Cancellation & Refunds Policy.

1. The short version.

Before you accept a quote, cancelling costs nothing. For two minutes after you accept a quote cancelling costs nothing, it costs nothing at any time before your operator sets off, and it costs nothing once the arrival band on their quote has ended without them reaching you. Otherwise, you pay for what your operator has actually done to get to you, and nothing else. The tracking screen always shows what cancelling would cost at that moment, with "What's this?" beside it to show how the figure is made up, and you see the exact figure, itemised, again before you confirm. You can never be charged more than that figure. If your operator cancels, you pay nothing at any stage, for any reason. Every penny of a cancellation charge goes to your operator. Recovru keeps none of it.

2. Before you accept a quote.

Cancel freely. Nothing is charged, no hold is placed, the operators who were sent your request are told it is no longer available, and any quotes you have been sent simply lapse.

3. The two minutes after you accept a quote, and until your operator sets off.

For two minutes after you accept a quote you can change your mind at no charge, whatever your operator has done in that time. After that, cancelling still costs nothing for as long as your operator's satellite position does not show them setting off towards you. While either is the case the tracking screen says "Cancelling now is free". If you asked for help at a later time, this means cancelling is free until your operator sets off to reach you at that time. This is on top of your legal rights, not instead of them.

If your operator is running late. If your operator has not reached you by the end of the arrival band on their quote, cancelling is free from then until they arrive, however far they have driven, and the tracking screen says so. Your operator has reached you when the arrival code in your app has been entered (section 4).

4. After that: what you pay, and how it is worked out.

You pay for what was done, not for what your operator lost. The charge is your operator's, and it is worked out from the costs of the journey your operator had actually made towards you when you cancelled, and their time: the three costs below, and nothing else. It is not a percentage of the price, it is not a penalty, and it does not include our costs or your operator's lost opportunity.

What is included, and how it is measured. (a) fuel used getting to you: the distance actually travelled on the way to you, and not the drive back, at the middle of recent pump prices published by the forecourts within 10 miles of where your operator started out, for the fuel their vehicle uses. If no recent local price is available we use the last local price we worked out for that area, and if there is none, a fixed national price that we review from time to time. For an electric vehicle it is a published per-mile rate instead. (b) wear on their vehicle: a published per-mile rate for their class of vehicle, applied to the distance actually travelled on the way to you. (c) their time: a published hourly rate, applied to the time actually spent from setting off to being told you had cancelled, capped at two hours.

If your operator has already arrived. Your operator has arrived when the arrival code shown in your app has been entered at your vehicle. Only share it with the operator who is with your vehicle. If you cancel after your operator has arrived and before the work is done, you pay the same three things for the journey to you, and their time runs on after they arrive, so it includes up to 30 minutes of the time they spent with you, still capped at two hours in all. You do not pay the whole price of the job, and nothing is charged for work that had not been done.

Once your operator has marked the work complete, the whole service has been supplied and cancelling would cost the price you agreed. If you think the work was not done properly, do not cancel: tell us (clause 11 of the Terms of Use), and the payment stays held while we look into it.

There is no minimum. If your operator had barely set off, the three heads come to very little and that little is what you pay. We do not round it up to a mobilisation charge, and there is no floor under it.

The ceiling. Whatever those three come to, you are never charged more than the price you agreed for the job. In practice the ceiling almost never decides anything: the three real costs reach the price of the job only on a very long journey.

What is not included, and why. Work your operator turned down to take your job is not charged: that is their lost opportunity, not something supplied to you. We do not think you should pay for it and the law does not require you to. Our administration costs are not charged: running the platform is our cost of doing business, not yours. The tow itself is not charged: if your vehicle was never moved, you are not charged for moving it. The drive back is not charged. Anything at all before your operator sets off is not charged: if they had not started travelling, nothing had been supplied to you.

The distance is taken from your operator's satellite position, measured along the route they actually drove towards you. An operator who turns back cannot increase your charge by driving away.

You can check every rate your operator's cancellation charge is worked out from before you book: they are the standard cancellation rates every operator on Recovru charges, published at recovru.com/rates, dated and versioned, with the per-mile rates for each class of vehicle and the hourly rate. The version that applied to your job is the one shown on your invoice. We are not asking you to trust a number you cannot check.

