Payments and refunds

1. How paying works

The paid plans, Plus and Premium, are sold for a number of days (30 unless the checkout says otherwise) and paid in Bangladeshi taka with bKash. You can put coins and a coupon towards the price. There is no card payment and nothing renews automatically.

1. Open the plan’s page while signed in. It shows the price, minus any coupon and coins you apply, the amount left to send, and our bKash number (and QR code).
2. In the bKash app, send exactly that amount to that number. Write your Kolom username in the reference.
3. Enter the TrxID from the bKash confirmation, the bKash number you paid from and the amount, then submit.
4. Your payment shows as Waiting for a check until a person on our team has matched it with the money received.

Only send money to the number shown on the checkout page of this site. We will never ask for your bKash PIN or a verification code (OTP), by phone, e-mail or chat. If anyone does, it is not us.

Only an adult (18 or over) can pay. A parent or guardian can pay for a younger learner from their own bKash account.

2. How long the check takes

We usually check payments within a few hours, and always aim to within 2 working days. You get an e-mail when it is done, and the result shows on the plan page and in Settings.

What you paid for starts when the payment is approved, not when you sent it. A new Plus payment adds its days after any Plus or Premium time you already have, and a new Premium payment adds its days after any Premium time you already have, so nothing is lost by paying early. Premium includes everything in Plus; Plus days you already have keep running alongside Premium.

When coins and a coupon cover the whole price, there is nothing to send with bKash: the plan starts as soon as you confirm, and you still get an invoice.

3. Payments we cannot verify

A payment is marked Not verified, with the reason, when we cannot find the money, the TrxID or bKash number does not match, or less than the price arrived. You are not charged anything by us for a payment that never reached us.

• The money did arrive but the details were wrong: contact us with the TrxID and we will put it right.
• Less than the price arrived: we will tell you the difference. You can send the rest, or we refund what arrived.
• A limited coupon ran out while your payment was waiting: we will contact you. You can pay the difference or get a full refund.

Coins you applied to a payment that is not verified come back to your account straight away, and so does the coupon use.

4. Duplicate and mistaken payments

Each TrxID can be used only once. If you paid twice, paid more than the price, or paid for the wrong plan, tell us with the TrxIDs. We refund the extra in full, or move it to the plan you meant, as you prefer.

If you sent money to our number by mistake and have no account, write to us with the TrxID and the number you paid from.

5. When you can get a refund

Missed mentor sessions: you can move or cancel a session until 24 hours before it starts, and then book another time in the same two-week cycle. A session missed (you did not join), or one you could no longer cancel, counts as held and is not refunded or carried over. If the mentor misses it or we cancel it, it does not count: book another time in the same cycle, or, if no time is left, we add one in the next cycle or refund that session’s share of the plan if you prefer.

Cancelled seminars and gatherings: if we cancel or move an event you replied “going” to, we tell you in the notifications bell (and by e-mail when it is on). Events are part of the plan, not sold separately, so a single cancelled event is not refunded on its own; if we hold fewer seminars than the plan promised in a period, you can ask for that share of the price back or extra Premium days.

Always: if we cancel a mentor session or a seminar and cannot offer another time, cannot provide what you paid for, or the paid features are unavailable for a long time because of us, you can choose a full refund for the unused part (or a new date). Nothing here limits your rights under Bangladesh’s consumer protection and digital commerce rules, or the law where you live.

Plans bought before Plus and Premium: live cohort seats, 1:1 mentoring sessions and team seats are no longer sold. If you bought one, it keeps working until it ends, under the rules you bought it with: a cohort seat could be refunded up to 7 days before the cohort started, every mentoring session not yet held can be refunded, and team seats within 7 days of approval if nobody else had joined.

Deleting your account does not by itself give a refund. If you want one, ask before you delete the account. A payment still waiting for a check when you delete your account is closed as not verified; write to us with the TrxID and we will refund it.

