Predictika · Subscription refund gate

An AI agent's refund or cancellation, checked before it is carried out

An AI billing-support agent reads a customer's request and proposes an action on a subscription: a refund, a cancellation or a goodwill credit. Before the action is carried out, the agent sends it to Predictika, which checks it against a declarative model of typical subscription-billing practice and returns a verdict, every reason and the figures it computed.

Scope: Subscription billing actions by a support agent: refunds, cancellations, plan changes, trial extensions, billing pauses and goodwill credits, checked against refund windows, amounts and yearly caps. See everything this validator covers

This validator checks a proposed action on a single subscription, whatever the request — not just the scenarios shown below.

  • Refunds — a refund must fall within the refund window for the billing cycle (14 days monthly, 30 days annual; duplicate charges are exempt), cannot exceed the amount charged, and needs a payment method on file.
  • Cancellations — a past-due account must settle its outstanding balance before it can be cancelled.
  • Plan changes, trials and pauses — a downgrade cannot carry a refund, an upgrade must carry a positive prorated charge, a trial can be extended only while in trial and to no more than 30 days in total, and business plans cannot pause billing.
  • Goodwill credits — credits above $50 for the year need a person to authorize them; a renewal dispute needs auto-renew to have been on.

Any single subscription action of these kinds is in scope, not only the scenarios pictured here. Not covered: tax, currency conversion, chargebacks, fraud checks and the customer's account history beyond the figures the agent supplies. The windows and caps are illustrative, drawn from general practice; this is not any company's policy.

The AI billing-support agentReads the customer's request and proposes an action: refund, cancel or credit.
Predictika validatorChecks every rule at once and returns the verdict, each finding and the computed figures.

7 scenarios in 4 groups · each group runs from the agent’s first attempt to the outcome · click one to switch

What the agent proposes

The AI billing-support agent says

Illustrative agent statement. The validator receives the structured request below.

Proposing agent: AI billing-support agent (scripted)

Before carrying out the action, the agent must call Recorded run

Predictika validator


      

        
        
        
      

      
Waiting for the call.

      
    

  

  
  

    
Where typical rules-based tools get it wrong
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Our assessment of what a typical rules-based tool (billing-system rules, support macros and approval routing) does with the same cases. It is our assessment, a judgment about effort and reliability, not a claim that nothing can be built.

    
What the validator caughtTypical rules-based toolPredictika
A refund request that is over the amount charged, in a window that depends on the billing cycleOnly with care
The window is usually a single number, so an annual plan gets the monthly window or the reverse.		The window is computed from the billing cycle (14 or 30 days) and the amount is tested against what was charged.
Cancelling an account that is past dueOnly with workarounds
Cancel and balance checks live in different systems, so the agent cancels first and finds the debt later.		The balance is a field of the request; a past-due cancellation is blocked until it is settled.
A goodwill credit that is fine alone but over the yearly cap with this one addedOnly with workarounds
Each credit is approved alone; the running yearly total has to be tracked elsewhere.		The yearly total is a field of the request; the validator tests the $50 cap and returns needs approval.
Exact boundaries: day 14 of a monthly plan passes, day 15 does not; $50 of credits passes, $51 does notOnly with care
Off-by-one errors in windows and caps are common and only show up on edge cases.		Each boundary was run on both sides on the live validator.

  

  

    
What this validator catches
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Every rule is checked on every call, in any order the choices arrive; one problem never hides another. Blocking findings stop the request; approval findings need a person to sign off; everything else is computed.

    
1A refund must be requested within the refund window: 14 days after the charge for monthly billing, 30 days for annual. Duplicate charges are exempt.
2A refund cannot be more than the amount charged.
3A refund needs a payment method on file.
4A downgrade cannot carry a refund.
5An upgrade must carry a positive prorated charge.
6A past-due account must settle its balance before it can be cancelled.
7A trial can be extended only while the subscription is in trial.
8A trial cannot run longer than 30 days in total.
9Billing cannot be paused on a business plan.
10A renewal dispute needs auto-renew to have been on.
11Goodwill credits above $50 for the year need a person to authorize them.

  

  

    
Scenarios and results
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The recorded result of the validator for each scenario on this page: the request the AI agent sent, the verdict, and every finding, in the order they appear above.

