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Furbol — How It Works

I paid online for a game that didn't happen — where's my money?

I paid online for a game that didn’t happen — where’s my money?

You booked an online-paid game. The game didn’t happen — maybe it was cancelled, maybe it didn’t hit quorum, maybe you were pulled out for a same-day conflict. You check your wallet and you’re not sure if the money came back. Here’s how it actually works.

The short version: in almost every case, the refund is immediate — it releases the moment the game is cancelled or you leave it. If it looks “pending” in the wallet, that’s just how Furbol shows money tied to an upcoming game, not a delay in getting the refund.

The two ways “I paid but didn’t play” happens

Understanding which one you’re in tells you what happened to the money.

1. The game was cancelled — by the host or by Furbol

Either the host cancelled it, or Furbol’s last-hour cut auto-cancelled it for missing quorum.

  • Every booking on the roster at the moment of cancel has its hold released as part of the cancel itself. You don’t need to do anything — Furbol handles the refund automatically, and you just see your balance come back.
  • Your wallet’s “pending” entry for that game disappears.
  • Your spendable balance goes back to what it was before you booked.

See the game I booked didn’t hit quorum and the host cancelled the game I booked for the event-side narrative.

2. You left the game before it started

You tapped unbook. As long as the game hadn’t reached its scheduled end time, the refund fires with the unbook itself — same transaction. See Leaving a Game.

3. You were pulled for a same-day conflict

Another of your same-day games hit quorum first, and Furbol removed you from this one. Same refund behaviour: hold released at removal. See your game hit quorum while you had another one booked.

4. You were removed by the host or your placer

Same again — hold releases with the removal. See the host kicked me out of the game.

How fast is “immediate”?

The wallet entry for the cancelled/left game should disappear within seconds of the event. If your wallet still shows a pending hold for a game that’s clearly over and clearly not happening, close and reopen the app once — the wallet refreshes what it shows each time you open it.

”Pending” vs. “gone” — a common confusion

The wallet shows three things: your balance, your pending, and your past. People sometimes assume “pending” means “on its way back to you.” It doesn’t. “Pending” means the money is tied to an upcoming game — either you’ll play and it’ll transfer to the host, or the game won’t happen and it’ll come back.

So if a game you booked and paid for was cancelled, the right signal is not “pending is still there” (it shouldn’t be) — it’s “my spendable balance is back to what it was before I booked.” That’s the refund.

For more on what pending means and when it moves, see Pending.

Edge case: the game was technically “played” but you weren’t there

If the game did reach its end time, was marked as played, but you personally didn’t show up — that’s no longer a “didn’t happen” case. The game happened; you just missed it. For online-paid games, once the game has ended, your money doesn’t come back from just leaving — see Leaving a Game for the post-end-time rule.

The exception is if enough players rate the game as didn’t-actually-happen in the feedback window — that can still flip the result. But that’s a separate flow driven by the ratings, not by your unbook.

What if the refund really didn’t arrive?

The refund stays entirely inside Furbol — nothing has to leave the app or clear through a bank. So a “stuck refund” is extremely unusual. If your balance genuinely seems wrong:

  • Reopen the app, in case the wallet view is cached.
  • Check your past-transactions list for the refund line — it’ll show the reverse of the original hold.
  • Contact support through the account screen if the reverse transaction isn’t there.