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Sometimes it happens that a member of the Church of Scientology wants to get a refund of
money paid to that organisation. This is likely to get you into hot water or even
expelled from the Chruch of Scientology. If leaving is of concern to you, perhaps you
should refer to our pages on the condition of Doubt
here and
here. Also perhaps to a page which has been on the net for a while
to do with
Church of Scientology reform. In addition we have quite a collection
of success stories that show life (and auditing) carry on after leaving the Church of
Scientology
here.
If, however, you have made up your mind to turn your back on the Church of Scientology it
is not necessarily unreasonable to wish to get a repayment or refund on money paid to them. A repayment
(in Church of Scientology speak) is a return of money paid in advance for services which
have not been delivered. A refund is a return of money paid for services which have already
been delivered.
This group, FZAOINT, tends to the view that to ask for a refund, when the services have
already been satisfactorily delivered, is suppressive. Not only is it out exchange with the
Church of Scientology (their high prices notwithstanding), but you invalidate your own wins
by doing so!
(But see below for a radically different view about the morality of
refunds!)
However, asking for a refund where the services received were substantially poor
or where the services have simply not been delivered (despite your active willingness to do
them in some cases) is quite OK. As already alluded to above, this will not win you any
friends in the Church of Scientology, but, if you've already decided to join Scientology in the Freezone,
then maybe that doesn't matter too much.
We sometimes get questions, such as:
> If anyone has specific advice on how to make sure we get
> everything back that we should, please email me privately. We will
> appreciate any information/help we can get. Thank you.
>
This question got a few different answers:
For information about how to get a refund, simply carry on reading. The information on repayments is
in the middle of the page
here.
For a different view about the morality of refunds
go here.
For a statement from the Church of Scientology itself regarding their policy on the matter
go here.
Finally, the summary is
here.
Refund
I'm going to reply publicly in case this information is of use to
anyone. I read your previous post so I understand what you're
requesting. Many people get confused with the difference in a refund for
services rendered and a refund of money on account (repayment). What I'm referring to
in this post is in regards to a refund of money paid for services
rendered. There is a specific time period of within which the Church's own
policy requires them to render refund for services completed. They will
not refund any money if you've completed the service and you are not
within that time period. If you are within the time period and you request
a refund you are in for a hard sell routine that will get unpleasant. If
you recall, before any service you purchased, auditing or course, you
signed a contract (which I'm sure they did not give a copy of) which
stated they would give you a refund if requested within x number of days
after the service is delivered if you are unsatisfied on the stipulation
that you could never receive services again AND you went through their
proper refund "routing" procedure. This is basically a ploy to change your
mind about getting a refund, they will pose it as trying to repair
whatever went wrong.
Now here is how I was advised going about getting my refund.
Send them a certified mail letter stating the exact amount requested from
what services, paid for when, completed when (if complete) send copies of
the receipts and include a reference to their own policy. Include that you
are not going to do a routing as you know that is just a ploy to get you
to change your mind and that is not logical to go through the same
services you found objectionable in order to correct what you found
objectionable. Threaten legal collection methods and mean it. If it's
enough money, you can get a lawyer to help you collect for 30% of the
take, which is worth it (but you won't have to.) But in order to take
advantage of the spiritual factor involved in "intention in cause" you
should be fully willing to do so. If they don't follow up with a call, call
them when you you get the delivery confirmation to find out when you can
pick up your check. Be willing to accept payments. The churches are
actually pretty poor I understand, and they spend every cent they have
when they get it.
OK, so I did this myself and here's what happened. The ED called me in and
I had an uncomfortable meeting with the Ethics officer wherein he produced
copies of the "contract" I had signed. He said that since I wouldn't go
through the routing form they wouldn't refund my money. I left. Of note,
they couldn't find actual contract for the actual service I was requesting
a refund for (4 intensives of auditing for $9200), which I asked for. The
next day the ED called me and said they had been instructed by their
senior org to pay the refund anyway and I came in and got a signed
statement from the ED saying they would pay the refund and promising to
pay a certain amount each month until it was payed off. I was surprised,
because they had flat turned me down the day before.
But, after all this, when payment time came up, they never payed me. I
called them after they were two weeks late and they said they had come up
short and that they would pay me the next week. They never called or
contacted me again and I never followed up. My mistake, I'm sure I could
have gotten my money eventually if I had wanted to play bill collector. I
might could still get the money actually, considering the signed
agreement, perhaps with interest.
The moral of the story is:
Be tough, don't back down, don't "discuss", be willing to go to any
lengths and you will get your money. I have heard of many refund
cycles of more money amounts. The main theme has been the threat of
legal action. The churches fear public lawsuits from unsatisfied
customers and the upper orgs will require the lower orgs to make
arrangements because it costs them nothing.
I have also heard of people getting a refund of their lifetime IAS
memberships on the grounds that the IAS is not preserving the works of LRH
like they guarantee. I haven't tried this yet.
Repayment
First of all, there are two different routing
forms...refund and repayment. Refund is asking for money back for
services delivered. Frankly asking for a refund is a suppressive
act, unless one was totally dissatisfied with the service at the
time. I'm not talking just Scientology here, but any time you ask
for your money back when you have received a service and completed it to
your satisfaction you are doing damage to another dynamic.
