Subscription and Refund Information

We are no longer charging.   Therefore, this page is not relevant for current visitors.  Without fees, there are no refunds.

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Refunds And Other Policies

of Stock Disciplines, a.k.a. StockDisciplines.com, a.k.a. Stock Disciplines, LLC hereinafter referred to as “We” or “Stock Disciplines”

We do not levy shipping charges, handling fees, or other fees related to processing and filling an order. 

 We “deliver” our products as follows.  
 1.  The Valuator is available in the “Subscribers Section” of the website.  Some information is immediately viewable when you enter the section dedicated to The Valuator.  The spreadsheets are available by clicking on links available within The Valuator.  For example, The Valuator’s four lists of the top-ranked stocks for lowest PE ratio, lowest PEG ratio, highest dividend yield, and so on, are available by clicking on a link.
 2.  Lists for the Stock-Scanner, StockAlerts, Strongest Stocks, Strongest ETFs, and all other subscriptions are viewable on the site.  Subscribers may copy or print the alert lists for their own use.
 3.  Stops is downloaded from the site.  We do not send copies on a CD.  You must have Microsoft’s Excel 2003 or later on your computer in order to use it.
 4.  Weekly reports.  When the market is closed on Friday, we will use Thursday as a reference.  If, for any reason, data for Thursday is not posted, we will use data for the following Monday.      

Even though all of our products are delivered electronically (as described above), for legal, service, and communication reasons we do require you to provide your name, physical address, postal code, e-mail address, and telephone number. This information is required as part of the ordering process.  If you have any concerns about how this information will be used, please click on the “Privacy/Security” tab on the navigation bar and read our “Privacy/Security” information.  Also read our “Terms of Use” Agreement.  In short, we do not sell your information, and we do not use it for any marketing purposes.  We respect your privacy.

Subscription Reports And Site Updates

Unless there is a system failure or some other circumstance that interrupts normal procedure, the site is updated each market day after the market closes.  These updates include comments, charts, and indicators.  However, there are a few days in the year (usually before or after a major holiday) when the market closes early (these are often called “half-days”).  We have no set rule regarding updates on those days.  Most of the time we do update.  The reason we may not update is that usually on such days volume is quite low and little of significance occurs.  Price and volume changes are usually so small that they do not result in a significant change in outlook from the previous day.  The shortened days always include the Friday after Thanksgiving day (traders and investors have taken off for an extended weekend), and the day before Christmas.  Most people are thinking of things other than the market on those days.   
 

Charges

Accounts are charged monthly until the subscriber cancels. Subscription fees are based on the fee schedule current at the time of subscription. The actual date on which a card is charged depends on the time of day the order is placed. If the order is placed early in the day, the charge will take place on the same day. If it is placed late, the charge may take place on the following day. Thereafter, a subscriber’s credit card account will automatically be charged on the same day each month. However, if a subscriber is initially charged on a day that is not included in shorter months, then for shorter months the subscriber will be charged on the last day of the month. For example, assume a subscriber is initially charged on the 31st of January. Then, in February, the subscriber will be charged on the 28th (or on the 29th in leap years), and in April on the 30th. Note: we use the word “month” to refer to the paid-for period. If a subscription begins on March 15, the paid-for “month” is not the calendar month. It is the paid-for period from March 15th through April 14th. To avoid confusion, we refer to these “months” as “paid-for periods” below.

Cancellation, Switching, and Refund Policies

1. We do not try to talk a person out of canceling a service or into subscribing to a different service rather than canceling.   

2. We do not “switch” a person from one subscription service to another. An order for a subscription must go through the Payment Gateway because we do not handle credit card information.  The Payment Gateway provides a high-security venue for processing such information.  The Payment Gateway does its job when a person enters an order for a subscription on our Website.  The order is encrypted and routed directly to the Payment Gateway.   If a person wants to try a subscription that is different from his current subscription, he must place an order for that service just like he did for the original service. If he wants to replace one service with another, he must order the new one and cancel the first service.  A subscriber may cancel a subscription by sending us a cancellation notice (an email or phone call is sufficient to do this).  He may do this as often as he likes. If a person is not sure which service to select, he might try Valu-Pak. That way, he can sample all the lists. When he discovers which services are most suitable for him, he may cancel Valu-Pak and order only the desired services. The fee for Valu-Pak is the same as the total cost of subscribing to 3 services.

3. We do not put a subscription on “hold” because a person wants to disengage from the market for a period.  A subscription remains active until it is cancelled.  This policy is a consequence of the account capabilities of the Payment Gateway (a separate company, unrelated to our own).  Thus, if a person asks us to put a subscription on “hold,” we will have to consider it to be a request that the subscription be cancelled.  When an individual cancels a subscription, the cancellation will become effective at the end of the current paid-for period.  There are no refunds or credits for partially used paid-for periods.  A subscription and its paid-for access will continue until the end of the current paid-for period.  There will be no additional charges after the current period.  This is standard procedure for companies that have automatic monthly billing.   A few examples of the billing procedures of well-known companies.    

