stays open for 10 minutes; if no Doctor accepts it in that time, the request ends and nothing is charged.
  • [OPTION A: When a Doctor accepts your request, you have 15 minutes to pay. If the Doctor is running a live session, that session sets its own time: 10 minutes, unless the Doctor has chosen between 1 and 120 minutes. The shorter time applies, and we show it to you before you pay. If you do not pay in time, your place goes to the next person and nothing is charged.]
  • [OPTION B: You save a card when you ask for Consult Now, and we charge that card when a Doctor accepts your request. [[SAVED CARD TERMS]]]

3.3 Home Visits (when available)

  • You pay the Consultation Fee and the travel fee when you book. A Home Visit booked for a set time has the same 5-minute hold and 15-minute payment limit as other scheduled Bookings (section 3.1); one you ask for as soon as possible has no time limit for payment.
  • Section 8 explains when the Doctor is paid for a Home Visit.

4. Changing or cancelling a Booking

4.1 Rescheduling

  • You can move a scheduled Booking to another available time with the same Doctor, until the booking time. It is free, and there is no limit on how often you can do it.
  • The price does not change. If you have not paid yet, you get a new 15 minutes to pay.

4.2 Cancelling a scheduled Booking

  • You can cancel a scheduled Booking before its booking time, but not after, and a cancellation cannot be undone.
  • Not yet paid: nothing is charged.
  • Paid, and cancelled at least 2 hours before the booking time (6 hours for a Home Visit): full refund.
  • Paid, and cancelled later than that: a refund of half of what you paid. We are settling this rule with our lawyers before launch.
  • Joining a waitlist is free. If a time becomes free we try to tell the first person on the list, but we do not hold it for them.

4.3 Consult Now

  • You can withdraw a Consult Now request at any time before you pay. Nothing is charged.
  • If you have paid but the Doctor has not yet called you, you can still cancel, and we refund you in full. [[NOT YET BUILT: the Platform refuses to cancel a paid Consult Now — must exist before this policy is published]]
  • Once the Doctor has called you, you cannot cancel. Sections 6 and 7 explain what happens if you miss the Doctor's calls, if you do not join, or if the Doctor does not reach you.

5. If the Doctor cancels, moves or misses your Booking

This section applies if the Doctor cancels your paid Booking, moves it to a time you cannot make, or does not join a scheduled Consultation.

  • [OPTION A: We refund you in full.]
  • [OPTION B: You choose either a full refund or a new Booking with the same Doctor at no extra cost.]
  • Tell us at support@suwa.care if this happens.
  • For Consult Now, section 7 applies instead.

6. Calls, no-shows and short Consultations

Find your situation:

  • the Doctor never joined: section 5;
  • you could not join in time: section 6.2 for Consult Now, section 6.3 for a scheduled Booking;
  • the call kept failing: section 9;
  • the Doctor's session ended before your turn: section 7;
  • the call ended very early: section 6.5.

6.1 Consult Now: when the Doctor calls you

  • When it is your turn, the Doctor calls you. Each call rings for 60 seconds. By default the Doctor can call up to 3 times, and each call you miss moves you 3 places back in the queue; the Doctor can change these settings.
  • If you miss every call you leave the live queue, but your payment is not lost: when the Doctor's session ends, section 7 applies to you.

6.2 Consult Now: if you do not join

  • If the Doctor is in the call waiting for you, and you are not, for the whole waiting time without a break, you are recorded as a no-show. The Doctor sets the waiting time, but it is never less than [[MINIMUM WAITING TIME — recommended: at least 10 minutes, whatever the Doctor sets]], and we show the time that applies before you pay.
  • If you are a no-show, the Doctor is paid. [OPTION: the Doctor is paid part of the fee rather than all of it, and we refund you the rest — [[SHARE]]] [OPTION: the first time you miss a call, we offer you a new Booking with that Doctor at no extra cost instead of keeping the fee]
  • We will tell you when this happens.
  • If you think this is wrong, contact support@suwa.care within [[APPEAL WINDOW]] and we will look again.
  • Waiting time is only counted while our system can check who is in the call, so an outage does not count against you.

6.3 Scheduled Bookings: if you do not join

  • [[SCHEDULED BOOKING NO-SHOW RULE]] We are settling this rule with our lawyers before launch. It will be one of these:
  • [OPTION: the same rule and the same protections as section 6.2: after [[MINIMUM WAITING TIME — recommended: at least 10 minutes, whatever the Doctor sets]] the Doctor is paid]
  • [OPTION: a full refund if the Doctor did not join]

6.4 When a Consultation counts as having taken place

  • The 5 minutes that make it count. Once you and the Doctor have been in the call together for 5 minutes in total, the Consultation has taken place and the Doctor is paid for it. In a Consult Now session, the Doctor can set this to between 1 and 60 minutes.
  • The 5 minutes that end it. After that, if one of you leaves the call the other can rejoin; if one of you has been out of the call for 5 minutes without coming back, the call closes.

6.5 Short Consultations

  • If a Consultation ends before it has taken place, for example because the Doctor ends the call early: [[SHORT CONSULTATION RULE]]. We are settling this rule with our lawyers before launch.
  • [OPTION: if the call ends before the Consultation has taken place and the Doctor ended it, you get a full refund]

7. If the Doctor's session ends before they reach you

This section is about Consult Now. It applies when you have paid, you are waiting in a Doctor's live session, and the session ends, in any way, before the Doctor sees you.