5. VAT.

Every figure you see includes any VAT your operator charges. The number on your screen when you confirm a cancellation is the number that leaves your account. There is nothing added afterwards, and no separate tax line to work out. Your invoice shows any VAT separately for your records, but it is already inside the total you agreed.

6. The limits.

7. Where the money goes.

All of it goes to your operator. Recovru does not take a share of a cancellation charge. We work it out and collect it for your operator, as their agent, and pass it to them in full, and you get an itemised invoice in your operator's name, issued by us as their agent, showing exactly that. That is also why the charge is only ever the three costs above: it exists to cover what your operator actually spent reaching you, so there is nothing in it for us to take a share of.

8. If you are not there when your operator arrives.

This is not a cancellation, and this policy does not charge you for it. Our Operator Terms require your operator, if they arrive and cannot find you, to try to reach you by message and by call in the app and to wait at least 15 minutes. If they did not, tell us within the 30 minutes and our staff will check the app's records. If you still do not appear, they may record that the job cannot go ahead because nobody was there to hand over the vehicle. Clause 5.3 of the Terms of Use then decides whether the attendance and assessment fee applies, which is half the price and never more than £100 (£200 for a lorry, bus or coach), and you have 30 minutes to tell us it should not.

Safety always comes first, and it is never charged. If you left your vehicle because you were on a motorway, because you were somewhere unsafe, because the police or emergency services moved you, or because of a disability, that is a good reason and you will not be charged. The Highway Code tells you to leave your vehicle and get behind the barrier on a motorway. We are not going to charge you for following it. Tell us what happened and our staff will waive the fee.

9. If your operator cancels.

You pay nothing, at any stage, for any reason, and that includes the attendance and assessment fee. Any hold on your card is released at once, whether they cancel before or after arriving, and if they cancel after arriving our staff review what happened. We tell you immediately. If they cancelled before arriving, we put your request straight back out and the operators near you can quote again so you can choose; if they cancelled after arriving, you can send your request again. You are under no obligation to accept any quote. If the price you had agreed is no longer available to you because that operator has gone, that is not something we can hold them to on your behalf, and it is exactly why you are never charged a penny for their cancellation.

10. Refunds.

11. Challenging a charge.

You have 30 days. Tell us in the app, in live chat or at support@recovru.com, with your job reference, and say what you think is wrong. A person, not software, reviews the job: the satellite record, the messages, the history of the request and its quotes, and the timings. If the charge was not fairly incurred we refund it in full for your operator, with a credit note in their name. Either way we tell you our reasons. If a charge arose because a disability stopped you acting in time, tell us and we refund it in full: see our Accessibility Statement.

If you are still unhappy, our complaints process in clause 15 of the Terms of Use applies, including what we will tell you about alternative dispute resolution. Your rights are unaffected: you can take the matter to court, you can raise it with your card issuer, and you can get advice from the Citizens Advice consumer service. We will not treat you any differently for doing any of those things.

12. How the charge is calculated.

The figure is worked out by software from the distance and time recorded. That calculation does not decide anything about you: it prices what happened. If you challenge it, a person reviews it and can change it. You can ask us at any time how a particular figure was reached and we will show you.

13. If the work was not done properly.

This policy covers cancelling. If the work happened but was not done with reasonable care and skill, that is different and your rights are in clause 11 of our Terms of Use. Send a report in the app, by choosing "No, there's a problem" and sending the report that opens, or by reporting A problem with an operator or A charge or a payout, and if the payment has not yet been released it stays held from when the report is sent while we look into it, so you are not chasing your operator yourself. A hold on your card cannot be kept for ever. If we have not decided 12 hours before it ends, which can be as little as four days after you accepted the quote, we release it and you are not charged.

14. The attendance and assessment fee is not a cancellation charge.

This policy is about you or your operator cancelling. It is separate from the attendance and assessment fee included in every quote, which is about what happens if your operator arrives and the job cannot go ahead as you described it. That fee is half the price you accepted, VAT included, and never more than £100, or £200 where the vehicle is a lorry, bus or coach. It is explained in clause 5.3 of the Terms of Use, and it can be taken only in the circumstances listed there. You are never charged both a cancellation charge and the attendance and assessment fee for the same visit, and if your operator cancels you are charged neither.

Changes in this version.