However, a repayment is asking for money returned that you have put on
account in advance and haven't used. So what a person does is go to the
Church of Scientology and ask reception for a routing form to get a repayment for their
advance payments. Now that is not an overt act...that is just asking for
money back because the person doesn't intend to use it at the Church of Scientology.
What happens is the person has to see each person on the routing form. It
takes a lot of guts to do this, because you will get everything from good
cop to bad cop on that form. They will offer a repair session.
Ethics may threaten this, that or the other Declare. One
person recently who went through the routing form had a cell phone in his
pocket turned on, and his friend listening at the other end. He made it
through lines, even if the ED did shout and try to make him wrong.
Now his routing form has to be sent somewhere else for approval. It can
take a year or so to get your money back, but it all starts with the
correct routing form, lots of good determination, and maybe a cover story
that will hold up as to "why" you need that money back.:)
Not Suppressive!
I too would like to respond to the earlier posts concerning refunds.
It seems that almost all the respondents believe that it is an overt or suppressive act to ask
for a refund because it is policy and because it is the Church of Scientology.
The churches no longer represent the tech despite the fact that the vast majority of their
staffs and public are well intentioned.
The Only Orgs on the planet that are doing well at this time are Flag, it's support AO's and a
couple of Missions that handle certain specific publics. There are also a handful of Field
Auditors and FSM's that handle these specific public who are making a couple of hundred thousand
a year each. The rest are poor. The great majority of their Income (money) is from Dentists,
Chiropractors, Actors, investment mangers and the like. They are no longer the common man on
the street. He can't afford it.
These people generally do not join staff or become active auditors. They will stand on the
sidelines following their own careers. The only help they will offer is money and perhaps their
name. The great majority of the staffs today are the kids of old time Scientologists.
This is stagnation no matter how much money Miscavige makes. (I am not saying money is bad)
In Fact Management's suppression of Freezone "Scientology" groups is suppressing the Tech from
being applied to free man; As it was originally intended. If it wasn't for DM's attacks on several
very important individuals and key Freezone groups the Freezone would be in a position to do what
the Church of Scientology at this time aren't doing. Freeing Mankind! The strangle hold the RTC and OSA are
applying to those who are attempting to use standard tech is the suppressive act. And it is the
use of Standard Tech he and his group attack. Whether through stupidity or just straight
suppression I don't know. All the people who could change things around are now outside the
Church of Scientology.
It is quite obvious what must be done.
The "Tech" is not the pieces of paper with DM's copyright stamped on them. The Tech is the correct
application of processes to achieve Clear and OT. And that is what needs to be protected.
Not a group that pretends to deliver the tech but hides a "hole" that will eventually entrap
man by producing acceptable but mediocre non productive results. The altered tech the Church
of Scientology delivers at this time is squirrel Tech. The only people who are still attempting to apply
standard tech is the Freezone. Whether they are fully on source or not isn't the question here.
The Freezone is the only group trying to hang on to and apply Standard Tech. Without that
suppression the Freezone can flourish and prosper.
No I don't think it's an overt or a suppressive act to get a refund or repayment.
A full refund of all and any money since the beginning of the Squirrel tech given partially or
totally to the correct target (the Freezone) is not only acceptable to my thinking but necessary
to fulfil the aims of Scientology.
Church of Scientology Policy
BEGIN FAIR USE QUOTE:
It has been a long-standing policy of the Church that if someone is dissatisfied with their
Scientology services and asks to have their contributions returned within a three month period,
these amounts will be returned. Likewise, if the person asks for return of contributions for
which no services were received (i.e. an advance payment), there is no three month limitation
period. Anyone newly enrolling in services at a Church of Scientology is informed of the policies
and signs an agreement to abide by them. As a further condition of receiving a refund or repayment,
the person understands that they may not again receive services from the Church.
Within the Church, there are two separate terms: A "refund" refers to a return of contributions
to a parishioner within 90 days of participating in religious services while a "repayment" refers
to a return of a parishioner's advance payment before he or she has participated in religious
services. For simplicity, the following discussion will use the term "refund" to describe both
types of transactions, because both involve a return of parishioner contributions.
The Church's refund policy is exceedingly fair. If someone isn't happy with Scientology -- which
is a very small minority of people -- he simply has to make a proper request for his donations
back, agree to forego further services and his donations will be returned. For the Church, in
addition to the fact that this policy aligns with Scientology principles of exchange, it also
serves the purpose of allowing our churches and the parishioners who are very happy with
Scientology, to carry on without the unhappy few in their midst.
END FAIR USE QUOTE.
Summary
OK. Well the above contains somewhat radically different advice on the subject of repayments
and refunds from three different people who responded to the question about how to get your money
back. And also a statement from the Church of Scientology itself, which at least suggests that
they are quite happy to refund your money if you are unhappy.
If you feel you are due a repayment or refund from the Church of Scientology, may we wish you good
luck! One thing, though, if you do sign anything saying you won't be back for services or that
you resign etc., then only sign that you won't be coming back to the Church of Scientology, not
Scientology in general. We're here and do deliver Scientology services in the way Hubbard would
have wanted to the best of our ability. This group, FZAOINT, is perhaps the most Scientologically
conservative, pro LRH group around and have fought hard to remain that way!
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