Refunds & Cancellations

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1. What this page covers

This page explains when you can get your money back, how to ask, and what happens next.

There are two kinds of purchase here, and they follow different rules:

• Digital reports — the Heritage Volume and The Crossing. You pay through a Stripe payment link and the report reaches you in minutes, as a web page plus a PDF.
• Physical products — for example the signet ring, the framed crest and the family pack. You pay through the cart checkout, and each piece is manufactured to order and shipped to you.

Read the section that matches what you bought. If your question isn't answered here, email customer@myheritagestories.com.

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2. Digital reports: 30 days

If you bought a digital report and you're not satisfied, ask us within 30 days of your purchase and we'll refund it in full.

To be clear about what that means:

• Downloading the PDF doesn't void your refund. Neither does opening the report page, reading all of it, printing it, or showing it to your family.
• You don't need a reason. You can tell us why if you want to — it genuinely helps — but the refund doesn't depend on it.
• There's no test. No proof that you didn't use it, no restocking fee, no forms.

We wrote it this way on purpose. A digital file can't be handed back, so the only honest way to sell one is to let you look at it and then decide.

There's no cancellation window, because there's nothing to cancel

Your volume is generated and sent within minutes of payment. There's no period where the order is sitting in a queue waiting to be stopped. That's why we don't offer a cancellation on digital reports — and why the 30-day refund stays open the whole time, whether you read it on day one or day twenty-nine.

If a page promised you a longer window

Some pages on this site display a 90-day satisfaction guarantee. If that badge was shown on the page you bought from, before you paid, then 90 days is your window for that order — not 30. The same goes for any other promise we showed you or emailed you that gives you more than this page does: you get the better one. Tell us and we'll honor it.

If the report isn't what you expected

That's a valid reason, and the 30 days cover it. It's also worth reading How your report is made, before or after you buy, so that what you expect matches what you get.

The short version:

Your volume is built by our own system from public reference material — the U.S. Census Bureau surname file, digitised newspaper pages held by the Library of Congress, and open structured records — and the rest of it, including the coat of arms, is generated by that same system from the surname itself. The same surname always produces the same volume: no one researches your family, and naming an archive is not a claim that we searched it on your behalf. Where a surname is not in a public source, our system completes that section rather than leaving it blank, so your volume arrives whole and part of it is reconstruction rather than record. It is not proof of ancestry, not a grant of arms and not a DNA test.

If you bought expecting something else, that's exactly what the 30-day window is for.

The only case where we say no

We may decline a refund where there is clear evidence of abuse — for example, repeat purchase-and-refund cycles of the same surname, or redistributing a volume in breach of the license set out in our Terms of Service. That's the only exception on this page. It's aimed at a pattern, not at a person who read their volume and didn't like it.

If the 30 days have already passed

Write to us anyway. If something stopped you from using what you bought at all — a barrier that made the report unreadable for you, for instance — we'd rather hear about it late than not at all, and we'll look at it. See our Accessibility page if that's the problem.

Free reports

Our free surname reports cost nothing, so there's nothing to refund. They're produced the same way and carry the same limits. If you'd rather not receive the emails that follow one, use the unsubscribe link in any of them, or write to us and we'll take you off the list.

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3. What happens to your report after we refund it

When we refund a digital report, the access that came with it ends — and we're the ones who end it. As part of processing your refund, we switch off your private link and we remove the volume from the /my-reports/ portal for your email address. It isn't a penalty; it's the other half of giving you your money back.

Any PDF you already downloaded stays on your own computer. We can't reach into your device, and we won't ask you to delete it. What ends is permission: once an order is refunded, the license that came with it ends too, so please don't share, reprint for others, or redistribute the volume from that point on.

If you change your mind later, you're welcome to buy it again. It will be identical, because the same surname always produces the same volume.

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4. Upgrades between packs

The Heritage Volume is sold in three packs — The Record, The Chronicle and The Archive. The Crossing is sold on the same terms. Current prices are on the product page.

• Upgrading. If you bought a smaller pack and want a larger one, email us before buying anything else. We'll tell you what your upgrade costs and send you a link for it, so you don't pay twice for pages you already have.
• Refunds after an upgrade. The 30-day window runs from each payment you made. Email us and we'll tell you exactly what can be returned in your case.
• Downgrading. We don't refund the difference because a smaller pack would have been enough. If the larger pack wasn't right for you, ask for the full refund inside the 30 days instead.

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5. How to ask for a refund on a digital report

1. Email customer@myheritagestories.com.
2. Put "Refund" in the subject line.
3. Tell us the email address you used at checkout and the surname you searched. If you have the order number or the Stripe receipt, include it — it makes the match instant, but it isn't required.

You don't need to fill in a form, call anyone, or open an account. One email is enough, and we answer within 48 hours.

When the money arrives

When we approve a refund, we issue it through Stripe, our payment processor. It goes back to the same card or wallet you paid with — that's a rule of the card networks, not our choice, so it can't go to a different card, to a bank transfer, or to store credit.

Once Stripe has issued it, the timing belongs to your bank. Some banks show the credit within a few days; others don't display it until your next statement. If it hasn't appeared and you'd like something to show them, email us and we'll send you the Stripe refund confirmation.

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6. Physical products

Physical items — for example the signet ring, the framed crest and the family pack — are made to order. Nothing sits in a warehouse. When you order, a supplier starts producing your specific piece with your surname's crest on it. That's why the rules here are stricter than for a digital file.

