I am based in Singapore and wanted to use ChatGPT Pro, so on May 12, I subscribed to the Pro 5x plan and paid SGD 138.00.
However, the 5x usage was used up very quickly, so on May 13, I upgraded to the Pro 20x plan. During the upgrade, the unused value from my Pro 5x plan was converted into prorated credit and applied to the Pro 20x upgrade. I then paid an additional SGD 166.91 for the upgrade.
After using Pro more, I noticed that the model quality seemed to become worse for my use case. It often no longer performed thinking as expected and instead directly gave answers. Because of this, I requested a refund on May 17.
OpenAI refunded only the second payment, SGD 166.91, which was the additional amount I paid for the Pro 20x upgrade. However, the original SGD 138.00 payment for Pro 5x was not refunded.
I contacted support several times. They explained that part of the SGD 138.00 payment had been converted into prorated credit and applied to the Pro 20x upgrade. But after the Pro 20x subscription was canceled, that credit was not refunded, restored, or returned to the account. They later said that according to OpenAI’s terms, subscription payments are generally non-refundable.
My confusion is this: if the unused value from my Pro 5x plan was carried into the Pro 20x upgrade, and the Pro 20x subscription was then canceled, why is only the extra upgrade payment refunded? What happened to the paid unused value from the original Pro 5x subscription?
I understand that used subscription time may not be refundable. But in this case, the unused value was transferred into an upgraded plan, and after cancellation I no longer have access to either Pro 5x or Pro 20x.
Is this refund handling reasonable? My account is kaidongf@outlook.com. I hope OpenAI can provide a clear and reasonable explanation for this case.