Exactly where you stand if things go wrong

This policy applies to every paid engagement arranged through this website: fixed scope development projects, monthly retainers and support plans, paid consulting sessions, and any digital product sold directly here. It sits alongside the agreement signed for an individual project, and where the two ever disagree, the signed agreement takes precedence for that project.

It does not cover software bought through the Apple App Store or Google Play. Those purchases are handled by the platform under its own rules and the store holds the payment, not this business, so a request has to go through the store account used to buy it. It also does not cover hosting, domains or third party services you buy in your own name, even where I set them up for you.

Nothing on this page limits the consumer rights you have under the law of the country you live in. Where a local rule gives you more protection than a paragraph below, the local rule applies and I will not argue about it.

The first consultation is free and carries no obligation. You leave it with a written scope and a fixed quote that belong to you whether or not you ever hire me, so there is nothing to refund because nothing was charged. Taking that document to another developer is a legitimate use of it.

Paid consulting sessions booked as a standalone service can be cancelled or moved up to 24 hours before the start time for a full refund. Inside 24 hours the session is billable, because the time was reserved and can no longer be offered to anyone else. If you simply do not turn up, the same rule applies.

If I have to reschedule for any reason, you always get the choice between a new time and a full refund, and that choice is yours rather than mine.

Projects begin with a deposit of 30% of the agreed price. It reserves capacity in the calendar and funds the discovery and architecture stage, which is real work with a real deliverable. It is not a booking fee that evaporates if your plans change.

If you cancel before any work has begun, the deposit is refunded in full, with no deductions and no questions beyond a short note about what changed. In practice that means any cancellation within roughly the first three working days after signing.

If you cancel after discovery has started, the deposit is settled against the hours already spent at the rate written into your agreement, and everything left over is refunded. You also receive everything produced up to that point: research notes, the technical plan, schema drafts and any design work completed. Nothing is withheld because a project ended early, and no administration fee is deducted for the inconvenience.

Projects are billed across four milestones — 10% on signing, 20% when the design is signed off, 50% when the core build works end to end, and 20% at launch. Each one is invoiced only when the work behind it has been delivered and you have had the chance to review it. That structure is what keeps your exposure limited to a single stage at any moment.

A milestone payment covers work you have already been shown. Once a milestone is approved, that payment is not refundable, because the deliverable exists, has been accepted, and belongs to you. This is exactly why every stage has a review window instead of a silent handover.

If a milestone lands and you believe it does not match the agreed scope, say so during the review window. It gets corrected at no extra cost, and revision rounds inside the scope are part of the milestone rather than an add on. Only if a disagreement genuinely cannot be resolved does the process in section 10 come into play.

You can stop a project at any point, for any reason, including no reason at all. Write to me and work stops the same day. There is no notice period on a fixed price project and no cancellation penalty.

An account is then drawn up covering everything completed but not yet invoiced. If the balance is in my favour, a final invoice is issued for that work alone. If the balance is in yours, the difference is refunded within ten working days.

You keep everything produced up to the cancellation point. Source code, design files, documentation and access to every account created for the project are transferred to you in a usable state, whether or not the project was finished.

Occasionally a project has to end from my side. The honest reasons are illness, a scope that has grown into something outside my competence, or a working relationship that has stopped being workable. It is rare, and it is always said directly rather than communicated through gradually slower replies.

When I end a project, everything you have paid for work not yet delivered is refunded in full within ten working days. You keep everything completed, you get a written handover document, and where it helps I will introduce you to another developer who can pick the work up.

If a project ends because of something on my side that cost you real time, the refund is not a favour and it is not the end of the matter. It is the minimum, it is processed without you having to ask twice, and any deposit you paid to hold a slot comes back whole.

Dates agreed in a scope document are commitments, not aspirations. When something slips you hear about it in the weekly update while there is still time to react, not on the day it was due.

Where a delay is my fault and pushes a milestone materially past the agreed date, you have two options: keep the schedule and take a credit against the next invoice, or treat it as a cancellation under section 5 with everything unearned refunded. Which one you pick is your decision.

Delays caused by app store review queues, third party outages, or feedback that takes weeks to arrive are not in this category, and nor is a date that moved because the scope grew at your request. Those are discussed and rescheduled openly, but they are not refundable events.

Some costs leave my hands the moment they are incurred and cannot be recovered, and some work has already been delivered and accepted. Everything in this list is itemised separately in a quote rather than buried in a total, so you can see exactly what falls into this category before you commit to anything:

Retainers are billed monthly in advance and can be cancelled with 30 days written notice. The month already paid for runs to its end and you keep full access to the reserved hours during it.

Unused hours do not roll over and are not refunded, because what a retainer buys is reserved availability rather than the hours themselves. That reservation is what makes a same day response possible when something breaks at an inconvenient hour. If your usage has consistently fallen below the plan, tell me and I will move you down to a smaller one rather than quietly keep invoicing the larger figure.

If a month passes where I failed to deliver the availability the plan promised, that month is credited or refunded, and the choice between the two is yours. You should not pay for a promise that was not kept.

Digital products bought directly from this site carry a 14 day refund window from the date of purchase. If the product does not work as described, is missing something the sales page promised, or simply is not what you expected, write inside those 14 days and you get your money back. You do not have to justify the decision.

The one exception is a product that has clearly been downloaded, used commercially and then submitted for a refund. That is not a refund request, it is a free licence, and it is declined. Genuine mistakes, duplicate purchases and products that turn out not to fit your setup are refunded without argument.

The free online tools cost nothing and therefore have nothing to refund. They are provided as they are, with no warranty attached, and you are welcome to use them on commercial work without a licence or attribution.

Send a message through the contact page, or reply directly to any invoice email. There is no form to complete and no ticket to open. Include enough for me to find the payment and understand the problem:

You get an acknowledgement within two working days and a decision within five. If the answer is yes, the refund goes back to the original payment method within ten working days, though your bank may take a few days more to show it. Refunds are issued in the currency you paid in.

If the answer is no, you get the reasoning in writing rather than a template, and a pointer to the section of this page it rests on. If you disagree with a decision, say so and it will be looked at again with fresh eyes — that has changed the outcome before.

No refund request is ignored, and asking for one has no effect on how the rest of your project is handled. Nobody here has ever been treated differently for raising money questions, and the day that changes is the day this policy stops being worth anything.

If we cannot agree, the first step is a conversation rather than a bank form. Most disputes come from a misunderstanding about scope, and most are settled in a single call once both sides are looking at the same written record.

Please raise a dispute with me before filing a chargeback. A chargeback freezes the money, adds a fee, and removes whatever flexibility I had to resolve things generously. Almost every case that has reached that stage could have been settled faster and better by email.

Where a resolution genuinely cannot be reached, either of us may take the matter to the competent courts of the country in which the business is established, and that is without prejudice to any consumer protection rights you hold in your own country of residence.

This policy is updated as the services offered here change. The date in the sidebar always reflects the most recent revision, and material changes are noted in the next invoice email rather than slipped in quietly.

The version that governs your project is the one published on the day you signed. A later change never applies backwards to work already agreed, so you can rely on exactly what you read at the point you committed.