Refund & Returns Policy

This Policy applies to all purchases made from Lineo Studios, including one-time digital products and templates; custom software development and design services delivered under a proposal or statement of work; consulting, integration, and automation services; and recurring services such as managed hosting, infrastructure, and maintenance retainers. It applies to payments processed through our payment provider, Stripe, Inc., as well as to any deposit, milestone, or invoice paid directly to us.

Everything we sell is either a digital good or a service. We do not ship physical goods, and there is therefore nothing to physically return. The remedies available to you in the event of a problem are described in this Policy and consist of re-performance, correction, or, where applicable, a partial or full refund of amounts paid for work not yet performed.

By placing an order, paying a deposit or invoice, signing a proposal, or otherwise authorizing payment, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to this Policy.

Lineo Studios sells digital goods and custom software and development services. The defining characteristic of these offerings is that our value is delivered through labor, expertise, and digital deliverables that cannot be "returned" once they have been provided. Accordingly, our core rule is that once work has commenced or a digital deliverable has been paid for and delivered or made accessible, payments are generally non-refundable, except where Lineo Studios materially fails to deliver the agreed service as described in Section 4.

"Work has commenced" means that we have begun design, development, configuration, research, or any other billable activity contemplated by the engagement, or have allocated team capacity and scheduling to it. "Delivered or made accessible" means that a deliverable, download, license key, credential, source code, build, design file, or other digital asset has been transmitted to you or made available for your access or download.

This no-refund rule reflects the reality that digital work, once performed, consumes time and resources that cannot be recovered and produces deliverables that cannot be un-sent. It is not a penalty; it is a description of how custom and digital work is sold.

Many jurisdictions provide consumers with a limited "cooling-off" or withdrawal period for certain purchases. For digital content and custom services, those same laws generally allow you to expressly request immediate performance and to waive the withdrawal right once performance begins or once you are granted access to the digital content.

By purchasing a digital product or engaging us for custom development or services and authorizing us to begin work or to provide immediate access to digital content, you expressly request that performance begin immediately, you acknowledge that work begins immediately, and you acknowledge and agree that you thereby lose and waive any cooling-off, cancellation, or withdrawal right to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. For one-time digital products, you acknowledge that delivery is effected and the product is fully performed at the moment the download or access is made available to you.

Nothing in this Section limits any non-waivable statutory right you may have, or the exceptions and remedies set out in Section 4.

Despite the general rule above, you are entitled to a remedy in the following circumstances: (a) where Lineo Studios materially fails to deliver the service, or materially breaches the agreed written scope, and does not cure that failure within a reasonable period after you notify us; (b) where you have been charged in duplicate or in error, or charged an amount that does not correspond to an order you authorized; or (c) where you paid for a service that was never rendered and that we are unable or unwilling to render.

In the case of a material non-delivery or material breach, our first remedy is re-performance: we will, at our cost, correct, complete, or re-do the affected deliverable so that it conforms to the agreed written scope. If re-performance fails to bring the deliverable into conformity within a reasonable period, you may be entitled to a pro-rata refund corresponding to the portion of the agreed scope that was not delivered. Refunds under this Section are limited to amounts actually paid for the undelivered or non-conforming portion of the work and do not extend to portions that were delivered and conform to scope.

A refund or remedy will not be available for dissatisfaction that does not amount to a material failure to deliver, for changes of mind, for a change in your business needs, for results that depend on factors outside our control, for delays caused by your failure to provide required materials, access, approvals, or feedback, or for requests that fall outside the agreed written scope. Subjective preferences regarding design or implementation choices that meet the agreed specification are not grounds for a refund.

Engagements are frequently structured around an initial deposit and a series of milestones. Deposits secure your place in our schedule and fund the initial allocation of resources, and they are non-refundable once we have commenced work or reserved capacity for your engagement.

Each milestone is invoiced for a defined portion of the agreed scope. Once a milestone has been delivered and conforms to the agreed written scope, the payment for that milestone is earned and non-refundable. Completed milestones are never refundable on the basis of work that comes later in the project.