Canceling: 12 hours

You have 12 hours from the moment you buy to cancel a physical order. Email customer@myheritagestories.com with "Cancel order" in the subject line. Inside those 12 hours we cancel it and refund you in full.

After 12 hours, your piece has gone into production carrying your family name, and it can't be sold to anyone else — so we can't cancel it. Damage, faults and non-delivery are still covered, always. See the sections below.

A second chance to cancel, if we're running late

If a piece is going to take longer than the times published on our Shipping & Delivery page, we'll email you and tell you. At that point you can cancel and take a full refund instead — however long ago you ordered. You never have to keep waiting for something we said would already be with you.

If it arrives damaged, faulty, or wrong

This one is simple: it's on us. If your item arrives broken, defective, or isn't what you ordered, email us as soon as you notice — while you still have the packaging — with:

• your order number,
• a photo of the item, and
• a photo of the packaging if the damage happened in transit.

We'll replace it or refund it, whichever you prefer. You don't have to send the piece back to us: there's no return label to print, nothing to pack, and nothing for you to pay. Keep it or throw it away, as you like.

One distinction worth knowing. If the name on the piece is the name you typed at checkout, that isn't a manufacturing fault, and this section doesn't cover it. Write to us anyway and write quickly — inside the cancellation window we can usually fix a mistyped surname before production starts.

If it never arrives

First, a common false alarm: we work with more than one supplier, so an order with several pieces can arrive in separate parcels, on different days, with different tracking numbers. A part-delivery is usually not a lost parcel. Our Shipping & Delivery page explains how that works.

If your tracking has stopped moving, or the delivery window has passed and nothing has come, email us. We'll take it up with the carrier and the supplier. Once a parcel is confirmed lost, we'll send a replacement or refund you — again, whichever you prefer.

If you've changed your mind about a delivered item

If the page you bought from showed a 90-day guarantee, that is your window. Some of our product pages display a 90-Day Satisfaction Guarantee badge. Where that badge was on the page you bought from, before you paid, it governs your order: you have 90 days to ask us for a change, an exchange or a full refund, and this section does not cut that down. Tell us and we will honor it. What follows applies only where no such badge was shown.

Every piece is personalized with your surname's crest and made only after you order, so a change of mind isn't by itself grounds for a return or a refund. That's the trade-off for a made-to-order piece, and it's why the 12-hour cancellation window exists. If there's something wrong with the item, the two sections above cover you.

Customs and import charges

The price you pay covers shipping and delivery to your door, import charges included. You shouldn't be asked for anything when the parcel arrives. If a carrier ever does ask you for an import charge, send us what they gave you and we'll cover it. The detail lives on our Shipping & Delivery page.

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7. Order changes and mistakes

• Wrong shipping address? Email us right away with the correct one. If the item hasn't shipped, we'll update it. Once it's with the carrier, we can't redirect it.
• Wrong surname on a digital report? Email us. If the name was mistyped when you searched, we'll send you the correct volume — no second purchase.
• Wrong surname on a physical item? Email us immediately. Inside the cancellation window we can usually correct it; once the piece is being made with that name on it, we can't.
• Charged twice by accident? Email us and we'll return the duplicate charge. If the duplicate is older than 30 days, write anyway — a double charge isn't the same thing as a change of mind, and we'll sort it out.
• Report never arrived? Digital delivery takes minutes. Check your spam folder first, then email us and we'll resend it. Most people would rather have the report than the money — but if you'd rather have the refund, you can have it.

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8. If you're unhappy, talk to us first

If something has gone wrong — the report didn't arrive, the charge looks unfamiliar, the ring came broken — please email customer@myheritagestories.com before you contact your bank.

That isn't a warning. It's usually the shorter route:

• We can refund you directly. A card dispute takes weeks to resolve, sometimes months.
• We can do things a bank can't: resend a report, correct a surname, replace a damaged ring, move you to a different pack.
• If you don't recognize a charge on your statement, it may well be ours under a billing name you weren't expecting. One email settles that.

We're a small operation, and customer@myheritagestories.com is the only channel we run. We'd rather hear from you and fix it. You can also reach us through our Contact page.

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9. Prices, currency and what a refund returns

All prices on this site are in U.S. dollars. Prices can change. The price that applies to you is the one shown at the moment you complete your purchase. A later change — up or down — doesn't entitle you to a refund of the difference and doesn't change what you already paid.

If your card was issued outside the United States — a Canadian card, for example — your bank converts the charge at its own rate and may add a foreign transaction fee. Those conversion differences and fees belong to your bank, not to us. A refund returns the same U.S. dollar amount we charged, so the sum that lands back in your local currency may not match the sum that left it.

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10. Who you're buying from

FamilyCrests™ is operated by FamilyCrests Studio LLC, a limited liability company based in Wyoming, USA. The terms that govern your purchase — who we are, how old you must be to buy, which law applies — are set out in our Terms of Service. You don't need an account: checkout is available as a guest.

Card payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your full card number, which is also why a refund has to travel back along the same path the payment came in on.

Questions about a refund, a cancellation, or an order? Email customer@myheritagestories.com — the only channel we run. We answer within 48 hours.

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FamilyCrests Studio LLC, based in Wyoming, USA — FamilyCrests™.

Last updated: August 24, 2026