Refunds | On The Fly

1. Clubs pay nothing

On The Fly is free for flyfishing clubs to use. There is no monthly or annual subscription, no setup fee, and nothing else clubs are invoiced for. Because we do not charge clubs to use the platform, there is no platform-subscription refund policy. There is nothing to refund.

2. Member transaction refunds: how they work

When a member pays a club through On The Fly, whether for a booking or for a club membership fee, the refund framework has three parts.

The club sets the rules. Each club configures its own cancellation and refund policy (cancellation cut-off windows, deposit forfeiture, weather-cancellation rules, no-show consequences, membership-fee refund terms) in the platform. The rules in force at the moment the member pays are shown to the member at that moment and are persisted on the transaction record. They cannot be retroactively changed for a transaction that has already been confirmed.

On The Fly executes the refund technically. When the club authorises a refund, On The Fly initiates the refund through Paystack against the original payment method. The member does not need a separate process with the club. Once the club confirms the refund, it flows back automatically.

The 5% commission and the Paystack processing fee are non-refundable. When a refund happens, the member receives the transaction amount less On The Fly's 5% platform commission and less Paystack's per-transaction processing fee. Both apply uniformly regardless of who initiates the cancellation, because both cover services that have already been rendered: Paystack has already processed the original payment, and On The Fly has already provided the platform infrastructure and customer-facing surface. The club is responsible for refunding the remainder out of its own funds, as part of authorising the refund.

3. Worked example

Say a member pays R500 for a booking (for example, a beat or a night's accommodation), and the club later authorises a full refund (for example, because the water was unfishable due to weather). The same math applies to refunds on any other transaction, including membership fees.

Booking amount the member paid: R500.00
On The Fly 5% platform commission (non-refundable): − R25.00
Paystack processing fee, non-refundable (2.9% × R500 + R1) × 1.15 VAT = R15.50 × 1.15: − R17.83
Refunded to the member: R457.17

The R457.17 the member receives comes from the club's portion of the original transaction; the club bears the financial cost of the refund decision. On The Fly retains R25, Paystack retains R17.83. Paystack's per-transaction fee follows their published rate at paystack.com/pricing; the figure above reflects the rate at the time this page was last updated.

4. Partial refunds

If a club's rules authorise only a partial refund (for example, 50% if the member cancels more than seven days ahead), the same principle applies to the partial amount: the member receives the authorised portion of the transaction amount, less On The Fly's 5% commission and less Paystack's processing fee. Both fees are applied to the original transaction amount, not to the refunded portion, because both fees were incurred when the payment was originally processed.

5. If something goes wrong

If you are a member and you believe your club has not honoured its own stated refund rule, please raise it with your club first. They are the party that authorises the refund. If the club is unreachable or you cannot resolve the issue with them, email info@onthefly.club and we will help.

On The Fly does not override the club's own rules. That is a decision for the club's committee. What we can do, when asked, is surface the recorded rule-at-transaction and the transaction history to help both sides resolve the dispute on the facts. For matters that cannot be resolved that way, the dispute mechanism in our Terms of Service applies, including the complaint and tribunal mechanisms available to consumers under the South African Consumer Protection Act.

6. Chargebacks

A chargeback initiated through your bank or card issuer is not the same as a refund and does not follow this policy. Chargebacks are governed by the card scheme rules and by Paystack's processes. Please use the refund path above as your first option; chargebacks should be reserved for situations where the legitimate refund process has genuinely failed.