Refund Policy

1. Overview

Work begins when delivery begins. No refund after that.

A full refund is available if you ask in writing within 24 hours of paying and before delivery begins, or if we are negligent. A person decides every refund; nothing is refunded automatically.

2. When Work Begins, by Product

• Delivered at payment (the audits and checks): This is delivered the moment you pay, so work begins and completes at payment and there is no refund after that; the amount you paid is credited toward a website build with us.
• Builds (websites and other built work): Work begins when you approve the concept; from then on the fee is not refundable.
• Monthly services: Work begins when you pay. Cancel any time in writing; the period you have already paid for runs to its end and is not refunded.

3. Services That Need Your Inputs

Some services need information only you have (for example, the competitors you want watched). The product page and the checkout list what you supply before you pay.

Delivery begins once you have supplied what it needs. You have 72 business hours (3 full business days: Monday to Friday, not counting US federal holidays, in your local time) to add it in your client portal. If it is not all in by then, nothing is cancelled: your payment becomes a credit you can spend on anything we sell for 30 days, and we send one short reminder each business day at 07:30 your time until you finish or ask us to stop. If the 30 days pass unused, the payment is kept; a person makes that call, never the system.

If a credit's 30 days pass unused, the payment is kept and the account is closed to new purchases. A person makes that decision; the system never does.

4. Subscriptions and Cancellation

Subscriptions renew on the billing date shown at checkout. There is no minimum term and no notice period. Work begins when you pay. Cancel any time in writing; the period you have already paid for runs to its end and is not refunded. Part of a period is never refunded.

A failed payment is retried. While it stays unpaid, delivery pauses; continued non-payment ends the service. A website we host is taken offline when its retainer ends, unless you have bought it out under Section 7.

5. Proposals

A larger engagement is sold by a written proposal. Its payment schedule, and any refund terms it states, are the ones that apply to it; where it says nothing, this policy applies.

6. How to Ask for a Refund

Email legal@cairnandflint.com from the address you bought with, naming the purchase. A person reads every request and answers it.

7. Intellectual Property and Buyout — Web Design Clients

Code and design are licensed; the domain, Google Business Profile, analytics, content, reviews and lead data are the client's and always were; buyout at total estimated contract value; at term end the site and code are theirs, or month-to-month with no contract, or twelve months for the price of ten. There is no minimum term. The contract value is two build fees plus twelve months of retainer (ten months with the annual prepay, which covers all twelve). The term is the twelve retainer months after delivery; before it completes, the buyout is one build fee plus the retainer for each month not yet covered, and when it completes the code and deliverables are the client's, free, with the retainer optional for upkeep (month-to-month, or twelve months for the price of ten). Lead data means the leads captured during the engagement. If the client stops paying the retainer and has not bought out ownership, the product is taken down.

These are the ownership terms in Section 2 of our Legal Terms. A buyout is priced as they state and is final once paid.

8. Exceptions

8.1 Studio-caused delays

If the studio fails to meet delivery timelines for reasons within its control, that is studio negligence under Section 1, and a full refund is available on written request. The studio communicates any such delay in writing within 24 business hours of its occurrence.

8.2 Regulatory or legal changes

If changes to applicable law render any service unviable for the studio to deliver, affected active engagements are refunded on a pro-rata basis for undelivered work. The studio provides 30 days’ written notice of any such cessation.

9. Refund Processing

9.1 Timeline

Approved refunds are processed to the original payment method within three business days of approval.

9.2 Method

Refunds are issued only to the original payment method used for the payment. Alternative refund destinations are not supported except in cases where the original payment method is no longer valid.

9.3 Processing fees

No processing fee is deducted from the client’s refund amount; the studio absorbs it.

10. Changes to This Policy

This refund policy applies to engagements entered into after the Effective Date listed at the top of this document. Prior engagements are governed by the policy in effect at their time of engagement.

The studio may revise this policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated to active clients via email. Continued use of services after notice of changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy. All changes are logged at cairnandflint.com/legal/updates.

11. Monitoring and Access Logging

The studio employs access logging and traffic monitoring for all hosted sites and admin systems as part of routine operational practice. This monitoring is standard for hosted services and serves multiple legitimate purposes:

• Security monitoring and incident response
• Audit trail for administrative actions (useful for both studio and client when investigating issues)
• Rate limiting and protection against automated scraping or abuse
• Operational troubleshooting

Monitored activity may include: login events and session activity on admin panels, server request patterns, asset download patterns, administrative actions such as content changes or credential modifications, and automated anomaly detection on unusual traffic patterns.

Access logs are retained for operational purposes and may be used as evidence in the event of a dispute involving site operation, content integrity, or intellectual property.

This monitoring does not extend to end-user visitors to published sites beyond standard server-access logs; privacy-policy provisions (see /privacy) govern end-user data practices.

12. Contact

Questions about this policy, or refund requests, should be sent to: