## 📋 Overview

When you distribute a press release through Search Atlas, your content is pushed to a network of media channels and syndication partners. Occasionally, one or more of these channels may fail to publish due to issues on the receiving network's side, formatting conflicts, or temporary outages. This article explains how Search Atlas handles those failures, how credits are refunded, and how to republish the affected channels without being charged twice. Refunds for press release distribution are issued in Hyper Drive Credits (HDC).

## ⚠️ Why PR Channels Sometimes Fail

A press release distribution can partially fail even when most channels succeed. Common reasons include:

- A downstream media partner is temporarily unavailable or rejects the submission.
- The release contains formatting, character, or link issues that a specific channel will not accept.
- A network applies its own editorial review and declines the content.
- Temporary connectivity or timeout errors between systems.

When this happens, the channels that published successfully remain live. Only the failed channels need attention. A channel is treated as a confirmed failure when it has received no published media URLs after the distribution report is finalized (the report-available state). At that point the channel will not receive URLs later, so it is marked as failed and refunded automatically.

## 💰 How Refunds for Failed Channels Work

You are never charged for distribution that does not complete. When a channel fails to publish, Search Atlas automatically credits your account for the portion that did not go through.

1. The system detects which channels failed during or after distribution.
2. The HDC tied to those specific failed channels are returned to your account balance. For a partial failure, the refund is proportional to the channels that failed, so you keep full value for the channels that did publish.
3. You can view the refunded credits in your account's billing or credits section.

This means the cost of a partial failure is reversed, and you keep full value for any channels that did publish successfully.

### 🔎 Where to See Per-Channel Status and Refunds

Each channel reflects its own state rather than a single shared status for the whole release. On the Publication Status modal (and the View Status table), every channel shows one of the following statuses:

- **Published** – the channel published successfully.
- **Publishing** – distribution is still in progress for that channel.
- **Publish failed** – the channel did not publish; the refunded amount is shown next to it (for example, "20 HDC refunded").
- **Publish stuck** – the channel is in a stalled state and is being resolved.

For rejected or failed channels, the View Status table includes a **Refunded** column so you can confirm the refunded amount inline without leaving the screen.

## 🔁 How to Republish Failed Channels Without Duplicate Charges

The most common concern is being charged twice: once for the original attempt and again for the republication. Because failed channels are refunded before republication, this does not happen. You only pay for channels that actually publish.

### 🛠️ Option 1: Republish Yourself

1. Open the press release report for the affected distribution.
2. Review the channel status list to confirm which channels are marked as **Publish failed**.
3. Confirm that the HDC for those failed channels have been returned to your account balance (and shown in the Refunded column).
4. Use the republish option to resubmit only the failed channels.
5. The republication consumes the refunded credits, so your net cost stays the same as a single successful distribution.

Note: republishing press releases that are in a failed (Publish Failed) state now works as expected. A previously reported issue, where republishing a failed press release was silently ignored, the status did not change, and no quota was consumed, has been fixed.

### 🤝 Option 2: Have the Search Atlas Team Handle It

Yes, our team can manage republication from the backend for you. This is useful if a failure is recurring, if you are unsure which channels need resubmission, or if you simply prefer us to handle it.

1. Contact support and reference the specific press release or order.
2. Our team verifies the failed channels and confirms the refunded credits.
3. We republish the affected channels on your behalf, using the refunded credits.
4. We confirm completion and share the updated channel status with you.

In both options, the refund-then-republish sequence ensures you are not double-charged.

## ✅ How to Confirm You Were Not Charged Twice

To verify everything balanced correctly, check the following after republication:

- **Credits balance:** The refunded HDC should appear, then be applied to the republished channels.
- **Channel status:** Previously failed channels should now show as published.
- **Order history:** The net credits used should match a single successful distribution, not two full charges.
- **Credit cost consistency:** The per-channel credit cost you see should match the actual cost charged. If a channel's displayed cost looks inconsistent, contact support so we can verify the correct amount was refunded.

If any of these do not line up, contact support with your order details and we will reconcile it.

## 💡 Tips to Reduce Future Failures

- Avoid unusual characters, broken links, or overly promotional language that some networks reject.
- Keep formatting clean and within recommended length guidelines.
- Wait for the full distribution report before assuming a release failed, as some channels publish on a delay.

## 📞 When to Contact Support

Reach out to our team if:

- Refunded credits do not appear after a channel failure.
- The same channels fail repeatedly after republishing.
- You would prefer Search Atlas to handle republication for you.
- You see charges that do not match the channels actually published.

Include your press release name or order ID so we can resolve the issue quickly.