Refund & Cancellation Policy

We set this policy because entry fees are committed in advance to venues, equipment, materials, prizes and vendors as soon as a place is allotted to you. A place you book is a place another participant cannot take.

To be explicit, we do not refund a payment because:

• You changed your mind, or no longer wish to attend.
• You did not turn up, arrived after an event started, or left early.
• You registered for the wrong event, the wrong category, or bought a duplicate registration by mistake.
• You were eliminated, disqualified, or did not place in a competition.
• You could not attend because of travel, illness, exams, work or any other personal circumstance.
• You were denied entry, or removed from the venue, for breaching our Terms & Conditions or campus rules.
• You registered at a student rate you were not entitled to.
• You are dissatisfied with the format, judging, timing or venue of an event.

You may cancel a registration from your account at any time, which releases your place to someone else. Cancelling does not produce a refund. Once cancelled, a registration cannot be reinstated and you would need to pay again if you want the place back — assuming it is still available.

The policy above covers valid, completed payments. It does not cover money that should never have left your account in the first place. These are corrected:

• Money debited, registration not confirmed — if your bank shows a debit but no ticket was issued, the amount is usually reversed automatically by your bank or the payment gateway within 5–7 working days. If it has not returned in that time, contact us and we will trace it and refund it in full.
• Charged twice for the same registration — the duplicate charge is refunded in full.
• Charged the wrong amount — if a technical fault charged you more than the price shown at checkout, we refund the difference.

Raise these with us within 7 days of the transaction so we can reconcile it against gateway records.

If we cancel an event outright and do not reschedule it, we refund the registration fee for that event in full.

The festival entry pass is refunded only if the entire festival is cancelled before it begins. It is not refunded when an individual event within the festival is cancelled, because the pass covers access to the festival as a whole.

If an event is rescheduled, moved to another venue, changed in format, or shortened, your registration carries over and no refund is due. If the festival is postponed, all registrations carry over to the new dates.

Where a refund is due under clause 4 or 5, we process it to the original payment method only — the same card, account or UPI ID you paid from. We do not refund to a different account, and we do not pay refunds in cash.

• We initiate the refund within 3 working days of approving it.
• It typically reaches your account in 5–7 working days after that, depending on your bank. The final leg is controlled by your bank, not by us.
• Where you paid by direct UPI transfer rather than through the gateway, refunds are made back to the same UPI ID and may take longer, as they are processed manually.
• Refunds are for the amount you paid. Any bank or gateway charge your own bank levies separately is not something we can return.

Email Rush4Rush@universalai.in from the address on your account, with:

• Your full name and registered email address
• The event or pass in question
• The payment or order ID from your confirmation email
• The date and amount of the transaction
• A screenshot of the bank or UPI debit, if you are reporting a failed or duplicate payment

We acknowledge requests within 48 hours and give you a decision within 7 working days. Please contact us before raising a chargeback with your bank — a chargeback takes far longer to resolve than a direct refund.