Refund policy

Last updated: 5 September 2026

We want you to be certain about Deadswitch before it becomes part of how your family is looked after. This policy explains when a purchase can be returned or refunded, and why some cannot.

Drives

Unopened drives can be returned within 30 days of delivery for a refund of the purchase price. The drive must be unused, with the tamper-evident seal intact and in its original packaging. Email us before sending anything back so we can confirm the return and give you the address.

Opened drives cannot be returned or refunded. Once the seal is broken, a Deadswitch drive may hold someone's private vault, and we never take possession of a drive that might. This is not a policy preference — it is a consequence of how the product is designed. Please decide whether Deadswitch is right for you before opening it.

Faulty drives are replaced, not repaired, at no cost. If a drive arrives damaged, or develops a hardware fault, contact us with your order number and a description of the problem. We will send a replacement once the fault is confirmed. We are unable to recover any data from a faulty drive, and we do not attempt to.

Cloud subscription

The Deadswitch cloud plan is billed monthly. You can cancel at any time from your account, and no further charges will be taken. Payments already made for the current billing period are not refunded, and access continues until the end of that period.

If you cancel the cloud plan, your check-in schedule stops and no release will occur. Make sure the people you named know this, or move your vault to a drive first.

Refund processing

Approved refunds go back to the original payment method. Once we have received and inspected a returned drive, or confirmed a cancellation, allow 5–10 business days for the refund to appear, depending on your bank or card issuer. Original shipping charges are not refunded unless the return is due to our error.

What we cannot do

We cannot refund a drive because a passphrase has been forgotten. We hold no copy of it and no way to reset it. We cannot refund a drive that has been opened but "not really used" — we have no way to verify this, and the seal exists precisely so that nobody has to trust us on it.

Contact

Returns, replacements and cancellations: support@dead-switch.com. Include your order number. A person will reply, usually within one business day.