Cancellation & Refund Policy

1. Corporate Identity & Application of Policy

This Cancellation & Refund Policy governs the cancellation processes, invoice settlements, and refund conditions for services rendered by STITCHBYTE LLP (herein referred to as the "Company", "we", "us", or "our"). Because we design and engineer bespoke custom software, digital marketing campaigns, SEO structures, and social media management frameworks, our refund rules are structured around completed milestones and resource allocation.

2. Custom Software & Web Development Projects

Custom engineering, UX/UI layouts, API integrations, and code solutions are billed based on the milestones defined in the Statement of Work (SOW):

• Retainer & Advance Deposits: The initial project deposit or retainer payment is strictly non-refundable once work (such as requirements discovery, Figma styling, design layout, or code setup) has started.
• Completed Milestones: Payments made upon the approval of specific project milestones (e.g., database architecture approval, front-end staging approval, user acceptance testing) are completely non-refundable.
• Objective Partial Completion Terms: If a project is cancelled during an active milestone phase, no refunds are given for the deposit. A pro-rata billing evaluation will be conducted based on the engineering and design hours logged up to the official date of written cancellation. If the accumulated hours exceed the advance deposit, the Client will be invoiced for the difference. If the hours are less than the deposit, the remaining funds—minus non-recoverable payment gateway fees, taxes, and third-party costs—will be returned to the Client.

3. SEO, Digital Marketing & Social Media Management Subscriptions

Strategic SEO, ad campaigns, and monthly social media management services involve ongoing monthly retainer commitments and constant resource allocations:

• Monthly Fees: Monthly retainer invoices are billed in advance and are non-refundable.
• Cancellation Notice: Clients may cancel monthly support, SEO, or social media management services by giving at least **thirty (30) calendar days** written notice to info@stitchbyte.in. Services will continue through the end of the current billing cycle, and no further invoices will be raised.
• Direct Advertising Spend: Budgets paid to advertising networks (including Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, or TikTok Ads) are governed by the respective networks' terms. StitchByte is not responsible for issuing refunds or managing charge disputes for direct ad platform spends.

4. Prebuilt Software Products, Themes & Templates

For licenses to prebuilt software solutions, ready-made codebases, or digital templates purchased directly, refunds are only issued if the product is proven to be functionally defective and our support team is unable to resolve the issue within **ten (10) business days** of reporting. Refund claims must be submitted in writing within **seven (7) calendar days** of the purchase date. Custom styling or content additions are non-refundable.

5. Non-Refundability of Third-Party Expenses & Government Taxes

Payments made for third-party infrastructure components, setup fees, or statutory government charges are **100% non-refundable** under all circumstances. These include:

• Domain name registrations, SSL renewals, and Google Workspace setups.
• Cloud hosting infrastructure invoices (AWS, Vercel, Netlify, DigitalOcean, Oracle Cloud).
• Third-party software licenses, API subscriptions, themes, and plugins.
• Statutory taxes, including Indian GST (CGST/SGST/IGST), which are paid directly to tax authorities.

6. Client Delays & Abandoned Projects

**No Refunds for Client Delays:** Refunds are not available for project delays caused by Client inactivity, delayed approvals, slow content delivery, or late payment settlements.

**Abandoned Projects:** If a client becomes unresponsive or fails to provide required credentials or assets for **sixty (60) calendar days**, the project will be deemed abandoned and closed. All deposits paid will be forfeited. Resuming an abandoned project will require a new cost evaluation, current developer scheduling checks, and a project restoration fee.

7. Chargebacks, Disputes, and Payment Integrity

The Client agrees to contact our billing team at **info@stitchbyte.in** to resolve billing issues before initiating a formal chargeback dispute with their bank or payment processor. If an unauthorized or fraudulent chargeback is filed, STITCHBYTE LLP reserves the right to immediately suspend all services (including production hosting, Git code repositories, design setups, and campaigns) and pursue legal recovery actions to reclaim the outstanding balances, payment gateway penalties, and legal representation costs.

8. Withholding of Source Code and Deliverables

Under no circumstances will StitchByte hand over source code, Figma design files, staging environments, ZIP archives, database keys, or production deployments if there are outstanding invoices, pro-rata cancellation fees, or pending milestone payments. STITCHBYTE LLP retains full intellectual property rights and physical control of all deliverables until all financial obligations are met by the Client.

9. Refund Processing, Currencies, and Exchange Differences

**Processing Timeline:** Approved refunds will be processed within **7 to 14 business days** and returned via the original payment method where feasible.

**Currency and Bank Fees:** Refunds are issued in the original transaction currency (e.g., INR or USD). STITCHBYTE LLP is not responsible for exchange rate fluctuations, conversion fees, or non-recoverable payment gateway fees charged by banks or transaction processors.

10. Force Majeure & Limitation of Outcome Guarantees

**Force Majeure:** Refunds or cancellations are not owed for project delays or service interruptions caused by events outside our reasonable control (including acts of God, natural disasters, government regulations, or major cloud hosting outages).

**Disclaimers:** We do not issue refunds based on commercial outcomes (such as search engine rankings, sales volumes, conversion ratios, or social media engagement). All marketing and SEO setups are executed at the Client's business risk.

11. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution

This Cancellation & Refund Policy is governed by the laws of India. Any disputes arising from billing, cancellations, or refund requests shall be resolved in accordance with the dispute resolution procedures detailed in our Terms & Conditions, under the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts in **Alwar, Rajasthan, India**.

12. Contact Billing & Financial Support

To submit a formal cancellation request or request a billing review, please contact our financial support department: