Client Area / Project Payment & Refund Policy

To ensure total clarity, Creative Yadley distinguishes strictly between standard design sprints and complex custom software engineering:

• Fixed-Price Design Sprints: Custom marketing websites, landing pages, growth audits, and website migrations. These are scoped according to the exact page counts and specifications selected during the intake checkout.
• Custom Portals, Web Applications & Bespoke Software: Bespoke client portals, membership engines, SaaS web applications, vector/design toolkits, or custom database platforms. These builds cannot be purchased as standard design sprints. They require an approved written Statement of Work (SOW) detailing all user stories, technical architecture, and database schemas, with 100% cleared funding prior to development kickoff.

Any attempt to expand a standard website or landing page sprint into custom application software, third-party platform cloning, or proprietary tool development will require a separate custom architecture quotation.

Digital services and professional studio time differ fundamentally from physical goods. Once a service is provisioned or work commences, valuable infrastructure, licensing, and professional hours have already been expended. Our refund terms by category are as follows:

Domain Name Registrations & Transfers

Strictly Non-Refundable. Domain registrations and transfers incur immediate, irreversible registry costs paid directly to ICANN-accredited registries. Once a domain is registered or initiated, no refunds can be issued. The client retains full ownership of the domain with lifetime free privacy protection and full DNS management rights. All domain name transfers and EPP/authorization code releases strictly comply with ICANN Transfer Policies, including standard 60-day post-registration or post-transfer lock windows.

Managed Cloud & Web Hosting

7-Day Money-Back Guarantee for First-Time Customers. First-time hosting clients may request a refund within 7 calendar days of signup if our hosting infrastructure fails to meet our advertised uptime or technical specifications. Setup fees, domain add-ons, and payment gateway processing fees are non-refundable. Refund requests after substantial resource usage, excessive bandwidth consumption, or policy violations will be denied. Recurring hosting renewals are non-refundable.

Business Email Hosting

7-Day Limited Refund Window. Email hosting is provisioned with dedicated server resources, IP reputation monitoring, and mailbox configurations. A refund is available within 7 calendar days of signup only if the account has not been substantially configured or used for active outbound email volume. Once an email account has been actively utilized, or where a refund is requested for subjective reasons (such as finding webmail or email software "difficult to use" when our servers and standard IMAP/SMTP protocols are operational), the service has been delivered and no refund is available.

Web Design & Development Sprints

Non-Refundable Once Work Begins. Booking deposits (50%) secure exclusive studio dates. If you cancel your booking within 3 days of placing the order, and your scheduled kickoff date is more than 14 days away with no preliminary intake review commenced, your deposit is refundable. Once the kickoff date arrives, discovery dossiers or technical architectures are prepared, or active production starts, all payments are 100% non-refundable.

Custom Software, Portals & Applications

100% Pre-Paid & Non-Refundable. Due to the extensive technical planning, schema engineering, and dedicated developer allocation required for custom web applications, payments are non-refundable once architectural specifications or code development has started.

Refunds at Creative Yadley are designed solely to compensate for a verified failure to deliver the service or specifications contractually promised.

If our hosting, email, or digital infrastructure operates within standard uptime benchmarks and satisfies the specifications advertised, Creative Yadley has fulfilled its legal and contractual obligation. Inquiries citing personal taste, subjective preference, or difficulties with standard industry email/cPanel tools do not constitute service non-delivery, as comprehensive step-by-step guides and client area documentation are provided.

Similarly, for design and development projects, creative work executed in accordance with your approved brief, reference links, and selected color/typography preferences represents fulfilled service delivery. Refunds are never provided for buyer's remorse, changing business models, or subjective changes of mind.

To prevent confusion regarding account balances, promotional incentives, and billing adjustments, Creative Yadley enforces strict accounting guidelines regarding client credits:

Ledger Transparency: Line Discounts vs. Account Credits

We maintain an absolute distinction between price reductions and credit balances:

• Line-Item Price Discounts: When an invoice is issued at a discounted or subsidized rate (e.g., promotional pricing or an adjusted renewal fee), the discount is reflected directly in the invoice line item. Line-item discounts are not "stored credits" and do not leave a residual balance in your account.
• Account Credit Balances: A formal account credit exists only when funds or credits are visibly logged in your Client Area Credit Ledger. When an account credit is applied to an invoice, it will appear as an explicit deduction line item (e.g., "Credit Applied: -$XX.XX") reducing the net amount due. If an invoice shows $0.00 in the credit line, no account credit was absorbed by that transaction.

