Refund
Policy.

We protect you by structure, not by a refund-after-the-fact promise. You see a fixed price before you commit, you can cancel for a full refund before we start, and once we start you only ever pay for the milestone in front of you — never the whole project up front.

This Refund Policy explains exactly when, how, and how fast you get money back from a Stelvox engagement.

Productised builds (full builds via /configure, custom SOWs under our MSA) are paid milestone by milestone, not as a single up-front sum.

• →You pay only the first milestone to begin — not the full project cost.
• →Each later milestone is invoiced only once the previous one is delivered and you've accepted it.
• →You can stop the engagement after any completed milestone and owe nothing for work not yet started.

This caps your exposure to one milestone at a time and gives you an approval gate before every payment. It is deliberately not a "pay for the work, receive it, then claim the money back" guarantee — that would not be fair to either side. Instead, your protection sits before each payment, not after it.

Before kick-off you can cancel for any reason and receive a full refund of anything paid, minus only non-recoverable payment-processor fees (see §3 and §4).

Some items are not eligible for refund:

• →Payment-processor fees passed through by our merchant of record (Paddle, Lemon Squeezy) where they do not refund those fees to us;
• →Third-party software licences, hosting costs, or hardware purchased on your behalf and already delivered or activated;
• →Travel and accommodation expenses that have been incurred and are non-cancellable at the time of the refund request;
• →Work already delivered and accepted under an active SOW (you are never asked to pay for milestones beyond the one in progress, so this is limited to what you have already approved).

We make these exclusions explicit so you know exactly what is and isn't covered. They are limited to actual third-party costs we can't recover.

Email hello@stelvox.com with [REFUND] in the subject line. Include:

• →Your order reference (STX-… for productised orders, PR-… for procurement, or the SOW ID);
• →The reason for the request (e.g. "deliverable doesn't match brief", "changed our mind before kick-off");
• →If possible, the specific clause of the brief / SOW that wasn't met.

We acknowledge refund requests within two business days and resolve them within five business days. We don't argue — if the case is within policy, we refund. If we disagree, we explain why in writing.

Refunds go back to the original payment method.

• →Card payments processed by our merchant of record (Paddle / Lemon Squeezy) are refunded through the same channel and typically appear in 3–10 business days, depending on your bank.
• →Bank-transfer / invoice payments are refunded to the originating account by BACS / SEPA / wire within 5 business days of approval. Bank-side processing may add 1–3 days.
• →Cryptocurrency is not accepted, so there is no refund path for it.

We do not deduct administrative fees from refunds.

If you believe a refund is owed, please contact us first at hello@stelvox.com — we resolve almost every case within five business days, and a chargeback adds 30–90 days of delay plus processor fees neither of us benefits from.

If we cannot resolve a dispute, you retain all rights under your local consumer-protection law and the merchant of record's dispute process. Where mandatory UK / EU consumer-protection rules apply, those rules prevail over anything in this policy that conflicts with them.

If you are a consumer (not acting for business purposes) in the UK or EU, you have a statutory 14-day cooling-off period from the date of the contract during which you may cancel without giving a reason, except for services that have been fully performed with your express prior consent.

If you ask us to begin performing the services before the end of the cooling-off period, you may still cancel, but you will be liable for the value of services delivered up to the time you notify us.

To exercise this right, email hello@stelvox.com with [CANCEL] in the subject. We confirm the cancellation in writing the same business day.

This statutory right is in addition to (not instead of) the milestone-gated payment protection and pre-kick-off refund described in §2.

We may update this Refund Policy from time to time. The terms in force at the time of your purchase apply to that purchase — later changes never make existing engagements worse for the Client.

Material changes are posted to /changelog and notified to active clients by email at least 14 days before they take effect.

Refund requests and questions: hello@stelvox.com with [REFUND] in the subject line.

We respond within two business days. Five business days to resolution in almost every case.