i woke up this afternoon to discover that someone had gifted me with a period of gold account status, and while i appreciate the sentiment behind the gesture, i find myself not at all comfortable with the idea of someone spending their csc or perhaps real money on me. i looked around the preferences and found the checkbox to prevent this from happening again in the future, but is there a way to turn off or undo this? like, just remove my gold status, and perhaps even refund the person that gave it to me?

Unfortunately, no, there's no way to reverse it. If it makes you feel any better though, buddy GAs are given out automatically with some tiers of subscriptions, and they can't be used for your own account (even post-subscription if your own GA runs out). Some users will trade them 1:1 with others for more GA time, but that's really only helpful if you don't have an active subscription giving you GA time. If you do keep an active subscription, they tend to build up

that's unfortunate. even if there wasn't a way to give it back i was or sure hoping there was a way to turn off the gold status... ah well.

If it's any consolation, they likely didn't spend real money just for the gold account. I get two each month with my subscription. They pile up if they're not used on other people.

You can disable receiving a buddy GA in your preferences. Access it by going to user dashboard. https://subeta.net/preferences.php?act=prefs

if you wish to not have a buddy GA given to you. Go to : Personal - Dashboard - Preferences - near the bottom is :Gift blocking options: Block Buddy GAs Prevents other users from gifting you Buddy GAs.

Check it to stop any gifts coming your way.

If it really makes you uncomfortable to have the gold account status, you could try filing a ticket to explain the situation to a staff member and see if there's anything they could do. But like others have said, the best option going forward would be to just have the receiving option disabled in your preferences.

nobody spent their money "on you." if you have a subscription, the buddy GAs pile up whether you want them or not. it does not benefit or diminish the subscriber to use or not use them.