Zero Cash Value & Non-Refundability of Promotional Credits

All promotional credits, goodwill allowances, courtesy adjustments, and service vouchers granted by Creative Yadley carry zero cash surrender value. They cannot under any circumstance be cashed out, refunded to a credit card, PayPal account, or bank account, or transferred to third-party individuals or entities.

Automatic Invoice Application & Priority

Available account credits are automatically applied by the billing system toward the next generated invoice on your account (such as hosting renewals, domain renewals, or studio sprint deposits). Clients may not selectively withhold available credits from automated renewal invoices.

Credit Expiration & Offboarding Forfeiture

• 12-Month Validity: All promotional and courtesy credits expire automatically twelve (12) months from the date of issuance if not utilized against active services.
• Forfeiture Upon Cancellation: If a client initiates a domain transfer-out, cancels active services, or requests account termination, all remaining promotional credits, loyalty balances, and service vouchers are immediately and permanently forfeited. A perceived or historical credit balance cannot be used to delay offboarding, halt domain transfers, or offset third-party migration expenses.

Upon final settlement of all project invoices (zero account balance), you own 100% of the custom design assets, final application code, graphics, and content created specifically for your project.

No interim intellectual property transfer, copyright assignment, or third-party contract agreement will be executed while any project invoice or balance remains unpaid. Creative Yadley retains full ownership of its pre-existing proprietary toolkits, reusable component libraries, build systems, and developer frameworks, which are licensed to you on a perpetual, non-exclusive basis for the operation of your website or application.

Every sprint includes a dedicated 14-day review window following initial delivery for testing and submitting revisions aligned with the original project scope.

Revisions include adjustments to styling, layout refinements, content placement, and functional tweaks within the boundaries of the submitted brief. Any request for additional pages, new feature modules, third-party API integrations, or architectural redesigns not specified in the original intake will be quoted separately via a formal Change Order with 100% payment required prior to implementation.

Timely project delivery requires active client collaboration. Clients must provide all required copy, high-resolution logos, brand assets, and third-party credentials prior to the scheduled sprint kickoff date.

Project Dormancy & Inactivity Policy

• 30 Days Inactive: If a client becomes unresponsive or fails to provide required materials for more than 30 consecutive calendar days, the project is marked Paused.
• 60 Days Inactive: After 60 days of inactivity, the reserved studio slot is forfeited, and production resources are reassigned to active clients.
• 90 Days Inactive: After 90 days of inactivity, the project is officially Archived. To reopen an archived project, a formal written request and an administrative reactivation fee will be required to reschedule studio time at current prevailing rates. All unbilled work and payments made toward an archived project remain non-refundable.

Creative Yadley provides customer support and project management strictly through our Client Area support tickets and official studio email. We do not conduct support or design consultation over unscheduled phone calls or video meetings.

This policy is strictly enforced to protect both the client and our engineering team. Asynchronous written tickets preserve an exact, timestamped audit trail of all specifications, color hex codes, feature requests, and file approvals, ensuring that every developer and designer working on your account has immediate, unambiguous instructions.

To ensure uninterrupted service for ongoing infrastructure, Creative Yadley operates with clear billing authorizations:

• Recurring Subscriptions (Hosting, Maintenance & Domains): When you activate a recurring service (such as cloud hosting, business email, or monthly maintenance), your authorized card on file will be automatically billed on each recurring invoice due date. You may cancel recurring services at any time prior to invoice generation through the Client Area.
• One-Time Project Invoices & Sprint Deposits: Fixed-price design sprints, custom application milestones, and Change Orders are distinct from subscription renewals and require explicit invoice review and approval.
• Payment Method Management: Clients maintain full control over saved payment credentials and can update or remove payment methods securely at any time within the Client Area billing section.

Creative Yadley strives to resolve every client concern cordially through our Client Area support system. Initiating a payment chargeback or merchant dispute without contacting our billing desk constitutes a material breach of our service agreement:

• Immediate Account Freeze: Upon receipt of a chargeback notice from a payment processor (such as Stripe or PayPal), all linked hosting services, client portals, and staging environments are automatically suspended to prevent further unauthorized usage of agency infrastructure.
• Resolution & Reinstatement: To reinstate suspended services following a dispute, the outstanding invoice must be settled in full, alongside payment of any processor-assessed dispute fees ($50 administrative fee).
• Mutual Resolution First: If you ever have a question about an invoice or charge on your statement, simply submit a billing support ticket and our success team will investigate and clarify the ledger immediately.