Summary

• Customers with outdated contact info on their sites continue to trickle in. This is taking a lot of time to verify identities and provide data access securely.
• Retrieval of customer data will continue to be available via links provided until May 1st. Customer data will be automatically imported into the new SOAR when it comes online, should you choose to continue with SOAR..
• Refund policy & process completed and contained below. 
• Purchase agreement between SOAR and Meridian Computing has been completed and executed.
• Meridian has started the process of bringing up a new version of SOAR on cloud services and they’ve made good progress. I’ve been helping with the knowledge transfer. The plan is to have a committed timeframe for the new SOAR service by the end of this week!

Refunds

SOAR has been in business for 18 years. Our prices have not changed once, are lower than other scouting services, and lower than standard website hosting in general. This was part of my way of giving back to the scouting community.

Working with Troopmaster and TroopWebHost to create discounts, imports, and easy transitions for those that needed services immediately was the right thing to do for customers. Please understand it was not in the best interest of SOAR though. Any discounts they have provided are not connected to your SOAR subscription in any way. Just their generous scouting nature to help!

The above has influenced the Refund Policy below. Many customers have let me know they don’t want a refund as an acknowledgement of the above, which is why this is an opt-in process. I believe the refund policy is a good balance between the needs of you (the customer) and me (SOAR).

I will settle all refunds with SOAR customers by the end of April, which will leave Meridian Computing free to start fresh with SOAR and its customers.

Please don’t file a dispute with PayPal. If the number of disputes gets too high, PayPal will put the SOAR account on hold and I won’t be able to get anyone refunds.

1. myGroup customer will receive a full refund. There are only a handful and there is no transition path to the new SOAR or any other scouting based service.
2. Any myPack/myTroop customers that signed up for service in the last 6 months will receive a full refund.  
3. Any myPack/myTroop customers that have over 12 months left in their subscription will get a full monthly prorated refund for the subscription beyond 12 months, in addition to the refund below.
4. All other myPack/myTroop customers will get a monthly prorated refund, minus 4 months, for their remaining subscription.  

• Example: you have 11 months of subscription left. 11 - 4 = 7. 7 months prorated is a refund of $57.
• This translates to customers with 4 or less months less in their subscription not receiving a refund.
• This decision is a combination of the reasons previously stated and PayPal limitations of time in which to process refunds.

Refund Process

To make this manageable, just like getting access to your data, the refund process will be automated. The refund process will be opened on Monday April 24th and be available through Friday May 12th. 

1. Go to the refund form at www.soarol.com/refund.html.
2. You will be asked for an email address. Enter the email address you last renewed with or purchased with for new customers.  This information should be easily available from your receipt from PayPal.
3. You will then be presented with your account information. Signup date, renewal date, and years with SOAR. Your refund amount based on the policy. If your renewal/purchase email address was using a SOAR hosted domain, you will have the option to provide another email address for payment.
4. Make sure everything looks right then click “Request Refund”.
5. Refunds will be processed in bulk each Monday night.

What's Next?

The next communication you receive will be from Meridian Computing with more information on the new SOAR service and its availability! From this point forward, I will be working with them to help them in doing that.

Michael Kabot

Owner (2005-2023)

SOAR