6. How refunds are paid

Write to payments@kolom.io with your username and the TrxID, and say why. We reply within 72 hours. When a refund is agreed, we send the full amount you paid back through bKash to the number you paid from, within 10 days, without deducting fees. If that number cannot receive it, we will agree another bKash number with you.

Only the part you paid with bKash is refunded in money. Coins you applied are returned to your coin balance (not paid out), and a coupon use is given back so you can use the coupon again while it is valid.

When we refund a payment, what it gave ends at once (for example Plus or Premium stops), the TrxID stays used, the invoice is marked void, and the refund note shows next to the payment in your membership history.

7. Coupons

• Enter a coupon at checkout and press Apply; the page shows the price, the coupon, any coins and the amount left to send. One coupon per payment.
• A coupon can be limited to some plans, to dates and to a number of uses. Most can be used once per learner; the coupon says so when one can be used again.
• A coupon can cover the whole price. The amount to pay never goes below zero.
• If a payment is not verified or is refunded, the coupon use is given back.
• Coupons have no cash value and cannot be exchanged for money.
• A refund is of the amount you actually paid with bKash.

8. Coins

• Coins are a promotional credit. The only way to earn them is a rewarded ad on the Earn coins page (the only place we will show ads). No ads run there yet, so no coins can be earned today. Staff may correct a balance, always with a recorded reason.
• Coins can only be put towards Plus or Premium at checkout. Each coin is worth the taka amount shown at checkout (1 coin = ৳1 unless the checkout says otherwise); we may change that rate for future payments.
• Coins have no cash value. They cannot be exchanged for money, withdrawn, sold or sent to another account, and they are not refundable.
• When you submit a payment, the coins you applied are held. They are spent when the payment is approved, and come back to your balance if it is not verified or is later refunded.
• Your coin balance and every change to it are in your membership history. We may remove coins earned by mistake or by abuse (for example faked ad views), and coins end when you delete your account.

9. The free month of Plus

• Once per account and per e-mail address, finishing half the lessons of any one course, and at least 5 lessons in all, gives you 30 days of Plus. It starts straight away, or after any paid time you already have.
• Lessons count when they are completed on the site under the normal rules (reading time and the lesson’s quiz); progress copied in from a browser before you had an account does not count. Accounts set up by our staff for testing do not get it. A new account with an address that already had the free month does not get it again.
• It is a gift, not a purchase: there is nothing to refund and it cannot be exchanged for money, coins or another plan. We may withdraw it if it was obtained by abuse, for example many accounts for one person.

10. Invoices

Every approved payment gets an invoice with its own number (like KL-2026-000123), the plan, the price, any coupon discount, any coins applied, the amount paid with bKash, the TrxID and the name on your account (or your username if you have not given a name). Find, print or save them as PDF in Settings → Invoices or your membership history. A refunded payment’s invoice is marked void.

Invoices are issued by [OPERATOR LEGAL NAME] (e-TIN [e-TIN], VAT BIN [VAT BIN, IF REGISTERED]). Prices are in taka and are the full amount you pay. [VAT STATEMENT, e.g. "Prices include VAT at 15%." or "We are enlisted for turnover tax; no VAT is added."] The invoice is made out to the name on your account when the payment is approved, so set your full name in your profile first.

We keep payment records and invoices for at least 6 years, as Bangladesh’s tax and digital commerce rules require, even if you delete your account (without your name; see the privacy policy).

11. Team seats bought before

• Team plans are no longer sold and cannot be renewed. A team bought before keeps working until its paid time ends.
• The admin can still share the invite link while seats are free. Each member who joins gets Plus for as long as the team is paid for.
• Removing a member frees their seat for someone else. When a team ends, its members’ team Plus ends too; Plus or Premium they paid for themselves is not affected.

12. Problems and complaints

Write to payments@kolom.io with your username and the TrxID. We reply within 72 hours and aim to settle it then. If you are not happy with our answer, you can complain to the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection in Bangladesh (within 30 days of the problem), and about the bKash transfer itself to bKash or Bangladesh Bank’s Customer Interest Protection Centre. For a problem with the bKash app or your bKash account itself, contact bKash (helpline 16247).