Return & Refund Policy

1. Definitions

• Subscription Product: software provided on a recurring billing cycle, including FBR Digital Invoicing.
• One-Time Product: a product sold for a single payment, a perpetual licence, licence key, template, downloadable file, or similar deliverable.
• Usage Credits: prepaid balance, wallet credits, or metered units consumed as you use a product.
• Services: professional services delivered by our team, including AI/ML development, custom software, web and mobile development, cloud migration, product design, QA, staff augmentation, and MVP/POC work.
• Consumer: an individual buying wholly or mainly outside a trade, business, craft, or profession. Businesses, sole traders buying for business use, and organisations are not Consumers.

2. Which section applies to you

Sections 7 to 12 apply to every purchase. If you are a Consumer, Section 11 may give you more than this policy does, and where it does, Section 11 wins.

3. Subscription Products

Applies to FBR Digital Invoicing and any other StellarStack product billed on a recurring cycle.

3.1 Initial 7-day refund window

New subscribers get one 7-day refund window, starting on the date of the first successful payment on the account. To use it, submit a request through our contact page or email support@stellarstack.co before the 7 days end.

The window applies once per customer and per account, and only to the initial subscription payment. It does not apply to renewals, upgrades, add-ons, setup fees, or wallet credits.

3.2 After the window

Outside the 7-day window, subscription payments, including renewals, upgrades, add-ons, and setup fees, are non-refundable. We do not pro-rate partial months or partial billing periods.

3.3 Auto-renewal

Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing cycle at the then-current rate, until cancelled. Cancel before your renewal date to avoid being charged for the next cycle. A renewal charge that has already been processed is not refundable, but you keep access for the period you paid for.

Before your subscription starts and before each renewal, we tell you the renewal date, the renewal amount, and how to cancel. Where the law of your state, province, or country requires a separate advance renewal reminder, we send it to your account email.

3.4 Cancelling

You can cancel at any time, through the same channel you used to sign up. If you subscribed online, you can cancel online from your account settings, in the same number of steps it took to subscribe, without having to call, wait, or pass through retention offers. You can also cancel by emailing support@stellarstack.co.

Cancellation stops future renewals; it does not refund the current period. Your access continues until the end of the period you have already paid for.

If for any reason the cancellation control in your account does not work, email support@stellarstack.co. We will process the cancellation effective on the date you sent that email, not the date we reply, and refund any renewal charge taken between those two dates.

3.5 Failed payments and suspension

If a payment fails, we may retry it and may suspend the account until payment succeeds. Time lost to a suspension caused by a failed payment is not refundable or creditable. If the account stays unpaid, we may terminate it and delete the associated data after the retention period in our Terms of Service.

3.6 Downtime and defects

If the product is materially unavailable, or a defect prevents you from using a core function, contact support first. Our standard remedy is a fix plus a service credit applied to your next invoice. Cash refunds for downtime are assessed case by case and are not automatic.

4. One-Time Products and Licences

Applies to perpetual licences, licence keys, templates, downloadable files, and other products sold for a single payment.

4.1 14-day refund window

You may request a refund within 14 days of purchase, provided that none of the following has happened:

• the product has been downloaded or installed;
• a licence key or activation code has been issued to you or redeemed;
• the product has been deployed to a production environment;
• for bundles, any component of the bundle has been downloaded or activated.

Once any of these occurs, the sale is final, because the product cannot be returned or un-delivered once it is in your hands.

If you are a Consumer, this cut-off applies only where, at checkout, you expressly asked us to supply the product immediately and acknowledged that doing so ends your right to cancel. If you did not give that consent and acknowledgment, your full 14-day cancellation right under Section 11 survives the download.

4.2 Defective products

If the product does not work as described, tell us within 30 days of purchase with enough detail for us to reproduce the problem. We will repair or replace it. If we cannot make it work as described within a reasonable time, we will refund it in full, including after the 14-day window. This is in addition to, not instead of, any statutory remedy you have.

4.3 Not covered

• Compatibility with third-party software, hosting, or hardware that we did not list as supported.
• Customisations you or a third party made to the product.
• A change of mind after download, activation, or deployment (subject to Section 4.1 if you are a Consumer).
• Licence upgrades and renewals of time-limited licences.

5. Usage Credits and Wallet Balance

Applies to prepaid wallet credits, top-ups, and metered or pay-as-you-go usage.

5.1 Unused credits

Unused credits are refundable within 30 days of the top-up that funded them, less any amount already consumed. Refunds are calculated at the rate you actually paid for those credits, not at list price.

5.2 Consumed usage

Credits that have been consumed are non-refundable. Usage is metered by our systems, and those records are the reference for what has been consumed. If you believe the metering is wrong, raise it within 60 days of the usage and we will investigate and correct genuine errors.

5.3 Promotional and bonus credits

Credits granted free, as a bonus, as part of a promotion, or as a service credit have no cash value and are never refundable or transferable.

5.4 Expiry

Credits expire according to the term stated at the time of purchase. Expired credits are not refundable and cannot be reinstated, except where local law requires otherwise.

