How Tickets work | Curtains Dating

Curtains is operated by Billion Flower Moon Studios LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company.

The rule: starting a conversation puts one of your Tickets on hold, and that Ticket is used only if the other person replies and you then reply back before the deadline (the later of 7 days after you started and 48 hours after their reply); otherwise, it comes back to you automatically.

This page explains that rule, with examples. The binding version is in our Terms, Section 4.

Two ways to start a conversation#

With a soft match. When you and someone like each other, you have a soft match, and either of you can start a conversation.
With a like with a message. From discovery, you can send someone your like together with a message. It waits in their Likes. They can reply once they accept your like, which makes a soft match. Accepting a like is free. Your like and message stay in their Likes, where they can still read them, until they accept or remove them, even after your Ticket comes back.

Either way, sending your first message puts one of your Tickets on hold, and the same rule applies.

The rule, step by step#

You start a conversation. We place a hold on one of your Tickets. While it's on hold, you can't use that Ticket to start another conversation. A hold is a feature of the app. It isn't us holding your money.
They reply. Their reply doesn't use your Ticket. (After a like with a message, they accept your like first, then reply.)
You reply back before the deadline. Your next message after their reply is your continuation. Only now is the Ticket used.

Before they reply, you can send a few more messages in the conversation. None of them uses the Ticket: only your first message after their reply does.

The deadline is the later of 7 days after you started and 48 hours after their reply. If they never reply, the Ticket comes back to you at 7 days. Messages are reviewed before they're delivered, so your start and their reply count from when they're delivered; your continuation counts from when you send it. If we refuse the message that started the conversation, the Ticket comes back to you.

Limits. There are limits, which can change, on how many conversations you can have waiting for a reply at once, how many you can start each day, and how many messages you can send before the other person replies. The app tells you when you reach one.

If the deadline passes without both their reply and your continuation, the Ticket comes back to your balance automatically, and the conversation closes. You can both still read it until your soft match expires; then it disappears. Any later message in it, including a late reply, needs a new Ticket from whoever writes first.

Once a Ticket is used, the conversation is a hard match. It stays open, it doesn't expire with time, and neither of you needs another Ticket for it.

What never costs a Ticket: receiving messages, reading them, accepting a like, and replying to a conversation someone else started (before its deadline). Reactions to Scenes are free and unlimited too, and they never count as a reply or a continuation.

How long a soft match lasts. A soft match expires 21 days after it's made, unless it has become a hard match. If a Ticket is on hold in its conversation when the 21 days end, it lasts until that Ticket is used or comes back.

Examples#

In each example, you start a conversation on June 1 at 9:00 p.m., and one of your Tickets goes on hold. Day 7 is June 8 at 9:00 p.m.

They never reply. On June 8 at 9:00 p.m. (day 7), the Ticket comes back to you and the conversation closes.
They reply on day 1. They reply on June 2 at 9:00 p.m. Forty-eight hours after that is June 4, which is before day 7, so you have until June 8 at 9:00 p.m. You reply back on June 3. The Ticket is used, and the conversation stays open.
They reply on day 6. They reply on June 7 at 9:00 p.m. Forty-eight hours after that is June 9 at 9:00 p.m. (day 8), which is after day 7, so you have until then to reply back.
You don't send a continuation. They reply on June 2, but you don't send another message by June 8 at 9:00 p.m. At that moment, the Ticket comes back to you and the conversation closes.
They reply late. They haven't replied by June 8 at 9:00 p.m., so the Ticket comes back to you and the conversation closes. On June 10, they'd like to reply. Their late reply now needs a new Ticket from them, because they'd be writing first. (If you write first instead, you need the new Ticket.) The same rules then apply, with whoever wrote first as the person who started.
You both start at once. At 9:05 p.m. on June 1, before either of you has replied, they start a conversation with you too. We merge the two into one conversation. You started first, so your opening message counts as the start, and theirs counts as their reply. They don't use a Ticket. Your Ticket stays on hold, and it's used if you reply back by June 8 at 9:00 p.m.
Someone unmatches, blocks or reports, or an account ends. On June 3, before the Ticket is used, either of you unmatches, blocks or reports the other, or their account ends (they delete it or we terminate it). The conversation closes, and the Ticket comes back to you. (A report that someone may hurt themselves closes the conversation only if the person reporting also blocks them.)
They react to your Scene. A reaction isn't a reply. If they react but never reply, the Ticket still comes back to you on June 8 at 9:00 p.m.
A like with a message, accepted in time. You send your like with a message from discovery on June 1. They accept your like on June 4 and reply the same day, and you reply back on June 5. The Ticket is used, and you have a hard match.
A like with a message, not accepted in time. You send your like with a message on June 1. By June 8 at 9:00 p.m., they haven't accepted it and replied, so the Ticket comes back to you. Your message stays in their Likes. If they accept your like on June 20, you have a soft match, and they can read your message, but writing to you now puts a Ticket of their own on hold.
A soft match near its end. You and they matched on May 15, so your soft match would expire on June 5. You start a conversation on June 1. They reply on June 4, and you reply back on June 7, before your deadline of June 8 at 9:00 p.m. The soft match lasted past June 5 because your Ticket was on hold, and now it's a hard match.