Expired Credit Cards

If your payment method becomes invalid, for example if your credit card expires, then the payment gateway (Authorize.net) cannot process your payments.  Since we do not handle credit card information, we cannot simply update your account for you with your new credit card information.  Also, the payment gateway does not deal directly with customers, so you cannot call the payment gateway to provide updated information. 

When the payment gateway cannot process a subscriber’s payments, access to a subscription service will be aborted.  To continue with the service, it is necessary to order a new subscription with valid credit card information.  There is an exception.  If the subscriber’s card information is unchanged except for the expiration date, and we are provided with the new expiration date before the next billing (not on the same day as the next billing), we can update your credit card expiration date on the payment gateway’s system and thereby prevent the cancellation of service.  However, this will work only if there are no other changes to the credit card used.  If the number has changed or if a different credit card is to be used, then a new order will have to be placed.  It is important that you notify us of the change in expiration date before the billing date to avoid having to place a new subscription order.

Are There Trial Periods?

With regard to trial periods, our policy changed when we switched from charging for 6 months to a year in advance to a system where subscribers are charged monthly with automatic monthly renewals.  The modified policy is intended to discourage “lookie-loos” or “tire kickers.”  Use the following link to get information about cancellation of Stops and trial periods for subscriptions.  More about our policy regarding trial periods.

Automatic Renewals

At one time, subscriptions had a pre-set expiration date, and in order to continue, people had to renew their subscriptions after that date.  We were happy with this arrangement, but we soon discovered that it was problematic for some subscribers.  Some subscribers got tired of repeatedly placing new orders so they could continue.  Then, we were asked to renew their subscriptions for them so they would not have to bother with it.  That presented a problem for us.  An obvious response would be for us to comply.  However, we did not want to do that because an order cannot be processed unless credit card information is included in the order form.  For security reasons, we did not want to see, let alone handle the necessary credit card information in our office. Therefore, to address the problem, we hired a very reputable and highly secure payment gateway (Authorize.net) to process orders.  Now a person never has to renew because a subscription continues until it is cancelled or until the subscriber’s credit card no longer works.  One possible problem with this arrangement is that people may not want to be locked into a subscription or license for a long time simply because they forgot to cancel before the expiration date.  To minimize that problem, our automatic subscription/license renewals are for only one month at a time (not a year at a time, the duration of most standard subscriptions and licenses). 

Therefore, with our current arrangement, all subscriptions and licenses are automatically renewed until they are cancelled.  When an individual cancels, the cancellation will become effective at the end of the current paid-for period.  There are no refunds or credits for partially used paid-for periods.  A subscription and its paid-for use will continue until the end of the current paid-for period.  The result of a cancellation is that there will be no additional charges or renewals after the current paid-for period. 

What  about Missing Reports?
(Unusual, but it has happened)

We are human, and we sometimes make mistakes.  We have a lot of things to do to update our subscription services.  Therefore, it is possible that we will neglect to post a report or an updated Stops calculator.  We may do the work but forget to post it.  Or, the changes may be lost during the publishing process.  On occasion, we have posted a report, but when we published, the report did not “stick.”  That is, the published page did not reflect the changes we made.  If  that happens, in our rush to create and post reports to finish the site’s update in a reasonable amount of time, we may not even know that an update failed to “stick” after publication. If a report is missing, for whatever reason, you would deserve a refund for a portion of your subscription fee.  We want to be just and honest at all times with our subscribers.  Therefore, we decided that we needed a policy for dealing with situations in which we have neglected to post a report or update the Stops calculator.  Because our fees are so low, refunds for such instances would be very small.  If we wrote a check for such a refund, most people would not consider it worthwhile to bother making a trip to the bank to cash it.  For example, if we miss a day updating Stops (assuming a Stops fee of $25/month), the refund would be about 89 cents for a 28-day month.  For a 31-day month, it would be about 81 cents.  Refunds for a missed weekly report would be more, but they would still be small.  However, it is not for us to say an amount is too small to refund it.  We will leave that up to you.  We will gladly issue a refund, if you ask for it.  Otherwise, we would be sending refunds out to a lot of subscribers who could not care less, and at great expense to us in time and effort.  This seems a waste of resources.  Please, we want to do what is right.  Draw our attention to missed reports so that we can publish them or compensate you for them.  Again, if a report is missing, it is almost certain the new list was generated, but we forgot to post it in our rush to finish updating the site quickly, or, we may have posted it, but it did not remain when we published.  Send us an E-mail or call us so we will know to post or re-post the report.  Notifying us will also be a benefit to others who subscribe to the same report.  The amounts are small, but do not let that prevent you from notifying us or asking for compensation.  You may also keep a record of dates and omissions, and present us with bills for the totals.  

 

Use the yellow “This Site Is Secure” link below for information about credit card security and for other information pertaining to security and privacy.