Cancellation and refund policy

Effective date: 2026-10-31

This page explains how free sessions on Lend a Mind work: booking, cancelling, moving, missed sessions, and what happens afterwards. It's part of our Terms of Service.

Every session today is free. There's nothing to pay and nothing to refund. The rules below exist because a pro's free time is limited: when a session goes unused, someone else could have had it.

The short version

• Sessions are 30 or 60 minutes, depending on what the pro offers.
• You can have one free session with each pro, and two free sessions a month in total.
• Cancel 48 hours or more before the start and the session doesn't count. Cancel later and it counts as used.
• You can move a session to another time with the same pro, 48 hours or more before it starts, up to twice.
• If a pro cancels or doesn't show up, your free session comes back.
• Two confirmed missed sessions pause free bookings on your account until we lift the pause.

All "hours before" rules are measured from the session's start time, whatever your timezone. Times on the site and in emails are shown in your timezone.

Booking

• Lengths. Each pro offers 30-minute sessions, 60-minute sessions, or both. You pick from what they offer.
• When. You can book an open time within the pro's published availability, at least 12 hours ahead.
• Your question. Every booking needs a short question: "What decision do you want help with?" (20 to 500 characters), plus optional context (up to 2,000 characters). Only the pro you book sees them.
• Confirmation. Before you book, we show the time in your timezone and the pro's, the length, the free-session limits, and the cancellation rule, including whether the session is already less than 48 hours away. Nothing is booked until you confirm.
• Instant. Bookings are confirmed straight away. You and the pro each get an email with the time, a link to the session page, where you join the video call, and a calendar invite. For sessions that use the pro's own meeting link, such as those booked before we added video calls, emails also include that link.
• Joining. For a session held in a video call on Lend a Mind, you can join from 10 minutes before the start, and the call closes 5 minutes after the scheduled end. Joining early doesn't make the session longer. For a session that uses the pro's own meeting link, that service decides when you can join.
• Reminders. We email you both 24 hours and 1 hour before the start. If you book less than 24 hours ahead, you get only the 1-hour reminder.

Free-session limits

• One free session per pro. Once you've used a free session with a pro, you can't book that pro free again.
• Two free sessions per calendar month, across all pros. Months are counted in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), by the date of the session.
• The pro's monthly free time. Each pro chooses how much free time to give each month (up to 10 hours), counted in the pro's own timezone. When it's used up, they can't be booked free until next month.

A session counts as used once it's booked, unless you cancel it 48 hours or more ahead, the pro cancels it, the pro doesn't show up, it's cancelled because the pro deleted their account, or our admin records it as a platform issue (see "Missed sessions"). A session where nobody answers the check-in still counts as used.

If you cancel (clients)

You can cancel any time before the session starts, from the session page. The confirmation tells you which case applies.

• 48 hours or more before the start (early): the session is cancelled and doesn't count. Your free session with that pro, and your monthly allowance, come back, and so does the pro's time. A cancellation exactly 48 hours before counts as early.
• Less than 48 hours before the start (late): the session is cancelled but counts as used, toward both your one-per-pro and monthly limits. The pro's time stays used, but the time slot opens up again for other clients if the pro has free time left.
• At or after the start: a session can no longer be cancelled.

The pro is emailed when you cancel, with an update that removes the event from their calendar.

Repeated early cancellations. After your second early cancellation with the same pro in a calendar month (UTC, counted by the date you cancel), you can't book that pro free again until the next month. Each cancellation emails the pro, so this keeps their inbox reasonable. Moves don't count toward this, and neither do the pro's cancellations.

If you move a session (clients)

• You can move a session 48 hours or more before its original start, to another open time with the same pro, at any length they offer.
• The new time must pass the same checks as a new booking (availability, at least 12 hours' notice, the pro's free time that month, and your monthly limit). The session you're moving doesn't count against those checks.
• Your original time is kept until the new one is confirmed. If the move doesn't go through, nothing changes.
• You can move the same session at most twice. After that, you can cancel it and book again, under the usual limits.
• Less than 48 hours before the start, you can cancel but not move.
• Moving is only possible while the pro is still listed and taking bookings.
• Your question stays with the session, and you both get an email with an updated calendar invite.
• Pros can't move sessions. If a time stops working for a pro, they cancel, and the client can book again.