    
1. Refund amount: A $139 refund on a $119 annual charge

    
The agent's request. Please refund $139 on account A-20817. The customer's Plus annual plan was charged $119 twenty-two days ago and the customer says it was an accidental purchase.

    
Verdict: Blocked.

    
    
      
  • Refund is more than was charged. The requested refund of $139 is more than the $119 actually charged.
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2. Refund amount: The agent resubmits after fixing the errors

    
The agent's request. Please refund $119 on account A-20817. The customer's Plus annual plan was charged $119 twenty-two days ago and the customer says it was an accidental purchase.

    
Verdict: Allowed.

    
    
      
  • Action summary. This is a refund of $119 on account A-20817 (Plus plan, annual billing).
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3. Cancellation: Cancelling a past-due account

    
The agent's request. Please cancel account A-31544 on the Plus monthly plan. The account is past due with $42.50 outstanding and the customer says they are not using the product.

    
Verdict: Blocked.

    
    
      
  • Cancellation with a past-due balance. The account is past due with $42.50 outstanding, and the balance must be settled before it can be cancelled.
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4. Cancellation: The agent resubmits after fixing the errors

    
The agent's request. Please cancel account A-31544 on the Plus monthly plan. The customer has paid the $42.50 that was outstanding, so the account is now active and current, and the customer says they are not using the product.

    
Verdict: Allowed.

    
    
      
  • Action summary. This is a cancellation on account A-31544 (Plus plan, monthly billing).
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5. Goodwill credit: A goodwill credit that takes the year to $80

    
The agent's request. Please apply a goodwill credit to account A-40276 on the Premium annual plan, for a technical issue. With this credit, the customer's goodwill credits for the year would total $80.

    
Verdict: Needs approval.

    
    
      
  • Goodwill credit over the yearly cap. Goodwill credits for the year would total $80, over the $50 cap, so a person must authorize the credit.
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  • Action summary. This is a goodwill credit (credits this year would total $80) on account A-40276 (Premium plan, annual billing).
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6. Goodwill credit: The agent resubmits after fixing the errors

    
The agent's request. Please apply a goodwill credit to account A-40276 on the Premium annual plan, for a technical issue. With this credit, the customer's goodwill credits for the year would total $50.

    
Verdict: Allowed.

    
    
      
  • Action summary. This is a goodwill credit (credits this year would total $50) on account A-40276 (Premium plan, annual billing).
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7. Refund window: A refund 41 days after an annual charge

    
The agent's request. Please refund $149 on account A-52930. The Premium annual plan was charged $149 forty-one days ago and the customer says they are not using the product.

    
Verdict: Blocked.

    
    
      
  • Refund window has passed. The refund is requested 41 days after the charge, outside the 30-day window for Annual billing.
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Narration transcript
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The text of the narrated walkthrough, step by step.

    
    
      
  1. Welcome to a demo of Predictika's Validator. An AI billing-support agent reads a customer's request and proposes an action on a subscription: a refund, a cancellation or a goodwill credit. Before the action is carried out, the agent sends it to Predictika, which checks it against a declarative model of typical subscription-billing practice and returns a verdict, every reason and the figures it computed.
    2. 
      
  2. I will start with the first request by the agent.
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  3. The agent says. Please refund $139 on account A-20817. The customer's Plus annual plan was charged $119 twenty-two days ago and the customer says it was an accidental purchase.
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  4. Before it goes out, the agent calls the validator.
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  5. Blocked, with one finding, all in one answer. The requested refund of $139 is more than the $119 actually charged.
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  6. The validator returned one blocking finding in one answer. A check that reads one field at a time would pass most of this; it shows only when the choices in the action are checked against each other.
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  7. What this shows: for a refund request that is over the amount charged, in a window that depends on the billing cycle, a rules-based tool is error-prone for this.
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  8. Now the agent resubmits.
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  9. The corrected request. It changes the refund requested to $119.
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  10. It calls the validator again.
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  11. This time the validator clears it.
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  12. The earlier finding is cleared.
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  13. One problem caught in one call, fixed in one pass, and a clean action. That is the value of Predictika's validator: catching mistakes before the action runs. Now you can try the other scenarios yourself.
    14.