  • Booking grant. You can book that Doctor directly within 7 days, using the payment you have already made. The Doctor can set this period to between 1 and 90 days, and we show it to you before you pay. We will tell you when you have a booking grant and how to use it.
  • Refund when the grant ends. [OPTION: we refund you automatically when the grant period ends, without you having to ask — recommended] [OPTION: we offer you a refund and you accept it by [[HOW TO ACCEPT A REFUND OFFER]] or by emailing support@suwa.care]
  • We never hold your payment beyond [[LONGSTOP — the date by which any unused payment is refunded]].
  • If the Doctor has switched booking grants off, we offer you a refund straight away.
  • If you had not paid when the session ended, your place ends and nothing is charged.

8. Home Visits (when available)

  • Confirming the visit. After the Doctor checks out, you can confirm on the Platform that the visit took place, which lets the Doctor be paid straight away.
  • If you do nothing, we treat the visit as having gone ahead, and the Doctor is paid after 24 hours, as long as the Doctor has confirmed attending and nobody has reported a problem.
  • Reporting a problem. If the visit did not happen, or something went wrong, choose "Report a problem" within those 24 hours. This stops the Doctor being paid while our team looks into it, and we will contact you. Confirming the visit later withdraws your report.
  • If we find that the visit did not take place, section 5 applies.
  • Cancelling. Section 4.2 covers a Home Visit booked for a set time. For one you asked for as soon as possible: [[CANCELLING AN AS-SOON-AS-POSSIBLE HOME VISIT]].

9. Technical problems

  • If a Consultation cannot take place, or fails, because of a technical problem on our side: [[TECHNICAL FAILURE REMEDY]]. We are settling this rule with our lawyers before launch.
  • [OPTION: a new Booking at no extra cost, or a full refund if you prefer]
  • If you lose your connection, you can rejoin. For a scheduled Booking, you can join from 15 minutes before the booking time until 30 minutes after its planned end.

10. Deadline for asking us for a refund

This is a time limit, not a separate right to a refund. It tells you how long you have to claim a refund under sections 4, 5, 7 and 9. It does not give you a refund for a Consultation that took place.

  • How to ask. Email support@suwa.care within 14 days of [[THE CONSULTATION DATE OR THE PAYMENT DATE]], with your name, the email address on your account, the Doctor's name, the date of the Booking, and why you are asking. An invoice number helps us find the payment.
  • You do not need to ask within 14 days for a refund we have already offered you under section 7.
  • Who decides. Suwa Care decides refunds and pays them through our payment provider, not the Doctor.
  • Our reply. We will reply within [[REFUND RESPONSE TIME]]. If we say no, we will explain why and tell you how to complain (section 14).

11. How refunds are paid

  • We pay refunds back to the card you paid with, through our payment provider, not in cash, into another account, or as a balance on your Suwa Care account.
  • A full refund is everything you paid for that Booking. A refund usually reaches your card account within [[REFUND PROCESSING TIME]] after we approve it.

12. Card disputes and chargebacks

  • Please contact us first: it is usually quicker.
  • You can still ask your card issuer to reverse a payment (a chargeback). If you do, we may give our payment provider and your card issuer the details of the Booking and payment they need to decide it, and we keep the provider's record of each payment for that purpose.
  • We will not refund a payment that has already been returned to you through a chargeback.

13. Invoices

  • You can download an invoice for each payment from the billing page of your account, on the website or in the app. It shows the invoice number, the date, shown in world standard time (UTC), which is 5 hours 30 minutes behind Sri Lanka time, so a late-evening payment may show the day before, your name, the Doctor's name, the service, the Consultation Fee, any travel fee and the total. No tax is shown, because none is charged.
  • Each invoice also shows how you paid, how to cancel and ask for a refund, where to find our Privacy and Data Protection Notice, and how to complain, and we email you a receipt when you pay. [[NOT YET BUILT: these four items and the emailed receipt — must exist before this policy is published]]

14. Complaints

  • If you are unhappy with how we have handled a payment, cancellation or refund, contact support@suwa.care. Our Complaints and Grievance Procedure explains what happens next.
  • Complaints about a Doctor's care follow the same procedure. We may share them with the Doctor, and serious concerns may be reported to the SLMC.
  • Consumer Affairs Authority. You can also complain to the Consumer Affairs Authority, which can order a refund or compensation. You need not wait for our reply. Time limits apply: in general 3 months, or 1 month where the complaint is that a service was not provided with due care and skill [[WHEN THE CAA TIME LIMIT STARTS]], so do not delay. Consumer Affairs Authority, 1st and 2nd Floor, C.W.E. Secretariat Building, No. 27 Vauxhall Street, Colombo 02. Hotline: 1977.

15. Changes to this policy, and how to contact us

  • We may change this policy. We will give notice of changes [[CHANGE NOTICE]], and the version in force when you pay applies to that Booking.
  • Softx LLC, 21 Miller Aly, Pasadena, CA 91103-3643, United States. Email support@suwa.care.