🔍 Overview
Some customers have experienced unexpected duplicate charges — for example, being billed on a monthly basis for a subaccount while already holding an active annual subscription. These situations are taken seriously and are fully investigated by our billing team. This article explains the most common causes, how to identify a duplicate charge, and the steps to request a refund.
⚠️ Common Causes of Duplicate Charges
Duplicate billing can occur for several reasons, all of which have been identified and addressed in our billing system:
- Subaccount sync issues: In some cases, a subaccount was not properly linked to an existing subscription in Stripe, causing it to generate a separate billing record.
- Re-checkout after a past-due status: If a payment failed and you re-entered payment details, a second base subscription could be created alongside the original one.
- Multiple subscriptions in Stripe: A technical issue caused some accounts to have more than one active subscription entry in Stripe, resulting in repeated charges.
- Cross-platform billing: Accounts connected to both Shopify and a credit card occasionally triggered charges through both channels simultaneously.
All of the above issues have been resolved at the platform level. If you believe you were affected, follow the steps below to request a review.
📋 How to Identify a Duplicate Charge
Before reaching out, gather the following information to speed up your refund review:
- Log in to your Search Atlas account and go to your billing or account settings page.
- Note the dates and amounts of all charges you believe are duplicates.
- Check whether the charges came from a subaccount or a separate subscription entry.
- Collect any receipts or transaction IDs from your bank statement or email confirmations.
Having this information ready will allow our team to locate your Stripe records quickly and confirm whether a duplicate occurred.
💰 How to Request a Refund
If you have identified one or more duplicate charges, here is what to do:
- Contact our support team immediately using the live chat widget described at the bottom of this article.
- Provide your account email address and the specific charge dates and amounts in question.
- Share any supporting documentation such as bank statements, email receipts, or screenshots showing both the annual subscription charge and the additional monthly charges.
- Allow time for investigation. Our billing team will review your Stripe account history, confirm the duplicate entries, and process any approved refunds.
Refunds for confirmed duplicate charges are issued back to the original payment method. Processing time depends on your bank or card provider but typically takes 5–10 business days to appear on your statement after our team initiates the refund.
⏱️ What to Expect After You Submit a Request
Once you have contacted our team, here is a general timeline of what happens:
- Initial confirmation: Our team will acknowledge your request and begin reviewing your billing records in Stripe.
- Investigation: We verify whether a duplicate subscription existed and cross-reference it with your original annual or primary subscription.
- Refund processing: If duplicate charges are confirmed, refunds are initiated promptly. You will receive confirmation once processed.
- Account correction: Any duplicate subscription entries are removed so that no further incorrect charges occur.
If your request has been open for more than a few business days without an update, please follow up via the chat widget so we can escalate it on your behalf.
🛡️ How We've Prevented This From Happening Again
Our engineering team has investigated all known duplicate billing scenarios and applied the following fixes:
- Stripe account synchronisation has been corrected to prevent subaccounts from generating independent billing records.
- The re-checkout flow for past-due accounts now checks for existing active subscriptions before creating a new one.
- Safeguards have been added to prevent multiple base subscriptions from being created for a single account in Stripe.
- Cross-platform billing conflicts between Shopify and credit card integrations have been resolved.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused by these issues and are committed to making sure your billing experience is accurate and transparent going forward.
🆘 Need Further Help?
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.