Where you have pre-paid for work that has not yet started, and you cancel before we commence that work, you may request a refund of the pre-paid amount attributable solely to the not-yet-started portion, less any deposit and less any costs we have already reasonably incurred or committed to third parties on your behalf. In short, refunds, where available, apply only to pre-paid, not-yet-commenced work, and never to deposits, delivered milestones, or work already performed.

Some services, including managed hosting, infrastructure, and maintenance, are billed on a recurring basis as a subscription or retainer. You may cancel a recurring service at any time, and cancellation stops future renewals.

Cancellation does not entitle you to a refund of the current paid period. When you cancel, your access and service continue until the end of the period you have already paid for, and the subscription or retainer then ends without renewal. We do not provide partial or pro-rata refunds for the unused portion of a current billing period, and we do not refund retainer fees for capacity that was reserved and made available to you, whether or not you fully used it.

If you cancel, it is your responsibility to do so before the next renewal date in order to avoid being charged for the following period. Charges already incurred for periods that have begun are non-refundable.

To request a refund or remedy, send an email to [email protected] within seven (7) days of the date on which the issue arose or you became aware of it. Requests made after this window may not be eligible for a remedy except where a longer period is required by applicable law.

Your request must include the name and email used for the purchase, the order, invoice, or proposal reference number, the date of the charge, and a clear and specific description of the problem, including how the deliverable or service is said to depart from the agreed written scope. Where relevant, please include screenshots, error messages, or other evidence that helps us understand and reproduce the issue.

Providing complete information helps us evaluate and resolve your request quickly. Incomplete requests may delay our review while we ask you for the missing details.

We acknowledge refund and remedy requests within three (3) business days of receipt. We then review the request against the relevant proposal, statement of work, and this Policy, and we may ask you for additional information or for an opportunity to re-perform or correct the affected work.

We aim to reach a decision within ten (10) business days of receiving all information necessary to evaluate the request. Where a refund is approved, it is issued to the original payment method through Stripe. The time it takes for an approved refund to appear on your statement depends on Stripe and your card issuer or bank, and is typically several business days after we initiate it.

If you believe a charge is incorrect or that you are entitled to a remedy, please contact us first at [email protected] so that we can investigate and resolve the matter directly. The vast majority of billing concerns can be resolved quickly and amicably this way.

Initiating a chargeback or payment dispute for digital goods or services that were delivered in accordance with the agreed written scope, without first contacting us and allowing a reasonable opportunity to resolve the issue, may be treated as a breach of our Terms of Service. In response to any dispute, we will provide our payment processor with evidence of delivery and performance, which may include proposals, statements of work, communications, access and download logs, delivery records, commit history, and other documentation demonstrating that the work was performed and delivered.

Pursuing a chargeback does not relieve you of amounts properly owed for work that was delivered, and we reserve the right to suspend services, recover wrongly reversed amounts, and pursue any other remedy available to us under the Terms of Service and applicable law.

Payments are processed by our third-party payment provider, Stripe, Inc. By submitting payment, you also agree to Stripe's terms of service, and Stripe's terms and policies apply to the handling of your payment in addition to this Policy. Refunds can only be issued to the extent and in the manner that Stripe supports, and are returned to the original payment method.

We do not store full payment card numbers on our own servers; card data is handled by Stripe in accordance with applicable payment-industry security standards. We are not responsible for the timing of refunds once they have been initiated through Stripe, as final posting times are determined by Stripe and your card issuer or bank.

Unless otherwise stated, prices are quoted and charged in U.S. dollars and are exclusive of any applicable sales, use, value-added, or similar taxes, which are your responsibility except for taxes based on our net income.

Where a refund is issued, it covers the price actually paid for the refundable portion of the work and any taxes we collected on that portion to the extent we are able to refund them. We do not refund, and are not responsible for, currency-conversion costs, foreign-transaction fees, or other charges imposed by your card issuer, bank, or payment provider.

We may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our services, business practices, payment processing, or legal requirements. When we make material changes, we will revise the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, provide additional notice. The version of this Policy in effect at the time of your purchase governs that purchase. Your continued use of our website and services after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated Policy.

This Policy is governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Washington, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-laws principles, and is subject to the same governing-law, venue, and dispute-resolution provisions set out in our Terms of Service.

If you have questions about this Refund & Returns Policy, or wish to request a refund or remedy, please contact us at [email protected].