What happens if a payment goes wrong.

The short version

A tip is generally non-refundable, because it is a voluntary gift and it reaches the artist at the moment you pay. But if something genuinely went wrong — you were charged twice, you were charged and the artist never received it, or the payment wasn't yours to make — write to us and we will investigate and put right what we can.

Why a tip is different from a purchase

A tip buys nothing. It is not a payment for goods, services, exclusive content, a membership, or any promise from the artist. There is no product to return and no service to cancel, which is why there is no general right to change your mind after paying.

It also does not sit with us. Payment is taken by a licensed payment provider — Paystack or Flutterwave — which splits it at the moment of payment: the artist's share goes straight to the artist's own payout account, and our fee goes to ours. We never hold the artist's money, so we cannot return money we do not have. Where a refund of the artist's share is appropriate, it needs the artist's agreement, and we will ask them.

When we will refund

We will investigate, and refund where we are able, if:

• You were charged more than once for the same tip, or charged for a tip that never reached the artist.
• A technical fault on our side caused the wrong amount to be charged.
• The payment was not authorised by you — a card used without your permission.
• The artist's page turns out to be fraudulent — someone claiming to be an artist they are not. Tell us and we will take the page down and deal with the payments made to it.

Our own fee we can always return. It is charged on top of your tip and it is ours, so wherever a refund is due we refund our fee in full, whatever happens with the artist's share.

When we will not

• You changed your mind. The money is already with the artist.
• You typed the wrong amount. This is why we show you the tip, our fee and the total before you pay, and why we ask you to confirm again above roughly ₦100,000 / $200 / £200. We would much rather catch it beforehand than ask an artist to send money back — but ask us anyway, and we will pass the request on.
• You are unhappy with the artist, their music, or something they said. A tip is a gift to a person, not a transaction with us.

How to ask

Email hipstarrmusic@gmail.com from the address you used to pay, and include the artist's name and roughly when you paid. Your receipt email has everything we need.

We will acknowledge within 3 business days and tell you the outcome within 10 business days. Where a refund is agreed, the payment provider returns it to the card or account you paid with — that usually takes a further 5 to 10 business days, and longer for an international card, because the money has to travel back the way it came.

If you believe a charge was fraudulent, you can also raise it with your own bank. Please tell us as well — we can usually resolve it faster, and it lets us take down a page that shouldn't be up.

For artists

If a tip you received is refunded, the amount is recovered from your payout account by the payment provider. We will tell you before this happens wherever we can, and we will tell you why. We will not agree to a refund of your share without asking you first, unless we are required to — for example where a card was used fraudulently and the cardholder's bank reverses the payment.

The rest of the terms

This page sits alongside our terms of service and our privacy policy. Where the terms and this page cover the same ground, they are meant to say the same thing; if they ever disagree, this page is the one about refunds and it wins.

Last updated 4 August 2026.