Buying Tickets#

Tickets are the only thing we sell. There are no subscriptions, and you're never charged again automatically.
You buy Tickets in bundles of 3 and 8, in the app, through Apple's in-app purchase. Apple shows you the price of each bundle before you buy, and handles any sales tax. We never see your card details.
Prices can change, but a change never affects Tickets you already have.
Every Ticket comes from a purchase. We don't give out free, bonus or reward Tickets.
You can cancel any purchase within 3 business days for a full refund: see Cancel a purchase, which gives the exact time limit for your state. You can also ask Apple for a refund at reportaproblem.apple.com. Apple decides those requests under its own policies, and may ask us how you used that purchase's Tickets (Terms, Sections 5.6 and 5.7).

What Tickets are, and aren't#

They don't expire. Apple's App Store rules don't allow purchased in-app credits to expire.
They're yours alone. Tickets can't be transferred, gifted, sold, exchanged or redeemed for money, except where the law requires.
They have no cash value. A Ticket is a license to use a feature of Curtains. It isn't money, property or stored value.
Which purchase a used Ticket came from. When it matters (for example, for a refund), we count your used Tickets against your oldest purchases first. That way, your unused Tickets are always from your most recent purchases.
When we take Tickets back. Only if Apple refunds a purchase (its Tickets leave your balance, which can go below zero if you'd already used some), if you got Tickets through fraud or because of a bug, or if a payment is reversed. A purchase you cancel with us is different (see below). We never take Tickets back to defeat a refund right the law gives you. Asking Apple for a refund doesn't by itself cost you any Tickets. Only a refund Apple actually grants does.
If we terminate an account you talked to. A Ticket you had on hold in that conversation comes back automatically. If you'd used Tickets on conversations with that account, you can ask support@curtainsdating.com to return them. We look at each request, and we may return them (Terms, Section 4.9).
Questions. If something about your Tickets looks wrong, write to support@curtainsdating.com. We can show you each Ticket's history.

If you cancel, pause or leave#

If you cancel a purchase in time, you get a full refund, even if you've used some of its Tickets. The purchase's unused Tickets come out of your balance, starting with Tickets that aren't on hold. If that isn't enough, Tickets on hold come out too, most recent first, and those conversations close. Conversations where a Ticket was used stay open, and we don't take used Tickets back or charge you for them.
If you put your membership on hold (for up to 1 year: Terms, Section 7.5), your Ticket balance is kept, and your existing conversations carry on as normal: any Ticket on hold keeps its normal deadline, and your hard matches stay open. You just can't start anything new.
If you delete your account, your unused Tickets, including any on hold, are forfeited, except where the law requires a refund. If you delete your account while a purchase is still within its cancellation time limit, we treat the deletion as cancelling that purchase and refund it in full; the deletion screen lists any purchase this applies to. You can also still cancel a purchase by email after deleting your account, as long as you're within the time limit.
If we terminate your account for breaking our Terms or Community Guidelines, your unused Tickets are forfeited too, except where the law requires a refund (for example, for a purchase you cancel in time). None of the Tickets you used come back.
If we close your account because you live where Curtains isn't available, we refund all your unused Tickets (Where Curtains is available).
Death, disability and moving away. The refunds in Terms, Section 7 still apply after an account ends.
If we stop offering Tickets, or Curtains, we'll give you at least 30 days' notice in the app, stop selling Tickets that day, and refund all your unused Tickets.