If a pro cancels or declines

Bookings are instant, so a pro who can't help with a question, or can't make the time, declines by cancelling.

• A pro can cancel any session before it starts, and must give a reason (up to 500 characters), which the client sees.
• The client's free session with that pro comes back, the session doesn't count toward their monthly limit, and the pro's time comes back.
• The client is emailed the reason, with a link to find another expert.

During the private alpha there's no automatic penalty for pros who cancel, but every cancellation is recorded and visible to our admin.

After the session: check-ins

• One hour after the scheduled end, we email you both a short check-in (also on the session page). You can answer or change it for 30 days, or until our admin has made a decision about the session.
• Everyone is asked whether the session happened: "Yes", "The other person didn't come", or "I couldn't make it".
• If it happened, the client is asked whether it clarified a useful next step, and the pro whether the question was a good fit and whether they'd offer time again. Fourteen days after a session the client says happened, the client is asked whether they acted on the next step.
• Check-in answers are private. Only Lend a Mind sees them. They're never shown to the other person or made public.

How attendance is decided

• If you both say it happened, the session is completed. It's also completed if one of you says it happened and the other hasn't answered after 7 days.
• If nobody answers within 7 days, attendance is recorded as unknown. We never count it as attended, but it still counts as a used free session.
• If either of you says someone didn't come (or that you couldn't make it), a person reviews it: our admin records the session as completed, a client no-show, a pro no-show, or a platform issue (see "Missed sessions"). Every decision is recorded.
• We email the person affected: a client recorded as a no-show is told; for a pro no-show or a platform issue, both people are told; and if we record the session as completed after someone reported an absence, the person who reported it is told.

If you think a decision is wrong, reply to the email or write to hello@lendamind.com.

Missed sessions (no-shows)

• If a client misses a session, it counts as a used free session, like a late cancellation.
• After a client's second confirmed no-show, free bookings are paused on their account until our admin lifts the pause. While paused, the client can still cancel existing sessions, but can't move them or book new free sessions. The booking page explains why.
• If a pro misses a session, the client's free session and the pro's time both come back. During the private alpha there's no automatic penalty for pros, but our admin sees every pro no-show.

If you can't join, email us at hello@lendamind.com; the session page shows this address if a video call can't start, along with the pro's own meeting link as a backup if they've added one. If a session uses the pro's own meeting link and it doesn't work, say so in the check-in or email us. Apart from chat during a video call, there's no messaging between clients and pros on Lend a Mind, so we'll help sort it out.

If the video call doesn't work (platform issue). If a session is lost because our video service wasn't working, because we had switched video calls off, or because a network blocked the call, and there was no backup link that worked, our admin can record it as a platform issue after the session ends. Then:

• the client's free session with that pro and their monthly allowance come back, and so does the pro's time;
• neither person is recorded as a no-show, so it doesn't count toward a pause;
• you both get an email telling you the decision.

A person makes this decision; a technical error never decides attendance on its own. Tell us what happened at hello@lendamind.com, or in the check-in.

If an account is deleted

• If you delete your account, your upcoming sessions are cancelled, and the other person is emailed with an update that removes the event from their calendar. These cancellations don't count against the other person: a client's free session with that pro comes back, and a pro's time comes back. See the Privacy Policy for what happens to your information.
• If the other person deletes their account, your upcoming sessions with them are cancelled in the same way, and you're emailed.
• If we remove a pro from the directory, their existing sessions go ahead unless someone cancels them, but those sessions can no longer be moved, and the pro can't be booked.

Paid sessions and refunds

Paid sessions aren't available, so there are no refunds to give today. If we introduce paid sessions, we'll publish their refund rules here, and update our Terms, before anyone can book one.

For transparency, this is what we currently plan for paid sessions (it is not in effect, and may change before launch): a full refund for cancelling 48 hours or more before the start, half for 24 to 48 hours, and none for less than 24 hours; a full refund whenever the pro cancels; and, for a client who deletes their account, a full refund with 24 hours' notice or more.

Questions

Email hello@lendamind.com.