Disputing a Completed Order: When Placements Break
What to do when a publisher removes or alters your link after completion: how post-completion disputes work, the refund, and how to open one.
Disputing a Completed Order
When a Placement Breaks After Completion
Most orders end cleanly: the publisher publishes your content, you approve it, and the link stays live. But occasionally a placement breaks after the order is already marked complete — the article gets deleted, your link is stripped out or quietly switched to nofollow, the page is taken down, or the domain expires. A post-completion dispute is how you get that put right.
This guide covers when a post-completion dispute applies, how the refund works (it's different from a normal cancellation), and how to open one.
When You Can Open a Post-Completion Dispute
A post-completion dispute applies to an order that has already reached Completed status, where the publisher has broken the agreed placement. Common grounds:
- Content removed — the published article is deleted or unpublished
- Link removed — your backlink is stripped from an article that's otherwise still live
- Link altered — the link is changed to nofollow, redirected, or pointed somewhere else
- Page taken down — the specific URL returns a 404 or is set to noindex
- Domain expired — the publisher's site is gone entirely
- Not indexed — on a listing that guaranteed Google indexing, the placement isn't in Google's index. This ground is offered only on guaranteed listings; a standard listing makes no indexing promise.
There is no time limit. A placement is meant to stay live, so you can report a breach whenever you notice it — whether that's a week or a year after completion.
If your order hasn't completed yet and something's gone wrong — the publisher is unresponsive, or the delivery doesn't match the brief — that's a regular in-progress dispute instead. See the dispute resolution process.
How to Open One
- Go to Dashboard > Orders and open the completed order.
- Click Open Dispute.
- Choose what went wrong — link removed, page down, domain expired, and so on.
- Describe the problem in writing: what the page used to contain, what changed, and where it was published.
- Submit.
Post-completion disputes are text-based. You don't upload screenshots or evidence files — the Serpverse team checks the published page directly, so a clear written description is all that's needed.
What the Refund Looks Like
This is the most important part to understand, because a post-completion refund works differently from a cancellation refund. If the team confirms the breach:
- The refund is recovered from the publisher — it comes out of their balance and is credited to yours.
- The 15% service fee is not returned. The refund covers the placement value, not the platform fee, so it isn't a full return of what you originally paid.
- It can be partial. The refund is limited to what can be recovered from the publisher's balance; if they don't have enough, you receive what's available and the order is noted as partially refunded.
- The order stays marked Completed. A post-completion refund compensates you for the broken placement rather than reversing the order.
If the team finds the placement is actually fine — still live, or the change isn't the publisher's responsibility — the completed order stands and no refund is issued.
What Happens on the Publisher's Side
While a post-completion dispute is open, the publisher's earnings tied to that order are reserved — held back from the amount they can withdraw — until the dispute resolves. That's why a publisher may briefly see a lower withdrawable figure than usual; see what you can withdraw for how that works. It protects you: the money needed to make a confirmed refund can't be cashed out mid-dispute.
A Separate Path: Reporting Bad Content on a Completed Order
Everything above is about a placement breach — a link or page that was fine at completion and broke later. There's a separate situation worth knowing about: the published content itself being illegal or abusive (for example defamatory material or copyright infringement). That isn't a placement breach, and it's handled on its own track.
In that case, either party can report the order's content for review straight from the order. Doing so pauses the completed order while our team looks into it, and the outcome can include a refund taken from the publisher's earnings together with a request to take the content down. This is distinct from the placement-breach dispute described above — different grounds, different process. The full walkthrough lives in orders under review and how to report content.
Post-Completion Disputes vs. Chargebacks
If a placement breaks, open a post-completion dispute — don't file a chargeback with your bank. The two are very different:
- A post-completion dispute is reviewed by the Serpverse team and resolved against the publisher, usually within a few business days.
- A chargeback is a bank reversal of your original card deposit. It's meant for genuinely unauthorized charges, takes 60–90 days, and using one for a content issue is a policy violation that can lead to account suspension.
How to Protect Yourself
- Check your placements periodically. A quick look every few months catches a removed or altered link early.
- Keep a record of what was agreed — the target URL and anchor text from your order — so you can describe a breach precisely.
- Report promptly when you spot a problem. There's no deadline, but the sooner you raise it, the easier it is to confirm.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will I get my full payment back? Not necessarily. The refund is recovered from the publisher and excludes the 15% service fee, and it may be partial if the publisher's balance is short. It's compensation for the broken placement, not a full reversal.
Is there a deadline to report a broken placement? No. Placements are expected to stay live indefinitely, so you can open a post-completion dispute whenever you discover a genuine breach.
Does the order get cancelled? No. The order stays Completed. The dispute results in either a refund recovered from the publisher, or no change.
Can the publisher dispute back? Post-completion disputes are opened by buyers and decided by the Serpverse team after checking the live page. The publisher is notified, but the decision rests on what the page actually shows.
Related Resources
- Dispute Resolution Process — disputes on in-progress orders
- Refund Policy — every refund scenario and where the money goes
- Chargebacks Explained — why a bank chargeback is the wrong tool
- What You Can Withdraw — how disputes affect a publisher's payouts
- The Google Indexing Guarantee — what the "not indexed" ground covers