5.5 On account closure

If you close your account, request any refund of unused credits at the same time. Credits are forfeited 30 days after closure.

6. Professional Services Engagements

Applies to AI/ML development, custom software, web and mobile development, cloud migration, product design, QA and testing, MVP/POC work, and staff augmentation, however that work is priced.

6.1 Which pricing model applies to you

Your SOW or order form states the commercial model. Each is refunded differently:

Section 6.7 applies to all services engagements regardless of model.

6.2 Hourly and time-and-materials

Hours that have been worked and logged are non-refundable, whether billed in arrears or drawn from a prepaid block.

• Prepaid hour blocks: unused hours are refundable within 90 days of purchase, at the rate you actually paid. Discounted blocks are refunded at the discounted rate, not list rate.
• Timesheets: we make logged hours visible to you as they accrue. Query any entry within 15 days of the invoice covering it; we correct genuine errors and reverse the charge.
• Minimum increments and unused capacity: where the SOW sets a weekly or monthly minimum, that minimum is payable and non-refundable once the period has started.
• Unused hours expire per the term in your SOW and are not refundable after expiry.

6.3 Fixed-price projects

The fee covers an agreed scope for an agreed price. Payment schedules for fixed-price work (for example 40/30/30) are payment timing, not milestone acceptance, a paid instalment does not by itself mean that portion of the work is accepted or non-refundable.

On termination before completion, we assess the percentage of the agreed scope actually delivered, invoice for that portion plus committed third-party costs, and refund the balance of what you have paid within 30 days. If the delivered portion exceeds what you have paid, we invoice the difference.

A completed and accepted fixed-price project is non-refundable.

6.4 Milestone-based engagements

Fees for a milestone that has been delivered and accepted are non-refundable. Acceptance is as defined in your SOW; where the SOW is silent, a deliverable is accepted when you approve it in writing, or 10 business days after delivery if you have raised no written objections.

Work in progress on an unaccepted milestone at the time of termination is invoiced on a time-and-materials basis at the rates in your SOW, and the unearned balance is refunded.

6.5 Monthly subscription, retainer, and staff augmentation

These buy allocated engineering capacity for a period, whether or not you use it in full.

• The current month is non-refundable once it has begun. We do not pro-rate a partial month.
• Cancel before the renewal date to avoid the next month’s charge. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current notice period stated in your agreement.
• Unused hours or capacity do not roll over and are not refundable unless your agreement expressly provides for carry-over.
• Where the agreement has a minimum term, terminating early triggers the early-termination terms in that agreement rather than a refund.
• If we fail to supply the agreed capacity in a month, for example an assigned engineer is unavailable and not replaced, we credit or refund the shortfall for that month, pro-rated.

6.6 Partnership, equity, and revenue-share arrangements

Where we take equity, a revenue share, deferred fees, or another non-cash interest in place of some or all of our fees, there is no cash refund of the non-cash portion. Nothing was paid in cash, so nothing is returned in cash.

• Any cash component of a hybrid arrangement is refunded under whichever of Sections 6.2 to 6.5 matches how that cash portion is priced.
• Unwinding equity, vesting, share buy-back, revenue-share termination, and the treatment of IP on exit are governed exclusively by the partnership, shareholder, or investment agreement, not by this policy.
• Equity or revenue share already vested or accrued for work delivered is not reversed by terminating the engagement.
• If no separate partnership agreement is in place, the engagement is treated as milestone-based under Section 6.4 for refund purposes until one is signed.

6.7 Terms common to all services engagements

Ending an engagement early. Either party may terminate under the notice terms of the SOW or MSA. On termination we (1) invoice for all work delivered or in progress up to the termination date, including work not yet billed; (2) refund any prepaid amount above that figure within 30 days; (3) deduct non-cancellable third-party costs committed on your behalf, cloud spend, licences, subcontracted specialists, and identify each to you; and (4) hand over completed deliverables for which payment has been received.

Deposits and mobilisation fees. A deposit reserves engineering capacity and is applied against the first invoice or milestone. If you cancel after we have allocated the team but before work begins, we retain the portion covering the notice period in your SOW and refund the remainder.

If the work is not right. Our first remedy is re-performance: we correct or redo work that does not meet the agreed specification, at no extra charge, within the warranty period in your SOW. Where re-performance is impossible, or cannot be done within a reasonable time and without significant inconvenience to you, we will instead reduce the price by an appropriate amount or refund accordingly. Nothing in this paragraph limits the statutory remedies of a Consumer under Section 11.

Delays caused by the client. Time and cost lost to delayed feedback, unavailable access or credentials, unavailable stakeholders, or scope changes are billable and non-refundable. We flag these as they occur.

7. How to request a refund

Email support@stellarstack.co or use our contact page with:

• the account email or company name on the purchase;
• the invoice or transaction ID, and the date and amount;
• what you bought and which section of this policy you are relying on;
• the reason for the request, and any evidence (screenshots, error messages, correspondence).

What happens next: we acknowledge within 2 business days, and decide within 10 business days. If we approve, the refund is issued within 10 business days of the decision. Where a statutory cancellation right applies, we refund within the period that law requires, which may be shorter.

Refunds go back to the original payment method, in the original currency. We cannot refund to a different card, account, or person.

8. Currency, fees, and taxes

• Prices and refunds are in US dollars unless your invoice states otherwise.
• If your bank converted the payment, the amount you receive back may differ from what you paid, because exchange rates move between the two dates. That difference arises at your bank, and we cannot compensate for it.
• Payment processor, bank, and wire transfer fees are deducted from refunds where the processor does not return them to us. This deduction does not apply where you are exercising a statutory cancellation right under Section 11, in which case you receive the full amount you paid.
• Sales tax, VAT, GST, and withholding tax are refunded with the principal amount where the applicable tax authority allows it. Where a tax has already been remitted and cannot be recovered, we refund the net amount and tell you what was withheld and why.

9. Chargebacks, unauthorised transactions, and abuse

9.1 Talk to us first

If you think a charge is wrong, contact us before your bank. Most disputes are billing errors we can fix in a day.

9.2 Chargebacks

Filing a chargeback while a refund request is open with us may pause our review until the bank’s process concludes. If a chargeback is decided in our favour, we may recover the associated dispute fees from you and may decline future service. Nothing here restricts your right to raise a dispute with your bank or card issuer.

9.3 Unauthorised transactions

Report suspected fraud or unauthorised charges immediately, with the transaction date, amount, and last four digits of the card. We will investigate with our payment processor and respond within 10 business days. Where a transaction is confirmed unauthorised, it is refunded in full. Nothing in this policy limits the rights you have with your card issuer, bank, or under applicable payment services law.

9.4 Abuse of this policy

We may decline refunds, and may close accounts, where we find repeated refund requests across accounts, use of a refund window to extract deliverables without paying, misrepresentation in a request, or breach of our Terms of Service. Where fraud is established, no refund is due. This section is not applied to a Consumer exercising a statutory cancellation right in good faith.

10. Business customers

Most of what we sell, FBR Digital Invoicing, staff augmentation, and our development engagements, is sold to businesses. If you are buying for business purposes, Sections 3 to 9 apply in full and Section 11 does not apply to you. Statutory consumer cancellation and withdrawal rights are not available on business purchases.

11. Your rights as a Consumer

Nothing in this policy removes or reduces rights you have under the consumer law of your country. Where this policy gives you less than that law requires, the law applies and this policy yields to it.

11.1 United Kingdom

If you are a Consumer, the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give you 14 days to cancel a distance contract without giving a reason.

• Digital content and downloads: if you asked us to supply immediately and acknowledged that you lose the cancellation right once supply begins, that right ends at that point.
• Services: if you asked us to start within the 14 days and then cancel, you pay proportionately for what was supplied up to that point.

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, services must be performed with reasonable care and skill. If they are not, you are entitled to repeat performance, and to a price reduction where repeat performance is impossible or cannot be done within a reasonable time without significant inconvenience. We cannot and do not exclude those remedies.

11.2 European Union and EEA

If you are a Consumer, Directive 2011/83/EU gives you 14 days to withdraw from a distance contract without giving a reason. The digital-content and services rules mirror those in Section 11.1.

Withdrawal button. For contracts concluded online, you can exercise this right using the withdrawal function provided on our website throughout the withdrawal period. Using it takes effect immediately, without further steps, questions, or retention offers, and we send you confirmation on a durable medium.

To withdraw, use that function or write to support@stellarstack.co within the 14 days. We refund within 14 days of receiving your notice, using the same payment method you used, with no fee for doing so.

11.3 United States

There is no general federal right to cancel an online purchase for a refund. However:

• We provide cancellation of any automatically renewing subscription through the same medium you used to enrol, including online self-service cancellation for online sign-ups.
• We obtain your separate, express consent to automatic renewal at sign-up, distinct from acceptance of our general terms, and we keep records of that consent.
• Free trials that convert to paid subscriptions are treated as automatic renewals for these purposes.

Residents of California and of other states with automatic renewal statutes have additional rights around disclosure, consent, renewal notices, and cancellation; we honour those where they apply to you.

11.4 Canada

Provincial and territorial consumer protection legislation applies where you qualify as a consumer under it, including rules on distance and internet contracts, disclosure before the contract is formed, cancellation for non-delivery or late performance, and credit card reversal. Quebec residents have rights under the Consumer Protection Act (CQLR c P-40.1) that cannot be waived by contract.

11.5 Elsewhere

If your country gives Consumers mandatory refund, cancellation, or withdrawal rights not listed above, those rights apply to you in addition to this policy.

12. Governing law, changes, and contact

12.1 Governing law

The governing law and dispute resolution terms for your purchase are set out in our Terms of Service or in your signed agreement. Where mandatory consumer law of your country of residence applies, that law is not displaced by those terms.

12.2 Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. The version in force when you made your purchase governs that purchase; changes are not applied retroactively. Material changes affecting active subscriptions or engagements are notified to your account email at least 30 days before they take effect.

12.3 Contact

Refund requests should be sent in writing so that both sides have a record of the date received.